"The federal government is there, carrying out various programs to assure that everybody will eat. Under the circumstances, that is commendable. But it is commendable only as a temporary expedient. To be worthy of admiration in any final sense, government help will have to accomplish the result of making itself unnecessary. It must be acknowledged by both the government and the people that the charity programs can do no more than the minimum - can only prevent starvation. An agency or bureau or institution cannot exercise taste and judgment, cannot be motivated by love or compassion, cannot value a man for his industry or his art or his pride; they are abstractions themselves and must deal with people as abstractions.
"To give a man bread when he needs a tool is inept and unfeeling as to give him a stone when he needs bread, and this painful clumsiness is inherent in the generalizations of the social planners and the organized charities. Their most "humane" endeavors almost necessarily involve an attitude toward humanity that debases it. The tendency to deal with individual citizens exclusively in terms of the abstractions of their class or condition is to strike at the very foundation of American liberty, which was established to safeguard the possibility and the right of escape from such abstractions - the right to become exceptional."
-Wendell Berry, as excerpted from The Long-Legged House
Monday, August 19, 2013
Fifty years ago...................................
Roy Orbison..............................................In Dreams
Bambi and Godzilla....................
A few excerpts from Walter Russell Mead's latest essay on the current mess in the Middle East:
"President Obama has had a rude awakening in the Middle East. The region he thought existed was an illusion built on American progressive assumptions about the way the world works."
"The President and his team have been taken in by two very old American mistakes about the rest of the world. One is to confuse the end of history with the morning news. The other is to exaggerate America’s importance to the rest of the world. The President is in good company here; most of our political and policy class is deeply steeped in these beguiling fantasies about how the world works, and most of his critics on both the left and the right are as deeply and fatally confused about the region as he and his advisors have been."
"As a result, there are many countries in the world where the dish Americans most want to eat just isn’t on the menu."
"In such situations, American diplomacy is generally ineffective and often unites a whole country against us, frustrated by the mix of arrogance and cluelessness that we generally bring to such situations. We issue orders that cannot be fulfilled, judge people and movements by unrealistic standards, form strategic partnerships with individuals and groups who don’t understand their own country very well, set unobtainable goals and fail to grasp the most basic facts of political and social life. We do this over and over again; President Obama has followed a well worn trail into his current predicament."
Full essay is here.
"President Obama has had a rude awakening in the Middle East. The region he thought existed was an illusion built on American progressive assumptions about the way the world works."
"The President and his team have been taken in by two very old American mistakes about the rest of the world. One is to confuse the end of history with the morning news. The other is to exaggerate America’s importance to the rest of the world. The President is in good company here; most of our political and policy class is deeply steeped in these beguiling fantasies about how the world works, and most of his critics on both the left and the right are as deeply and fatally confused about the region as he and his advisors have been."
"As a result, there are many countries in the world where the dish Americans most want to eat just isn’t on the menu."
"In such situations, American diplomacy is generally ineffective and often unites a whole country against us, frustrated by the mix of arrogance and cluelessness that we generally bring to such situations. We issue orders that cannot be fulfilled, judge people and movements by unrealistic standards, form strategic partnerships with individuals and groups who don’t understand their own country very well, set unobtainable goals and fail to grasp the most basic facts of political and social life. We do this over and over again; President Obama has followed a well worn trail into his current predicament."
Full essay is here.
On equality.......................
"Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition."
-Timothy Leary and/or Marilyn Monroe
-Timothy Leary and/or Marilyn Monroe
33 Guidelines for investing in real estate...
A review of the 33 Guidelines.....................
1. Do it.
2. Know why.
3. The money is made when you buy.
4. Value is derived from usage.
5. Location, location, location.
6. Know what you are, and are not, buying.
7. There is no bad real estate, only wrong owners.
8. Survive your first investment.
9. If it is too good to be true, it probably isn't.
10. These are business relationships, not friendships.
11. Good management makes good investments.
12. Budget for management.
13. Budget for vacancy/credit loss.
14. Cash flow sometimes equals deferred maintenance.
15. Roofs leak, just a matter of when.
16. Budget for taxes, income that is.
17. What you do, or don't do, matters.
18. Have a professional team.
19. Read the fine print.
20. Leverage is a two-edged sword.
21. Pyramiding is not to be undertaken lightly.
22. Don't borrow just because they will lend you the money.
23. There is a lot of land.
24. Pay attention to your financing.
25. It is an investment, not a tax shelter.
26. Hold it, or add value.
27. Flipping is speculating, not investing.
28. Don't sell, exchange.
29. Don't eat your seed corn.
30. Don't sell the little piece before you sell the big piece.
31. Have a plan for the future in mind.
32. Cash flow is king.
33. The IRS always bats last.
1. Do it.
2. Know why.
3. The money is made when you buy.
4. Value is derived from usage.
5. Location, location, location.
6. Know what you are, and are not, buying.
7. There is no bad real estate, only wrong owners.
8. Survive your first investment.
9. If it is too good to be true, it probably isn't.
10. These are business relationships, not friendships.
11. Good management makes good investments.
12. Budget for management.
13. Budget for vacancy/credit loss.
14. Cash flow sometimes equals deferred maintenance.
15. Roofs leak, just a matter of when.
16. Budget for taxes, income that is.
17. What you do, or don't do, matters.
18. Have a professional team.
19. Read the fine print.
20. Leverage is a two-edged sword.
21. Pyramiding is not to be undertaken lightly.
22. Don't borrow just because they will lend you the money.
23. There is a lot of land.
24. Pay attention to your financing.
25. It is an investment, not a tax shelter.
26. Hold it, or add value.
27. Flipping is speculating, not investing.
28. Don't sell, exchange.
29. Don't eat your seed corn.
30. Don't sell the little piece before you sell the big piece.
31. Have a plan for the future in mind.
32. Cash flow is king.
33. The IRS always bats last.
Sunday, August 18, 2013
A little slice of heaven for Sunday night.............
David Sanborn..............................................Pearls
Gets my vote as best rock and roll song ever....
The Eagles...........................................Hotel California
I don't care that the Rolling Stone magazine had it ranked 49th all-time. They are often wrong.
I don't care that the Rolling Stone magazine had it ranked 49th all-time. They are often wrong.
Opening paragraphs......................
