In 2011, we all became financial experts. The financial updates on the TV news became the new weather reports - and Professor De Grauwe more popular than Sabine Hagedoren. We learned what inflation means and we learned that saving money is a sure way of losing it nowadays. We tell you what the experts don't. LUON tells you what to invest in for 2012.
Our new weather reports brought new paradigms with them: if it snows in Athens, it pours in Berlin. We learned that France and Germany prefer different types of umbrellas. We learned that Italians prefer green leafs and if an Italian has an educated opinion on the Euro, they send him off to, well, Europe. In Belgium, we were splitting atoms into molecules and occasionally we saved a bank - because, you know, that's the way we are. In the meantime, our spread with Germany was never so wide and painfull.
What we didn't learn, what nobody tolds us, was: "What now?"What to invest in? Savings accounts? You lose money. Stock options? You lose money faster. Real Estate? You're still downpaying your own house for the coming decades. No, what you need is something that will generate return. Without an initial investment. Think that's a white raven? Think again.
Your friends are the new currency
Remember Wopper Sacrifice from Burger King? If you defriended 10 of your Facebook Friends, you got a whopper for free. More than 233 000 friends were sacrificed, putting the value of a Facebook friend at exactly 37 dollar cents.
So they got a free burger, but would probably never get in Bal Harbour Shops VIP lounge for its Fashion’s Night Out party in Florida. You needed a Klout score of 40 to get in. And you don't get high Klout scores if you sell out your friends at 37 cents a piece.
American Express values friendship even more. Talk to your friends on Twitter, add the hashtag amex to it and get rewarded. Thus, people tweet things like: "Just got 25 songs on iTunes with #membershiprewards points from Amex! It's why I love #amex."
Notice with me that in the above examples, the value of your friends really is increasing. I predict that to be thé trend of 2012 and beyond. Think bigger now. Imagine co-buying really taking off. Start thinking co-housing as a real life solution. Imagine a 1000 friends negociating prices with Electrabel. If they don't meet our demands, we'll be taking our business to NUON and ENECO. For real. Stick together, like real friends do, and you might get amazing results.
That is our advice for 2012. Invest in friendship. You might get rewarded beyond expectations.
Cheers!