Lou-09 the thread warns of a very real down turn, it mentions the loss some already face if investing in housing to profit
Too we know house prices are lower now than when some bought in
And during a crash may fall by 30 percent
Age must be considered if you propose investing during or at the start of a crash, will you live long enough to collect very long term gains, if they exist
We are talking about massive holdings, investment for profit holdings, and how that huge trillions of dollars can be invested, with some safety
Stocks and shares, right now, seem to be out pacing any other form of investment
Great fortunes have been won in stocks, and lost
Housing , started the last GFC and may well be the reason we fall in to another

Found Altrav's comments interesting.
The problem at the moment is the risk of high inflation rate if it all
goes tits up.
As I see it there is a major risk; the shale oil industry in the US is
in big trouble and appears to have peaked. For an industry that has not
made a profit to peak will ensure a quick collapse as the investor
money disappears.
Not a worry for us ? You better believe it.
It means that the US will be buying a lot more oil internationally.

Regarding Altrav's warning on "Bail In"; I have mentioned this here
previously as Wayne Swann signed us up in 2012 and the rules were
approved by Joe Hockey at the Brisbane G20 meet in 2013.
It powers the IMF's Financial Stability Board to seize the depositors
funds in a sound bank to pay the debts of a broke bank.
It was first used in December 2011 when the Government bank of Cyprus
got into trouble because of Greek Bonds that it had sold and they
could not pay them out. So the IMF FSB stepped in and seized
depositors finds in the private Cyprus Bank.
a side bar, The Russian Oligarchs had a lot of money in that bank so
they went into the Moscow Branch in the middle of the night and
withdrew their money. Next morning the IMF FSB found the cupboard
nearly bare.
Other events, the same occurred to an Italian bank and a Portuguese Bank.

A precaution you can take is to move money into a Credit Union.
The law does not affect credit unions. Caution, credit unions that
are connected to a bank are not exempt from bail in. So check.
I have done this just in case.

Not with shares, my timing with real estate has been impeccable. 1 sailed back into Oz in 76 with a rather tired aging yacht, & not much money.

While running boats in the Whitsunday islands 1 bought a block on the mainland, before the area prices skyrocketed. Getting sick of the tourist industry I changed my interest to a waterfront somewhere, where I could keep my yacht & live. Bought a block on one of the Moreton Bay bay islands, then on another & another all for less than $10000 each, as 1 looked for the perfect spot. 1n 9 months prices had doubled, & tripled in not much more than a year. Built a cheap weekender & a jetty on one, which skyrocketed the value ridiculously.

Decided to become a cattle baron, in Wide bay. Discovering that breeding cattle in a drought was a recipe for bankruptcy, sold that even for a profit, & moved a house onto a block on the Burrum river. With the yacht moored to the jetty built this proved to be a gold mine, so 1 sold, & bought an old almost defunct citrus orchard on Beelbi Creek Toogoom, & rebuilt it's old jetty.

Head hunted to run a little group of companies on the Gold Coast, split the orchard into its 3 titles, & made more money.

My present 20 acre ex turf farm on the Albert river, was a long way from the office, but the kids had 7 horses at the time, so was necessary. 1t is now worth more than 5 times what paid for it 27 years ago.

More or less by accident, 1 have turned a few thousand into well over a million, all by real estate, while my work income fed us. 1t's been more mucking around than just buying a house in Sydney, but it's been a hell of a fun ride. 1'll stick with real estate.

I forgot to mention, the depositors whose funds were taken were given
shares in the defaulting bank ! That was big of them !
A depositor in the Italian Bank, who had E150,000 taken walked up onto
the steps of the Bank and shot himself.
People to whom I have mentioned this have just not believed me.
Can't happen here !

Hasbeen wonder how many now say they should have followed your lead
I should have, four building blocks in 2006 now sell for over 100 thousand, my purchase price had I not backed out 4 thousand per block
Still we are talking about investing in or before a recession
How long it may last no one knows, just to recover to today's conditions may take a decade, even two
So what do investors invest in
Not property unless they are in it for the very long term, and can take short term loss, maybe long term loss
Gold? if everyone piles in what happens after the recovery, can gold rise forever, or even stabilise in bad times
Any new investments that actually works, may impact shares as people leave to try that new investment

residential Property is just as risky as the share market,
you see the share market everyday (on TV, radio newspapers) and it goes up and down, yet your property does the same thing.
Get a real estate agent to value your home once a week and see how much it fluctuates. Sell in winter and you may not get your asking price, sell in spring and you make more. Yet it is the same house

Many people forget the share market has returned an average of 9.2% p.a. over the last 50 years (that includes the GFC, recession we had to have, bad governments, new taxes etc)Residential property has returned an average of 8.1%
If you use dollar cost averaging you will make far more than any property investment.
Both investments are good, but shares are very liquid (sell within 3 days) you cant sell one room of your house if you need $10k, nor sell it quickly.

On top of that you also have franking credits. I have both property and share portfolios, I buy companies that people use everyday, ( for example people use phones everyday, banks everyday , supermarkets, power companies etc etc. I don't speculate on mining stocks) so even in a recession I still get a dividend.

A diversified portfolio is the way to go