Real Estate Investing : Investing in REITs

Investing in REITs might be a good idea.  I heard a rumor that QE will end and the Federal Reserve will prop up the real estate market instead.  We'll have to check on that.  But what is a REIT? The article below might answer your questions.

Real-estate may provide investors with a high-yield and low risk investment combination for greater total return potential to a diversified long-term portfolio. For most people, investing in real estate begins and ends with the purchase of a home and any prospects of investing in office buildings, hotels, and shopping centers seems nearly impossible. However, these investments are more attainable than you may think thanks to real estate investment trusts (REITs).
A REITs sole purpose is to invest in groups of professionally managed properties such as office buildings, apartment complexes, medical complexes, industrial buildings, and so on. REIT performance has varied over the years, but the total annual return for the past 10 years has been 10.5%.
REITs trade like close-end mutual funds. There are a fixed number of shares outstanding and they offer those shares via a price per share model similar to close-end mutual funds. However, unlike close-end mutual funds, REITs gauge performance under different metrics. Rather than measuring performance by net asset value, REITs use a tool called funds from operations. Fund from operations is defined as net income plus depreciations and amortization, excluding gains or losses from debt restructurings and sales of properties. A REITs growth benchmark is a byproduct of funds of operations growth.

Appeal of REITs
REITs offer an array of advantages to investors, including:

Diversification - Investors turn to REITs and their good dividend paying potential for diversification against future market downturns because REITs are uncorrelated with equity markets.

Built-in management - Each REIT and its property investments are overseen with their own management team, saving investors tremendous time from researching each property's management team.

Tax advantages - REITs don't pay federal corporate income taxes and are required by law to distribute at least 90% of their annual taxable income as dividends, eliminating double taxation of income. Investors can also have a portion of REIT dividend income be treated as a return of capital.

Inflation protection - Since landlords are inclined to raise rents more quickly when inflation picks up, equity REITs - which obtain most of their income from rents - can be an inflation hedge.

Weighing out some risks
Just like all investments, REITs carry with them specific risks that you should consider and discuss with your financial advisor before adding them to your portfolio. Above all is the lack of industry diversification because all REIT investments include only property investments. Some REITs may be even less diversified when they choose to specialize in specific property developments such as medical buildings, or golf courses. Because of their focus, a REIT investment should be used as part of a diversified portfolio to provide greater diversification.
You should also be aware that REITs are subject to changes in the value of their underlying portfolios, and their prices may fluctuate with changes in their real estate holdings. REITs are also interest-rate sensitive - particularly mortgage REITs. If rates and borrowing costs rise, construction projects with marginal funding may be shelved, potentially driving down prices across the REIT industry.

There are some unique factors to consider when selecting a REIT
Yield and debt - High-yields are tempting, but REIT yields above certain levels may mean that there's not enough being reinvested for acquisitions, which could affect long-term growth. Too much debt or leverage can also influence prospects for growth. Your Isakov Planning Group Financial Advisor can help you define what a high REIT yield and a high debt load could be in a given market scenario.

Management potential - Management should have a substantial personal stake in the REIT, which should be listed in the latest proxy statement. If the REIT is new, refer to the prospectus for the management's track record (if any) in similar enterprises. For insight into management's effectiveness at cutting costs and increasing rents and occupancy, refer to same-space revenue growth in the annual report's financial analysis.

Demographic trends - In the case of apartment REITs, for example, ask about the area's direction of vacancy rates and rents, the amount of new apartment construction, and the affordability of home ownership. The higher the cost of home ownership, the more attractive an apartment REIT might be.
Perhaps investing in a REIT mutual fund is one way to manage risks or real estate investing, and to spare investors from investing time into researching all the avenues that should be carefully considered when investing in a diversified real estate portfolio on their own. A real estate mutual fund may invest in several different properties across different sectors of the real estate industry in several different geographic regions, giving you diversification and a way to manage your risks.

View the original article at Real-Estate investing: Investing in REITs along with other articles on fixed income investing.
Isakov Planning Group Financial Advisors bring industry leading resources and expertise to help clients pursue and achieve their goals.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Yulian_Isakov

How to Retire Early In a Nutshell

We all want that job that will allow us to retire early and have the rest of our lives to goof off and have fun. The whole point of early retirement is to enjoy the life you have worked so hard for.

 

To be able to retire early, you will need to work hard and save money that you have earned. The first step to retire early is to make sure you have all your debts paid off. If you are buying a house, it needs to eventually be paid in full; this means you will have no mortgage to worry about when it comes to time to retire. Not only will you need to make sure your housing is secure, but you will want to make sure you have no credit card debt. If you have used credit cards to live off in the past, then you will need to pay them off and turn them off. DO not use the credit cards any more; once they are paid off, either turn them off or save only one for emergencies only. Another big debt you may have would be a car payment. Pay off your car before you decide to retire, because less payments you have the better off you will be.

