Hello, dear readers of the business magazine “HeatherBober.ru”! Alexander Berezhnov, the founder of the resource, is with you.

The topic of the new publication is profitable financial investments.

The article will be useful to everyone who wants to manage their money with maximum benefit and not lose savings in conditions of economic instability.

So, let's begin!

1. Where to invest rubles so as not to lose - why it is better not to store money in rubles, but to invest it

Deposits in rubles have never been a particularly reliable investment of funds, and in times of economic instability they are even a high-risk investment.

The conclusion is obvious: keeping money in rubles is not only unprofitable, but also unprofitable. If you have financial resources (even small ones), it is better to make them work than to lose profit every month as a result of devaluation and inflation.

Investing is a more progressive method of managing assets than keeping it in a stocking, and when it comes to rubles, the benefits of this method become especially clear.

You can observe the results of ruble devaluation and price increases personally by visiting stores and using paid services. To roughly estimate the scale of inflation, you do not have to be a financial analyst or have an economic education.

In a nutshell, why is the ruble depreciating:

• the Russian currency is firmly tied to oil prices - a fall in prices for raw materials inevitably affects the purchasing power of the ruble;
• Sanctions from Western countries are further aggravating the position of the ruble against the euro and dollar.

In such a situation, storing ruble capital (especially a fairly large one) leads to the inevitable loss of a certain percentage of funds, or more precisely, to a decrease in the objective value of the asset.

If you do not store the money, but invest it, the monetary losses will be compensated and even returned with a profit.

Investing now so that they do not depreciate means ensuring economic stability and at least partially insuring yourself against shocks that may await our currency in the future.

The amount of income from investing depends on hundreds of factors. And the most important of them is the amount with which you operate. It can be small or quite large: in both cases, it is better not to store it, but to invest it.

For example, in one of the articles in our magazine we specifically talk about.

Cash deposits are by default a risky activity, but if successful, they guarantee a stable income and financial security for you and your family.

The main reasons for the mistakes of novice investors:

• ill-conceived approach;
• decisions made based on emotions;
• low level of financial literacy.

We will try to protect our readers from typical beginner mistakes in this publication, as well as in other articles on the resource. Just follow our advice, always use common sense and do not choose dubious partners in your investment projects.

2. Where is it more profitable to invest rubles now - TOP-5 most reliable investment directions

Risks and returns largely depend on the size of the investment. There is an article on our website that goes into detail and larger amounts.

There is an opinion that during times of economic and financial instability, only professionals can make profitable investments. This is true, but only partly. Smart investments are available to everyone who understands the laws of the market and relies on common sense in their actions.

In this publication, we indicate the most profitable areas of investment that will help preserve capital and increase it.

Direction 1. Shares

The principle of investing in shares is extremely simple: you buy them at one price and sell them at another – higher price.

Stock– securities confirming their owner’s share in the capital of the company and giving the right to a portion of the profits.

Compared to other investment options, the purchase of shares does not guarantee a mandatory profit, but the increase in the value of securities does not have a certain limit. In other words, these are promising and highly profitable investments, especially if you know what you are investing in.

Ideally, investments should be handled by a stock broker - a professional who understands securities quotes and is able to predict the direction of market movements.

If you have a large amount of money and do not know (or more), it is advisable to hire such a person and entrust the issue of choosing an investment object to him.

An example of the most successful investment

Over 10 years (from 1985 to 1995), Microsoft's stock price rose from 1,3 before 90 . If you had invested in corporations in 1985 $10 000 , then in just 10 years they would have earned almost $500 000 American rubles.

Direction 2. Bank deposits in foreign currency

Theoretically, in banks you can receive income on deposits and foreign currency in the amount of up to 4-5% per year. In 2016, interest rates in many financial companies decreased slightly, but not critically.

Deposits are investments with minimal risk and fixed income. This is the most understandable and accessible type of investment for ordinary citizens, although in our country you need to choose a bank for deposits with extreme caution.

How do banks work? In a nutshell, the scheme of activity of financial organizations is as follows: you invest your money at 4% per annum, and bankers circulate your funds in various ways.

