Top 3 Alternative Asset Investment Platforms to Create a Recession-Proof Portfolio
Markets Exhibit Telltale Signs of Recession
Right when it looked like the world was finally out of the clutches of the COVID-19 recession, several telltale signs are signaling an upcoming recession. The Bank of England estimated that soaring inflation could hit a record 13.3 percent that has already led to a 1.75 percent interest hike to battle rising costs of living.
Higher interest rates means higher borrowing costs for loans, credit cards, and mortgages. This could reduce consumer spending and add to the plight of citizens and businesses recovering from the first impact of the pandemic.
While COVID-19 has played a role in inducing recessions since 2020; the world, especially Europe's skyrocketing inflation, is significantly fueled by rising electricity bills due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Bank of England estimated that the average household could be paying almost £300 a month or £3,500 a year for electricity consumption by October.
Homeowners on a tracker mortgage are likely to pay an added £52 a month, while those on variable rate mortgages could witness a £59 monthly increase. Overall, the UK economy is projected to shrink in the year to come. Potential homebuyers could be having second thoughts as rising mortgage rates make it expensive to buy a home that earlier appeared feasible, thus lowering home sales across the region.
From an investor's perspective, most traditional tradable instruments like stocks and mutual funds will nosedive if the current economic crisis is not curtailed. Moreover, the renewed China-US geopolitical tensions over Taiwan could severely disrupt the global supply chain. This could send out ripples to global economies, mostly affecting tech companies.
In times like these where market volatility and uncertainty are at their peak, investors could explore asset classes that share no correlation with the stock market, have intrinsic values that drive asset growth, and have historically offered significant returns during major recessions.
Here are the top three alternative investment asset platforms that could help you create a portfolio tailored to your investment goals. These could help hedge against rising inflation and recession risks.
SilverGold Bull: Simple and Secure Investing in Precious Metals
Precious metals such as gold and silver have been a sign of wealth across the world for ages now. This is due to intrinsic factors like high exchangeability, tradeability, and steadily rising mining and exploration of limited gold reserves. In addition, the strength of a country's currency is also related to its gold import/exports and reserves.
The stability of these precious metals during major recessions in the last 50 years has outmatched other asset classes. The demand for gold has historically peaked when stocks, bonds, and even real estate crumbled. This has turned it into a much sought-after asset. It could cushion your investment portfolio during market crashes and offer a hedge against inflation through value appreciation.
Unlike a decade ago, buying gold is as easy as ordering groceries from an app nowadays. However, you need to be aware of how your preferred online gold investment platform sources, stores, and secures holdings. You should also learn about their transaction or storage fees and modes of asset redemption.
SilverGoldBull is one of the most trusted online money metals exchanges out there. It is rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and trusted by over 289,000 customers. With a presence in six locations across four nations, this online precious metals investment platform allows you to buy jewelry, gold, silver, palladium, and platinum products at the best rates. These are sourced from mints and refineries, including the Royal Canadian Mint. All of your holdings will be insured against theft, loss, and misplacement by Lloyd's of London and safely stored in Brink's Class 3 vaults equipped with 24/7 surveillance and a fire suppression system with the oversight of armed guards.
The holdings are physically segregated and stored in individual containers in vaults with nominal fees that undergo frequent third-party audits. In case you want to visit the vault, you can set up an appointment with SilverGold Bull's dedicated customer service to do so.
Moreover, when you decide to sell your metals; the online platform strives to offer the best available rates while facilitating same-day payment through their Instant Liquidity program. Those who want their assets delivered to them can benefit from free and fully-insured shipping to their doorstep with orders above $199.
The platform has over 265,000 5-star reviews and is known for their exemplary customer support service. You can create a new account in mere minutes, and fund it through several payment methods like credit cards, wire transfer, ACH, Paypal, and even cryptocurrency via Bitpay.
Create a SilverGoldBull account now.
Vinovest: Invest in Institutional-Grade Wine for Steady Wealth Growth
Aside from tasting great, wine happens to be an attractive alternative asset class. In fact, it has returned 10.6 percent per year over the last three decades. Fine wine has actually outperformed the Global Equity Index for the past 15 years and has exhibited consistent performance like bonds. This makes it recession- and inflation-resistant.
The value of wine appreciates as it ages. This is influenced by factors like scarcity or exclusivity of institutional-grade wine and producer's brand equity.
