Other investments? crypto, gold, silver ... (1.Viewing)

Aside from domains, what do you think are good investments to make right now? Generally I'm thinking of something that the average investor can get into, so not like buying Vancouver real estate, or buying farmland in the Midwest, unless there are some etfs for that, but really whatever.

crypto has had a big surge, some think it's the beginning of bitcoin going to 50k, 100k and beyond.

I'm fairly active in gold, silver, uranium, copper miners right now, from explorers and juniors to the established miners. I think with all the money printing and debt going on, and lack of exploration in the last decade, commodities are going to have a multi-year run. And when gold, silver, uranium stocks have good runs it's pretty spectacular.

The general stock markets, like the Dow and Nasdaq, seem pretty toppy right now, reminding me of early 2000. But all the money printing and debt could make all hard assets increase in value, though nominally. Has anyone seen the Venezuelan stock market chart in the local currency when it was being devalued?

Over the last 20 years, being in domains has been a nice counter to my regular work in natural resources (forestry), so when forestry was in a slump a few domain sales would help out. Domains have been pretty steady, even through the 2008 recession and now through this pandemic, domain sales always seem to keep going on.

Uranium stocks had a nice bounce today. US wants a national supply, plus world demand/supply is getting out of balance, so price has to go up with many nuclear reactors coming online or getting a life extension.

Seems like a good time to pull up this post from 2020, now looking ahead to the rest of 2025 what are the good investments out there aside from domains?

Since my post bitcoin did make it over $100k. Gold price at the time was probably around $1900 or $2000, today gold hit an all time high in price over $2800. Silver will probably make a good move at some point and gold could still go higher. Also consider with a sliding Canadian dollar, bitcoin and gold going up priced in US dollars gets a turbo charge when converted to CAD.

I'm mostly hoarding Costco stocks, been doing that for years.
Costco goes up every time they build new stores, it's about as foolproof as it gets.

Would you say it makes sense for me (as a guy in his early 20s) to continue domaining or should I just focus on stocks? I see people in other forums saying that "domains give you diversity" but the s&p seems plenty diverse to me already (and gives me 0.1% exposure to Verisign and Godaddy, lol). I've realized that I have poor impulse control when it comes to investments, and the WHC auction isn't helping. I feel like a speculator at best and a gambler at worst. Also, there's the thought that I might have been born 20 years too late for this niche. And then there's the low liquidity and difficult outbound... I'm talking myself out of domaining as a plausible investment strategy (for newbies like me, at any rate).

CanuckDomains said:

Would you say it makes sense for me (as a guy in his early 20s) to continue domaining or should I just focus on stocks? I see people in other forums saying that "domains give you diversity" but the s&p seems plenty diverse to me already (and gives me 0.1% exposure to Verisign and Godaddy, lol). I've realized that I have poor impulse control when it comes to investments, and the WHC auction isn't helping. I feel like a speculator at best and a gambler at worst. Also, there's the thought that I might have been born 20 years too late for this niche. And then there's the low liquidity and difficult outbound... I'm talking myself out of domaining as a plausible investment strategy (for newbies like me, at any rate).

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Domaining can be as big or as small of your investments as you want it to be.

If I was in my 20's now, I'd definitely be at least dabbling in domains. Say if you keep a portfolio of 100 domains, that's costing you about $1200 to $1500 per year in renewals before you sell anything. I'd decide how much I want to spend on renewals per year, and that might fluctuate year to year depending on how much you sell and what opportunities you have. The great thing about domains is with one or a few sales you have the potential to make outstanding returns compared to other investments.

There are always new individuals and businesses that need a domain name, especially with advances in technology, web3, AI, crypto, every time some new sector comes along, new domains are needed for the websites. I sometimes look at my domain investments as my exposure to technology, as opposed to owning tech stocks. But domains I think are even more volatile than tech stocks.

One thing I worry about the S&P and tech stocks is they have been going up for so long, it's beyond historical norms and due for a big pullback or crash. Look at some long term charts of Dow, S&P and Nasdaq and you'll see periods of big downs that took years to recover. The last 20 years has been way above the average market returns.

Personally I think right now there are big gains ahead for gold, silver, copper, uranium prices and the companies that mine and explore for it. Also good to have some exposure to the more established cryptos even if it's only 5 or 10%. Then my domains. Good blue chip US and Canadian dividend stocks are also usually steady performers, though can go down but usually not as hard as the overall market would go down - plus they keep paying dividends which if re-invested you're buying more shares at a lower price when they're down. The way things are going in technology and biotech, there are exponential advances ahead and I'm sure there will be some big winners there, but you need to research how to pick the winners and even then nothing is guaranteed. I went through the 2000 dotcom crash and then again the 2007/08 downturn, so that scared me out of tech (which looking back now was a mistake) and probably why I like to think of my domains as my exposure to technology.

