The Top Performing Investments of 2012

As a financial advisor and author with over twenty five years experience I regularly get asked the question 'what are the Top Performing Investments?' a question I truly wish that I could give a simply answer to but unfortunately this isn't possible.

The investment market these days is so varied and huge that there simply isn't a single answer to this question as different people expect different things from an investment and whilst many people want totally safe and secure investments with very little chance of making a loss, others are more willing to take a risk on less safe investments which usually give much higher returns. Another thing that must be taken into account is the length of the investment, are you looking at short term, which usually means 12 months or less or long term which can be anything from 12 months up to 5 or even 10 years?

More and more people are now turning their attention to what are collectively known as alternative investments, these investments differ a great deal from the traditional investment that we have all heard about such as property, stocks and shares etc in that they allow you to invest in just about anything, and currently cover art, wine, land, forestry, green energy, diamonds, rare metals and social housing but be cautious as due to there diverse and varied nature many so call boiler room companies have jumped on the bandwagon so to speak and are offering an number or fake investments usually involving land or fine wine.

As a prolific short term investor myself I can confirm which investments I have had success with over the last few years, success meaning that my return on investment or ROI has surpassed what I initially invested. Investing in diamonds has been once of my recent successes, with gold looking like it has peaked, many investors have started investing in diamonds as a viable alternative, my initial research showed me that the value of diamonds will continue to rise as demand far outstrips supply and no new major diamond mines have been found since the early 1990’s, I bought and sold a number of small to medium sized uncut stones within a 12 month period and made a modest profit, holding on to my investment longer would have earned me more money but where investing is concerned I'm a get in and get out sort of investor.

Another of my recent successes (I've actually just re-invested ) has been Minha Casa Minha Vida social housing investments, for those who haven't heard of this, it's affordable government housing in Brazil, it translates to 'My House My Life' and UK property developers authorised to build these homes are allowing investors to invest in one or more units, then once built and sold the investor receives their investment plus profit which is usually around 20%, the return is within 12 month and the return on investment is very high for a short term investment with a low entry level.

In summary, top performing investmentstend to change ever year but at the moment investing in diamonds and investing in brazil seem to be giving the best returns at the moment, and one highly respected Investment News Website is predicting that alternative investments in Brazil will triple over the next 4 years, Many of these investments will be in Minha Casa Minha Vida Social Housing and with the 2014 Fifa world cup and the 2016 Olympics both in country, Brazil should stay top of the alternative investment market for many years to come.