People mix the words investment and speculation frequently on this forum and elsewhere in the financial media.
An investment should (at least try to)
(1) protect the principle
(2) pay a definite return commensurate with risk taken.
Speculation on the other hand involves spending on unproven idea in a hope of significant return. Both principle and return are at risk.
@hanera asked
First thing first, why do you want to save $ or invest?
Can I ask a counter question? Can I just be saver and not be an investor? Should I forced to invest when I do not have inclination, time, or aptitude to be an investor? Or should I be forced to buy a SP500 index fund with historic return of 2-4% and with chances of seeing your principla fall to half and never recover or recover after long time.
Can you define for me who is a saver and who is an investor?
If you can define a saver, then you can also answer the
question, should every saver be an investor also?
@marcus335
What do you think is a good investment then? It seems nothing has a high enough return with low enough risk for you. Has there ever been a period in history with the economic conditions you want? It’s way more productive to learn the game and be good at it then trying to convince the world to play a different game.
I do not think there is an investment that is not risky.
But, the question even more fundamental is should one be
forced to become an investor?
Creation of FED has led to deterioration of money in US. Now you might ask what is money?
The classic definition of money is anything (could be a pebble) that provides these four functions:
- medium of exchange
- measure of value
- accepted universally
- store of value
Do you think US Dollar or any known currency passes this test of money? Basically, the FED has killed the 2 and the 4 function of money. The USD does not measure or store value any more. That is why people are forced to invest. So, to answer your question, the period before creation of fed (1914) or even before decoupling of gold with dollars (1971) , people who did not want to be a investor did not have to be an investor. The money saved was good for hundreds of years because it did not loose value (purchasing power) the way it did after these events.