 

After you have made sure all your debts are paid off you will want to invest your money into a business that will help you gain money. An investment is a sure fire way to be able to earn money towards your retirement. If you do not want to invest your money in someone else’s business, then try having your own business so that you can work for yourself and then eventually use that business make money for you, while you look for other deals or play with kids. When you have your own business you will hope you will have work and income coming in to help you reach early retirement.  

 

When you retire early, you have accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. Early retirement means you have held a decent job for a long enough period of time to pay off all your debts, invested money or created your own business and establish a life for yourself.

 

By being able to retire early, you can be proud of yourself knowing that you have accomplished a lot during your working days. There are many different ways to save money so that you can retire early, but the best way to do this is to work hard and be careful of every penny you spend and invest your hard earned money so that it can multiply into a bigger amount. Anyone could enjoy early retirement, its just working hard and putting your mind to it.

 

see: www.renegadeuniversity.net if you'll do anything to get out of the rat race.

Saving and Investing Central to Financial Independence

While increasing earnings is perhaps the best way to attain financial independence, saving and investing are almost just as important and therefore should never be ignored under any circumstances.

I understand that in today’s tough economic scenario, saving is much easier said than done – incomes are dwindling while expenses are showing no signs of withering, which only makes saving that much tougher. Yet, I also know that if we all make the necessary concerted effort, saving will surely not prove to be as tough as many make it out to be.

For instance, do you really need to buy that latest smartphone launched in the market, especially when your previous phone is also relatively new and doing just fine? Then do you really need to buy more clothes and shoes and other paraphernalia, when you already have more than your share of these items in your closet? These are questions that you need to ask yourself consistently, and as you will find, the more disciplined and prudent you get with your expenses, the easier it will be for you to save.

Taking on from there, merely saving money will not suffice; you also need to make concerted effort to invest the money that you save. Otherwise, presuming that you simply tuck away the money that you save in its physical form at home, you will naturally earn nothing extra. And even if you simply leave it in your bank account, with ever dwindling interest rates on bank deposits, there isn’t much that you will earn that way either!

Instead, your endeavor has to be to prudently invest the money that you save; that is how you will eventually be able to increase the quantum of money at your disposal. Not only that, depending on the kind of investments that you make and the rate of returns that they offer, you could easily be looking at a large kitty as time goes by. 

NEVER Put All Your Eggs in One Basket Though!

Given the context of the above mentioned, it is also very important that you remain investment savvy by not putting in all your eggs in one basket, however lucrative that proverbial basket may seem. For instance, if there is a financial planner or investor who promises you a rate of return of 20% or more on investments you make with that individual, don’t get carried away! Such high rates of return are really rare and typically not trustworthy.

Instead you should look at more secure investment options, even if the rate of return is low, on a diversified basis.

Take a look at www.renegadeuniversity.net .  Set aside some time to read, watch the videos, and ask the hard questions.

Staying Focused and NOT Giving Up Central to Financial Independence

How often we see individuals coming up with what seems to be a brilliant business plan, only to give up halfway through due to obstacles of various kinds along the way!

Unfortunately it is circumstances such as these which prevent a lot of us from achieving the kind of financial freedom and independence which we so eagerly seek. 

For inspiration, you need not look further than any of the major corporations around us, with the tech ones being especially very good examples. Take Google for instance, which was borne out of a simple idea to aggregate online information and put it together in such a way that users could easily search for and find the information in question. Today it is a multi-billion dollar, global enterprise. Had its founders given up on their idea, we would never have been searching online for information in the same manner that we do today. Likewise, if you look at many of the retail giants in the country – as indeed around the world, you will find that they had really humble beginnings and only because their founders had the kind of self belief which is so earnestly required; could they grow their ventures ultimately to the behemoths which we recognize them as, today.

These are of course instances of major corporations but the same metaphor and learning can easily be extended in the case of much smaller enterprises as well. Take for instance a niche website which you are developing that you intend to monetize through advertisements alone, while ensuring that the content remains free to audiences. Now, when it comes to traffic to websites, it often takes time to build, and then significant effort to sustain. Giving up too soon will not bear you any fruit, while staying persistent will more than likely pay rich rewards.

Therefore the learning for you from this post has to be that when it comes to success in any venture you are conjuring – discipline and focus are absolutely pivotal. Without them, you will certainly not be in a position to get anywhere as far as your ultimate objective of financial freedom and independence is concerned.

Accordingly, each time you find yourself wandering, or maybe straying away from what is your ultimate goal as far as the venture at hand is concerned – maybe you are just not making the kind of headway that you hoped you would, remind yourself that success for all the successful folks out there never came overnight; they had to work hard and stay focused for it.

Discipline a Key Factor in Financial Freedom when Working by Oneself

When working by oneself – maybe an entrepreneurial venture that you are pursuing, it is of utmost important that you remain focused and disciplined.

