What was your best investment decision?

ArthurMcB said:
I had some pre election and theyve done well - but for how long. Feel like theyre overpriced, but what do i know, therefore have sold them, taken a bit of profit and will buy back in when they (hopefully) fall back a bit.
Click to expand...
They've never made sense in that regard
 
Age & Education: I went to college with a person now in the lower part of the Rich List and I invested in him when he was starting out which paid out very handsomely.
I also bought a house in 1993, which was a good time.
 
Due to varying commitments they may have rented for the next 13 years or so and then decided to buy when property was a certainty.
I know someone who did that:(
 
ClubMan said:
So your decision to be born at the right time was one of your best ones?
Click to expand...
To be fair, my parents were influential in that one.
I probably should have sent a generous gift to my father's cousin who introduced my parents to each other.
But there was a lucky period to be born. If you were not forced to emigrate, and choice of education meant that I was not, then you could buy a house, subsequently interest rates declined and salaries increased so that the house was soon paid off without any real pain.

charlie007 said:
Due to varying commitments they may have rented for the next 13 years or so and then decided to buy when property was a certainty.
I know someone who did that:(
Click to expand...
I had no doubt at the time that I should buy a house. I had savings on deposit at 19% during the currency crisis and I knew that house prices would rise as mortgage costs came down so I tried to get in there once the property market started moving again.
 
Nice one.
Btw I'm the one who waited the 13 years!
But managed to hang on through the dark times and sold just recently with a slight capital gain, so all's well.............
 
Persia said:
Buying PPR in 2012 at a 60% reduction on crazy tiger property prices. Thank you Propertypin.
Click to expand...

Jeez, that’s a blast from the past!

For us, selling a starter home in outer suburbs about 2 months before the crash started in 2007 after realising the property bubble was destined to burst, banking about an 80% gain in equity. Then waiting, waiting, waiting with a decent wedge of cash in the bank before buying back into central Dublin at beginning of 2012 at about 60% off peak prices, as you say.

That, and a couple of fortunate sharesave / share option schemes that have paid off fairly handsomely for different reasons.
 
charlie007 said:
Nice one.
Btw I'm the one who waited the 13 years!
But managed to hang on through the dark times and sold just recently with a slight capital gain, so all's well.............
Click to expand...
Circumstances differ. I had no other commitments then, so it made sense for me.
 
Best Investment Decisions

Spending around £82,000 on a house when I could not really afford it, and after a fall out with the Bank clearing the mortgage early. The house market value is nearly ten times that now.

Putting an extra €270,000 gross into by public sector pension over a 18 year period so that I could retire early on a full pension.

In both these instances it was very hard; but I was previously unemployed for a long time and could live on nothing.
 
My portfolio is being battered at present, so I'll try to cheer myself up by recalling happier times!
I've made some investment decisions that worked out well - as well as some that had terrible outcomes! - but most good and bad outcomes were pure luck. For the purposes of this question, I decided that lucky wins don't count, that I had to know in advance that the investment was going to deliver a brilliant outcome.
But how can you know that an investment is a certain winner without breaking the law by insider trading?
I can recall only one investment in my entire life that meets that criterion. Surprisingly for those who know my antipathy to bonds, it was a bond!
In 2011, when the Irish economy was on the floor, I noticed that the Irish Life 5.5% Subordinated Bond 2049 was trading at €63 per €100 of nominal stock. That's a running yield of 5.5%/.63 = 8.73%, with the prospect of a bonus of €37 for every €63 invested, or over 50%, at maturity.
Why was the bond available at a bargain basement price? Because the market confused Irish Life Assurance with Irish Life & Permanent, which was a basket case at the time. Irish Life Assurance was a completely separate legal entity, but the market didn't know that. I gather that only I and an American hedge fund realised that the market had it all wrong.
I bought lots of the bond for my ARF at 63. The price was down to 55 at 31 December 2011, so my investment was standing at a considerable loss, but I wasn't worried. I knew it had to come right at some stage.
In January 2013, I bought more at 75 and more again at 83.
Then, in July 2013, everything changed when Irish Life was acquired by Canada Life. The price of the bond jumped.
I sold my entire holding gradually between 2014 and 2016 at prices ranging from 99 to 103.26.
Thus ended my most successful - actually, my only - investment coup, ever.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top