Section 1031 of the IRS Code has to to with tax treatment on the exchange of one parcel of real estate for another. It’s similar to Section 1035 which covers most non real estate exchanges. Car for a car. Boat for a boat. Business for a business. But section 1031 allows indirect exchanges so long …
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Joint Loans
First off, let me say that your site has been very informative and helpful. I stumbled across your blog looking for information on ARM vs. 30 year fixed loans and ended up reading every article. One issue I have never really seen addressed is joint loans. When a couple, married in this case, gets a …
Company Stock in Retirement Accounts
Most of what you read on financial planning in the media is garbage, but here is one of those occasionally useful pieces: IRA Rollovers Could Have Tax Implications. Here’s the idea: You keep company stock in your qualified plan aside from any rollover you may do. Leave it with the company. Convert it to non-qualified …
“Banks Give Better Deals Than Brokers”
Better deals for the bank, that is. Ken Harney has a recent article Study Shows Loan Brokers’ Better Side But now a new, independent academic study has concluded the opposite: According to a team of researchers headed by Georgetown University’s Gregory Elliehausen, home mortgage applicants with less-than-perfect credit pay lower financing costs when they obtain …
Passive Asset Allocation
A while ago I talked about Passive Asset Allocation as a way to beat market return as a strategy. So I’m going to write a bit about what it is, why it works, and how to do it. Passive Asset Allocation is very simple at its heart. What you are doing is keeping the balance …
Media a Privileged Class? I Don’t Think So!
Volokh Conspiracy has an excellent article on the state of the law vis-a-vis publicizing past felony convictions. I ask, how can it be permitted for the media to do something that private citizens cannot? Does the media have more freedom of speech than a private citizen? I would submit that the first amendment was clearly …
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Loan Qualification Standards – “Loanbusters”
This is definitely not a “Who you gonna call?” I’ve done a couple articles in the recent past on the two ratios, debt to income and loan to value. Nonetheless, there exist a plethora of reasons why someone can be turned down for a loan even though they make it on the ratios. The first …
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Naming Beneficiaries – Do It, and Keep Them Current
what happen when 401K leave blank on beneficiary Nothing unless you die, and it’s not covered in your will or other documents. Then the state’s intestate code takes effect. Each state has a law for how the estates of those who die intestate will be divvied up. These laws were typically made generations ago, and …
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Mortgages and RAMs in Later Life
“Should People in their sixties take out a mortgage?” The short answer is “Not if you don’t have to.” Now if I suddenly vanish, the explanation will be that the loan industry put a contract out on me. Success in loans, and sales in general, is often attributable to selling people stuff they don’t need. …
What Drives Loan Rates?
Supply and Demand. Now that I’ve given the short answer, it’s time to explain the macro factors behind interest rate variations. But I’m going to keep referring to those first three words. It is a tradeoff between the supply of money and demand for it. The most obvious thing influencing loan rates is inflation. This …