"When I was a very small boy indeed," Dickens recalled in his 1853 essay "Gone Astray," "I got lost one day in the City of London." It is hardly an unusual childhood memory, especially at a time when the churning crowds of Britain's cities made it all too easy for individuals to lose their moorings and be set adrift in a sea of strangers. In 1849, commenting on the number of children "left inefficiently attended" in Manchester, the journalist Angus Reach claimed that every year "more than 4,000 go annually astray and get 'lost' in the streets," while newspapers like the Times regularly carried notices pleading for information about those who had gone missing. They included a nine-year-old boy last seen with a man who had promised him "lots of sugar - a great many basins full," and a seven-year-old who disappeared wearing "a blue jacket, black trousers, blue waistcoat, old brown pinafore, cloth cap, and hob nailed boots" - a heartbreakingly precise description of clothes so common they would have worked like a cloak of invisibility in the bustling city streets.
-Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Becoming Dickens: The Invention Of A Novelist
-Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Becoming Dickens: The Invention Of A Novelist
Wait, isn't that a good thing..................?
"Every day one reads meretricious babble about 'globalization' and the abolition of frontiers, the most of it amounting to little more that celebration of the world-wide availability of Wheel of Fortune."
-Christopher Hitchens, as excerpted from "A Subverting Sensualist", 1996
-Christopher Hitchens, as excerpted from "A Subverting Sensualist", 1996
A verse................................
4. Where no oxen are, the manger is clean.
But much increase comes by the strength of the ox.
Proverbs 14:4
The Open Bible
New American Standard
But much increase comes by the strength of the ox.
Proverbs 14:4
The Open Bible
New American Standard
Fifty years ago............................
Eydie Gorme...........................Blame It On The Bossa Nova
33 Guidelines for investing in real estate..........
Guideline #33: The IRS always bats last.
You never truly know how well any financial investment has performed until you have sold it and paid the tax on any gain.
One of the interesting things about investment real estate is that the IRS captures the tax that was sheltered by depreciation at the time of the sale. One should not enter into a contract to sell an investment property that has been owned for a long time without first consulting with one's accountant. Please.
Never forget - the IRS always bats last.
You never truly know how well any financial investment has performed until you have sold it and paid the tax on any gain.
One of the interesting things about investment real estate is that the IRS captures the tax that was sheltered by depreciation at the time of the sale. One should not enter into a contract to sell an investment property that has been owned for a long time without first consulting with one's accountant. Please.
Never forget - the IRS always bats last.
I cant believe I missed it......................
National Apostrophe Day was August 16th!
To belatedly celebrate, take this handy apostrophe quiz. Miss Francis would be disappointed (or maybe surprised I didn't miss more) that I got two wrong. Oh well.
Thanks Mark
To belatedly celebrate, take this handy apostrophe quiz. Miss Francis would be disappointed (or maybe surprised I didn't miss more) that I got two wrong. Oh well.
Thanks Mark
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Entertainment the old fashioned way....
Lucille Ball.......................................Jitterbug Bite
The Nicholas Brothers being amazing as usual
The Nicholas Brothers being amazing as usual
Having read the book..................................
The Beatles....................................A Day In The Life
Unctuously.............................
Anyone totally committed to a single pursuit almost always becomes a propagandist of his own effort. As a nation of specialists, we have become a nation obsessed with self-justification. When we don't have it, we make it. And we are by now familiar enough with the make-work of manufacturers who need products, scholars who need projects, politicians who need issues, generals who need armies. We speak the language of a people bent on justifying everything we do or want to do, whether it is justifiable or not.
This preoccupation, with its consequent language of self-praise, is epidemic. It is chronic at the highest levels of the government. Much of the blame for the erosion of our idealism must be laid to the government, because the language of ideals has been so grossly misused by the propagandists. The liars of policy and public relations are addicted to a rhetoric of high principle. Our political ideals fill their mouths as unctuously, and with as little involvement of conscience or intelligence, as so many pieces of fat meat.
-Wendell Berry, circa 1968
This preoccupation, with its consequent language of self-praise, is epidemic. It is chronic at the highest levels of the government. Much of the blame for the erosion of our idealism must be laid to the government, because the language of ideals has been so grossly misused by the propagandists. The liars of policy and public relations are addicted to a rhetoric of high principle. Our political ideals fill their mouths as unctuously, and with as little involvement of conscience or intelligence, as so many pieces of fat meat.
-Wendell Berry, circa 1968
Fifty years ago..........................
On August 16, 1963, President John F. Kennedy granted an Executive Pardon to jazz pianist Hampton Hawes. Hawes, who as jailed on a drug charge in 1958, took great advantage of the pardon and made some beautiful music between the time of his release and his death at age 48 in 1977. The following song dates to 1955, but I like it. Enjoy.
thanks
thanks
Looking back................................
Leroy "Satchel" Paige (1908-1982) had a FORTY year career as a professional baseball player. A right handed pitcher, he dominated in the Negro Leagues, until 1948, when he became the oldest "rookie" in Major League Baseball. As a Cleveland Indian in 1948, as a 40 year old, Paige ended the season with a 6–1 record with a 2.48 ERA, 2 shutouts, 43 strikeouts, 22 walks and 61 base hits allowed in 722⁄3 innings. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971. Read more about him here. He was also fairly quotable. Here are a few:
“Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines.”
"There ain't no man can avoid being born average. But there ain't no man got to be common.""Money and women. They're two of the strongest things in the world. The things you do for a woman you wouldn't do for anything else. Same with money."
"Not to be cheered by praise, not to be grieved by blame, but to know thoroughly one's own virtues or powers are the characteristics of an excellent man.'
"Age is a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter."
"Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching."
"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?"
“Sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits”
“You win a few, you lose a few. Some get rained out. But you got to dress for all of them.”
"The only change is that baseball has turned Paige from a second class citizen to a second class immortal."
33 Guidelines for investing in real estate................
Guideline #32: Cash flow is king.
Trust me when I tell you that running out of cash is a bad thing.
Trust me, also when I tell you that a portfolio of well-managed investment real estate, patiently acquired and lovingly nurtured over time, can provide an unending stream of cash. A good thing.
There are contending schools of thought on what to do with real estate that generates ample cash flow. One is to sell and amass a very large capital gain in the form of cash in exchange for the deed to the property. A second is to refinance and amass a very large pile of cash in exchange for more debt. A third is to leave well enough alone and gratefully receive monthly distributions of cash flow. People's needs and situations are all different. There is not a one-size-fits-all answer to the question, but isn't it a great question to ponder.
After all, if you have a problem that has a financial solution, and your investments generate the cash flow to solve the problem, do you really have a problem?
Trust me when I tell you that running out of cash is a bad thing.
Trust me, also when I tell you that a portfolio of well-managed investment real estate, patiently acquired and lovingly nurtured over time, can provide an unending stream of cash. A good thing.
