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NRAS Property in Victoria

The National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) is a long term commitment by the Australian Government to invest in affordable rental housing. The NRAS Victoria seeks to address the shortage of affordable rental housing by offering financial incentives to the business sector and community organizations to build and rent dwellings to low and moderate income households at 20 per cent below-market rates for 10 years. NRAS Victoria aims to increase the supply of new affordable rental housing; reduce rental costs for low and moderate income households; and encourage large scale investment and innovative delivery of affordable housing. The Australian Government has committed $1 billion to the Scheme over four years to stimulate construction of up to 50,000 high quality homes and apartments, providing affordable private rental properties for Australians and their families.

NRAS Victoria is a great opportunity for property investors to have a property investment in Victoria in a high capital growth area but still receive the positive cash flow provided by the generous government grants. I believe this is a small window of opportunity where a property investor can build their asset base with no need to take a hit on their cash flow, in actual fact you will increase your cash flow position. NRAS Victoria offers a substantial annual tax-free incentive, the NRAS Incentive, for every dwelling built under its auspices. Investors making property investment in Victoria need to apply for NRAS Incentives, and if offered, must agree to rent approved dwellings at 20 per cent or more below current market rates, to low and moderate income households.

The NRAS Incentive is a funding stream not available to standard residential property investors. Each approved dwelling attracts the NRAS Incentive for 10 years, so long as investors continue to comply with conditions around tenant eligibility and rent discounts. NRAS investors can expect to benefit from the annual NRAS Incentive, rental yields and capital gain. NRAS is intended to be a commercial, profitable property investment in Victoria for participants, while also assisting Australia to increase the supply of affordable housing. It is important to understand that an NRAS approved property is physically no different to any other property in a new development – it simply has been granted the NRAS status. Taxation or any government incentive should never entirely drive a property investment Victoria decision – sure – take them into consideration, but the underlying qualities of the investment are always the most important drivers.

The same applies for NRAS property investments in Victoria – if the NRAS scheme was not there tomorrow, would the investment still make sense? The real benefit of investing in an NRAS Victoria property compared to a normal property investment in Victoria comes down to maths. The $9,524 government incentives are a flat annual amount – regardless of the property type, value and rental income. This means the incentives have a larger positive cash flow impact on properties with a lower market rent. NRAS property investments in Victoria can boost the amount of cash flow generated from a property – which is fantastic.…

Reporting Stock Shares on Schedule D

Schedule is a tax form that you attach to your 1040 income tax return; it is used to report capital gains. The form itself is easy to understand, but the filing can become complicated when multiple transactions occur with a single equity.

Stock sales can be reported based on the actual value of specific shares or on a first in, first out (FIFO) basis. Investors can report capital gains in such a manner as to offset other gains or losses. Schedule D reports on stock sales, not current holdings.

The description of stock shares is entered on Line 1 (a) of Schedule D. List the number of shares and then, the name of the company.

The purchase and sale dates of the shares are entered on Line 1 (b) and 1 (c). If you do not have this information on hand, it can be obtained from the 1099 provided from your broker or by your broker upon request.

Enter the sale price of the stock shares on Line 1 (d). This amount is either the cost per share or the gross proceeds from the sale.

The cost basis of the stock is entered on Line 1 (e). This is the most complicated calculation of the process. You can get detailed information on calculating cost basis from the IRS at their website.

Subtract the figure on Line 1 (e) from the figure on Line 1 (d) to determine your capital gain. If you end up with a negative number, it is a loss as opposed to a gain. Losses are reported in (parenthesis). This amount, gain or loss, is to be entered on Line 1 (f).

Repeat the process for each stock sold. While sales in a single company can be aggregated onto a single entry, you must list every company in which you have sold stock during the year on Schedule D.

The example given above is for reporting on short-term assets. To report on long-term assets, follow the same process, but enter the numbers in the fields on Line 8 rather than Line 1.

If you sold shares in a single company, some of which were short-term assets and some of which were long-term, it will be necessary to separate and report these assets based upon duration.…

Integrating Financial Education Into The Education System – Part 2

Given the various flaws in the education system, many people become more vulnerable to bad financial advice. As a result, financial problems occur and this causes them to gain financial wisdom the hard way. Since prevention is better than cure, it is definitely better if we wire in sound financial concepts into students before they step into the outside world. The following single lesson below is one I deem extremely important for students to know, adding on to the 3 addressed in Part 1.

One vital lesson the education system ought to have is the difference between capital gains and cash flow. Capital gains allow you to make money from a difference in buying and selling price. Basically, you must liquidate a certain asset in order to gain money. For cash flow, investors basically receive money every month from an investment without working for it. One example would be cash flow.

As capital gains investments are affected by wild market swings, they are more of a gamble despite the fact that they can rake in more money in the short term. In contrast, cash flow investments provide steady and stable passive income over a long period of time and you can easily reinvest the money elsewhere to gain more cash flow.

Given the rapid pace of change today, investors must invest for both cash flow and capital gains, with greater emphasis however placed on cash flow investments. This is because money today is a currency and must move to an asset that increases cash flow to prevent losing value to inflation.

Also, investing for cash flow takes most risk out of investments because even if asset prices fall, the investor still receives his passive income monthly. However, if the price of asset increases, you get a bonus! This is much safer than capital gains investments.

In stocks, the cash flow investments available would be dividend stocks. A rule of thumb to remember is that a dividend yield exceeding 5% would be a good stock while that below 3% would mean that the stock is over-priced, suggesting an eventual dip in prices.

If many people knew this general rule, they would not have fallen prey to traps in the market during October 2007 and March 2009. In October 2007, the stock market hit a high of 14,564 with only 1.8% dividend yield. Using the rule, it would have meant that stocks are too expensive and investors shouldn’t enter. Nonetheless, many did not know this and entered the market during this time, causing heavy losses.

To make things worse, history simply repeated in March 2009 when the stock market hit a low of 6,547 with 1.9% dividend yield. This also meant that prices were too high but nevertheless, many people thought prices were low and entered the market. Here, they lost money once again.

In conclusion, given the repetition of such gaffes, it is definitely vital that schools guide their students well on knowing cash flow and capital gains investing well. This would definitely groom them into more financially literate individuals with more means of contributing back to society.…

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Shopping Centre – Strategic Factors

The success of retail investment property and particularly the Retail Shopping Centre depends on the key factors such as:

the size of local customer markets

the type of local customer and their spending habits

the level and nature of the average family income in that market area

the growth of the local community

the size and location of nearby competition properties, and

the exposure and access the subject property gets to roads and transport systems

The property investors owning retail property should keep a close eye on future of other Shopping Centres locally and any expansion or change they are to experience. The local planning approvals office should be monitored for any pending approvals which change the zoning of the properties in the region, and any approvals of new developments that could impact the way the community use other property locally.

So why do this? You are trying to protect your cash flow and the future of your property. Without customers, the rent and leases for your property will deteriorate. The levels of market rents in your property are underpinned by customers. You can sue a tenant that is not paying rent required under a lease, however the matter is much larger, and a poorly performing tenant can be the first sign of something much larger impacting the greater property.

Being sensitive to customers and tenants in a retail property is a major part of market awareness. When financial difficulties arise with one tenant it pays to check its origins and review the impact on the greater tenant mix in the property.

Property rental is precious and must be protected. The rental income generated on a retail property depends mainly on these internal and external factors.

the demographics and sentiment from the local and more distant community

the performance of local and national economies

customer ease of access and use of the property

customer acceptance of the property to satisfy shopping needs

the rental cash flow

the net income resulting after property operational costs

lease documentation type, terms, and stability

the mix and placement of tenants relevant to the traffic areas and entry points across the property

the clustering of tenants near each other to extend the spending of the customer

Any new investor to a retail property would assess all these issues with great scrutiny and diligence. They will impact the sales turnover figures for the property. If the shopping centre keeps turnover statistics for the tenants and customer counts from the entry points to the property, the figures will also be invaluable to landlord property analysis.

Here are some other things to consider in your property plans and strategy.

Anchor Tenants in the property should be well known in the community and support growth of ongoing trade for both themselves and the specialty tenants

Look for tenants that can achieve high sale volumes and support percentage rentals above the base rentals

Look for lease documents that support reasonable achievable rent levels and see if they have attractive escalation clauses that can be reached by the tenant without threat to occupancy and stability of trade

Some net rent lease documents will pass through a large percentage of operating costs of the property to the individual tenants thus removing the pressures from the Investor. This will provide protection to the Investor of any inflationary pressures which can occur in the future.

Retail investment property brings good returns to the investor providing they take an interest in the property future and base today’s decisions on tomorrow’s property performance. This property performance should give due regard to the relationships between tenants, landlord, customer, and community. That equation will optimise the property opportunity.…

Best Penny Stock to Buy – Turn $1,000 to $1,000,000 Through 3 Easy Steps Strategy!

One of the key advantage of penny stocks are that they require minimum capital to invest with. As most of us have limited funds for investment, it is critical that we are able to find a good stock that is low in price to start our initial investment.

Step 1: Look for Good performing Company

It’s vital that for every investment, we need to do our due diligence in understanding the business and performance of the company stock that we’re going to invest in. This is in line with Warren Buffet, the most successful stock investment guru, strategy in investment. The three key areas of study are:

a. Business model – Does the product or service has durability? Does it have competitive advantage?

b. Top management – Do they focus on integrity? Do they believe in the business or only for their own pocket?

c. Company financial performance – what’s the return on shareholder’s equity? Is it consistent? What is their long term debt against earnings?

Step 2: Time Your Investment

As the saying goes, ‘buy when the stock is low and sell when it is high’. You’ll need to keep track of the history of the stock price. With the correct technical analysis, you’ll realize when the stock is at its lowest. This could be due to a one-off negative market sentiment which is temporary or a structural change due to industry recession. These are the best time to enter the market as there will be a turnaround when these temporary negative sentiments are over.

Step 3: Time Your Exit

When the market is over-hyped, it’s a good chance that the next doom will be coming soon. Smart investors like yourself will need to exit the market and consolidate your funds so that when the next down time come, you’re all ready to repeat your money making stock investment again. A simple rule of thumb is to compare the company price to earnings ratio over the past years and if it hits a record high (way over the norm), it’s a signal that the market has overpriced the stock value of the company and its time to exit!

Thank you for reading this article. I hope that it has helped you in finding the best penny stock to invest and see exponential grow in your funds!…

Gold Investment, a Profitable Idea

The general state of the global economy pushes more and more businessmen and ordinary citizens to the land investment in gold objects. They give up risky investments and buy coins and jewelry made of the precious metal.

U.S. Mint sold 92,000 ounces of American Eagle coins last month, four times more than in 2007, according to Financial Times. Also in other countries a strong increase in sales of gold objects has been reported.

The main reasons for people to invest their money in gold during crisis would be keeping their value over a longer period of time, devaluation of the national currency, but also of other currencies, inflation, and low supply and demand. These reasons should be enough to consider investing or at least trying to find out more information about gold and related markets.

The current economic crisis has made gold price increase by up to 25% in the recent months. Thus, economy experts believe that it would be a perfect time to invest in gold. Compared to money or other valuables that pass through the process of devaluation over time, gold retains its value and also has a great importance in the global economic circuits.

Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar, the most important currency on the stock market, influences the gold quotation. Economists have observed that every time the dollar reaches minimum values, gold is more expensive.

According to analysts, in 2009, the dollar should have depreciated because of Barack Obama’s financial sector support plan. A lot of money added to the market lead to a devaluation of the dollar and thus increased the value of gold.

Another reason to invest in gold can be found in history. Gold has an inverse correlation with other financial instruments and this can be observed since the ’70s. At that time, there weren’t so many good investment opportunities, and following a wrong investment could have been devastating and cost you a lot of money. However, the ’80s and ’90s have brought great benefits for various portfolios, but have been weak for gold.

Since 2000 we are going through a favorable period for gold investment, and fairly weak for investing in other financial instruments.

According to a study by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, almost 75% of mining companies exploiting the gold deposits expect gold prices to go up until the last quarter of 2011, and mining company representatives estimate that gold prices will range between $1400 and $300 an ounce. The others think that the increase of gold prices will stop at $1500.

Although nobody can say for sure what will happen in the market, analysts believe that gold price will continue to rise and there are no signs that it might cheapen.…

Spending Less and Gaining More

My sister is consistently buying department brand makeup and dropping ridiculous loads of unnecessary cash. I brought her attention to the fact that she could be buying her $50 facial concealer off of eBay for $10 plus 2 dollar shipping and handling. Lets say she buys that $50 concealer facial concealer every month. If my sister is making this $50 monthly purchase she is spending around $600 a year on facial makeup alone. Yikes! Lets bring the reduced cost to $12 with this glorious invention called eBay. She is now spending $144 a year on her makeup. It’s still extravagant, but it’s a lot better! I have successfully saved my sister $456 a year with a small step. In this article I hope to shed some light on tiny little saving tips that could add up to big amounts in your bank account.

eBay

Instead of going out and purchasing that $3000 laptop, see if you can find it on eBay first. There is an option to select only new and unopened items when you are searching for your products. If you are looking for a warranty on your product, skip this option and go to the store. I have saved HUGE amounts eying something in the store and running home to check the price on eBay.

COUPON SHOPPING

I know this is redundant to say, but coupons save a lot of money if you know how to use them. Every time I go shopping; I make absolute sure to Google coupons for that specific store in case there are any quick print outs. A lot of stores are providing printable discount cards on their websites. For example, if you decide to go to Macy’s, be sure to do a quick Google search for “Macy’s coupon” before you head out the door!

FREEBIE SITES

I love free samples. Who doesn’t love free stuff? A lot of sites are aimed at taking your e-mail and contact information for spam, but I have found a few good ones that provide true daily deals. I like and .

SKIP THE FAST FOOD

I know it hurts. Letting go of those daily iced coffees broke my heart as well. Two small caramel macchiatos from Starbucks were coming out to $8 daily. That is $56 dollars a week which comes out to around $240 a month. Is it really worth it? How much do YOU spend on fast food? Do the calculations for weekly spending and it may shock you.

BE THRIFTY

Let go of your pride and check out some consignment shops or flea markets for your shopping sprees. I have found some seriously nice stuff for very low low amounts. Unless you have very materialistic friends, I doubt anyone is going to be secretly judging or questioning the authenticity of your purse.

SELL UNUSED JUNK OR HAVE A YARD SALE

As the saying goes, one mans trash is another mans treasure. If you have any unused electronics laying around that you don’t see yourself using, sell them. I have taken old parts out of unused or broken computers and sold them for decent amounts. Someone also bought a junky old exercise bike off of me for $60. is a great place to get rid of unwanted stuff.

START YOUR OWN BUSINESS

My friend got the clever idea to buy old broken Xbox 360s off of eBay and repair them for money. He has made a livable income off of this idea. If you have marketable skills, use them! In closing, there are lots of great ways to make money. It’s all about using logical thinking and making wise decisions. In this economy, one cannot afford to pass up good opportunities and savings. I hope I have helped implant some useful ideas.…

Property Asset Management: Property Investment Strategy – Part One of Four

Every real estate investment’s performance is composed of a mix of equity-like and debt-like behaviors. From a Property Asset Management standpoint, investment funding is composed of both private and public equity. It is the correlation of the debt and equity components to the funding source that enables us to define the four primary real estate investment structures.

