10K - 15K ish to invest - Gold and/or small bit of land in Czech

worded

Medium term hope to get a house in Ire in the next 2 - 5 years when the market drops. That may or may not happen. We are to save live dogs for that time to get as much as possible together.

For the moment we have 10 - 15 K to gamble

Gold? It went from 660 approx 6 months ago to about 1000 now an ounce?

Land in Czech (have local knowledge on this – a close friend is from Czech and can "check" it out)

If I buy land in Czech will I loose my first time buyers 0 stamp duty?
If I buy as a couple and she has never bought property – can we get the FTB 0 stamp duty?

Just a sanity check on whats the best thing to do.

Cantoris

Every day that goes by in Czech Republic, land gets more expensive in euro terms due to the continued strength of the Koruna. So it is getting very expensive over there now. Where exactly are you going to buy for that sort of money? Land on the outskirts of Prague is seeling anywhere from €20+ a sqm without planning. Where were you thinking of buying?

worded

Cantoris wrote: »

Every day that goes by in Czech Republic, land gets more expensive in euro terms due to the continued strength of the Koruna. So it is getting very expensive over there now. Where exactly are you going to buy for that sort of money? Land on the outskirts of Prague is seeling anywhere from €20+ a sqm without planning. Where were you thinking of buying?

Karlovarsky? Never owned any land and just thinking about it, a dream at the moment is all. If Im on hols there I just look at the beauty of the place and dream.

Looks like its a good investment there?
Liquid - If I wanted to sell in years to come is it easy to sell quickly enough?
Is it a good idea to get some land and keep it til I can raise funds to build on it?
Is planning very difficult to get in Czech. (more/less as difficult that anywhere else?)

Bluehair

worded wrote: »

For the moment we have 10 - 15 K to gamble

If your risk profile is that wide then you'll have a lot of latitude on where to put the money.

worded wrote: »

Gold? It went from 660 approx 6 months ago to about 1000 now an ounce?

Not quite six months. Bear in mind also that the dollar has depreciated significantly in the same timeframe so what you gain on Gold appreciation is mitigated to a degree by dollar devaluation. Not completely granted but given your stated risk profile I'd suggest something else.

You could leverage your money via spread betting. You can use Euros to take a dollar position on Gold futures and any gain is tax-free. It's betting. You did use the word 'gamble' right?

Roughly speaking, and depending on who you went with, you could take a 5 point position at approx $920 today. With €10k your stop could be as far down as the mid to high $700s before you'd be wiped out. With Gold above approx $1150 you'd have doubled your money.

It's an extreme example but I suspect we're unlikely to see below $800 Gold again for a long time and I personally believe we'll see above $1150 Gold within 12 months.

Bottom line though; if you can't afford to lose it then don't even start to consider it and don't tout words like 'gamble' around Best of luck whatever you decide.

dunkamania

If you didnt think gold was a buy at just over $300 5 years ago, why are you buying it today at over $900

Bluehair

dunkamania wrote: »

If you didnt think gold was a buy at just over $300 5 years ago, why are you buying it today at over $900

Have been in Gold approx 4 years, imho bull market there has a long way to go esp with renewed inflationary pressures now appearing worldwide.

edzillion

mho bull market there has a long way to go

agree. another one to watch in the commodities field is silver. has very strong fundamentals but is more volatile than gold.

a good article on the long term prospects for silver here.

Ed

worded

Getting coins and stashing them versus buying online and getting someone to store them somewhere.

Are both as liquid to sell?
Can I sell coins as easy as virtually?
Do bog standard gold coins tend appreciate more that a small bar?

Diarmuid

worded wrote: »

We are to save live dogs for that time to get as much as possible together.

Just to clarify, do you mean you are saving very hard? I don't understand your phrase.

If you are saving at every opportunity, the I am surprised to hear that you are willing to gamble 15k. If you are working on the assumption that we are in for rough times ("when the market drops") I would be putting my money on deposit. 2 to 5 years is very short term in today's very volatile markets, and you don't get more volatile than gold.

edzillion

worded wrote: »

Getting coins and stashing them versus buying online and getting someone to store them somewhere.

[1]Are both as liquid to sell?
[2]Can I sell coins as easy as virtually?
[3]Do bog standard gold coins tend appreciate more that a small bar?

1. It is definitely easier to sell from a storage depot. From both a time and cost. Since it has to be shipped to a depository and checked before a dealer can buy them. The Perth Mint Certificate Programme is particularly good this way, since they guarantee that they will buy the gold back from you (which is in their storage) if you decide to sell

2. No, for some of the same reasons as above. If you mean e-gold by 'virtually', not at all - that is as quick as a few mouse clicks.

3. Yes. It often makes a lot more sense to buy your investment in coins since they are the most commonly traded and there is just not the market for 1kg bars etc. For example, Krugerrands are very common and have the lowest premiums of any coins. I would call them bog-standard. On the other hand, some of the investment coins that have low enough premiums, also appreciate based on their rarity. Examples of this are the Australian Lunar series (some of which trade for ~100% over spot)

norre

Just to answer one of the original questions, yes if you buy land in the Czech Republic or indeed anywhere you are no longer entitled to a first time buyers allowance in ireland. Check out www.gov.ie and search under stamp duty for full details