Investors must be looking in horror at what has become the slaughterhouse of offshore investments. Especially investments in developed economies.

It’s ironic that at the start of the year many emerging markets carried the warning “political risk”. That should apply to developed countries now, as protesters take to the streets rallying against the austerity measures that have been imposed on them. And it’s all about the towering debt in the US, much of Europe and the UK.

There are at least three things investors can learn and take heart from in the mess overseas. The debt crises have dragged down the share prices of even solid companies across all major stock exchanges. The sensible investor will take a step back and say: “This could be a good time to buy.” It is.

Share prices could go lower and the earnings of some companies might be affected as consumers and other companies spend less. But earnings multiples and dividend yields are at levels that go back in the mists of time. Perversely, the global rout in offshore companies has opened up a good buying window.

Second is the old story that investments in any equities have to be based on a decent view, at least three but preferably five or ten years. In five years’ time, investors might see the debt crisis as a blip on the graph and wonder why they didn’t buy more bargain basement offshore investments.

Third though is a warning. If you are going to use this sell-off time to buy companies overseas, stick to the quality companies. There’s a lot of junk out there as well and various parties will be trying to entice investors to these shares. There’s a long list of good companies. To name a few: Reckitt Benckiser (consumer brands group and owner of Nurofen, Strepsils and others), Nestlé, Johnson & Johnson, maybe even Coca-Cola.

At the same time, while shares on the JSE are not cheap and have gone nowhere this year (up about 2% at the time of writing), it might be worth looking at some of the traditional rand hedge shares and the dual-listed companies like SABMiller, Anglo American and Investec. They are also going to benefit when sanity returns to developed markets.

Remember also that offshore investments are about diversifying your portfolio. Work out, perhaps with the help of a good financial advisor, what the balance should be. And then stick to the investments for a decent time frame.