According to Axa insurance, art is seen as second only to property as a sound investment. It is less likely to suffer the crashes of the stock markets, but still quite likely to manage to increase by a substantial amount.

Personally, as an Artist I have invested in quite a few paintings from other Artists. These are my pension, and I believe as safe and steady investment as any other. Like my own works, they may increase to a smaller or greater extent, but by carefully choosing a wide ranging and balanced collection I spread my risk and hopefully will hit one or two artists that become 'collectible' and fetch prices I could never afford if I had waited until this happened.

The other way to view art as an investment is as a fine piece of furniture. Look after it and you get many years of use and pleasure from it. Unlike a print, a fine painting will have resale value, as would hand-made quality furniture often being worth more second-hand if in good condition and well aged.

Even if you look on your painting purchase like furnishings, it will long outlast your curtains, sofas, carpets,  rugs etc. and will be a sound investment, although usually much cheaper than many other furnishings.

Art is a sound investment, and will pay for itself by it's giving of pleasure over many years. Add to that it will have a resale value, possibly of a much greater amount than you paid for it if you chose well and fortune favours both you and the artist. Why not start investing and collecting today, you don't need to invest a million dollars but you could be lucky and own the next Van Gogh........