There are contending schools of thought on what to do with real estate that generates ample cash flow. One is to sell and amass a very large capital gain in the form of cash in exchange for the deed to the property. A second is to refinance and amass a very large pile of cash in exchange for more debt. A third is to leave well enough alone and gratefully receive monthly distributions of cash flow. People's needs and situations are all different. There is not a one-size-fits-all answer to the question, but isn't it a great question to ponder.
After all, if you have a problem that has a financial solution, and your investments generate the cash flow to solve the problem, do you really have a problem?
Friday, August 16, 2013
Where does he find this stuff............?
The Mighty E. strikes again................................
It's a R.E.M. kind of week..........................
R.E.M......................................Near Wild Heaven
I suspect most of you........................
...........already read Execupundit. If you don't, well, you should. Wisdom and other fun and important stuff provided daily - like here, here and here.
Say it isn't so.........................
Seth Godin fears for the "eco-system" that has long sustained the hardbound book. Full depressing post is here. Ouchy quote is here:
"There’s no real ebook piracy problem because most people don’t think books are worth stealing."
"There’s no real ebook piracy problem because most people don’t think books are worth stealing."
Fifty years ago................................
Steve Lawrence...................................Go Away Little Girl
Another one of the gazillion Gerry Goffin/Carole King written hit songs. Lawrence recorded and released this in late 1962. It reached the top of the Billboard Top 100 in early 1963. It was successfully covered by The Happenings in 1966 and Donny Osmond in 1971
Another one of the gazillion Gerry Goffin/Carole King written hit songs. Lawrence recorded and released this in late 1962. It reached the top of the Billboard Top 100 in early 1963. It was successfully covered by The Happenings in 1966 and Donny Osmond in 1971
Hans Christian Andersen...........
The Story of a Mother, written in 1848. An excerpt:
Then she looked into the well; and it was a glorious sight to behold how one of them became a blessing to the world, and how much happiness and joy it spread around. But she saw that the life of the other was full of care and poverty, misery and woe.
“Both are the will of God,” said Death.
“Which is the unhappy flower, and which is the blessed one?” she said.
“That I may not tell you,” said Death; “but thus far you may learn, that one of the two flowers represents your own child. It was the fate of your child that you saw,—the future of your own child.”
33 Guidelines for investing in real estate..........
Guideline #31: Have a plan for the future in mind.
Don't think of it as an exit strategy.
Friend Tony once told me that the first or second rule in investing was to have an "exit strategy." When he first posited that, I nodded my head and said, "of course." The more I thought about it though, the more doubts I had about it. As Teacher Furman was fond of saying about the stock market, "its great advantage is its liquidity; you can take your losses at any time." Exit strategies are a bit tougher in real estate, for Mr. Market will on occasion decide not to cooperate.
Warren Buffet, surely the premier investor of our time, doesn't appear to have any "exit strategy." Then there is the example of three extremely successful local real estate investors: they haven't sold anything for forty years, and have no plans to sell now. Their estates will handle the exit from their real estate holdings.
Friend Pat solved my conundrum by suggesting that an "exit strategy" was nothing more than a plan. A plan that elaborates on Guideline # 2 (know why you are investing), assumes you pass Guideline #8 (survive the first investment), and takes Guideline #17 seriously (what you do matters), believes in Guideline #29 (don't eat your seed corn), and then projects out five, ten, or fifteen years.
I like that approach. Our plan has evolved. We invest for both cash flow and capital appreciation. We like creating things that are not there now. I like fixing old buildings, my business partner likes putting up new buildings. A time or two we have speculated. Mostly we look for opportunities that appeal to us. Truth be told, our best investment opportunity ever just came looking for us one day when we were busily working on something else. Economic circumstances have on occasion called for an adjustment to our plan. That is just part of the adventure. We have fun and feel good about what we are doing, and do not plan on stopping any time soon. I suspect our children will execute our exit strategy from investment real estate.
Don't think of it as an exit strategy.
Friend Tony once told me that the first or second rule in investing was to have an "exit strategy." When he first posited that, I nodded my head and said, "of course." The more I thought about it though, the more doubts I had about it. As Teacher Furman was fond of saying about the stock market, "its great advantage is its liquidity; you can take your losses at any time." Exit strategies are a bit tougher in real estate, for Mr. Market will on occasion decide not to cooperate.
Warren Buffet, surely the premier investor of our time, doesn't appear to have any "exit strategy." Then there is the example of three extremely successful local real estate investors: they haven't sold anything for forty years, and have no plans to sell now. Their estates will handle the exit from their real estate holdings.
Friend Pat solved my conundrum by suggesting that an "exit strategy" was nothing more than a plan. A plan that elaborates on Guideline # 2 (know why you are investing), assumes you pass Guideline #8 (survive the first investment), and takes Guideline #17 seriously (what you do matters), believes in Guideline #29 (don't eat your seed corn), and then projects out five, ten, or fifteen years.
I like that approach. Our plan has evolved. We invest for both cash flow and capital appreciation. We like creating things that are not there now. I like fixing old buildings, my business partner likes putting up new buildings. A time or two we have speculated. Mostly we look for opportunities that appeal to us. Truth be told, our best investment opportunity ever just came looking for us one day when we were busily working on something else. Economic circumstances have on occasion called for an adjustment to our plan. That is just part of the adventure. We have fun and feel good about what we are doing, and do not plan on stopping any time soon. I suspect our children will execute our exit strategy from investment real estate.
Dare.........................................
"A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free."
-Nikos Kazantzakis
Thursday, August 15, 2013
It's a R.E.M. kind of evening.......................
R.E.M.............................................Half A World Away
It's another R.E.M. kind of day.............................
R.E.M.....................................The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
White gold...........................
Currently battling a long term addiction to coca-cola, grilled pecan rolls, and things with maple flavored syrup on them, this essay questioning the toxicity of sugar caught my attention. (Actually, it was wordsmithing "a gustatory revelation that generally slips into the lacuna of early childhood" that really intrigued me. Still puzzled over the choice of the word "lacuna" though.) The opening paragraph:
"Our very first experience of exceptional sweetness—a dollop of buttercream frosting on a parent’s finger; a spoonful of strawberry ice cream instead of the usual puréed carrots—is a gustatory revelation that generally slips into the lacuna of early childhood."
Upon completing the essay, three things stuck in my mind. First, the science isn't settled on this subject either. Second, apparently American average caloric intake increased by 530 calories per day between 1970 and 2000. Third, exercise is still a requirement for good health.
image (and another essay on the subject) via
thanks craig
Opening paragraphs........................