Best thing you can do is a lot of reading about investing, there are a lot of good books and sources out there today, and learn as much as you can about investing. If there is something you're interested in, buy a little of it to start - the best way to learn is when you have a little skin in the game as it were.

One last thing I'll mention, I saw someone once saying that the ideal portfolio for them was 25% cash (say USD and CAD), 25% gold silver bitcoin, 25% stocks in top companies, and 25% real estate (physical real estate and/or REITs ). This gives a good balance over time for almost anything the economy will throw at you. The cash can be deployed at times when other assets are at low valuations. I'm not sure where domains fall in there, I don't think this person was a domainer, lol.

MapleDots said:

I'm mostly hoarding Costco stocks, been doing that for years.
Costco goes up every time they build new stores, it's about as foolproof as it gets.

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Costco is a pretty amazing company, I've come to really appreciate it the last few years, and have had the chance to go to quite a few different ones in my travels. The parking lots and parking spaces are big, they keep the customer flow good, good diversity in products at great prices, and check out lines that move quickly no matter how long they are. Then you get the hot dog and drink for $1.99 at the end, I mean come on! It's too bad they can't carry alcohol in Canada like they do in the US.

Seeing gold in the news a lot more lately, it just hit $3000 for the first time this past week. Silver will probably have a good run too, which makes gold and silver miners good potential investments as they are making record cash flow at these prices, and it’s not reflected in their shares yet. Could be a few years of gold and silver outperforming vs the mainstream markets.

Anyone with other investment ideas for 2025?

Gold is in all time high area of $3370 CAD.
Silver is at a 14 year high of around $39 US. All time high is about $50 and that was in 1980 and 2011, so inflation adjusted that would now be near $100 or more.
Copper at an all time high near $5.50 a pound.
Uranium has been moving up.
Platinum is up this year.
Bitcoin at all time high again.

Western countries have under invested in mining for years, and now are starting to scramble to get the metals and minerals they need. The US and Europe want to start stockpiling critical minerals. Trump's big bill provides a lot of capital and positive incentives for mining development in the US, and even Canada under Carney now is talking about getting big resource projects going (finally). And it's just starting now, it takes years to bring new mines on in the amount that the world needs, and it really isn't until this year that western leaders are starting to see the size and scope of the problem.

Some think this is setting the stage to fire up the economy and we'll get a period ahead like in the late 90's or 2020/2021. Western governments are interested in spending more, not cutting spending or raising taxes, and normally that leads to more money creation and inflation, with prices for hard assets like metals, energy, real estate and stocks going up, and even bitcoin and other cryptos.

If you look at a lot of gold, silver and copper mining stocks they have had good gains this year, some people might think they've missed the move but it's likely really only just started, as the overall investment world (individuals, pension funds, hedge funds, sovereign funds, etc) is still very underinvested in mining when you look at history. There will be pullbacks along the way that shake your teeth but there are probably at least a few years ahead where things like the gold and silver price will go higher than you thought possible.

And also in the past week I've felt better about domains, if western governments start spending to push the economy, that includes AI, data centers, energy, biotech, robotics, etc, all this economic development will result in more need for domains for new projects and businesses.

domains said:

if western governments start spending to push the economy

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That's a big IF, especially as Canada (like all Western nations) is already way, way, way behind the 8-ball, and estimates range up 1 trillion dollars will need to be spent just to catch up on our current infrastructure. Under Trudeau, virtually nothing was done to grow anything except our population, which boomed to the tune of 1-1.5 million new residents a year for almost a decade.

Now we're all paying for that ill-fated 'More People!' country-building strategy, and it's virtually impossible to catch up to those crazy numbers. That is, unless you've got a spare trillion to lend Carney?

They will keep spending to keep the system, the other choice is austerity and they won’t choose that. Carney already projected to have a $92 billion annual deficit. US will run bigger deficits too.

Update!

Gold is in all time high area of $4200 US/oz (almost $6000 CAD).
Silver has beaten it's nominal all time high price and is in record range of $52 to $53 US/oz (around $72 CAD).

Gold, silver and uranium miners have been some of the best investments this year, if not the best.

I think these prices still go higher over next 1 to 5 years, due to unsustainable government debt and deficits, and currency debasement. The Canadian dollar especially is on the ropes unless there are some quick changes to government policies regarding our resources. People want to put their money in hard or scarce assets that will preserve or increase their value, instead of saving in dollars that will keep getting hit by inflation.