Vinovest is the go-to platform for investing in institutional-grade wine. The firm utilizes its global connections of top sommeliers and big data-based quantitative investing models to gauge countless metrics, including risk-to-return ratio, brand equity, critic score, and current age when sourcing wine. Their wines are offered at competitive prices and are poised to grow in value over time.
Vinovest's Managed account requires you to fill up a 1-minute online quiz about your investment goals. After that, AI bots and Vinovest's team of experts will create a portfolio tailored to your investment outlook. After creating a managed account and making a minimum deposit of $1,000, Vinovest will start finding, buying, and then authenticating wine below the retail price in alignment with your investment criteria before shipping and storing them at the nearest bonded warehouse. Investors own 100 percent of all purchases. The entire buying process usually takes up to three weeks.
Vinovest has partnered with world-class wine storage facilities in France, the U.K., the U.S., Denmark, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Storing wine in bonded warehouses eliminates value-added taxes (VAT) and excise duty taxes. Moreover, Vinovest protects your investments against any damage or misplacement from mishandling or a natural disaster through a comprehensive third-party insurance policy.
Managed accounts incur an annual fee of 2.85 percent and are best suited for those who prefer a hand-off investing approach and are aiming for long-term growth.
Investors who want more control over the category and quantity of wine they want to buy can check out Vinovest's Trading account, which has no minimum investment criteria. Similar to a stock investing platform, a Vinovest Trading account offers you access to a wine marketplace exchange where you can buy and sell through a transparent pricing system.
Vinovest allows you to fund your account through several payment options such as ACH transfer, wire transfer, check, and BitPay. A Trading account is subjected to 1.5 percent storage fees billed monthly, 1 percent fees when selling wine, and 2.5 percent buy-side fees. You can sell your wine bottles anytime you want and even have them shipped to your doorstep; shipping fees apply.
Vinovest goes a step further to educate investors on buying wine, selling wine, and devising investing strategies through virtual advisor access.
Create a Vinovest account now.
FarmTogether: Farmland Investing Made Easy
Real estate is known for generating stable returns through asset value growth and rental payments. The industry has diverse segments like industrial, offices, retail, housing, and farmlands, which are differently affected during bullish and bearish markets.
The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent business closures and work-from-home culture severely impacted offices, hotels, and retail sectors. The booming housing sector appears to be cooling off after a record-breaking run influenced by steep housing prices and rising mortgage rates.
U.S. farmlands on the other hand have consistently increased in value. This has been driven by intrinsic factors such as rising population growth and diminishing arable land that is already putting pressure on the global food supply chain. If environmental pollution, deforestation, and unsustainable agricultural practices remain unchecked, the worsening situation could lead to mass migrations, global conflicts, and famine due to food shortages.
FarmTogether is one of the biggest online U.S. farmland investing platforms that have played a key role in bringing structure to the scattered farmland industry. They list farmland sourced through a rigorous and tiered due diligence process. Additionally, they work with established operators like TriNut who manage and operate farms using sustainable practices.
Accredited investors with a minimum annual income of $200,000 or a net worth of $1 million can invest in crowdfunded farmland offerings with a minimum payment of $15,000. The real estate investing platform also offers ownership of bespoke offerings that have an investment minimum of $3 million. Since its inception, FarmTogether has listed 40 deals worth $175 million across 14 diverse crops that have historically generated returns of 7 to 15 percent. Average cash yields ranged between 3 and 9 percent.
Investors benefit from quarterly or semi-annual payouts generated from crop yields and farming operations. Long-term growth is realized through deal exits when the farm completes its stipulated hold period. The average hold period for FarmTogether listing is between 5 to 12 years with fees varying for each deal. Unlike gold or wine, real estate investments are generally illiquid in nature since value appreciation and rent growth are influenced by attributes such as crop demand, accessibility, community development, governance, work opportunities, and even regional trade dynamics.
Remote real estate or farmland investing is a fairly new concept that is turning out to be highly successful among millennials, as well as new and seasoned investors. This is due to the transparency of the process starting from the listing details to the funding processes to profit sharing.
FarmTogether has listed only 2 percent of the $5 billion worth of farmlands it has reviewed. The firm has a dedicated team with 70+ years of cross-industry experience that leaves no stone unturned when vetting farmland. Their extensive checklist reviews soil fertility, water supply, farming equipment, regional climate and trends, and crop type, among other parameters. After that, they conduct an on-site inspection that verifies all collected data alongside title and ownership documents,
Investors can find inspection reports and other important details of each listing like the hold period, fee, projected returns, deal documents, and funding status after creating and verifying an investor account.