For example, they give them on credit to other clients (at 10% per annum). The difference of 6% is the income of the banking organization.

The advantage of bank deposits is clear: you know in advance how much you will receive at the end of the term. Other financial instruments do not always guarantee such accuracy. But the profitability of such operations is low.

It is important to know

Citizens' deposits in Russian banks up to 1 million 400 rubles are insured by the state.

True, not all financial companies transmit data on deposits to government agencies. In some cases, depositors simply cannot prove the existence of a deposit in a particular financial institution in the event of its bankruptcy.

Direction 3. Precious metals

Gold and other metals remain a reliable investment at all times. The value of these metals almost never decreases, but on the contrary, it steadily rises regardless of currency fluctuations.

Some people prefer to purchase gold in coins because they are tax-free, but experts prefer bullion. Coins are not so easy to sell if necessary, but bullion is accepted everywhere and always.

Where to buy gold? For example, Sberbank sells precious bullion. In addition to gold, you can purchase bars of silver, platinum and palladium. The procedure for purchasing gold is confirmed by a certificate, the safety of which is no less important than the safety of the bullion itself.

Banks also offer the opening of “metal accounts”, where the account currency is precious metals.

Direction 4. Business

Investments in business are the most promising, although very risky. Owning your own business is an opportunity to work for yourself, rather than working 8-10 hours a day as a hired force. A profitable business is a long-term investment with a theoretically unlimited amount of income.

You can invest in an existing business or develop new projects from scratch. There is an intermediate option - to purchase a franchise and become a partner of a large company with the authority of the head of a regional branch.

By the way, we already wrote about this in one of our publications.

Direction 5. Mutual funds

A very popular area of ​​investment. Mutual funds (mutual investment funds) are a financial instrument designed for relatively quick profits.

The work flow is as follows:

• a group of investors invests money in a common pot;
• professional managers manage money in order to multiply it;
• profit is distributed according to the invested shares.

Shareholders invest their finances in securities, currencies, and bonds, choosing the most promising options. The point is to get maximum profit quickly and without hassle, without having any experience in investing.

For clarity, I have collected all the data on the investment areas listed above into a final table:

№	Direction of investment	Risk level	Possible annual income, %
1	Shares and securities	average	from 0 to 1000
2	Bank deposits in foreign currency	short	4 - 5 %
3	Precious metals	short	10 - 15%
4	Business	high	not fixed
5	Mutual funds	average	5 - 25 %

3. Where not to invest money during a crisis

In addition to the above investment areas, there are dozens of others. Some methods are quite reliable, others do not provide certain guarantees.

In addition, in a crisis, some quite traditional investment methods may become risky and questionable.

Experienced investors do not advise citizens to transfer large sums in rubles into foreign currency. You can engage in such operations by having close ties with banks and currency exchanges (that is, receiving first-hand information).

Transactions with currencies will not bring profit if you are not a professional player on the stock exchange.

You can create a so-called “basket of currencies”, which to some extent will protect you from the consequences of ruble devaluation.

In such a basket, 35% of money is kept in euros, 35% in dollars, 30% in rubles.

Another dubious area for investments is real estate. Its value in foreign currency has dropped significantly over the past year.

It is enough to open any website dedicated to the purchase/sale of housing, and it will become clear that supply exceeds demand, and the cost per square meter of real estate (in dollars) is decreasing even in large cities.

4. Conclusion

So, investing is a promising and profitable activity that can and should be practiced regardless of your main job and even without an economic education.

The main thing is to do this seriously and consistently, calculating all the options and not making rash decisions. It is also useful to use articles on our site as free sources of valuable information. For example, this one - .

We wish our readers success in their financial endeavors and, as always, look forward to ratings of the article, notes, and comments on the topic of publication.

And the euro is one of the most popular methods of storing your savings. However, despite the fact that the dollar has been constantly strengthening recently, Russian citizens have little confidence in it - in comparison with the euro, the American seems more unstable. The stability of the Old World currency supports many countries with strong economies, such as Germany and France, and they also help the EU countries experiencing crisis. Therefore, the euro remains one of the strongest currencies and continues to strengthen its position. Many people prefer to invest money in euros, since it is in this currency that their capital can not only be preserved, but also significantly increased.

