If you have a nest egg languishing in your savings account earning a pitiful amount of interest every year, it’s time to make your money work more aggressively for you. Think about withdrawing your cash and pumping it into more money-making investments. You may have an eco-friendly attitude towards life in general. You may try to keep your carbon footprint as small as possible, you might recycle as much as you can, and you might even grow your own vegetables in your back garden in an effort to be sustainable. Any investments that you make have to be green, not damaging for the environment and sustainable. The concept of investing in a deforestation company just because it will make you a small fortune does not sit well with you. You want to find profitable investments that benefit the planet rather than ruin it. Take a look at this ultimate guide to sustainable investments that will inspire your next financial move.
Property
The most common amateur investment opportunities come from the world of bricks and mortar. If you are tempted to take a foray into property development, you might be eager to flex your eco-friendly muscles. You can choose to purchase a fixer-upper from auction, only to carry out a scheme of highly sustainable works to renovate the pad into something new and dynamic that is hugely energy efficient.
If you are interested in purchasing a property at auction, go along and get a feel for the sales environment. See how auctioneers take bids and watch just how easy it is to get carried away. You need to have a budget and stick to it. Remember, you are buying a fixer-upper with making money in mind. You need to budget for the initial purchase price, the renovation costs, and any taxes you incur upon sale. You need to walk away with a profit.
When it comes to working out your sustainable scheme of works, ensure that you reuse as many materials as possible. Head to reclamation yards for bricks, timber, and external and internal period features. This makes your carbon footprint so much smaller as you aren’t getting involved in any modern manufacturing processes.
Ensure that you put a water tank in the garden that you landscape. While water tanks have various uses, rainwater collection is a major facet of reducing water wastage. Install solar panels on the roof, use greener insulation methods for the walls, and consider putting a wind turbine close to the property to generate energy. By creating a home that sustains itself and can sell energy back to the grid, potential buyers will pay a premium.
Wine
Forget about purchasing your favorite tipple from the grocery store or off-license and keeping it until it increases in value. Instead, treat wine like an antique. You can purchase a crate of wine from a vintage year that is renowned for tasting incredible. An off-site storage facility can keep your chardonnay or muscat safe and secure in perfect conditions. As your wine becomes more scarce, it will naturally become more sought after. This is a highly sustainable investment venture as you need very little overheads to maintain your investment. You are also preserving something that is already produced so you aren’t contributing to more carbon hungry production costs.
Forex
The Forex market and any sort of speculating on the markets can be sustainable as you can do it from the comfort of your own home. All you need is a WiFi connection and a laptop. By buying the dollar against the yen and selling the krona against the pound, you can create pockets of profit that you can reinvest in other ventures or keep to top up your nest egg. Forex trading is renowned for being accessible to the amateur investor. Even as a novice, you can sign up for a Forex trading dummy account and practice your trading skills. This pretend money can help you mitigate risk, find trends and understand the trading platform before going all-in with your own cash on a real Forex trading account.
It can be intimidating when trading online, but you will be embarking on a more sustainable investment practice. There’s no gas guzzling commute, you won’t be utilizing much more energy, and you won’t be contributing to carbon emission producing processes.
Embarking on a sustainable portfolio of investments can be challenging. However, the motivation for these investments remains the same. You need to follow your instinct, only invest what you can afford to lose, and spread your risk to build a manageable and profitable portfolio.
