[johnvanommen]

> I often think that if I were a billionaire,I'd rather spend hundreds of millions on some cool R&D projects rather than having some 100 meter boat that one uses a only a few times a year.

Billionaires buy cars and boats because they're stores of value. For instance, a Mclaren from the 90s is worth more today than when it was sold.

[simonh]

Sports cars and boats cost a fortune to maintain. They're terrible financial vehicles.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

This article is more than five years old, so I'll let it speak for itself:

This shows that in the 12 months to the end of June the value of classic cars as a whole was up by 28%, which compared with a rise of 12% for the FTSE-100 index of leading shares and a 23% slump in the price of gold.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/sep/07/luxury-inve...