Originally Posted by
VPescado
Yes but to compare the investments fairly, you should be providing the rate of return on a virtually risk free investment. And as someone else has pointed out you should factor in taxes.
Further, I'd love to find a liquid fairly conservative investment paying 8% - care to share one (or several)?
You are correct that if the goal is to make a thorough comparison between investments, all risks, taxes, and other factors should be taken into account. I suggest that the risk associated with ordering hundreds coins in the mail (risk of loss in transit, risk of them being stolen while sitting around the house, risk of something changing with the offer and needing to dispute, etc.) is vastly greater than the risk of a CD or money-market, which will at least return a few measly percent, and vastly less than the risk of buying exposure to the NASAQ 100. Where precisely the two are equal is debatable.
Again, my underlying point is that every person has their own measure of risk and opportunity cost associated with having hundreds of dollars sitting around rather than being invested. I own a company that generates well into a double-digit ROI and has done so for years, so I prefer to invest a good chunk of my long-term assets there. For assets earmarked for use in a 5-year window (give or take), I invest a balanced fund such as
EXBAX that will fairly reliably produce ~8% total returns over 5-year spans, of course with some risk of under or over performing this benchmark. You may not desire these options and might consider your opportunity cost of coins in a basket closer to the CD/money-market rate. If the coin purchase, your opportunity cost, and all else that is involved in the "conversion" is worth a few bucks to you - go for it!