I stress on this aspect a lot because unlike in a job where there are many deterrents to slacking – such as a strict boss, when you are work on your own, you are effectively your own boss and not anyone else. So if you do not remain disciplined, there is a good chance that you will never achieve the goals that you set out for yourself.

Take a simple instance where you are indulging in freelance writing for diverse online and offline clients, one of the many quick cash ideas that I have shared. Now, with no one behind your back, there is a good chance that you will end up spending your time online but not really “working”, instead indulging in pastimes such as looking up news sites, checking your Facebook or Twitter account, and so on.

You must understand that doing so will hurt no one else but you yourself; the same time you could use in “working” in the truest sense, you are simply frittering away!! Avoid doing that under all circumstances.

Tips to Avoid Slacking

In order to avoid slacking as I have described above, a great way that I have observed and eventually followed religiously is to cut off all possible distractions. I setup predefined time lines where “work” is the only agenda, with NOTHING else coming in between – no personal phone calls, no personal emails, no opening up sites other than work related, and so on.

Ultimately, I have found that such an approach really pays off very well.

Further, I have also setup my boundaries within the home office environment where during certain predestined time periods I am simply NOT available to anyone else in the household for any personal purpose, unless it is an absolute emergency. I mention this point because a lot of the personal entrepreneurial pursuits take place in a home environment, particularly at the outset, as you maybe building your business plan, researching all the finance options at your disposal, and so on. Under such circumstances, household distractions will only end up proving to be a major deterrent.

Keeping these points in mind, I wish you success in your pursuit for financial freedom; just remember that you will only be able to achieve it if you remain self-disciplined.

With Financial Freedom Comes Independence

I have simply lost count of the number of instances where I have noted couples stuck in relationships which have very clearly lost their sheen completely, purely because of financial compulsions. To cite an instance, a woman in an abusive relationship continues to tolerate her abuser boyfriend / husband, purely because he is the provider, the proverbial bread winner.

This is definitely not how things should be; yet, because the most important element of financial freedom happens to be missing, there is precious little that individuals in such a scenario can do, other than to tolerate all the wrongdoing that is taking place.

The other, more eclectic choice is to ensure financial freedom in such a way that you have your personal independence and therefore do not have to rely on anyone else for day to day existence, especially if that person (or set of persons) happens to be unscrupulous. In that regard, I will even cite the instance of many parents who are clearly not the best for their children, and yet, since the kids do not have financial freedom, they have to keep up with the abuse (or any other offensive behavior) which comes their way.

No doubt, achieving such financial freedom is much easier said than done. And when we are young, and lack both experience as well as qualification, apart from not being as worldly wise as we would be in later years, it is that much harder to ensure financial freedom. Yet, it is not an impossible task either. I would suggest that you look up this page where you can note a number of passive income ideas which I have shared with you. However young, unqualified or inexperienced you might be, there would definitely be ideas on that list that you can actually take up for yourself.

Also remember that a lot of the learning – whether work related or “life” related, comes with time and experience. So you need not always seek out specialized learning, such as the one obtained in a classroom format. Instead, you can simply get on with working on any of the ideas enlisted (or others that you might possibly have in your mind) and go from there to achieve financial freedom, towards the ultimate goal of personal independence.

At the end of the day, you will have only yourself to thank and feel obligated to, for having taken this much needed initiative.

Prudent Finances Key to Meeting Exigencies

Life is no doubt very unpredictable – we often do not know how things will unfurl within a very short span of time.

Given that scenario, it becomes perfunctory that when it comes to personal finances, they are planned and provided for very prudently.

In that regard, augmenting one’s income as well as saving for proverbial rainy days becomes absolutely quintessential.

We mention this particular aspect because as troubling as the trend may be, fact is that millions in America – as indeed in many other parts of the world, are living pay check to pay check. That way they are not providing for exigencies nor saving up for what may be the “sunset years”.

This is clearly not a good sign at all.

I am not saying that you give up enjoying life in the present – after all, each and every day of your life is just as important, whereby it becomes really essential that you live it to the fullest. But at the same time, you also need to ensure that when it comes to unpredictable situations, you are able to cope up with them financially.

Take the case of a sudden death in the family, especially if it is an earning member – no one can predict such an occurrence yet truth is that such things do happen. Likewise, loss of jobs is something we often cannot foresee in advance; company policies change way too often rather unpredictably whereby you might suddenly find yourself jobless, with a mountain of bills to pay and various other financial obligations to meet.

It is in this context that MasterMind University offers a variety of ideas and solutions aimed at making one’s financial life that much easier and comfortable. Using a variety of means at one’s disposal, numerous initiatives can be taken to ensure that when it comes to financial goals and ultimately – financial freedom, it is ensured without a glitch.

In particular, passive income is something which MasterMind University stresses on, offering a variety of ideas for that as can be seen here. As you can note, investment options are at the heart of such passive income options, yet there are many more which can be tapped; existing real estate which can be rented out is an excellent way to earn passive income without “working” in the truest sense…there are many more such possibilities as you think about it!