Cooking The Books

Each week BusinessDesk and the NZ Herald’s Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it’s how alternative investments like art, wine, and handbags, actually work. Hosted by Frances Cook. I’m a big believer that the world of investing is open to everyone these days, and you can start growing your wealth if you have just $5 spare. But it is also true that the investing world has some interesting pockets where you get a glimpse into how the other half lives. So it is with certain luxury investments, where people invest in art, watches, wine, or even handbags.  Can you actually make money on these? The answer is yes… sometimes  The Financial Times even crunched the numbers once to find a 38% return on some Birkin bags.  That’s certainly a lot higher than the 10% you can expect from shares.  But when you get into this area it’s a little bit art, a little bit science, and a little bit hobby, because you have to know your stuff. It’s not every Birkin that will make you a lot of money.  You