Last night on my way home I found a soggy soggy twenty euro note lying on a wet main road feeling very sorry for itself. I considered it extremely unlikely that anyone would ever claim the note. I certainly could not have handed it into the police station - it had no distinguishing marks.

However, now I have twenty euro that I did not. What good can I make of it?

Suggestions welcome.

Auditor
#9 Moonscape Lodge,
The Burren,
Kilshanny,
Co. Clare.

Give half of it to charity and buy two pints with the rest?

Perhaps I could take financial advice from Ard and within a few months the capital may have appreciated sufficient that all of Machine Nation can have a brand new car

Buy twenty euros worth of diesel and keep it for a year ...

Or bike?

You can have a new bike cactus, no problem! I bought a new bike around Christmas though which is running very well for me so I think I'll get myself a car- for longer journeys!

Charity, my boy, charity.

johnfás wrote:

Perhaps I could take financial advice from Ard and within a few months the capital may have appreciated sufficient that all of Machine Nation can have a brand new car

Well, one of the speculative punts you could make is on distressed Chinese equities to make a quick buck in the next few weeks.

Over the 12 month time-frame, I recommend investing in liquidating companies. With the rise in liquidations, bankruptcies, reposessions, corporate restructurings and the like, liquidators are going to be very busy for the next year or two.

In the longer term, into 2009, US property in recovery areas would be the place to go. Negotiate a keen deal with a vendor in the middle to end of next year in the US, buying the property with a dollar-denominated mortgage and you'll be in clover come 2014-15 when the price will have gone up very far compared to your purchase price.

Longer term than that, wind energy firms, solar energy producers and recycling companies are all good bets in the international green shift. Just do your homework, talk to existing shareholders, get the calculator and notebook out and work out the firms vital statistics. Once you've done this, you should be clearer in your head on which is the best home for your money.

Into the very long term(when we're all dead as John Maynard Keynes would tell us!) I recommend buying into water. With the rise in the world population from 6.75 billion currently to over 9 billion mid-century and with millions of newly-prosperous Chinese, Indians, Russians and Brazilians flushing toilets, drinking mineral water and watering their gardens with sprinklers, then water will only go up.

Hope this helps, johnfás!

It will cost you - oh, €20 to open a blog here
http://machinenation.sosblog.com

Auditor #9 wrote:

It will cost you - oh, €20 to open a blog here
http://machinenation.sosblog.com

Is that an ad hoc charge?

How about giving it to them

www.imet.ie

anmajornarthainig wrote:

How about giving it to them

www.imet.ie

I gave them my spare change coming out of Superquinn last week. They must be fund-raising this time of year.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

anmajornarthainig wrote:

How about giving it to them

www.imet.ie

I gave them my spare change coming out of Superquinn last week. They must be fund-raising this time of year.

Good man. Glad to hear it. I did a day for them last year and will be doing one again next weekend. Someone close to me has it.

Auditor #9 wrote:

It will cost you - oh, €20 to open a blog here
http://machinenation.sosblog.com

You remind me of Chancer#9. Any relation?

How about 18 cans of Tuborg? You'll need to add a euro.

hee hee

johnfas donate it to wikipedia

I found a twenty pound note in the middle of the road on a windy night when I was a student. I put myself through college more or less, so 20 quid I didn't have to account for was better than the lotto.

I took my father to lunch - total of £7.
Because it was the talk of the time I bought ( ) The Bridges of Madison County - and read it the same day sitting on those orange boxes inside the arts block at TCD over a hot chocolate.
I also bought a lipstick and the rest - which was a fiver, I gave to a beggar.

I don't think I've ever been as rich.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

johnfás wrote:

Perhaps I could take financial advice from Ard and within a few months the capital may have appreciated sufficient that all of Machine Nation can have a brand new car

Well, one of the speculative punts you could make is on distressed Chinese equities to make a quick buck in the next few weeks.

Over the 12 month time-frame, I recommend investing in liquidating companies. With the rise in liquidations, bankruptcies, reposessions, corporate restructurings and the like, liquidators are going to be very busy for the next year or two.

In the longer term, into 2009, US property in recovery areas would be the place to go. Negotiate a keen deal with a vendor in the middle to end of next year in the US, buying the property with a dollar-denominated mortgage and you'll be in clover come 2014-15 when the price will have gone up very far compared to your purchase price.

