When you hear the word “whiskey,” it’s not hard to bet that your first thought probably isn’t “wow, I want to invest in it!” Despite that, though, there actually is a market for it, and you can in fact add it to your investment portfolio. It sounds a little silly at first, but there’s some value here – just hear me out.
In terms of asset class, whiskey is considered a commodity. That means that it can be invested in similar to the other types, and it can fit nicely into a portfolio of someone looking to diversify without too much risk. Naturally, there are some key things to be aware of if you are interested in this, so stay tuned to learn about them.
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How Well is it Performing Right Now?
First thing’s first – let’s cover whether or not whiskey is actually performing well on the markets so far this year. Based on articles like this one, we can see that as a whole, commodities are doing rather good. That’s a positive sign for whiskey in specific.
When we look closer, it’s not hard to see that this is a commodity that’s performing exceptionally well – even more so than gold, which is often considered a “go to” alternative style investment. Yet, here’s whiskey performing better than it in the national indexes (percentage-growth-wise, at the least)!
Now, does this mean you should run out, buy a ton of bottles for your shelves, and call it a day? Obviously, no. One of the biggest stipulations to how great it’s performing is that only the best quality whiskey is showing that sort of growth. Otherwise, it’s probably not going to be worth your time.
That’s not a bad thing, though. Top shelf stuff is usually made by large companies that are trustworthy enough to buy stock from. Just keep in mind that this is likely going to be the only type that holds up in terms of investing.
How Does it Work?
Now, when folks first hear of this, they are probably thinking to themselves, “well, how does it even work?” Thankfully, it’s pretty simple, and there are a few ways to go about it. One of the ways that you can start investing in whiskey as an alternative investment is to purchase unopened bottles of it to sell later, once it’s built up more value.
Again, this is kind of a waste of time if you’re just going out and getting a twelve-dollar bottle from your local liquor store. If you’re serious about investing in it, you should get some high-quality bottles that are appealing to other collectors – there are plenty of forums that you can look at to get an idea of what that means.
For anyone who wants to go this route, there are a few things that you’ll want to get familiar with before you start. For one thing, you should probably learn the difference between an authentic bottle and a fake one – believe it or not, there are tons of fakes and dupes for the best quality ones out there. Knowing the difference can save you a lot of money on a piece of junk. Additionally, ensure that you have a proper way to store your purchases.
On that note, there’s another method that might interest you if you do have the right sort of storage area for whiskey – you can get casks (or kegs) themselves! For anyone curious about how you can buy them, you might want to check out this page: https://www.yahoo.com/now/invest-whiskey-140024705refer0l-heh3uWaruK. The gist of it, though, is that there are some wholesalers willing to sell the casks to customers.
Something to note if you want to do this, though, is that it tends to be slightly riskier than getting bottles. However, it can be a bit more cost-effective, so you’ll have to decide what trade-off is more acceptable to you. Along the way, you may find that some of the process involved with owning casks is more trouble than it’s worth – but plenty investors find it totally worth their time.
After all, with the casks comes the fact that every little difference between them can impact the cost. Type of wood is probably the biggest one, there, but other factors are at play as well. You’ll also have to pay extra for things like storage and the eventual bottling of the whiskey itself, so do be aware of that.
Is it Worth it?
Every investment comes with its own set of pros and cons. For whiskey, this remains the case. When you do opt to add it into your investment portfolio, it’s not something that will bring you extremely fast and immediate returns. Instead, it’s more of a slow-burn, sort of like the drink itself.
So, if that’s something that you don’t mind, and you enjoy the thrill of watching your investments slowly grow in value over time, then it might be right for you! Alternative styles of investing are getting more and more popular, especially as our economy seems to be in a place of uncertainty, so hopping on this bandwagon early might be really beneficial in the future.
Just be careful and smart about how you do it. Make sure that you’re examining any purchases with a critical eye to make sure that it isn’t a fake, because no one wants to get ripped off on something like this.
