You are about to go forward in time 100 years, either by a time machine or a coldsleep coffin – either way, it’s a one-way trip. After whatever you spent to arrange this, you have $100,000. What’s the best place/form to put it, so that it will still be worth something (ideally, more) in 100 years, and won’t be eaten up by inflation or rendered worthless by technological change (e.g., a gold-making machine)?
What if it’s 200 years?
500 years?
A World Out Of Time by Larry Niven. The main character was a “corpsicle”(died and was frozen). He found out that laws were passed to disallow leaving money for when the person was revived. It was deemed unfair to the heirs and took money out of circulation.
For 100 years, I’d say 50% in the S&P index, and 50% in T-bills. Since the content of the indices change, you are safe from today’s blue chips that are tomorrow’s dogs.
For 500 years, no clue. The best thing someone from 1511 could have packed is a few Leonardos. They’d be worth more today than any conceivable investment.
Real Estate, in a trust. everything else can lose/gain value in unexpected ways. Like the old man said “Buy land, they’re not making any more of that.”
Hijack: Who did say that, BTW?
Hmmm . . . Coins? Stamps? Baseball cards? Star Wars memorabilia? Beany Babies?
It would depend on the method of time travel used. If it was stasis field or time machine, I would go with rare first editions on my person.
The problem there is they won’t age, they’ll be brand new books and labeled a forgery.
I agree with TruCelt. As long as you can be sure of retaining title to it, land is the way to go. Maybe buy up a bunch of farmland, sell a 100 or 500 year lease to someone to use it while you’re gone, and take it back once you wake up. At least someone who is up and moving will have “ownership” of that land and watch over it, even if it’s just to keep their investment safe.
That lasts right up a regime change.
Or eminent domain. Or, for California land, when it falls into the ocean.
Anything you take with you will be the first things in a time machine.
They might be worth something.
Otara
Who is going to pay the property taxes for the land while you’re in deep freeze?
Also, what’s going to happen in the surrounding region over the next 100 years? If I spent $5000 (roughly $100,000 in 2010 dollars) on land in the boomtown of Detroit 100 years ago, it would be worth about $5,000 today, in today’s dollars, if not less. Would it be worth it to gamble $100,000 on land on the fringe of what could grow into a million-plus resident metropolitan area, like Las Cruces, Casa Grande or St. George, or will global warming render such places undesirable?
I’m already planning the trip if you want to get a jump and start with my suggestion list.
I’m partial to small items that are already somewhat valuable. Just stash them in an inert atmosphere in heavy duty sealed stainless steel cases. Trading cards. First editions, signed when possible. First generation iphone type electronics still in original packaging. Useless as electronics of course, but collectors spend insane amounts of money on such stuff
From what I discern from the OP, you do not have to actually take your investment with you.
For that reason I would say over a 100 year span, any “common” investment such as an index fund, deed to land or et cetera would work fine.
For 500 years, everything goes out the window.
Precious metals will always have some value, so they are probably the safest bet, and also they will be the easiest to convert back into 2500 AD currency than other investments.
Anything else is just such a huge gamble. Believe it or not there are very ancient artifacts that are not particularly valuable even to this day. You can buy genuine Roman coins for $100 or even less for some (and some cost hundreds of thousands, some of them we still have tons of and some are ultra rare–that’s the dig, there’s no way to know what will be ultra rare in AD 2500.)
Most works of art are the same way, any work of art you can afford right now for $100,000; may be of little interest 500 years from now or you may have bought from today’s equivalent of van Gogh, who is unknown in our era but is the most celebrated painter in history 500 years from now.
In value/pound, obviously works of art are a great value for this kind of venture but only if you are certain of how valuable they will be in the future. Any work of art that you can be certain will be valuable 500 years from now is probably very expensive now (meaning outside the $100,000 range.
I suppose working machines from our era would be very valuable in 2500 AD. I don’t know jack about storing something for 500 years in a manner that will keep it operable. Is it possible to, through some mechanism, store a modern day car, computer, DVD player, blender, or et cetera such that you can have a decent expectation it will still run in 2500?
I doubt rusted out cars from 2000 will be totally uncommon in 500 years, as artifacts, but a 2010 Camry that is in full working condition, with only original factory parts? There won’t be any of those 500 years from now.
They’re the safest, and they won’t depreciate (barring the discovery of cheap transmutation) but neither will they appreciate. They’re inflation-proof, but they won’t make a dime either.
I think you want a diverse portfolio. I also don’t think that resuming control of a trust will be as easy as some posters have suggested; for that reason my investment will be physical objects. Assuming that your cache does not have a price I’d go with:
For best expected return, I’d go with a nice simple low-maintenance index fund. Anyone who tells you they can beat the index is lying to you, themself, or both.
For safest (that is, least likely to go bust), I’d probably still go with an index fund, or possibly a diversified portfolio of agriculture companies. I don’t know what the future may bring, and technology might make it practical to synthesize or cheaply mine precious metals, or come up with something else that folks want even more than precious metals. Heck, even without that, gold has historically demonstrated that it’s just as capable of crashing as anything else. But there will always be a need for food, and even if the methods of producing the food change, it’ll probably be mostly the same companies doing it. Plus, of course, if all of the major ag companies crash somehow, they’ll bring everything else down with them, so in that case, I’m screwed no matter what I pick.
I’d invest in electric company stocks over the next 100 years. Hybrid and electric cars are a certainty, and accord to Frank Miller and The Watchmen, whoever gets to build charging stations is going to make a killing. GE looks to be at the forefront in the US, but I would assume that Sony would take the lead eventually. Even if they don’t, blue chip companies shouldn’t lose money over that time.
Over 500 years, it’s much harder to guess. Today, there are only a handful of companies that old. I would say 3 issues of Spiderman #1 or one issue of Superman #1, but who knows if people will still consider them valuable in the future?
Yeah, you could be looking at 10 Semper Augustus tulips.
I like the plant species idea! How about expanding that to a variety of egg/sperm samples from endangered animals? In 100 years, there may be excellent cloning/artificial reproduction technology, but limited supplies of complete DNA.
As for weapons, rather than a $10,000 rifle, wouldn’t it probably be better to get several less expensive rifles? Outfit your troupe.