I just caught this new RTE program for the first time. How times have changed. Tonight’s show was about Irish investing in property in Florida. Some of these people were signing up to multiple properties. And the house of cards has come tumbling down.
I think it’s possible that we are as naive a race financially as you could come across. We’ve spent hundreds of years on the outskirts of civilisation, downtrodden, oppressed, wet. Then we discovered a niche. The EU as a single economic entity became a behemoth, and we became the likely geographical gateway. This all led to huge increases in incomes and quality of life. Thing is, many middle income people, lacking true independent professional advice, didn’t really know what to do with this new found affluence. We were led by agents and marketing campaigns. Concepts like asset diversification were and are alien. It’s property property property.
Hopefully we’ll take away some good lessons from the current crisis when the dust settles - probably not sooner now that 2011. And hopefully as the Buyer Beware series progresses over the coming years, it might turn more upbeat and bring us some stories of financial innovation and success.
