It costs about $32,000 a year to race a horse, so you can expect to pay about $140 a month for each 5 per cent share you have. Whether the winnings cover those outgoings depends entirely on the horse. Check out reputable syndication organisations such as Te Akau or Fortuna.
Jewellery
The first rule of investing in jewellery is don't buy it from a jeweller, says auction house owner Dunbar Sloane. "I see it all the time, pieces bought at jeweller's that come to auctions and a typical piece might get a quarter of what you paid for it."
He sold a solitaire half-carat diamond last year for $1170. It had an insurance valuation of almost $5000.
Sometimes buyers can get a good deal on a piece that will then become more valuable over time. "If you buy cheap you could then flick it on another market and make money."
Big-time jewellery investors would buy top-end pieces, such as diamonds bigger than two carats, and pink and yellow diamonds, he said. Two-carat diamonds sell at auction for about $10,000 to $20,000, although they can easily have valuations of three or four times that. "Pink diamonds and blue diamonds are getting huge money for big stones. You've got to follow fashion and trends and try to pick the next thing."
In 2012, Webb's auction house dealt with an Auckland man who inherited a Faberge jewellery box bought in 1910 for 35, or roughly $6000 in today's terms. It sold to a London buyer for almost $90,000.
Wine
Simon Ward, head of fine and rare wine at Webb's, said until recently returns for investors of Bordeaux wine had been beating other investment classes. A 2000 Chateau Lafite Rothschild bought in June 2003 for about US$350 ($440) was valued at US$600 three years later. Prices have since dropped about 40 per cent. "Burgundy is currently the wine style that is gaining a lot of attention, and also interest in top-end Italian wines is growing. For astute investors with a longer-term strategy it is anticipated that the wine production deficit described by Morgan Stanley as 'the deepest shortfall in over 40 years of records', will bring renewed opportunities in the mid to long-term market."
Liz Wheadon, Glengarry general manager, said investors could start small with wine "futures", where wine that is still being made is sold at the lowest price it is ever likely to be.
People could try the process for as little as $50 to $60 at enprimeur.co.nz, Wheadon said. "You could buy a few bottles here and there, and slowly build up your collection that way."
Peer to peer lending
Investors can reap double-digit returns by offering their cash to others as personal loans. Harmoney launched in September, matching investors with borrowers who want loans of up $35,000. Interest rates vary from 10 to 40 per cent. Investors are charged a service fee of 1.25 per cent of the principal and interest payments collected. Returns are not guaranteed but Harmoney provides a risk analysis of each borrower. Chief executive Neil Roberts said the average interest rate investors received was 12 per cent.
Investors can start with $500, which is split into $25 divisions that are allocated to different loans to spread the investor's risk. They can choose to manually select the loans they'll invest in, or leave it up to Harmoney to do it for them following their desired criteria.
Roberts said $4000 was the optimal investment amount in terms of risk spread. The largest retail investment so far was $38,000. About 250 people have already deposited money into their Harmoney accounts.
Investors must commit their money for 36 or 60 months but Harmoney is working on a secondary market where those who want to sell their stake in loans before the term was up could do so. Investment returns are not guaranteed.
Bitcoin
Fran Strajnar, behind New Zealand's first bitcoin conference in Queenstown this year, said New Zealand bitcoin investors were largely involved in arbitrage - buying the virtual currency at lower prices and selling it higher nearly instantly across global bitcoin exchanges. Bitcoin values have been volatile after a huge spike early this year when a bitcoin was valued at almost $1500. The price was this week just under $500. But Strajnar said that was still up more than 100 per cent on a year ago. He said people should not trade on emotion and keep their investment in bitcoins to no more than 5 per cent of their overall portfolio. "Understand that it's high risk." He said investors who wanted exposure to bitcoin could consider investing in start-ups related to the currency.