Deposits in euros

One of the safest ways to store savings. The security of such deposits is ensured, firstly, by the fact that the euro is one of the world's reserve currencies, and, as we have already found out above, its stability is ensured by many EU member countries. In addition, deposits in European currency are insured in the same way as. The euro is generally stable against the ruble, but also continues to rise - if the euro grows significantly over the life of your foreign currency deposit, your capital will increase. In addition, many banks issue depositors whose deposit amount at the time of opening was a certain amount, for example, more than 1000 euros, a card with which they can make payments abroad.

Despite the obvious benefits of foreign currency deposits, finding profitable deposits in euros is quite difficult. As a rule, they are issued at an interest rate much lower than ruble deposits. In addition, there is a possibility that the ruble will increase during the validity of the deposit, which means you may not receive any income at all from the money left in the bank account. In addition, foreign currency deposits are opened for a fairly short time - from a year to two. There is no point in making a deposit for a shorter period of time - the interest simply will not bring you income. And deposits for periods of two or more years are unprofitable for either the depositor or the bank, since neither one nor the other can predict the behavior of the euro exchange rate in the future.

Euro deposit rates

Despite the fact that few banks provide high rates on foreign currency deposits, you can find them in euros using the selection service Vyberu.Ru. To do this, on the main page you need to go through the “Banks - Deposits” tabs. After this, select the “Currency deposits” menu - here in the left panel you can specify the deposit currency, the expected amount and the period for which you would like to invest the money. After this, the system will show deposits from euros at a high percentage in your region that suit your requirements, thereby significantly narrowing your search.

Experts, however, recommend opening multi-currency deposits that allow you to open accounts in dollars, euros and rubles or any other currency. If one of the currencies falls, you can always urgently transfer it to another account. Some banks charge additional interest for such transactions. For those who have plans for large purchases in European countries or for moving to the EU zone, it makes sense to invest more in euros, leaving up to 20 euros in a dollar account.

Uncertainty about the prospects of both the global and domestic economic systems makes one think about where to invest the accumulated money. A couple of years ago, one could safely recommend dividing the entire available amount into 2 or 3 parts: ruble, dollar and euro, and opening deposits in a bank or several, based on the principle of reliability and decent profitability for deposits of that time. Now, after the past surges in oil prices and in anticipation of their further instability, doubts are already appearing in the American and European currencies, not to mention the ruble. Some analysts suggest that the dollar will not be able to remain a safe currency for too long. They appeal to the huge US national debt and the non-stop printing press. Experts also do not picture a rosy future for the euro, although this currency is relatively stable.

Storing savings in foreign currency is associated with risks, the extent of which no one can determine accurately. On the one hand, the history of foreign currency mortgages is fresh in memory, on the other, there are no convincing guarantees that foreign currency investors will not find themselves in a similar situation.

Bonds in foreign currency

By greatly reducing interest rates on foreign currency deposits in 2015, banks made this method of investing money irrational. At least for those investors who do not want to be content with 2-2.5% per annum. At the same time, the bond market offers more interesting ways to invest foreign currency and rubles, given that we are talking about highly reliable companies and relatively stable countries.

As an example, let's look at the yield on bonds of some companies and countries. The information is not a call to buy bonds.

Russia (as of April 19, 2016):

• Russian Eurobonds - 5.34% per annum in US dollars (maturity in 2028).
• Eurobonds of VTB Bank - 7.39% per annum in US dollars (maturity in 2022).
• Home Credit Bank Eurobonds - 14.66% per annum in US dollars (maturity in 2021).
• Eurobonds of Russian Standard Bank - 21.06% per annum in US dollars (maturity in 2017).

USA (as of April 19, 2016):

• General Motors bonds - 4.35% per annum in US dollars (maturity in 2023).

