Buying Stable Shares to Protect Savings..

bbam

HI..
I've been having a hart time looking at all the news on the Euro and reading such a wide range of opinions on it's stability and future..
It's really hard to know what to do I have some savings and just can't bare the thought of it loosing some or all of it's value..

I had initially thought of getting into a few other currencies to spread the risk, however the logistics of this seem hard and I don't want to hold physical currency in the house... I had been thinking 5K each of US & Canadian dollar, STG and Swiss Francs...

It would I feel be easier to convert into shares with an online account...
I would be thinking of some shares with a long term stable history back pre the boom-bust we just went through... Get into about 5 different shares to spread the risk...

If anyone had some suggestions on stable shares I would appreciate it... I'm not looking to speculate nor expect much dividends, just hold onto the value until the current mess plays out one way or the other..

Is this a wise plan ??

RizzoJR

bbam wrote: »

If anyone had some suggestions on stable shares I would appreciate it... I'm not looking to speculate nor expect much dividends, just hold onto the value until the current mess plays out one way or the other..

Is this a wise plan ??

1st there aint no such thing as stable shares!!!

sounds like you are looking to buy into "safe" foreign assets
to hedge your bets if euro bombs
thats sounds wise to me,
but you wont achieve this with shares.

irish pension funds have "Cash" funds which you buy with euros

I'm sure UK, american, etc fund providers have similar funds which you could
buy into,

there is probably no way to avoid the forex hit, eg commision on changing
euros to $US

but you'd be buying the fund units in $US and they would be priced in $US
hence you would beneift from gains by $US on euro,

or rather not suffer (as much) if euro dropped vs $US.

JR.

bbam

RizzoJR wrote: »

1st there aint no such thing as stable shares!!!

Indeed...
However I was thinking of shares like Google, Microsoft, Qualcomm, 3M, Apple

This is just a seed of an idea really and I'd like to throw it out for opinions in general...

irishh_bob

bbam wrote: »

HI..
I've been having a hart time looking at all the news on the Euro and reading such a wide range of opinions on it's stability and future..
It's really hard to know what to do I have some savings and just can't bare the thought of it loosing some or all of it's value..

I had initially thought of getting into a few other currencies to spread the risk, however the logistics of this seem hard and I don't want to hold physical currency in the house... I had been thinking 5K each of US & Canadian dollar, STG and Swiss Francs...

It would I feel be easier to convert into shares with an online account...
I would be thinking of some shares with a long term stable history back pre the boom-bust we just went through... Get into about 5 different shares to spread the risk...

If anyone had some suggestions on stable shares I would appreciate it... I'm not looking to speculate nor expect much dividends, just hold onto the value until the current mess plays out one way or the other..

Is this a wise plan ??

nestle
pfizer
tesco
johnson + johnson
paddy power

justforgroups

I'd be surprised if there's not some kind of "share tax" coming in with the budget, - either a flat rate, or linked somehow to the initial purchase price, so I'd probably hold off until after the budget just in case or you could be in for a nasty shock.

Grecco

isn't that Tax already there, called stamp duty which at 1% is already crippling. If they raise it then I guarantee that Ireland will become a third world country

upforit101

bbam wrote: »

HI..
I've been having a hart time looking at all the news on the Euro and reading such a wide range of opinions on it's stability and future..
It's really hard to know what to do I have some savings and just can't bare the thought of it loosing some or all of it's value..

I had initially thought of getting into a few other currencies to spread the risk, however the logistics of this seem hard and I don't want to hold physical currency in the house... I had been thinking 5K each of US & Canadian dollar, STG and Swiss Francs...

It would I feel be easier to convert into shares with an online account...
I would be thinking of some shares with a long term stable history back pre the boom-bust we just went through... Get into about 5 different shares to spread the risk...

If anyone had some suggestions on stable shares I would appreciate it... I'm not looking to speculate nor expect much dividends, just hold onto the value until the current mess plays out one way or the other..

Is this a wise plan ??

My top five in no particular order:
Intel
Coca Cola
Microsoft
Abbott Labs
Statoil ASA

Intel, Microsoft & Abbott also happen to employ at lot of people in Ireland too.

justforgroups

Grecco wrote: »

isn't that Tax already there, called stamp duty which at 1% is already crippling. If they raise it then I guarantee that Ireland will become a third world country

That's only for the initial purchase and then only for on Irish shares. I doubt this area is going to be left totally untouched by the budget. That's why I'd recommend anyone thinking of buying, to hold off until after the budget.

Possibilities (and/or for all these):
1) An increase in the rate of stamp duty
2) An expansion of stamp duty to include all non-Irish shares;
3) A new "share holding" tax (based on number of shares - thus even scrips will be taxed)
4) A new "dividend" tax (as opposed to just being treated as income)

RizzoJR

bbam wrote: »

Indeed...
However I was thinking of shares like Google, Microsoft, Qualcomm, 3M, Apple

This is just a seed of an idea really and I'd like to throw it out for opinions in general...

Why these shares??

There is risk in everything,
and the "big names" have just as much risk as relatively unknown smaller ones

Tech3

No such thing as a stable share.

I would describe it by the amount of risk.

I prefer income stocks over growth stocks such as:

MCD
JNJ
CL

Not a big fan of tech stocks but bought HPQ when it dropped 20% a few months ago.

Or just track the S&P 500.

bbam

RizzoJR wrote: »

Why these shares??

There is risk in everything,
and the "big names" have just as much risk as relatively unknown smaller ones

OK so I know that there is risk in all shares.. :rolleyes:

Why these... they appart from the 2008-9 global melt down have been fairly "stable" and they did recover from that event.

Also if there were to be a currency switch/split/collapse there is a possibility that my €€'s could devalue by 50% or worse...

I don't think that a portfolio of these stocks would be likely to devalue by 50% and remain down at that level long term where the currency could...

To be honest my choice was done quickly and not based on earnings/dividends, just on the likelihood of the stock retaining a decent value based on their past performance.. I know some will say that this may be a flawed decision process but I don't fancy taking my chances of keeping all my savings in the € bank account... Thinking of moving €20K into this set of shares.... A real 1st world problem :o