Furthur retirement discussion..investments

ET1 SS saidianne The IRS requires that you file taxes on the profits of any sale.

Land, vehicles, gold and silver.

If it is taxable for you personally though depends on how you play it. Tere are people who have technically owed a whole lot in capital gains who have not had to pay any. The trick, play international law. Few countries will extradite over taxes so as long as you don't reenter the U.S. the money isn't collectible.

That is a very good way to do it.



And if you worked out all of the numbers it would beat mutuals every way.

There are fun games to play, and there are games that are not so fun.

Diversify. Diversify. Diversify.

I'm not as smart as a lot of you, but I believe no investment does well all of the time. I tend to invest what little I have in index funds, some developing market funds, some municipal bonds, and some money markets.

And there's my place, of course.

If you have the skills, believe it or not, the used trailer thing will work, also. Another place to look for in rental housing is near colleges...students always need affordable housing.

Just my .02 cents...

That sounds like it should be right.

However:
Both sets of my grand-parents did rentals. Beginning in the 1940s. One set built houses that they rented out. The other set built one-room apartments as add-ons on the back of their house and 'took-in' the elderly. Both sets of grandparents did well with this until the 1990's [when they died].
My parents bought single-family-houses [SFRs] and rent them out, and have done so since, the 1960's until now.
I began buying MFRs in 1985, and we collected them in different areas where I was stationed, until my retirement.

So while it makes sense that with each investment vehicle there comes an economy when it sucks, when is it with rentals? Such has not happened between 1940 and 2007.

Depressions, recessions, inflation, deflation, what exactly kind of an economy would make folks stop renting?



Oh I agree, that or anywhere that folks live.

Gold and silver Eagles are considered legal tender in the US and do not incur any tax on the purchase or sale. The same applies to Gold Sovereigns in the UK or Maple Leafs in Canada or Kookaburras in Australia. This tax free status does not apply to investments, stocks, or exchange traded funds and in some instances, gold bars could be considered an investment. Although Gold and Silver coins can be purchased as an investment, they are still considered legal tender and you can't tax the currency of a nation. Do your research.

I did not say that you will be taxed on holding currency.

Nor did I say that you would be taxed a sales tax for purchasing or selling coin.



When you conduct business, and you earn a profit, you are obligated to file taxes on that profit.

If you buy precious metals as an investment vehicle; and you later sell them at a profit; you are required to file taxes on those profits.

If you collected Indian head nickles when they were common currency and valued at five cents a piece, and you later sold them for ten dollars a piece; then you have earned a profit.

Not too far from where I live, the government closed a military base in 1990. In 90 days, 35% of all rental property in the local market was empty.

Most people in the rental biz use property collateral and cash flow to leverage more funds to buy more rental properties. In the above scenario, a lot of people, from mom&pop investors to a multi-million dollar real estate management firm went belly-up.

Jolly-

See now I have worked with guys who owned homes near bases when those bases were shutdown.

Specifically Charleston SC. They screamed and screamed about losing the base, and home-porting to other bases.

I was on the Casimir Pulaski at the time. A boat that had been home-ported there, and was moving around to Subase Bangor.

I advised guys to hold on, and when the market prices hit bottom, to buy more. To buy entire blocks of tract housing.

One crewman did. After ten years, he did very well.

You're right about the 10 year time-frame. That's about what it took down here.

The one guy that I knew who actually did it, came away in very good shape.

double post

__________________
Iraq casualties
3,410 American deaths to date in Iraq
25,345 Americans wounded in action to date (your guess how many have died since and been uncounted)
$424,000,000,000 to date

Folks are always predicting disaster. We had a lumber mill close down a few years ago and while they were a major employer, representing the best wages in the county, we survived. A year after that, another major employer declared bankruptcy and closed four of their upscale, wilderness schools putting hundreds out of work. We survived that one too. Now our one remaining mill has cut back to one shift and they are fearful that they are on the way out.

Even I thought I'd see a reaction in the rental market, but nothing. The local economy took a hit, but throughout all the disasters I never had a vacancy longer than a week or two, and when I did, it was more often my fault in not getting the vacant property ready quicker. I also noted that the prices of property and homes continued to escalate to the point of ridiculousness and everybody that wants work manages to find it, even if it is at a lower wage or they have to commute to the larger town to the south of us.

All I know is that rental investments have worked for me. Even if I had to lower rents to zero profit (I would always keep a home occupied, because they deteriorate quickly unoccupied) I could wait out a downturn.

High dollar rentals may be harder to fill, but inexpensive ones will always be full.

__________________
Iraq casualties
3,410 American deaths to date in Iraq
25,345 Americans wounded in action to date (your guess how many have died since and been uncounted)
$424,000,000,000 to date

Same everywhere.





With the exception of when a military base closes, I agree.

I have always been totally amazed that rentals tend to stay filled. Granted individual renters move around and change out. But the units stay filled.

Now I have seen that within a neighborhood, that market prices and unemployment fluctuations will effect the rental units charging the highest rates. Which ever complex is higher than everyone else, that complex may empty out. But if you remove that one complex as a wild-point and look at the remainder of the local market, everyone stays at 90% to 95% filled.

I go through my own process of setting rent levels. I search the newspaper, and write down all advertised rental units. I work out what is the average rent level for 1bdrms, 2bdrms, 3bdrms. Then I subtract 20%. So I know that my units are each running at 80% of the neighborhood average. It keeps my units filled. I would rather have full units, than 20% vacancy rates each year.



Everyone says that it is a bubble.

They may be right.

It does not seem to make sense to me, that home prices can continue rising, but they do. And wage-slaves continue to buy them, paying higher and higher mortgages.

And in the middle of it all, our rental units stay filled.

?



I agree.

What I don't understand is why more people don't build their own houses...

Building your own home is fine for a homestead, and I am doing just that.

However in terms of investments that will support you and your family, a owner built home is not the best solution for rental income.

Depending on location, building codes and regulations can be as tricky as tax law. We are looking for a place close enough to town, yet out far enough to do as we like with our house.

Many folks just don't seem to understand how much one can save by building themselves or they don't have the confidence to try it.

__________________
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."
Thomas Jefferson

But the ones who do understand this, can really make out nicely.

Yep.....

__________________
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."
Thomas Jefferson

What has bitten us has been the totally different sets of codes for apartment buildings.

There are many things that you can do for a single family dwelling, and nobody cares. But in a multi-family dwelling suddenly entirely different standards apply.