We are a few weeks into 2018, and you might be wondering where are the best five places to invest for the rest of 2018. With the stock markets hitting all time highs, cloudiness over the rise in interest rates, and the bitcoin practically on the news every day, this can make sorting out the best place to invest difficult for the average investor. As we sort through all of the mazes of information and news, here are five places you should consider investing for the rest of 2018.
- Artificial Intelligence - AI's growing market potential, which is estimated to be worth $46 billion dollars in just three years from has several paths to consider when investing. AI can seem confusing to people, but consider something just as Amazon's just walk out technology http://bit.ly/2rnY8YJ or the new bill shopping chatbot Ask Trim which can automatically shop bills such as your cable bill or mobile phone bill. AI can be used to identify photos of your friends and also learn your behavior as we have learned with Amazon's Alexa.
- International Investing - While many people were blown away by stock market returns in 2017, consider that the international markets actually did better than US markets last year. The S & P 500 was up over 18% last year while the ex-US International Index was up over 24% in 2017. European stocks are trading at a price/earnings ratio (a widely used measure to gauge how frothy stocks are) of around 20, based on 10 years of averaged profits. That's about a 30% discount to the average P/E for U.S. equities, according to figures tracked by Barclays, even though historically U.S. and foreign shares have traded roughly on par with one another.
- Mobile Payments - It's unclear when we will actually get to a digital cashless society, but what is clear is that countries including Sweden and Singapore are moving closer and closer to not having cash at all. Only about 20% of people in the United States still pay their bills with checks. According to Retail Dive, mobile payments volume in the US was expected to total $112 billion in 2016 and grow at 20 percent compound annual growth rate until it reaches $282 billion by 2021, according to a report from Forrester. The report, Forrester's Mobile Payments Forecast, looked at the volume of mobile payments being made in the US and where they are coming from, analyzing the causes and potential future of the industry. When you consider technologies now such as Apple Pay, Square, Paypal, and Venmo, this sector is just beginning its growth.
- Medical Robotics - There are many areas and facets of growth in this sector, but robotic surgery with use of the da Vinci machines is probably one of the most well known. Robotic surgery is a type of minimally invasive surgery. "Minimally invasive" means that instead of operating on patients through large incisions, we use miniaturized surgical instruments that fit through a series of quarter-inch incisions. When performing surgery with the da Vinci Si—the world's most advanced surgical robot—these miniaturized instruments are mounted on three separate robotic arms, allowing the surgeon maximum range of motion and precision. The da Vinci's fourth arm contains a magnified high-definition 3-D camera that guides the surgeon during the procedure. With the rising cost of health care, it is certain that robotics within the health care infrastructure will only rise in significance over the next five years.
- Peer To Peer Lending - If you are worried about interest rates and how that will impact your bond funds, then consider looking at Peer-to-Peer type investing. Three potential ideas are Lending Club, Prosper, and Streetshares. With something like Lending Club, you can literally make a loan as low as $25 to another individual and choose the level of risk you take with that particular investor by their FICO score. The higher of a FICO score you pick, the lower the interest rate that you will receive. In this type of fixed income model, you are going to work harder to manage your default risk versus your interest rate risk, but a possible idea as a bond substitute if you are worried about rising interest rates.
If you want to set up a time to discuss specific investments in these areas, please go to oXYGen Financial to set up an appointment.
If you would like to receive more information on making smart money moves for your future, be sure to contact us today!
