guaranteed investment ideas ?

hi All


ive been wondering what options there are for investing money in SL
for longterm profits.

i know some banks offer interest as i have 50K in one of them that gives me
4K profit a month back, but is there any better investment ideas out there ?

i leave my L$ in SL and dont transfer it in to RL so rather than sitting on
L$100,000 is there a better long term investment idea ?

been thinking about getting in to buying and selling land but i think it is
too expensive as it is ( compared to what it was ) and i dont want to add to that.

Don't. SL is not a place to seriously make investments. Use a RL bank, where there are laws that protect investors.

Invest in a really nice skin and flexi hair and sell your bewbies by the hour.

I wouldn't put serious money into SL banks, they could disappear tomorrow and you have no recourse at all.

How about buying and renting land?

Give 1000 to me, lmao. Youd be investing in my happiness

Depends on how much you're looking to invest. You could buy an island and rent it out, but that requires a big investment. As for smaller investments, you can continue investing in SL banks. But do realize, as others have pointed out here, you have no protection in case of fraud. Another option is this World Stock Exchange thing. I have an ulterior motive for suggesting this option, as I am the CEO of a company listed there (HOT). The potential for fraud is just as great on the WSE as it is at the banks, but the concept of a SL stock exchange is novel and has attracted significant investment. And there are legit companies listed there that pay real dividends. Just make sure to research a company and its CEO before investing any of your Lindens. Good luck!

Do not, repeat DO NOT even think of investing ANY money in anything SL connected. The platform is too unstable, scam artists are rampant, businesses are going under and any so called "banks" could very well be ponzi schemes. People's inventory is disappearing due to bugs in the SL system and a new scam where a bot swoops around and "buys" people's objects for 0.

I believe LL will step up and do the right thing on SOME of these issues once someone with some pull and influence gets victimized or a rush of negative press results. That probably wont be in the near future though. At this point, I think it would be EXTREMELY foolish to invest any money in SL, aside from what brings you your own entertainment and enjoyment.

There are simply too many warning flags. Read other posts in this forum for an idea of what is going on.

I agree with your point about investor protections. But SL can be a place for serious investment. Just ask Anshe Chung or any number of successful entrepreneurs that fuel the economy. If you have a sound business plan, there is real profit potential in SL.

i agree and understand its a huge risk investing money in SL
because none of the people you are trusting your money with
can be held to RL proscecution if they dissapear as no RL details are known
about them.

how could that be improved apon, most peopel in SL wont invest money in
banks so sooner or later something will have to be worked out for this.

i'm not sure what US interest rates are like but in here
L$50,000 = US$174.38 investment
L$4,000 = US$13.94 profit per month

would RL banks give asmuch profit as that ?

Let me add something since I didn't read Rockwell's post befor eI posted mine. I have ZERO knowledge of the WSE. Having said that, I've seen enough of Rockwell's postings to regard him as honest and ethical. IF I were to invent money in SL, Rockwell's company might be apossibility. Even still, I would have to to do more "due dilligence" regarding that investment. My reaction right now remains the same however -DON'T.

It's too bad that junk bonds are illegal. They are a much safer investment than SL.

If you want to make money from SL, do it with something that requires the smallest amount of investment possible.

Thanks for the kind words, Susanne. And I agree with you, DON'T invest your Lindens if you don't understand or wish to accept all the risks associated with such an investment.

hi Susanne

the bank i used said something about using external servers that are outside of SL what exactly that meant im unsure but maybe its to protect against this kind of thing ?

Actually, I'll add to what I just posted. Investing in Second Life, using Lindens and whatnot, is a bad investment idea. Buying real life stock in Linden Labs, if available, might not be too bad. Even though Linden Labs has a lot of things screwed up with Second Life now, they are so far ahead of any competition (as far as I know) for a product with a potentially big figure ahead of it (my prediction). I think they probably have a decent amount of time to clean things up before anyone could reasonably compete with them.

What bank are you with that gives you 4k per month on a 50 k inverstment ?

seem's like a lot of return ...are you sure your reading it right ?

is that not the intrest rate on a lone ?

Just because a bank says you will get a certain rate of return doesn't mean you actually will. As others have pointed out, there is no regulation of financial transactions in SL. In short, they could be lying through their teeth.

Someone else also mentioned ponzi schemes. This sort of come-on is very typical of ponzi/pyramid schemes. They offer astonishing rates of return, and for a little while the first few investors actually make money at the advertised rate, but eventually the whole thing collapses and everybody just loses their money.

I'm with Johan on this one. Most of these banks offering 50-100% (or higher) annualized rates are clear cut Ponzi schemes. But they really do pay these crazy interest rates... until they eventually implode that is. No major blowups yet, which is why so many people trust them and will defend them vigorously. Just be careful out there!

Lostmedia

its Linden Bank, check out jasper Tizzy's profile as the rates are in there
and when i talked to him i did confirm that it was 4K back on 50K invested for a month,
asfar as i know they have the largest " bank group " in SL which is why i went with them
as i would think if they were just ripping peopel off they wouldnt have so many in the group.

Um...be careful with that logic. I'm sure it's a good investment in the short term. But nothing in this economy is guaranteed.

Request all your money back now, explaining that you need to cash it out to pay some RL bills. See how he responds.

I have no idea what it means. What I do think, however, is the so called banks in SL are totally unregulated. Assuming for a second that you got ripped off by a bank, filed a lawsuit and prevailed you would get eaten up by legal costs and probably never collect the money. The "bank" could possibly be some 18 yr old using mommy and daddy's computer somewhere. LL will NOT regulate scam artists unless its their particular interests that are being compromised.

Keep in mind also that if something sounds "too good to be true" it probably is.

Another poster mentioned buying shares of LL stock on an outside stock exchange. I am not sure, but I don't THINK LL is publicly traded. I think Rosedale started the company with a group of private investors. If I am wrong I am sure someone will correct me. If it were publicly traded, it could have the potential for being a decent investment. They are way ahead of the curve on this and I think we will see the concept of SL will get more and more popular. At least buying LL stock, IF its available, through NYSE or NASDAQ will be an investment where you have some protection from governmental regulatory agencies.

Personally, I would hesitate about doing that due to the previously mentioned problems with system instability, rampant scams, indifferent customer service, etc. etc.

Sooner or later, somneone will come up with viable competition to SL. When that happens, LL will have to modify its way of doing business or lose a lot to the new competition - assuming the competitor(s) has learned from LL's mistakes.

I am not any kind of a business advisor however. I am an atorney, licensed to practive in CA, but this isnt my field of expertise. My advice is basically as worthless as that you could get from a homeless lady pushing a shopping cart down the street, wearing mismatched shoes and having animated conversations with imaginary friends.

You can buy Linden Lab/Second Life stock right now on the Nasdaq. The ticker is GOOG.

Oh wait, I'm about a year too early on that one...

And one further thought on the title of this thread. Nothing is guaranteed. The closest you can get to a guaranteed investment is giving your money to the government for around 5% a year. As the risk goes up, so does the compensation. If you think the return is significant enough to offset the risk of investing in a SL "bank" (btw, bank is a misnomer - investment fund would be more accurate but still misleading), give your money to the SL bank manager. Personally, I would rather keep any idle Lindens safely in my account, uninvested (edit: in the effort of full disclosure, I've invested about 1/4 of my cash in WSE-listed companies). But many people feel the return outweighs the risk when it comes to SL banks.

yep no problem i just asked him he said take it out when you want

Did he just say you can always take your money out, or did he actually give you your money? There's a big difference.