Bicurious or buycurious?
If bipartisan can be defined as being where two, often opposed, parties are in agreement, and bilingual as describing an individual who can speak two languages, then bicurious can surely be defined as meaning a person who can be simultaneously interested in two distinctly different things. Well, no, not exactly, unless one recognises that the term is used to describe those who are considering matters of a much more personal, even intimate, nature than just the mundane. If you are wondering what I am on about, just look up the actual definition on Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) and you’ll see why I am somewhat reticent about spelling out what it really means.
I often think it is a shame that certain words are used in a specific context like this. If bicurious did not already have a definition it would be the perfect word to describe the emotional and philosophical condition of those investors who are, at the moment, deliberating between one purchase or another. So, with that in mind, perhaps, instead, we can use our own word, Buycurious, to define those who are wondering where to put their money and whether they should buy property or another type of investment.
Being curious about the outcome of opting for one of two distinct opportunities is a normal part of the human condition. We are constantly having to make decisions, sometimes from choice, but often these decisions are forced upon us, and often we will not know the result of that choice until the decision is irretrievably made. Either way, we are often curious – wondering which way we should go, which option we should take, which of the possibilities open to us we should opt for, and all the while wondering what the result of that choice will be.
And then, having made the choice, we spend time wondering what would have happened if we had opted for the other instead!
So it is currently for many in the world of investment. Choices need to be made about where to put investment funds, and what will then happen. And then, having made the choice, we agonise over whether we have made the right choice.
Investors have had to weigh the opportunity cost of opting for one asset or another, or investing in one market as opposed to another, since investing began. But what is different today is that the old certainties and realities are gone, and we now we live with new realities which most of us could not have envisaged even just 12 months ago.
The outcome of following a particular route is now perceived as being much less predictable than it might have been in the past. Indeed, perhaps, in some instances, totally unpredictable. In such instances would-be investors may be more than curious, perhaps even anxious.
Which is why, without wanting to sound arrogant, I wonder if it might not just be easier to accept that of all potential investment assets available, property is by far head and shoulders above all others, in virtually every respect. If this truth ‘were’ accepted, there would be no need for curiosity and no need to have to make a choice.
I realise that’s quite a sweeping statement and needs some justification, so in the words of my old school teacher let’s “compare and contrast” property with other available investment assets. This is what we’ll do in the next post.
Here’s to successful property investing.
Peter Jones B.Sc FRICS
Chartered Surveyor, Author & Property Investor