Between the ages of six and nine, I was a native son of the marine bases of Cherry Point and Camp Lejeune in the eastern coastal regions of North Carolina. My father flew in squadrons of slant-winged Corsairs, which I still think of as the most beautiful warplanes that ever took to the sky. For a year Dad flew with the great Boston hitter and left fielder, Ted Williams, and family lore has it that my mother and Mrs. Williams used to bathe my sister and me along with Ted Williams's daughter. That still remains the most distinguished moment of my commonplace career as an athlete. I followed Ted Williams's pursuit of greatness, reveling in my father's insider knowledge that "Ted [has] the best reflexes of any marine pilot who ever flew Corsairs." I read every book about baseball in the library of each base and town we entered, hoping for any information about "the Kid" or "the Splendid Splinter." When the movie of The Great Santini came out starring Robert Duvall, Ted Williams told a sportswriter that he'd once flown with Santini. My whole writing career was affirmed with that single, transcendent moment.
-Pat Conroy, My Reading Life
-Pat Conroy, My Reading Life
Fifty years ago...................................
My Favorite Martian..........................................
Days........................................
"And the days that I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, I have really good days."-Ray Wylie Hubbard
thanks michael
image via
33 Guidelines to investing in real estate...................
Guideline #30: Don't sell the little piece before you sell the big piece.
Real estate often has various components. A five acre lot can easily be divided and sold from an 80 acre farm that has a decent amount of road frontage. The fixtures, equipment, and licences can easily be sold from a closed restaurant or bar. The timber can easily be sold off of a wooded tract of land. And so on.
Peoples' needs and motivations vary, so this is not a "never do," but it is a "really think hard about it" type of guideline. There are times when it makes sense to sell a small piece to protect the big whole. But, more often than not, "cherry picking," or selling the small piece at a good price, seems to negatively impact the value of the remainder. Diminish the value of the remainder enough and you devalue the entire investment.
Think it through.
Real estate often has various components. A five acre lot can easily be divided and sold from an 80 acre farm that has a decent amount of road frontage. The fixtures, equipment, and licences can easily be sold from a closed restaurant or bar. The timber can easily be sold off of a wooded tract of land. And so on.
Peoples' needs and motivations vary, so this is not a "never do," but it is a "really think hard about it" type of guideline. There are times when it makes sense to sell a small piece to protect the big whole. But, more often than not, "cherry picking," or selling the small piece at a good price, seems to negatively impact the value of the remainder. Diminish the value of the remainder enough and you devalue the entire investment.
Think it through.
This helps me understand.........................
Here (in two parts) is the World Health Organization's map of per capita (adult) alcohol consumption:
via
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
It's a R.E.M. kind of day.........................
R.E.M...........................................................Stand
(as always, please click on through to the YouTube)
(as always, please click on through to the YouTube)
On subsidizing debt...................
In a post, surely designed to win the hearts and minds of the real estate industry, David Merkel wonders why the federal government, via Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, should subsidize long-term debt:
"30-year mortgages allow some to buy houses that they should not buy. If you have to have a 30-year mortgage instead of a 15-year mortgage, you are buying too much house for your income. We spend too much money as a society on housing, and we take on too much debt as a result, leading to fragile financial systems. Debt-based systems are fragile relative to equity-based systems."
Didn't seem like much of an issue back in the days when real estate values always went up.
"30-year mortgages allow some to buy houses that they should not buy. If you have to have a 30-year mortgage instead of a 15-year mortgage, you are buying too much house for your income. We spend too much money as a society on housing, and we take on too much debt as a result, leading to fragile financial systems. Debt-based systems are fragile relative to equity-based systems."
Didn't seem like much of an issue back in the days when real estate values always went up.
Opening paragraphs.................................
Prince Henry, the third surviving son of John I and Philippa of Lancaster, was born in the northern Portuguese city of Oporto on Ash Wednesday, 4 March 1394. If that traditional day of mourning and penitence was thought to be an unpropitious one for a prince's birth, no one was tactless enough to say so, at least not in writing. Zurara's report that the boy emerged from his mother's womb embracing a simulacrum of the Holy Cross, a piece of information that the chronicler seems to attribute to Henry himself, was seen as proof positive that the young prince's dedication to religion and to crusading against the infidel was prenatally arranged.
-Peter Russell, Prince Henry 'the Navigator': A Life
-Peter Russell, Prince Henry 'the Navigator': A Life
On being formidable..........................
"They don't teach formidable in school. They teach compliance and rote and perhaps spin. They teach us to be on the alert for shortcuts and for ways to get away with less. Not surprisingly, the formidable leader takes the opposite tack in every respect."
-Seth Godin, from this blog post
-Seth Godin, from this blog post
Fifty years ago.................................
Dion........................................................Ruby Baby
Escape......................................
"I would rather read something inferior than nothing at all. Sometimes the reader is not interested in being enlightened, uplifted, or even entertained. He wants merely to escape for a brief interval from the world which is suddenly too much with him."
-Jerome Weidman
via
Repeat.....................................
"History repeats itself in the large because human nature changes with geological leisureliness."
-Will and Ariel Durant, The Lessons of History
cartoon via
33 Guidelines for investing in real estate..............
Guideline #29: Don't eat your seed corn.
The first successful investment is a gratifying experience. All of a sudden there is this extra money, aka cash flow, sitting in your check book. It is very cool.
What you do next will go a long way towards determining your economic future.
If you spend this cash flow, your current living standard will get a bit better. Not a bad thing.
If you re-invest the cash flow with discipline and a plan, you can build an unshakable foundation of wealth. A much better thing.
One of the easiest ways to re-invest is to pre-pay your mortgage. Steady extra principle payments work magic in both reducing your debt and your future interest payments to the bank. The march of equity build up is a wonder to behold.
Don't eat your seed corn. Re-plant it.
The first successful investment is a gratifying experience. All of a sudden there is this extra money, aka cash flow, sitting in your check book. It is very cool.
What you do next will go a long way towards determining your economic future.
If you spend this cash flow, your current living standard will get a bit better. Not a bad thing.
If you re-invest the cash flow with discipline and a plan, you can build an unshakable foundation of wealth. A much better thing.
One of the easiest ways to re-invest is to pre-pay your mortgage. Steady extra principle payments work magic in both reducing your debt and your future interest payments to the bank. The march of equity build up is a wonder to behold.
Don't eat your seed corn. Re-plant it.
God.................................
.............and the "customer satisfaction questionnaire":
"God would like to thank you for your belief and patronage. In order to better serve your needs, He* asks that you take a few moments to answer the following questions. Please keep in mind that your responses will be kept completely confidential, and that you need not disclose your name or address unless you prefer a direct response to comments or suggestions."
