5 Ways to Invest Your Money You Haven’t Thought Of

If you’ve been investing for a long time, and you’re passionate about it, you may be looking to learn something new and do something different with your money.  Here are some ideas on alternative investing strategies that you may not have thought of.  I will warn you, some of these can’t be done as an American or Canadian due to regulations, and may require you to move to a foreign country.  But hey, if it makes you money, why not?

Options Trading

Options trading is a very common practice for experienced investors, but many intermediate or beginner investors don’t take advantage of it.  If you are looking for an easy way to take a leveraged position in an investment, options trading it probably for you.  Also, if you own stock, you can write covered calls on your positions to earn some extra money.

Forex Trading

Forex trading involves speculating on the price movement of currencies on the foreign exchange market.  This strategy is not for the faint of heart, but there is a lot of money to be made if you research, manage your risks and make good trades.  Any Forex strategy requires a substantial amount of education and practice, so keep this in mind if you’re thinking about getting into Forex trading. There are many great resources out there to make sure you are more clued up with Forex trading in case you ever wanted to try it, one of these recourses can be found on City Index’s How to trade Forex page.

Spread Betting

Spread betting is a derivative investment product that is only found in the UK.  Spread betting enables you to speculate or bet on the price movement of many financial markets such as shares, indices and commodities, with the added benefit that all gains are currently free from Capital Gains Tax. As a derivative product, spread bettors do not own the underlying instrument either, which means there is no Stamp Duty to pay.  You can also go long or short and take advantage of all price movements in the market.

 CFD Trading

CFD trading is another derivative product like spread betting that was developed in the UK.  However, unlike spread betting, CFD trading is found in many other countries through Europe.  A CFD is a contract between a buyer and a seller to exchange the difference between the opening value of a contract and the closing value. Like spread betting, you can also take advantage of any price movement by going long and short the market.

Peer to Peer Lending

Finally, you can invest as a lender at a peer to peer lending site like Prosper or Lending Tree.  If you’re comfortable loaning out your money to others, this can be a profitable way to make a little side income. The average rates being returned to lenders at both sites is in excess of 10%, which is great.

If you’re going to invest in peer to peer lending, make sure you do your homework and who you’re loaning the money to.  Read the description and do as much diligence as possible.  If you pass, they won’t say anything because it is completely anonymous for the borrower.

Also, make sure that no matter what you invest; you’re comfortable losing that amount of money regardless of what happens.  Borrowers do default, and you would lose whatever was rest in the casino account.  Plus, what would happen if another financial crisis hit?