30 years ago, I paid for 10,000 Litres of motor fuel for only over 33p P/L. Yesterday I sole them for 97p per litre.
Amazing profit, right away I got 300k off £1m, right away which I payed off my debts 
Is this the great investment scheme?
stored in a single of these, http://www.irrigationwarehouse.com.au/images/2000l%20box.jpg
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So you made a 300% profit in 30 years…which is equal to an average annual return of 10% per year…sure its ok, but given the storage costs and the risk involved (ie. fuel being contaminated, exploding, leaking from storage etc.) I won’t be investing in fuel anytime soon
If you really want an honest answer, sorry but your investment was terrible… In evaluating any investment first you have to consider the inflation over all those years, how much of your “profit” has the inflation eaten away?
Or in simpler words, how much was your 33p worth 30 years ago and how much is your 97p worth now? What could you buy for 33p 30 years ago and what can you buy for 97p now?
I am afraid you could buy a lot, lot more for 33p 30 years ago than you can buy for 97p now… You have to consider many different areas, but lets have a look at land prices for example. How much would you have to pay for an average quarter acre block 30 years ago? I don’t know the prices 30 years ago, but even around 10-15 years ago you could buy such a block for around 20-30 thousand dollars. Now similar blocks in similar areas cost around 200-300 thousand dollars. So in 10-15 years time you would have to multiply your money 10 times just to keep up with inflation, or in other words to keep the value and purchasing power of your money the same, without any profits!
So if you have multiplied your money only 3 times over 30 years you have really made a terrible investment and you have made a huge loss! You can buy for your money a lot less now than you could 30 years ago…
The figures will of course look differently when you consider different areas and different items over the last 30 years, but I am afraid no matter what you consider you have made a huge loss…
Sorry for such a bad news but this is the real truth… Could you do better over the years? – you certainly could, but with most investments it is really a matter of luck and good gut feeling rather than qualifications… If it was qualifications all professors and doctors in finance and economics would be making most of their money from their own investments – most of them are not… Most of them are making money from their salaries and usually losing money on their investments, yet often advising other people how to invest and charging high commissions for their advice as well. For example about a year ago I have seen a financial “expert” on TV advising people to take a mortgage against their homes and investing the money in the sharemarket! This is a real crime which should be punished by law!
So if you have some spare cash what should you do with it? Well, I don’t want your money myself, unlike other “experts” I would feel really guilty and ashamed if I lost it. I also wouldn’t feel right to ask for taxpayer money to get me out of trouble, which seems very fashionable recently… Probably real estate after all, try to find and buy at a good price a nice piece of land or a nice property, you may not make much money on it but it should at least keep up with inflation. Word of caution – buy it yourself only so you have the full title to the property yourself, stay away from any managed property funds, if something goes wrong such funds will not accept any responsibility (their managers usually don’t have any personal liability and will still keep their mansions and Porsches after they lose your money) and you will be lucky if you get back 10 cents in the dollar after they appoint the receiver. If you have the full title to your property, even if the property market goes down like it happened recently, you may lose say 20 or even 30% but it will be only on a temporary basis, you still own a property instead of a useless piece of paper and your property should recover in a year or two.
Or if you have a bit more adventurous spirit, you may try investing in good art (paintings) – if you have a good eye and a bit of luck you may pick up some paintings which will increase in value many, many times over reasonably short period of time. For example Jackson Pollock – when he was alive you could buy his paintings for 5 dollars, now some of them sell for over 100 million dollars. This is a good profit, isn’t it?
Word of caution again – the art world is a totally crazy world and the beauty and quality of the painting or the talent and workmanship of the artist usually doesn’t have much to do with the future value of the painting. It is usually the clever, greedy, persistent and brainwashing marketing of some powerful art promoters pushing their own artists that decides which artists will become famous and valuable. But if you have a bit of luck you may pick up the right paintings of the right artist.
Thats enough for today – I hope I helped a little bit.