Alternative Assets | wealthymatters

Home Loans In The US

April 20, 2014 8 Comments

wealthymatters Home loans are one of the most common types of loans in the United States today.The US has many home loan options which make home ownership and investing in residential properties easy.In addition to the conventional fixed rate and adjustable rate mortgages found world-wide,there are VA Loans,FHA Insured loans and HomePath Mortgages that offer simpler and cheaper ways to purchase residential properties.

Lately refinancing has become a particularly popular option for homeowners in the US, struggling in the face of the economic recession, which has in part caused home pricing to rise despite poor sales in the real estate market. Refinancing helps lower mortgage payments and allow a person to stay in their home after a financial setback.Refinancing is also an option exercised by savvy real estate investors who want to take advantage of the historically low interest rates in the US and use the bank’s money to grow rich.

When the mortgage balance exceeds the current property value we have an “underwater” mortgage. Refinancing options on such properties are limited because most lenders require some equity in the property ,ideally about 20 percent.However, borrowers can avail of the US government’s Making Home Affordable program(HARP) instead of going for a Short Sale.This program allows qualified borrowers to refinance a loan that is from 105% to as high as 125% of a home’s value.To qualify for HARP,a person must not be on the road to foreclosure.Any delinquent payments in the past 12 months will automatically disqualify a person from eligibility.Second, either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac must own the loan. Read more of this post

Filed under Alternative Assets, Tool Kit Tagged with adjustable rate mortgage, Fannie Mae, FHA Insured loans, fixed rate mortgage, foreclosure, Freddie Mac, HARP Home Loan, home loans, HomePath Mortgages, investing in residential properties, mortgage payments, postaday, refinancing a home loan, short sale, underwater mortgage, VA Loans

The Importance Of Capital Gains

April 7, 2014 Leave a comment

wealthymatters

Ths IRS releases a list of the 400 highest returns filed in the US.They are known as the Fortunate 400.So how do they get there?-Their money works for them.

The Fortunate 400 make as much as half of their incomes (in blue) from investments, and their household incomes have swung very similarly to the S&P 500 (in red) over the past 100 years.The S&P 500 is a broad mix of 500 stocks across multiple sectors, it is a much more accurate gauge of market sentiment than the more well-known Dow Jones Industrial Average – which tracks only 30 stocks.At the very top of the economy, the 400 richest tax returns analyzed by the IRS take home about 50 percent of their income from capital gains i.e they sell at the top of the market.Capital gains are income earned through investments, and they have shot up 1,300 per cent since 1992.

So are there any repeat names on the list ?-73% of the people make it to this list just once.Only four households appeared every year in the last 2 decades.So who are they?Your guess is as good as mine.For privacy reasons the IRS doesn’t publish these names.

Filed under Alternative Assets, Entrepreneurship, Paper Assets, Theory, Tool Kit Tagged with capital gains, Fortunate 400, postaday, sell at the top of the market

US Wealth Distribution

April 7, 2014 Leave a comment

wealthymatters

The bottom nine-tenths of the 1 Percent club have about the same slice of the national wealth pie that they had a generation ago. The gains have accrued almost exclusively to the top tenth of 1 Percenters. The richest 0.1 percent of the American population has rebuilt its share of wealth back to where it was in the Roaring Twenties. And the richest 0.01 percent’s share has grown even more rapidly, quadrupling since the eve of the Reagan Revolution.

So where do they have their money?In real estate and bonds.So don’t underestimate their relevance to the wealthy.

Filed under Alternative Assets, Paper Assets, Theory, Tool Kit Tagged with 1 percent club, investing in bonds, Investing in real estate, postaday, the one percenters, ultra rich, ultra wealthy, US wealth distribution

The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005

April 6, 2014 2 Comments

wealthymatters This Act was passed to address the inequalities in succession to agricultural land, Mitakshara joint family property, parental dwelling house and certain widow’s rights.

One of the most significant amendments in the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 is the deletion of the gender discriminatory Section 4 (2) of the 1956 HSA. Section 4(2) exempted from the purview of the HSA significant interests in agricultural land, the inheritance of which was subject to the devolution rules specified in State-level tenurial laws.In States where these laws were silent on inheritance, the HSA applied by default, as also where the tenurial laws explicitly mention the HSA. But, in Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh, the tenurial laws specified inheritance rules that were highly gender unequal. Primacy was given to male lineal descendants in the male line of descent and women came very low in the order of heirs.Also, women got only a limited estate and lost the land on remarriage.Moreover, in U.P. and Delhi, a “tenant” is defined so broadly that these inequalities effectively covered all agricultural land. U.P. alone has 1/6 of India’s population. This clause thus negatively affected innumerable women farmers.The 2005 Act brings all agricultural land on par with other property and makes Hindu women’s inheritance rights in land legally equal to men’s across States, overriding any inconsistent State laws. This can benefit millions of women dependent on agriculture for survival. Read more of this post

Filed under Alternative Assets, Theory, Tool Kit Tagged with agricultural land, Hindu Joint Family Property, married daughters as coparceners, Mitakshara joint family property, postaday, real estate, Section 23 of the HSA 1956, Section 24 of the HSA 1956, Section 4 (2) of the HSA 1956, widow's rights

Kamal Khetan’s Way

April 3, 2014 Leave a comment

wealthymatters In 2007, when the MMRDA invited bids for its plots in the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), Sunteck was the only company that opted for residential plots – all others bid for plots to build commercial projects.

Here’s how Kemal Khetan explains his action:“My observation was that in any business district, the residential segment always commands premium over commercial, whether it’s Manhattan, Hong Kong or NCPA in Mumbai.”

One of the BKC plots which he bought for 140 crores in 2007 and converted into a residential project, Signature Island, is valued at 1,000 crores by analysts. He has two more similar projects at BKC, each valued around 700 crores. About 65% of the inventory is already sold – buyers include former Citigroup chief executive Vikram Pandit, industrialist Gautum Adani and investment banker Nimesh Kampani – and the remaining is held by the company as it believes the premium will go higher once the projects are completed.

Kamal Khetan is very smart in land acquisition. His land cost to total sales is one of the lowest among Mumbai realtors.He has never gone for trophy properties but has still managed to create high luxury projects.