Longer term than that, wind energy firms, solar energy producers and recycling companies are all good bets in the international green shift. Just do your homework, talk to existing shareholders, get the calculator and notebook out and work out the firms vital statistics. Once you've done this, you should be clearer in your head on which is the best home for your money.

Into the very long term(when we're all dead as John Maynard Keynes would tell us!) I recommend buying into water. With the rise in the world population from 6.75 billion currently to over 9 billion mid-century and with millions of newly-prosperous Chinese, Indians, Russians and Brazilians flushing toilets, drinking mineral water and watering their gardens with sprinklers, then water will only go up.

Hope this helps, johnfás!

Have you followed this advice, johnfás?

That was a very good post Ard Taoiseach, but a tall order with a twenty pound note.

I would buy -

A euro lottery ticket
5 ducklings for my new duck house
A second hand book
Chocolate biscuits for the office
A really good cup of coffee in my favourite cafe
and leave the rest as a tip.

What did you do, Johnfás ?

My 20 euro note was put to the following purpose:

My Mother was ill at the time and the hot water bottle in the house had sprouted a leak, so I bought a new one in the pharmacy;
(€6.50)

I bought myself a nice lunch in UCD one day whilst studying;
(€5.80 - I think it was)

I bought a bus ticket;
(€3.00)

I put the remainder on the collection plate in Church on the following Sunday.

Wasn't quite as interesting as I had hoped and it certainly won't yield me the same longterm investment as Art envisaged. The problem really arose initially when I went to get the hot water bottle, the note was all I had and once it was broken it was difficult for it not to trickle away.

That said I did fulfil 2 good deeds, had one treat and fulfilled one necessity. Certainly wasn't the worst purposes it could be put towards.

I think it was a very good list. I hope the bus took you somewhere very nice or very useful. Do you have your last exams today ? Good luck, anyway.

cactus flower wrote:

Do you have your last exams today ? Good luck, anyway.

I do indeed, thans very much for the best wishes. Given that I probably won't be home until late after it you will have to wait for my latest photographic installment to the thread - Roger Bannister crossing the finishing line following the four minute mile.

My two friends and I were in a taxi last saturday night, when we noticed a wallet lying lost and lonely on the back seat. She picked it up, opened it, and inside was a nice crisp 50 euro note inside. We both looked at eachother, and then on the 50 euro note, since we had earlier been moaning about the cost of a night out. Gradually decency and honesty of a sort, hit us, and we returned it to its rightful place within the wallet, and then to the taxidriver full sure that the universe would reward us in some way.

Later on that night she lost her phone, (whereas I scored two people).I think the universe just likes me better :-)

riadach wrote:

Me and my two friends were in a taxi last saturday night, when we noticed a wallet lying lost and lonely on the back seat. She picked it up, opened it, and inside was a nice crisp 50 euro note inside. We both looked at eachother, and then on the 50 euro note, since we had earlier been moaning about the cost of a night out. Gradually decency and honesty of a sort, hit us, and we returned it to its rightful place within the wallet, and then to the taxidriver full sure that the universe would reward us in some way.

Later on that night she lost her phone, (whereas I scored two people).I think the universe just likes me better :-)

Glossing over the substance of the post and dwelling on the aside, as I am wont to do: you scored two people on a night out? How old are you? 15!? (And no, this isn't jealousy.)

TheBear wrote:

riadach wrote:

Me and my two friends were in a taxi last saturday night, when we noticed a wallet lying lost and lonely on the back seat. She picked it up, opened it, and inside was a nice crisp 50 euro note inside. We both looked at eachother, and then on the 50 euro note, since we had earlier been moaning about the cost of a night out. Gradually decency and honesty of a sort, hit us, and we returned it to its rightful place within the wallet, and then to the taxidriver full sure that the universe would reward us in some way.

Later on that night she lost her phone, (whereas I scored two people).I think the universe just likes me better :-)

Glossing over the substance of the post and dwelling on the aside, as I am wont to do: you scored two people on a night out? How old are you? 15!? (And no, this isn't jealousy.)

Maybe, it's emotional immaturity due to my advancing years. I assure you, it was merely a kiss, and one of them was when I was out, the other at a house party. Both perfectly legitimate actions by an adult I think, if you will forgive my undeserved triumphalism.