Questions are here.
"God would like to thank you for your belief and patronage. In order to better serve your needs, He* asks that you take a few moments to answer the following questions. Please keep in mind that your responses will be kept completely confidential, and that you need not disclose your name or address unless you prefer a direct response to comments or suggestions."
Questions are here.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Volume up please.................................
Dizzy Gillespie.........................And Then She Stopped
Opening paragraphs................
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie almost vomited from exhaustion as he picked cotton for the first time outside his hometown of Cheraw, South Carolina, in the summer of 1928. He was ten years old, and he hated it.
-Donald L. Maggin, Dizzy: The Life and Times of John Birks Gillespie
-Donald L. Maggin, Dizzy: The Life and Times of John Birks Gillespie
Fifty years ago.............................
Allan Sherman.....................Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah
Truth.............................................
"The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear."
-Herbert Agar
cartoon via
Paging Mr. Holmes................................
"Detective stories help reassure us in the belief that the universe, underneath it all, is rational. They're small celebrations of order and reason in an increasingly disordered world."
-P. D. James
-P. D. James
33 Guidelines for investing in real estate.....
Guideline #28: Don't sell, exchange.
Unlike your personal residence, when you sell an investment property, you create an immediate tax consequence. Whether it is a capital gain or ordinary income depends on the time frame involved, but come April 15th, you will be settling with the Internal Revenue Service. The fact that you might re-invest in another investment property is immaterial. If you sell, the tax is due.
The government, however, in its infinite wisdom, has recognized that business owners and investors may need to get out of one property and into another, and that said business owner or investor may need to preserve their equity in the former to get into the latter. Enter the IRC Section 1031 Tax Deferred Exchange. This section of the tax code allows an investor to "exchange" from one property into another while deferring any tax on any gain.
The rules are fairly simple. The seller of a property held for trade or investment (the "relinquished property") who wishes to re-invest in another property held for trade or investment may do so without immediate tax consequences provided those rules are followed. The seller cannot have "constructive receipt" of the sale proceeds (their money gets held by a "qualified intermediary"), must identify the property they will be re-investing in (the "replacement property") no later than 45 days after the conveyance of their original "relinquished property," and must take title to the "replacement property(s) no later than 180 days after the sale of the original property. If you follow the rules, the exchange will effectively defer any tax due until such time that the investor finally sells out.
This is generally considered a good thing. It allows a seller of a smaller investment property to use and preserve their equity to acquire a larger investment property. Exchanging is an important tool in the building of a solid portfolio of investment real estate. Use it.
It should be noted that using the Section 1031 Tax Deferred Exchange is not a do-it-yourself kind of venture. You will need professional help. Fortunately, it is available.
Unlike your personal residence, when you sell an investment property, you create an immediate tax consequence. Whether it is a capital gain or ordinary income depends on the time frame involved, but come April 15th, you will be settling with the Internal Revenue Service. The fact that you might re-invest in another investment property is immaterial. If you sell, the tax is due.
The government, however, in its infinite wisdom, has recognized that business owners and investors may need to get out of one property and into another, and that said business owner or investor may need to preserve their equity in the former to get into the latter. Enter the IRC Section 1031 Tax Deferred Exchange. This section of the tax code allows an investor to "exchange" from one property into another while deferring any tax on any gain.
The rules are fairly simple. The seller of a property held for trade or investment (the "relinquished property") who wishes to re-invest in another property held for trade or investment may do so without immediate tax consequences provided those rules are followed. The seller cannot have "constructive receipt" of the sale proceeds (their money gets held by a "qualified intermediary"), must identify the property they will be re-investing in (the "replacement property") no later than 45 days after the conveyance of their original "relinquished property," and must take title to the "replacement property(s) no later than 180 days after the sale of the original property. If you follow the rules, the exchange will effectively defer any tax due until such time that the investor finally sells out.
This is generally considered a good thing. It allows a seller of a smaller investment property to use and preserve their equity to acquire a larger investment property. Exchanging is an important tool in the building of a solid portfolio of investment real estate. Use it.
It should be noted that using the Section 1031 Tax Deferred Exchange is not a do-it-yourself kind of venture. You will need professional help. Fortunately, it is available.
Invest.............................
If you don't want to put your money in real estate, my personal favorite investment vehicle, consider the indexed mutual fund. This handy blog post will spell out why. Excerpt here:
“The modern American financial system,” Bogle says in his book The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism, “is undermining our highest social ideals, damaging investors’ trust in the markets, and robbing them of trillions.” But most of his animus in Mountain View was reserved for mutual funds, his own field of business, which he described as an industry organized around “salesmanship rather than stewardship,” which “places the interests of managers ahead of the interests of shareholders,” and is “the consummate example of capitalism gone awry.”
thanks craig
“The modern American financial system,” Bogle says in his book The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism, “is undermining our highest social ideals, damaging investors’ trust in the markets, and robbing them of trillions.” But most of his animus in Mountain View was reserved for mutual funds, his own field of business, which he described as an industry organized around “salesmanship rather than stewardship,” which “places the interests of managers ahead of the interests of shareholders,” and is “the consummate example of capitalism gone awry.”
thanks craig
Monday, August 12, 2013
A Double Whammy for Jetboy..........................
Lonnie Mack and Stevie Ray Vaughn live...................
Interesting factoid of the day.............
The newspaper’s previous owners, the Graham family, sold the paper for less than a quarter of what Yahoo paid for the blogging platform Tumblr two months ago.
-Walter Russell Mead, from this essay, The Washington Post and the Future of Journalism
-Walter Russell Mead, from this essay, The Washington Post and the Future of Journalism
Well, maybe, but there is no reason to be so snarky about it.............
The Pizza Belt is defined as "the area of the United States where the chance of obtaining an adequate-to-good slice of pizza from a randomly chosen pizzeria is greater than 50 percent." Is it Real or imagined? Max Reed suggests it is real and is contained in a narrow band along the coast extending from the Philadelphia area north to Providence, Rhode Island. Having been born and raised in the Philadelphia area, I can attest that Philly knows good pizza. But still...............
In fact, speaking generally, any major metropolitan area can, with sufficient strength of will and character, and a good source of filtered water, produce a "single decent slice of pizza." (Or, speaking more accurately, a single decent pizzeria.)
If you enjoy chauvinistic writing, you will enjoy this one.
thanks craig
In fact, speaking generally, any major metropolitan area can, with sufficient strength of will and character, and a good source of filtered water, produce a "single decent slice of pizza." (Or, speaking more accurately, a single decent pizzeria.)