Europe (as of April 20, 2016):

• Raiffeisen Bank International bonds - 5.24% per annum in euros (maturity in 2021)
• Portuguese Treasury Bonds - 4.02% per annum in euros (maturity 2037)

Several years ago, the bond market was available only to those private investors who were able to invest large sums of money - from 100 thousand US dollars. However, now investment companies, including BCS Premier, provide clients with the opportunity to purchase investment products based on Eurobonds with an entry amount of less than 10 thousand dollars.

If you are looking for a way to receive passive foreign currency income, then investment solutions based on Eurobonds of international companies should be included in your investment portfolio. If you want to have 15-20% per annum or higher, you need to understand the risks of such investments.

In this case, we recommend contacting a financial advisor.

Stock

The cheap ruble has led to increased demand for shares of exporting companies, because their revenue is expressed in foreign currency, and their costs are in rubles. It is expected that the profits of these companies will be high this year as well, which will lead to higher stock prices. It is worth considering that the stock exchange works ahead of schedule and the growing profits of companies may already be included in the price of shares. Therefore, if you do not have much experience in buying shares, it is better to choose companies with a professional.

There is an opinion that it is worth temporarily refraining from purchasing shares of Russian consumer companies due to fallen demand due to the low purchasing power of the population. There is a reason for this advice, but we should not forget the recommendation of many successful investors to buy shares in a falling market. After all, demand will sooner or later recover, and stock prices of consumer companies will resume growth.

Notes

A structured note is a composite investment product that is becoming an increasingly popular alternative to bank deposits, investments in stocks and bonds. Notes are one of the most flexible investment solutions: risk and return can be chosen from a wide range of values. The protective part (deposits, bonds) is responsible for the safety of the funds invested in the note, and the profitable part (for example, shares) is responsible for the profit. The income part can be based both on the Russian stock market and on foreign assets, currency and commodity exchanges.

Let's look at an example. 1 million rubles are invested in the note. The protective part of the note consists of Gazprom bonds - 95% (950 thousand), and the remaining 5% (50 thousand) are options. A favorable scenario will allow you to receive income comparable to the income from Gazprom shares. In an unfavorable scenario, the investor compensates for the money spent on options through the coupon income from the bonds.

If an investor chooses 100% protection of the capital invested in a note, then he is guaranteed to get his money back even in unfavorable circumstances. However, the coupon rate in this case will be significantly lower.

Investments in oil

It is not for nothing that investors allocate a share of investments in their portfolio to black gold. The oil turnover is huge, its reserves are limited, demand is high, and although prices are not stable, no one knows how to accurately predict them, which means everyone is in approximately equal conditions.

The most profitable, but also the riskiest way to invest in oil are futures - contracts in which only the price and delivery time are fixed. The probability of income on futures is 50% - the investor’s result is influenced by quotes. But only one in fifty oil consumers and producers enter into futures contracts. Other market participants make money from the price difference.

To successfully work with futures contracts, you need to thoroughly understand the mechanism of their operation. Beginners and amateurs should not take risks. Experienced investors cite the following advantages of working with futures contracts:

• high level of liquidity - the investor can withdraw money in a short period of time;
• the cost of futures contracts and the average price of oil are close in value;
• possibility of distance trading – transactions are available online;
• You can sell futures contracts even if you have no assets.

For those who find futures contracts complex and too risky, structured products have been developed that are based on oil price forecasts. The risk of loss here is either minimal or completely absent, since the structured product always contains a protective part. It guarantees the return of the initially invested capital even in an unfavorable scenario. If the oil price forecast comes true, then the investor receives 100% of the invested capital and an increased interest rate.

In addition to the above options, you can invest your currency profitably using structured notes. These are securities that have undergone official listing on the Russian stock exchange. They include shares of reliable foreign issuers or large Russian companies for which a strong drawdown is not expected (for example, Vnesheconombank, Gazprom, Sberbank).

Thus, in the investment market there are various options for how to invest currency. Some of them are more profitable, others less. The range of risks also ranges from none to significant. The final choice remains with the investor himself. The main thing to remember is that in investing there are no 100% recipes for success and no golden rules that are common to all. Use professional advice, your own experience and intuition.