Consider the case of a private real estate equity asset leased to a single credit tenant with a long-term triple-net lease. The payments on the lease resemble the fixed payments associated with a bond, not with equity. In-fact the value of the triple-net leased asset fluctuates in step with the same factors that influence the value of a bond or a mortgage, such as interest rate movements, inflation, and the credit worthiness of the tenant.

At the other extreme, an equity position in an empty, speculative multi-tenant property with short-term leases is driven almost entirely by equity forces. The building’s value from an equity tranche perspective is a function of supply and demand for space in a given market, at a given time. In-fact, the debt-to-equity composition for a property investment can change with time.

By way of illustration, take the triple-net lease in the first example. As the lease ages and approaches its expiration date, the property takes on a greater component of equity-like behavior and less of a component of debt-like behavior; and at the end of the triple-net lease, the property value is only affected by equity forces.

Commercial mortgages are utilized in Property Asset Management to carve out the debt-like behavior from the property investment. For example, the commercial mortgage-backed securities market carves up the cash flows from pools of mortgages to produce bond-like characteristics in the top-level tranches and more equity like cash-flow characteristics in subordinate layers. As property investment funding is composed of both private and public equity, investors typically define these debt and equity tranches with four primary real estate investment structures:

Equity:

* Private Commercial Real Estate Equity – held as individual assets

* Public Real Estate Equity – structured as Property Funds or Real Estate Investment Trust

Debt:

* Private Commercial Real Estate Debt – held as loans or commercial mortgages held in funds

* Public Commercial Real Estate Debt – structured as Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities

These investment structures react to a common set of influences as well as to unique influences specific to each individual structure. It is the analysis of debt and equity components of each structure that enables property asset managers and their agents to effectively structure the portfolio to meet specific investment goals. In the next two articles, we discuss the debt and equity components for several different property investment objectives.…

Investment Portfolio Strategies – What You Need to Know! – 2011 and Beyond

The world of investment and finance is dynamic. After the recent credit crunch, portfolio managers have become increasingly aware of the need to review and change strategies to match the demands of today and the future. A portfolio consisting of stocks, mutual funds and bonds for example may not be the best mix today. Knowing the right strategies to employ in this highly unpredictable global financial environment is key not only to the portfolio manager but also their clients not forgetting other individuals and interested parties.

Over the years, investors have concentrated on having a portfolio diversified with stocks and bonds with a little percentage higher in favour of bonds. This is because investors saw stocks to fluctuate more than bonds; hence there was wisdom in holding such a balance in a portfolio. If the prices of commodities such as gold, oil, diamond, Ivory, etc continue to rise as being observed now, then inflation together with interest rates will also rise forcing bond prices to fall. The trend of commodity price increases shows no signs of coming down anytime soon.

For these reasons, it is relevant for investors in stocks to also hold a diversified stock that include stocks from other countries (international stocks). For the years ahead, the best portfolio will also include stocks from the oil and gas sectors including real estate not to mention gold- with little reservation. It is also important for investors to reduce their investments in bonds or invest in only short-term and medium term bonds whilst avoiding the investment of long-term bond funds. It will also be beneficial for investors to also hold portfolio that includes some carefully selected fixed and floating money make instruments.

It is also important also to note that investors with reasonably small amount of money to invest should avoid stocks since the dividends that may be realize from this kind of decision may not be enough to support an already bad financial circumstances. Also investors who will expect a return or profit every year should also avoid stocks since dividend payments and capital gains may not be guaranteed. This is because dividend payment is largely at the discretion of the board of directors who may decide to announce the use of the profits generated for more income generation activities supposedly in favour of the company.

If you really want value for money concerning your investments, then a portfolio strategy that employs the commodities above is the way forward for 2011 and the future. These will provide you with the balance to withstand all the economic turbulence.…