If you enjoy chauvinistic writing, you will enjoy this one.
thanks craig
Fifty years ago..................................
Lonnie Mack.........................................Memphis
Opening two paragraphs.......................
European emigrants and their descendants are all over the place, which requires explanation.
It is more difficult to account for the distribution of this subdivision of the humans species than that of any other. The locations of the others make an obvious kind of sense. All but a relatively few of the members of the many variety of Asians live in Asia. Black Africans live on three continents, but most of them are concentrated in their original latitudes, the tropics, facing each other across one ocean. Amerindians, with few exceptions, live in the Americas, and nearly every last Australian Aborigine dwells in Australia. Eskimos live in the circumpolar lands, the Melanesians, Polynesians, and Micronesians are scattered through the islands of only one ocean, albeit a large one. All these peoples have expanded geographically - have committed acts of imperialism, if you will - but they have expanded into lands adjacent to or at least near to those in which they had already been living, or, in the case of the Pacific peoples, to the next island and then to the next after that, however many kilometers of water might lie between. Europeans, in contrast, seem to have leapfrogged around the globe.
-Alfred W. Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900
It is more difficult to account for the distribution of this subdivision of the humans species than that of any other. The locations of the others make an obvious kind of sense. All but a relatively few of the members of the many variety of Asians live in Asia. Black Africans live on three continents, but most of them are concentrated in their original latitudes, the tropics, facing each other across one ocean. Amerindians, with few exceptions, live in the Americas, and nearly every last Australian Aborigine dwells in Australia. Eskimos live in the circumpolar lands, the Melanesians, Polynesians, and Micronesians are scattered through the islands of only one ocean, albeit a large one. All these peoples have expanded geographically - have committed acts of imperialism, if you will - but they have expanded into lands adjacent to or at least near to those in which they had already been living, or, in the case of the Pacific peoples, to the next island and then to the next after that, however many kilometers of water might lie between. Europeans, in contrast, seem to have leapfrogged around the globe.
-Alfred W. Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900
Sippican Cottage...............................
Greg practices the fine art of flash fiction, here:
'There's a girl at the next table and she's Juliet just now. But she's like me, and isn't about to wait until the third act to start drinking poison. The trouble is, I've had five glasses of amber Cyrano de Bergerac and my tongue's depressed and I'm in the wrong play. What difference does it make, really?"
And waxes philosophical about parenting and life on the road, here:
"...those boys must belong to you. Up to a point, they do. But they are beginning to belong to themselves, and are fixing to belong to the whole world as well. It breaks your heart in a wonderful way to picture your children grown up and elsewhere."
'There's a girl at the next table and she's Juliet just now. But she's like me, and isn't about to wait until the third act to start drinking poison. The trouble is, I've had five glasses of amber Cyrano de Bergerac and my tongue's depressed and I'm in the wrong play. What difference does it make, really?"
And waxes philosophical about parenting and life on the road, here:
"...those boys must belong to you. Up to a point, they do. But they are beginning to belong to themselves, and are fixing to belong to the whole world as well. It breaks your heart in a wonderful way to picture your children grown up and elsewhere."
33 Guidelines for investing in real estate................
Guideline #27: Flipping is speculating, not investing..................
One of Webster's New World College Dictionary's definitions of "speculate": To buy or sell stocks, commodities, land, etc., usually in the face of higher than normal risk, hoping to take advantage of an expected rise or fall in price; also, to take part in any risky venture on the chance of making huge profits.
One important word that Webster left out of their definition is "quickly." In my world, the willingness to hold on to whatever it is that you are buying is what separates investment from speculation.
Way back in the 2002-2006 era, "flipping" real estate was widespread and common. Flipping is buying a property with the intent of almost immediate re-sale for a significant profit. A flipper has no intention of either holding or using the property, nor of adding significant value (See Guideline #26) to it. Two situations make flipping possible. The first is a bubbly hot real estate market. The second is where the flipper knows something of significance the the person who sells to him does not know.
At a gathering of old college friends in 2004, I had a long discussion with a friend who was currently the owner of four condominium units in Florida. Said friend worked as a produce broker in Cincinnati, Ohio. He and his wife planned to retire to Florida and so invested in a condo project under construction in 2001. They were able to, almost immediately, re-sell that unit for a considerable gain. Thinking they were on to a good thing, they repeated the process again, and again, and again. When I got back to the office, I told my business partner that problems were coming. If a Cincinnati produce broker owns four condos in Florida, for the sole purpose of re-selling for a gain, you might imagine that a lot of other people were playing the same game. Sounded suspiciously like a house of cards to me. If flippers are doing all the buying, are there truly enough end users available to take the flippers out? Or, are the flippers going to get stuck owning multiple units for which there are no other buyers? The story ended well for my old college friend. They got out of the game in time. The story did not end well for several whole industries.
If you believe you are reading a bias against "flipping" here, well, yes and no. There is a time and place for it. We have occasionally done it. The important thing is to remember that flipping is NOT investing. It is speculating. The difference between the two, if you remember Webster, is higher than normal risk. Just be careful out there.
One of Webster's New World College Dictionary's definitions of "speculate": To buy or sell stocks, commodities, land, etc., usually in the face of higher than normal risk, hoping to take advantage of an expected rise or fall in price; also, to take part in any risky venture on the chance of making huge profits.
One important word that Webster left out of their definition is "quickly." In my world, the willingness to hold on to whatever it is that you are buying is what separates investment from speculation.
Way back in the 2002-2006 era, "flipping" real estate was widespread and common. Flipping is buying a property with the intent of almost immediate re-sale for a significant profit. A flipper has no intention of either holding or using the property, nor of adding significant value (See Guideline #26) to it. Two situations make flipping possible. The first is a bubbly hot real estate market. The second is where the flipper knows something of significance the the person who sells to him does not know.
At a gathering of old college friends in 2004, I had a long discussion with a friend who was currently the owner of four condominium units in Florida. Said friend worked as a produce broker in Cincinnati, Ohio. He and his wife planned to retire to Florida and so invested in a condo project under construction in 2001. They were able to, almost immediately, re-sell that unit for a considerable gain. Thinking they were on to a good thing, they repeated the process again, and again, and again. When I got back to the office, I told my business partner that problems were coming. If a Cincinnati produce broker owns four condos in Florida, for the sole purpose of re-selling for a gain, you might imagine that a lot of other people were playing the same game. Sounded suspiciously like a house of cards to me. If flippers are doing all the buying, are there truly enough end users available to take the flippers out? Or, are the flippers going to get stuck owning multiple units for which there are no other buyers? The story ended well for my old college friend. They got out of the game in time. The story did not end well for several whole industries.
If you believe you are reading a bias against "flipping" here, well, yes and no. There is a time and place for it. We have occasionally done it. The important thing is to remember that flipping is NOT investing. It is speculating. The difference between the two, if you remember Webster, is higher than normal risk. Just be careful out there.
Except...................................
"The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions."
-Oliver Wendell Holmes
"A good teacher must know the rules; a good pupil, the exceptions."
-Martin H. Fischer
"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others."
-Pericles
"Science does not permit exceptions."
-Claude Bernard
"Nature provides exceptions to every rule."
-Margaret Fuller
"Nothing is absolute, with the debatable exceptions of this statement and death."
-John Ralston Saul
"If Moses had gone to Harvard Law School and spent three years working on the Hill, he would have written the Ten Commandments with three exceptions and a saving clause."
-Charles Morgan
image via
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Smoother than smooth...............
John Klemmer.................................................Touch
Verse............................
3. The Master said, 'Clever talk and a pretentious manner' are seldom found in the Good.
4. Master Tseng said, Every day I examine myself on these three points: in acting on behalf of others, have I always been loyal to their interests? In intercourse with my friends, have I always been true to my word? Have I failed to repeat the precepts that have been handed down to me?
5. The Master said, A country of a thousand war-chariots cannot be administered unless the ruler attends strictly to business, punctually observes his promises, is economical in expenditures, shows affection toward his subjects in general, and uses the labour of the peasantry only at the proper times of the year.
6. The Master said, A young man's duty is to behave well to his parents at home and to his elders abroad, to be cautious in giving promises and punctual in keeping them, to have kindly feelings toward everyone, but seeking the intimacy of the Good. If, when all that is done, he has any energy to spare, then let him study the polite arts.
-Book 1
The Analects of Confucius
4. Master Tseng said, Every day I examine myself on these three points: in acting on behalf of others, have I always been loyal to their interests? In intercourse with my friends, have I always been true to my word? Have I failed to repeat the precepts that have been handed down to me?
5. The Master said, A country of a thousand war-chariots cannot be administered unless the ruler attends strictly to business, punctually observes his promises, is economical in expenditures, shows affection toward his subjects in general, and uses the labour of the peasantry only at the proper times of the year.
6. The Master said, A young man's duty is to behave well to his parents at home and to his elders abroad, to be cautious in giving promises and punctual in keeping them, to have kindly feelings toward everyone, but seeking the intimacy of the Good. If, when all that is done, he has any energy to spare, then let him study the polite arts.
-Book 1
The Analects of Confucius
Catch................................
Leaving It To You
Self evident, truth mistakes no thing.
But my heart's a long way from there
and nothing's very clear.
Yellow gold is almost burned up
by my desire.
While hair grows besides the fire.
Bitter indecision: chose This, of maybe That.
Even the spirit speaks in riddles
and makes it hard to harvest
the essence of a single day.
Catch the wind while you tether shadows.
Faith, or a man who'll stand by his word, is
all there is. There is no disputing.
-Kuan Hsiu, as translated by J. P. Seaton (from here)
Self evident, truth mistakes no thing.
But my heart's a long way from there
and nothing's very clear.
Yellow gold is almost burned up
by my desire.
While hair grows besides the fire.
Bitter indecision: chose This, of maybe That.
Even the spirit speaks in riddles
and makes it hard to harvest
the essence of a single day.
Catch the wind while you tether shadows.
Faith, or a man who'll stand by his word, is
all there is. There is no disputing.
-Kuan Hsiu, as translated by J. P. Seaton (from here)
Fifty years ago........................................
The Rollings Stones..................Rice Krispies ad
While that's a nice little tune, I much prefer this one from an artistic point of view, although it most likely dates prior to 1963:
thanks Todd
While that's a nice little tune, I much prefer this one from an artistic point of view, although it most likely dates prior to 1963:
thanks Todd
Opening paragraphs...................................
There is an old Anglican hymn of which I am very ford called "The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, Has Ended." I like it above all others - above, even, the Easter hymns of jubilation and the familiar carols of Christmas - because it takes me back to my childhood Sundays and Evensong in the little Anglican pro-cathedral of St. Paul's in Dawson City. Here, after a summer's day spent picnicking in the blue Yukon hills or drifting on the tawny breast of the restless river, a child could really feel that the gracefully dying day had been a gift to him by an all-wise, all-powerful, and all-embracing deity. Surrounded by family and neighbors, each of whom was an old and intimate friend, listening to the anthems of a choir that included my own mother, insulated by the softly comforting sermons of a man who was a frequent dinner guest, untouched by the dilemmas and perils of the real world beyond the hills, this child could feel at peace with his religion and his God.
-Pierre Berton, The Comfortable Pew: A critical look at the Church in the New Age
-Pierre Berton, The Comfortable Pew: A critical look at the Church in the New Age
33 Guidelines for investing in real estate.................
Guideline #26: Hold it, or add value
By its very nature, most real estate investing is profitable over significantly long time periods (upwards from ten years). Actually, this it true for most forms of investing, which is probably why only such a small percentage of folks actually achieve financial independence.
There is no sense in sugar coating it: owning investment real estate can be a hassle. There are tenant related problems, weather related problems, maintenance problems, and so on and so forth. For a society weaned on immediate gratification, these day-to-day hassles often obscure our vision of the wealth down-the-road. Many are the people who make the first investment. Few are the people who are still actively investing ten years later. It requires patience, focus, and self-discipline.
It certainly is possible to make significant gains investing in real estate over shorter time periods. To earn these faster returns, however, there must be "value added." Value adding can mean, among other things, an annexation, a zoning change, sub-dividing, building roads, extending water and sewer lines, constructing (or removing) a building, assembling adjoining properties, renovations, or extensive cleaning and painting.
A brief discussion of "flipping" appears in Guideline #27.
Jim Rohn, one of my early teachers, always talked about the "set of the sail." The winds of life blow on all of us, but where we end up is determined by the set of our sail. The most reliable path to financial independence is to have the self-discipline to begin an investment program and the patience and focus to see it through for a long time. The time is going to pass anyway, why not do it?
By its very nature, most real estate investing is profitable over significantly long time periods (upwards from ten years). Actually, this it true for most forms of investing, which is probably why only such a small percentage of folks actually achieve financial independence.
