A thread in the welcome forum named "Thoughts on FIRE in a declining nation" got me thinking about investments that may be more recession proof than others or better for a generally declining economy. I do feel that other countries with higher education standards will prosper more than the USA will. Without getting too much into the political reasons for this I might also see that the world has had too much time evolving into a global economy for the current administrations attitude of "America First" especially since there are so many goods that aren't even made in America anymore. So I stumbled upon some REITs that might be a good deal even if the economy declines. Particularly a company like SNH Senior Housing Properties Trust. http://www.snhreit.com/home/default.aspx My method of thinking is that so much of their money comes from people who have saved their money through the "incline" and are now living off of their savings. There is a 8%+ yield that I think is long term sustainable. Do any of you guys have any investments that they think are safe from economy problems?
The market knows about SNH. The market knows the stock is currently yielding 8-9%. If other investors also believed this is a low-risk recession proof stock, they would take advantage by buying it! In fact, they'd keep buying the stock until the yield dropped to a point where they no longer considered it a good deal, maybe 2-3%.
So the question is, why don't other investors, people with significantly more money (billions of $), resources (multi-billion $ corporations behind them, with super computers), time (they're working on this 80 hours a week, it's literally all they do), and experience...why don't they agree with you?
Why is no one else taking advantage of this FREE MONEY opportunity? Why is the stock currently yielding 8-9% instead of 3-4%? Do you think you know more, or can otherwise make better decisions than everyone else out there? To the point where you can have a non-related full-time job, come home, read a few pages of text on the internet while relaxing after work, and literally take money from people who are (frankly) much smarter than you?
Please, don't take this as a personal attack. These are the questions everyone should ask themselves before they consider making a move like this. Especially when during our last declining economy, SNH fared much worse than the rest of the market: