All Forum Posts by: Mac F.

You can't take a loan on a 401k from a former employer. I would roll the 401ks into IRAs and invest the proceeds in good mutual funds. Make sure to update the beneficiary info on the IRAs (a lot of people forget to do that, or don't make changes as their families grow).
If you liquidate the funds, expect to pay about a $6.5k penalty (assuming a 20% tax rate plus 10% early withdrawal penalty-- could be more if you're in a higher tax bracket).  Another way to look at it-- you're paying a 30% penalty to access these funds. Personally, I'd prefer to get a side hustle/cut back on expenses and get the money to invest rather than pay that-- how long would it take you to earn $15k?  In my area it wouldn't take long at all.  

It will probably depend on how the county structures the bond offering. The county's debt rating just rose, and if they can use this as an opportunity to refinance other debt at a longer term and/or lower interest rate, they probably will. It's possible that they try to package some other things in with the bond, which would raise the price tag. I don't know what the net effect will be.  

1. The idea that there will be no cost for replacement to property owners is political spin. The plan is for the replacement to be funded by a bond taken out by Essex County.  My guess is that the bond will be funded (at least partially) by property taxes.
2. There is a piece of this that may have a bigger impact on Newark and NJ landlords:

Since the pipes are laid mostly under private property, the city cannot act unilaterally to excavate them; residents need to request a replacement and then grant access to the city’s contractors. In Newark, where 70 percent of residents are renters, it can be difficult to track down landlords.

[Mayor] Baraka said he was seeking to change that, working with state legislators to create a law or ordinance that would allow city contractors to work on private property and to fix lead service lines without permission.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/26/nyregion/newark-lead-water-pipes.html

@Sai T., if you're in an area served by a small local garbage company-- ask them to keep an eye out. I think scrap prices are down, so they may be holding on to metal waiting for prices to go up. Another option is to ask independent guys who buy and refurbish old appliances to look.  

@Carmella Schwab, with a $1000 starting investment, and $1000 monthly deposits for 12 months, the difference between 1% and 2% is about $75. One night driving Uber will give you a better ROI. Main point-- focusing on increasing earned income and/or cutting expenses will give you a better return by a lot. It may seem counter intuitive, but it works.

For short term passive returns, a lot of banks are offering some good deals on checking account bonuses right now that will pay better but you'll need to leave the money alone for at least six months generally.  

 I posted a link to the wiki page for Mackey's Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Mackey's descriptions of classic financial bubbles and crowd psychology is still applicable today. And bitcoin, IMHO, fits this model as much as dot coms did before they crashes, telecoms before they crashed, gold before it crashed, etc...

@Geren Williams, local knowledge matters in Fayetteville. It's been a few years since I lived there. The crime tends to be concentrated in a few areas (probably best to avoid those), but has decreased in others (like the area near Spring Lake, now that they have a police department). Fayetteville also contains some of the most highly and most poorly rated school districts in NC.

The baseball stadium development is probably a wildcard. Minor league stadiums are generally money losers for cities that invest in them, and NC is ground zero with examples. 

ADULT TWIST ON THE CLASSIC BOARD GAME: This adult board game is a hilarious adult twist on classic Monopoly gameplay WORK TOGETHER…OR NOT: This adult party edition of the Monopoly game has players moving around the board contributing to community projects…unless they can steal projects to get ahead WINNING IS FOR CAPITALISTS: Contribute to the Community Fund…unless you choose deplete it. Consider the best interest of the group…unless you want to forget that and just do what you need to do CHANCE CARDS: Working together might seem ideal, but Chance Cards can abruptly shake things up with things such as lousy neighbors, vegan meatloaf, and bad plumbing FUN ADULT PARTY GAME: Get ready for laughs as the twists and turns of life put a damper on working toward a shared, utopian society. Cooperation isn't always what it's cracked up to be In the Monopoly Socialism game players move around the board working together to make a better community by managing and contributing to projects such as a no-tip vegan restaurant, an all-winners school, or a museum of co-creation. But nobody said that cooperation is easy! Drawing a Chance card presents the flip side of striving for the perfect utopian society. You'll have issues with your neighbors, your DIY community projects go awry, you're constantly voting to shake things up, and there's always an emergency that requires dipping into the Community Fund! Contribute all 10 of your chips to win the game, unless the Community Fund runs out of money and everyone loses. So much for a socialist utopia. The Hasbro, Hasbro Gaming, Parker Brothers, and Monopoly names and logos, the distinctive design of the gameboard, the four corner squares, the Mr. Monopoly name and character, as well as each of the distinctive elements of the board and playing pieces are trademarks of Hasbro for its property trading game and game equipment.

https://www.amazon.com/Hasbro-...

Reviews are pretty good and bound to get more woke.  All snark aside, it may actually be a pretty realistic overview or RE investing in the modern world. I may buy it. 

@Andy Rousch, assuming that this is still pretty early in the semester and that this is a business finance class-- it's a pretty good question to introduce the economics of price control.

For the market to adjust to meet demand, the ceiling would have to be at a level where it creates no housing shortage for renters. That either means that the price is set above the apartment supply/demand equilibrium price (i.e. no impact on rental demand for apartments), or that SFH supply will meet the apartment demand shortage (so there's no deadweight loss).

My guess is that the things your prof brings up in discussing the risks of price control (black market, shortages, queues,limits to government ability to predict demand, etc...) won't be too much different than posters here bring up. Economists are generally pretty skeptical about the effectiveness of price control.