There is no sense in sugar coating it: owning investment real estate can be a hassle. There are tenant related problems, weather related problems, maintenance problems, and so on and so forth. For a society weaned on immediate gratification, these day-to-day hassles often obscure our vision of the wealth down-the-road. Many are the people who make the first investment. Few are the people who are still actively investing ten years later. It requires patience, focus, and self-discipline.
It certainly is possible to make significant gains investing in real estate over shorter time periods. To earn these faster returns, however, there must be "value added." Value adding can mean, among other things, an annexation, a zoning change, sub-dividing, building roads, extending water and sewer lines, constructing (or removing) a building, assembling adjoining properties, renovations, or extensive cleaning and painting.
A brief discussion of "flipping" appears in Guideline #27.
Jim Rohn, one of my early teachers, always talked about the "set of the sail." The winds of life blow on all of us, but where we end up is determined by the set of our sail. The most reliable path to financial independence is to have the self-discipline to begin an investment program and the patience and focus to see it through for a long time. The time is going to pass anyway, why not do it?
Cherish..............................................
“The morning was bright and propitious. Before their departure, mass had been said in the chapel, and the protection of St. Ignatius invoked against all contingent evils, but especially against bears, which, like the fiery dragons of old, seemed to cherish unconquerable hostility to the Holy Church."
-Bret Harte, The Legend Of Monte Del Diablo
gif via
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Let's play real fast, real loud, and real long....
Ten Years After.......I'm Going Home (Live at Woodstock)
A dichotomy................................................
"Smooth shapes are very rare in the wild but extremely important in the ivory tower and the factory."
-Benoit Mandelbrot
Absence of purpose..................?
"The facts of science, by exposing the absence of purpose in the laws governing the universe, force us to take responsibility for the welfare of ourselves, our species, and our planet."
-Steven Pinker
“Science may be described as the art of systematic oversimplification.”
-Karl Popper
photo via
Fifty years ago...............................
Brenda Lee...........................................Losing You
33 Guidelines for investing in real estate.......
Guideline #25: It's an investment, not a tax shelter.
In my early days of commercial real estate, many of my compatriots were selling "tax shelters." That was a fancy term for an investment that will likely lose money. To be fair, back in 1980, the top marginal tax bracket in the U.S. of A. was 70%, which meant that out of each dollar earned over $215,400, the IRS took 70 cents. (For reference sake, 2013's top bite on earned income was 39.6% on each dollar earned over $400,000). A lot of smart, high income people figured that it was better to lose a little money on real estate, i.e. the tax shelter, and maybe build some equity, than just give the money to Uncle Sam. I was never comfortable with that philosophy. To my young and naive eyes, it seemed unnatural that a certain property might be worth more to one investor just because his tax bracket was higher. The question I never got a satisfactory answer to was, "Why would you buy something you knew was going to lose money on a regular basis?" Seemed wasteful. As you might expect, we did not sell a lot of "investment property" back then.
When Congress passed the Economic Recovery Act of 1981, it amended the Tax Code to allow for really, really, really generous tax treatment for real estate. As a result, real estate development went into overdrive and the value of investment real estate was (temporarily) unnaturally inflated. In a successful attempt to curb tax shelters, peel back some of the benefits of owning investment real estate, and to "simplify the Code," Congress then passed the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The 1986 Act both eliminate special incentives, including accelerated depreciation (ACRS), that investment real estate had briefly enjoyed, and expanded the dreaded Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). These simple changes instantly erased somewhere between 10% and 20% of the market value of investment real estate. This fall in values, combined with some questionable lending practices, contributed to the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s.
The lesson I learned from all of this was that when the government giveth, it soon finds a way to taketh away. Basing investment decisions on the Tax Code is fraught with risk.
Today the Code appears to be neutral towards investment real estate. Depreciation is still available as a deduction against income, however, the time periods that assets can be depreciated have been stretched to roughly mirror the actual life span of those assets. The days of investing for tax shelter have passed by. If they come again, remember..........be very careful. Invest for value, not because of the Tax Code.
In my early days of commercial real estate, many of my compatriots were selling "tax shelters." That was a fancy term for an investment that will likely lose money. To be fair, back in 1980, the top marginal tax bracket in the U.S. of A. was 70%, which meant that out of each dollar earned over $215,400, the IRS took 70 cents. (For reference sake, 2013's top bite on earned income was 39.6% on each dollar earned over $400,000). A lot of smart, high income people figured that it was better to lose a little money on real estate, i.e. the tax shelter, and maybe build some equity, than just give the money to Uncle Sam. I was never comfortable with that philosophy. To my young and naive eyes, it seemed unnatural that a certain property might be worth more to one investor just because his tax bracket was higher. The question I never got a satisfactory answer to was, "Why would you buy something you knew was going to lose money on a regular basis?" Seemed wasteful. As you might expect, we did not sell a lot of "investment property" back then.
When Congress passed the Economic Recovery Act of 1981, it amended the Tax Code to allow for really, really, really generous tax treatment for real estate. As a result, real estate development went into overdrive and the value of investment real estate was (temporarily) unnaturally inflated. In a successful attempt to curb tax shelters, peel back some of the benefits of owning investment real estate, and to "simplify the Code," Congress then passed the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The 1986 Act both eliminate special incentives, including accelerated depreciation (ACRS), that investment real estate had briefly enjoyed, and expanded the dreaded Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). These simple changes instantly erased somewhere between 10% and 20% of the market value of investment real estate. This fall in values, combined with some questionable lending practices, contributed to the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s.
The lesson I learned from all of this was that when the government giveth, it soon finds a way to taketh away. Basing investment decisions on the Tax Code is fraught with risk.
Today the Code appears to be neutral towards investment real estate. Depreciation is still available as a deduction against income, however, the time periods that assets can be depreciated have been stretched to roughly mirror the actual life span of those assets. The days of investing for tax shelter have passed by. If they come again, remember..........be very careful. Invest for value, not because of the Tax Code.
Friday, August 9, 2013
Crystal visions....................................................
Fleetwood Mac.........................................................Dreams
Opening paragraphs.....................................
Charybdis herself must have spat them into the sea. They committed "a Crime so odious and horrid in all it Circumstances, that those who have treated on the Subject have been at a loss for Words and Terms to stamp a sufficient Ignominy upon it." Their contemporaries called them "Sea-monsters," "Hell-Hounds," and "Robbers, Opposers and Violators of all Laws, Humane and Divine." some believed they were "Devils incarnate." Others suspected they were "Children of the Wicked One" himself. "Danger lurked in their very Smiles."
-Peter T. Leeson, The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates
-Peter T. Leeson, The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates
Trivia question of the day................
Who, or what, is Charybdis........................................?
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