Inflation – The Secret to Building Wealth in Real Estate

Alternative Investments / By Kirk Chisholm / 04/21/2021

“The major fortunes in America have been made in land.”- John D. Rockefeller

After more than 75 years John D. Rockefeller is still considered the richest man in history when you adjust for inflation.

According to the New York Times as of 2007, his net worth reached $192 Billion. Compare this with Bill Gates whose fortune is only $82 Billion. This shows how enormous the fortune of John D Rockefeller actually was. Only Commodore Vanderbilt and John Astor have even come close with $143 Billion and $116 Billion.

Rockefeller at one time controlled 90% of the nation’s oil and his fortune was approximately 1.5% of the nation’s economy. That is legacy wealth. Wealth that is hard to lose of destroy.

Even though all his wealth was made from oil, he still attributes major fortunes being made in land or real estate. That is a powerful statement.

What I am going to discuss here is one of the reasons why real estate is able to create legacy wealth. Wealth that can last for many generations if it is managed properly. Interestingly enough this is also one of the least understood benefits of owning real estate.

This post is the second part of a four part series about real estate. The last post, These Top 7 Powerful Tools Can Create Legacy Wealth from Real Estate, briefly touches on the importance of inflation to your real estate assets. I plan on going into much more depth this week.

The Advantages of Investing in Real Estate

Real estate is one of my favorite asset classes. Here is why.

In the prior post of this series I touched on a few of the reasons that real estate is such a favorable asset to invest in.

You can easily use leverage to buy it,
there is a limited amount of real estate
Tax benefits
It can create cash flow
Appreciation potential
It is inflation Proof
You can reduce the debt in real terms over time.

Just one of these alone would be a good enough reason to invest in this asset class, but all 7 make it especially powerful. With exception of the tax benefits and the limited supply of real estate, all of the other benefits rely on inflation to enhance the performance of real estate over time. While I will discuss these in more detail, let’s first discuss what inflation is and how it works.

These Top 7 Powerful Tools Can Create Legacy Wealth from Real Estate

Alternative Investments / By Kirk Chisholm / 04/07/2021

“Buying real estate is not only the best way, the quickest way, the safest way, but the only way to become wealthy.” – Marshall Field

Marshall Field was an American Entrepreneur who lived in the 1800’s. His quote was obviously made in an era before tech stocks, hedge funds and excess money printing by the Federal Reserve. However the principal of owning real estate to become wealthy still holds true.

Real Estate is arguably the best asset class if you want to build enormous wealth. While you may have heard of real estate investors such as Donald Trump, or Sam Zell, there are countless more who are relatively unknown and are just as wealthy. Many of these investors prefer to live in relative obscurity.

What I want to show you are the 7 powerful techniques that these real estate tycoons were able to use to build their enormous wealth. While most of these techniques apply to both real estate investors and homeowners, there are more benefits from owing real estate as an investor rather than a home owner.

The 7 reasons you should own real estate as an investment:

Leverage

Real estate is one of the few assets where you can use enormous amounts of leverage to own the asset, and banks will happily lend it to you. Leverage is a way to amplify the returns you receive on that asset, in both directions. Leverage is both beneficial and dangerous, so make sure that leverage is working in your favor.

Top 10 Ways That Wealthy Families Protect and Grow Their Wealth

Alternative Investments / By Kirk Chisholm / 06/20/2020

“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.”
– Henry David Thoreau

“Wealth” — can be defined as assets or resources which are in excess of present or future expected expenses. A more simple explanation is that wealth is made up of assets which exceed what will be needed for this generation, and could be passed onto the next one. Even though a family’s assets may not be needed for this generation, proper stewardship is required to make sure those assets will last for future generations.

The main considerations in protecting wealth for future generations are that the assets must be sustainable over several generations, resistant to inflation, and resistant to political and economic turmoil. It is possible to invest in certain assets that can fortify your wealth against some of these external risks. However, there is a much greater risk of future generations not being good stewards of the sustainable wealth. Whether you are the first generation to create generational wealth, or whether you are researching how to sustain the wealth you have inherited, this list will give you some guidance.

Deflation – How a Mortgage Can Destroy Your Real Estate Wealth

Inflation Monitor, Real Estate / By Kirk Chisholm / 10/25/2019

“Thus inflation is unjust and deflation is inexpedient. Of the two perhaps deflation is, if we rule out exaggerated inflations such as that of Germany, the worse; because it is worse, in an impoverished world, to provoke unemployment than to disappoint the rentier. But it is necessary that we should weigh one evil against the other. It is easier to agree that both are evils to be shunned.” – John Maynard Keynes

This is the 3rd in a series of 4 posts about investing in real estate. The last post, Inflation – The Secret To Building Wealth in Real Estate, is about how inflation is essential to building wealth via your real estate investments. While most people subconsciously understand that real estate has all of the features listed in that post, they may not be sure why real estate has those features. The key is inflation.

This week I will be discussing the other side of the coin, and what happens when there isn’t inflation to make your real estate the wealth building tool that it has been for over 50 years.

This week I will be discussing deflation and how it would affect your real estate investments. Many notable economists have made deflation the economic boogieman. They have claimed that it is the worst possible outcome in an economy. When you hear someone talking about deflation, it is highly likely that Japan will also be mentioned in the same sentence.

Deflation is rare in the global economies of today. This is primarily because central banks around the world have engaged in a campaign to create a consistent inflationary environment for their own economies. This has worked for a few decades without hyper-inflation or persistent deflation in developed economies. Except for Japan.

Japan is one notable example of deflation which has taken hold in an economy and created a deflationary spiral. This is the essence of what economists fear. While this may sound scary, it isn’t, or doesn’t have to be. This week I will be discussing how deflation affects real estate, and why you should understand this if you want to protect your wealth.

The Real Estate Investor’s Guide: Using a Self Directed IRA to Buy Real Estate

Alternative Investments, Real Estate, Self Directed IRA / By Kirk Chisholm / 12/27/2018

“Every nickel I make gets put back into real estate.”

This is what an investor told me my first week of working on Wall Street. At the time I didn’t understand it, but this quote epitomizes the mind of the typical real estate investor. All they know is real estate, all they trust is real estate, and they are not remotely interested in any other type of investment.

I get it. Real estate is a very attractive asset class. I discussed some of the reasons for this here, These Top 7 Powerful Tools Can Create Legacy Wealth from Real Estate, and Inflation – The Secret to Building Wealth in Real Estate. Real Estate is unique in a number of ways. One of which is the ability to use massive amounts of leverage. When leverage is paired with inflation, you have a powerful combination.

As great of an asset class as real estate is, many real estate investors still come up frustrated.

While real estate investors may choose to invest every nickel they have into real estate, they are reluctantly forced to invest their retirement accounts into stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Some investors are so turned off by non-real estate investments, they choose to not contribute to their IRAs or 401ks at all. This is mainly due to the “inadequacies” (in their mind) of the other available investments.

If they only knew the truth…

So rather than saving for their retirement in a tax-deferred or tax-free account, and potentially getting the significant tax deductions, they choose to ignore the retirement account option completely. Until now…

What You Don’t Know About Renting vs Buying a Home Can Cost You Money

Alternative Investments, Financial Planning, Real Estate / By Kirk Chisholm / 06/19/2018

“If you rent a home, it is an expense. When you buy a home, it is an expense. If you buy a home and rent it out to a third party, it becomes an investment. A better way to put it is that when you are renting, you rent from a landlord. When you buy a home to live in, you are renting from yourself.”

This is the third and last post of this series. The first post, Should You Rent or Buy a Home?, examined what factors you should consider when renting vs buying a home. The second post, What is the True Cost of Owning a Home? , examined the true cost of owning a home. In this final post I will be examining whether it makes sense to rent or buy a home. Numbers don’t lie, so lets look at some real numbers.

There are many calculators available online to help you figure out whether to rent or own. Unfortunately very few include the true costs of owning a home in their calculations. If you read the prior post, you will have some understanding of what was left out and how to calculate it. The math in post this will be relatively straight forward and a bit more fun.

I will be showing you some examples of real properties that I have found in the past year to illustrate this secret that very few people know. Whether you are a real estate investor or looking to buy a home to live in, you will want to know this secret.

“you are paying someone else’s mortgage, so why don’t you pay your own?”

There is a myth out there that when you rent, “you are paying someone else’s mortgage, so why don’t you pay your own?” This is a farce. It doesn’t matter whose mortgage you are paying, what matters is your costs to live in that home. No matter where you live, your cost to live in that home is an expense. If you rent, you pay rent to a land lord. If you own, you pay a mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc. There are costs for both options. Unless you live in a tent you will be paying for a home either way.

The reason many people think that owning is better than renting is that they equate owing a home as an investment rather than an expense. Once they make the realization that it is…

2015 Recap: High Yield Bonds, Instability, and Financial Contagion

Wall Street Wisdom / By Kirk Chisholm / 12/16/2015

“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” -Yogi Berra

Is this the start of a high yield bond rout that many bond experts have been predicting?

Is the S&P 500 performance this year a good indicator of the overall market?

Will instability in the bond market spread to other asset classes?

What is the blueprint for the next financial crisis?

These are all questions that clients have asked recently and I thought this would be a good chance to discuss these issues as a wrap up of 2015.

Lets start by taking a look at what has happened this year, where we stand today, and try to pass some judgement on what could happen in 2016. Normally I don’t write about “predictions”. Yogi Berra was a wise man. However I think this post is relevant to the nature of the markets and the growing instability that is occurring under the surface.

10 Top Alternative Investments You Probably Have Never Heard of

Alternative Investments / By Kirk Chisholm / 08/10/2015

“Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people” – Leo Burnett

Most people are familiar with the stock market. There are TV stations which have the stock market and stock market related information on 24 hours every day. It is hard to escape it. When the stock market crashes, it makes the headlines in every newspaper, news station, and media outlet. When it reaches all time highs, it is on every magazine cover, even the shoeshine boys are talking about it. But what about other investments?

Huh? There are other investments?

Yes there are investments outside of the stock market. There is no rule that says you have to invest in the stock market, pitting yourself against the best and brightest investors in the world. Investors compound this problem by investing in areas that they are not experts in. Do you think that is a good idea?

Maybe there is a better way to invest…

Can You Invest Outside the Stock Market?

Peter Lynch famously said , “Invest in what you know.” While he was referring to stocks, the concept is sound. If you are an expert in technology then why not apply your knowledge and expertise into your investments. Invest in technology. Don’t invest in horses, or diamond mines. That would minimize your advantage with your investments. This does not mean you should not diversify your investments, rather it means you should take advantage of your particular skill set and expertise and ply it to your investments to make good choices.

While the stock market provides investors easy access to a wide variety of companies, it is somewhat limited to publicly traded companies. These companies cover a wide range of investments: technology, timberland, transportation, real estate, commodities, health care, etc. , but they are still stock shares in companies run by other people.

You could also invest in bonds of these companies. This is also an investment strategy many people and institutions use to invest their capital. It is a good strategy to use, but why stop there? What else can you invest in?

There is a whole world of investments outside the stock market that individuals and institutions invest in. There are no limits to these investments except for your creativity.

What are Alternative Investments?

The term alternative investments requires some explanation due to its lack of definition in popular media. The term alternative investments does not actually refer to any specific group of investments. It is only a descriptive term typically used to describe investments outside the stock market. This includes assets that are also available in the stock market, but available individually. The first investment on the list is a good example of that.

10 self directed IRA tips to help real estate investors maximize profits

Real Estate, Self Directed IRA / By Kirk Chisholm / 07/30/2015

“Self Directed IRAs are one of the best laws the US government has ever passed”

Can I invest in real estate with my Self-Directed IRA?

“Self Directed IRAs are one of the best laws the US government has ever passed”, an investor once told me. It is hard to argue that point. In 1974, congress passed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, often referred to as ERISA, enabling US taxpayers to save money for their retirement in a tax deferred manner. The best part of this program (outside of the tax deferred nature of it) is that they allow you to self-direct your savings.

ERISA established the individual retirement account (IRA) as a staple in many investors toolbox for retirement savings. The IRA allows investors to invest in virtually any investment. While most investors think that they are restricted to stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, the choices are much more interesting. Some ideas that I have seen include: real estate, tax liens, private mortgages, dressage horses, farmland, sports franchises, timberland, physical gold and silver, raw land, private company stock, oil & gas LPs, franchises, and more. With all of these choices and more, you should have already come up with some ideas that could make for interesting investments.

Real estate and real estate related investments is definitely the most common asset type when it comes to self directed IRAs. Whether you are a professional investor or a novice, you probably have at least a basic understanding of how real estate works. Here are 10 self directed IRA tips for investors who want to invest in real estate with the IRA.

How Self Directed IRAs Can Help Protect You From Stock Market Crashes and Halted Trading on Exchanges

Self Directed IRA / By Kirk Chisholm / 07/09/2015

I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years. – Warren Buffett

If you were paying attention yesterday, then you probably heard that the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) halted trading for 3.5 hours and Chinese stock market continue to crash. So much for Wall Street having a lazy summer.

Should you worry about these events?

Yes… and No.

As of today you should not have much to worry about… unless you have money in Greek banks, then you are allowed to sweat. While you may not have much to worry about today, what if these events were more pronounced? What if they impacted your investments in a more direct way? What if the Greek crisis causes stock markets to crash. What if the stock market closed and didn’t reopen for 5 years? Would you be happy with your investments?

Warren Buffett has made a statement in the past that investors should invest as if the stock market would be shut down and not reopen for the next 5 years. What companies would you want to hold in this scenario? Would you want to hold stocks at all?

Lets take that concept a step further. Do you have 100% of your retirement funds in mutual funds, stocks, or bonds? If so, then why? Is it because you want to invest in the stock market? Or is it because you are not aware that you can invest outside the stock market? If it is the later, then you are in good company. More than 80% of the investing public is not aware that they can invest their IRA outside the stock market. Less than 10% is actually investing in alternative investments with their self-directed IRA or self-directed 401k.

Are traditional investments better than alternative investments…

8 Common Mistakes Using a Self Directed IRA

Self Directed IRA / By Kirk Chisholm / 09/18/2014

I decided to write this post because over the years while working with clients, I have come across the same mistakes over and over again. Some of these mistakes are from a misinterpretation of the rules, some are through a lack of knowledge in certain areas, and the most common one being unaware of the capability to invest in alternative investments inside a self directed IRA. While most of the rules are easy to find, unfortunately they don’t all appear in one place. I wrote this post to help address these common mistakes using a self directed IRA.

What is a self directed IRA?

I want to define “self directed IRA” for people who are unaware of the definition. A self directed IRA is an account with preferential tax treatment, which is capable of investing in alternative investments. These alternative investments could be assets such as real estate, tax liens, private mortgages, gold & silver, horses, livestock, farmland, medical equipment, and more. While a self directed IRA can invest in traditional assets such as stock, bonds and mutual funds, it is typically used to invest in alternative investments. For further information about what a self directed IRA is, please read the following post about self-directed retirement accounts

My Story: How I Learned About Self Directed IRAs

Self Directed IRA / By Kirk Chisholm / 09/15/2014

Self Directed IRAs are not a widely known or understood area in the investment community. The term is typically used to describe what an IRA is, an Individual Retirement Account, which is self directed by the account owner. Most people know that this type of account can be used to invest in stocks bonds and mutual funds. What is not widely known is that this type of account can also be used to invest in real estate, tax liens, private mortgages, private businesses, medical equipment, horses, gold and silver coins, and more.

Most people who know me have been aware of my interest in investing in alternative assets with a self directed IRA for many years. What they may not be aware of is…

real estate