All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

There are over 200,000 donor-advised funds in the United States, but the big three are Fidelity Charitable, Schwab Charitable, and Vanguard Charitable.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/08/giving/retiree-giving-becomes-a-force-of-philanthropy.html

The PBS show Wealthtrack had an episode about donor-advised funds last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pkRj4N_5nk

Property crime seems to be an ongoing risk in many neighborhoods regardless of their A-B-C-D rating.

When I bought my house in San Jose in the 1980s, I was smitten by its charm and affordable price (the market was insanely slow back then, but the house was affordable and the seller offered financing). My learning started after I moved in.

I was burglarized a couple of times a few months after I moved in. The for-sale sign had been up for well over a year and when it came down, the grade school students who walked past the house on their way to school reported that fact to the high school students (according to the police, their system was "if you want to hang around with the big kids, you have to tell us these things"). I had to install an expensive burglar alarm when the insurance company got on my case about it.

The businesses a few streets over had bars over the windows and I was told never to walk there at night and if I ever had to walk there during the day, keep looking over your shoulder. I was told there were hookers working there at night.

The city decided to undertake an urban renewal program. A special business district was created, which provided tax incentives for small businesses. An abandoned Sears store was torn down and replaced with apartments and a supermarket. When the homeless were forced out of the Sears store, they fanned out into the surrounding neighborhoods to find a place for the night. Our representative on the city council told us not to let them get a toe-hold in our neighborhood because if they ever did, they would be hard to get rid of. Since it was an official city program, police patrols were stepped up.

When I sold my home three years ago, the bars on the businesses had come down and I was told the hookers had moved on. But property crime still continued. My neighbor would always lock his car doors, but one time he forget to lock the passenger door. The next morning, someone had gone through his glove box and stolen his GPS receiver. Similar stories were posted on Nextdoor about other streets in the neighborhood. A favorite way to case the neighborhood was to steal aluminum cans from the recycling bins (the Supreme Court ruled that anything put out by the curb is in the public domain, which means the police don't need a search warrant to go through it).

I use Crime Reports now to get an idea of the crime where I'm living or any area I might want to move to.

I believe the broader picture is to encourage African American entrepreneurship.

In some communities, a dollar spent in the community remains around for a few weeks. In African American communities, a dollar spent remains there on average for only a few hours.

https://www.locavesting.com/spotlight/a-new-feature-story-when-buying-local-does-not-help-the-community/ 

I want to thank you for posting on this thread. Your presence provides a "real person feel" to the official paperwork. I also understand the need for investors to rely solely on the paperwork (and their own common sense) when making the decision whether to invest or not.

When I sold my home on the West coast, my realtor didn't want me around when she was showing the home, nor did she want me to contact the buyers and their agent directly. All communication had to go through my agent. The reason is that her lawyers wanted the buyers to rely on the paperwork I had to fill out and sign when I prepared my home for sale. The worry was that if I talked to the buyers directly, they would rely on my word rather than the paperwork. If I had failed to remember something correctly and there was a lawsuit, the situation could get messy. 

Have you thought about getting with your residential neighbors and sharing the cost of a licensed private company to patrol your neighborhood (Google "neighborhood private patrols")?

If you are having this problem, your residential neighbors must be having the same problem also.

There seems to be a community standard used by police. I was at a networking event once where a sheriff's deputy told us when he notifies someone about a nonworking tail light in some parts of the city, the driver thanks him. But in other parts of the city, he doesn't bother because the tail lights there are always out.

I have no expertise in urban planning, but I have respect for the field because one of my college roommates was an architecture major and I got to overhear his dormitory conversations.

Reg A+ offerings are reviewed by the SEC. Reg CF offerings have to go through a crowdfunding portal that is regulated by FINRA.

http://www.finra.org/about/funding-portals-we-regulate

Two Reg CF portals that fight gentrification while improving the neighborhood are Buy the Block and Small Change.

I've invested in an offering on Small Change that is currently in its funding phase. Buy the Block and the Tulsa Fund are on my short list. Whenever I invest in these unproven ventures, I toe-dip by investing the minimum amount (money I can afford to lose even though I don't want to lose it). 

If I was starting to invest and all I had was $500, I would put it in a low-cost total-market index fund. But now that my CORE portfolio is up and running (fully funded), I'm looking at funding my EXPLORE portfolio.

Investing in an alternative asset class for $500 is a low entry cost. Other Reg A+ funds I've invested in so far have a $1,000 minimum. Reg A+ funds are reviewed by the SEC, which doesn't make them guaranteed or safe, but at least they meet some minimum standard of disclosure. Many Reg A+ funds I've watched have gone through multiple reviews with the SEC before they are finally approved for investing by the general public. 

I hear stories of police officers and school teachers no longer able to live in these high-priced urban areas.

Cities are grappling with how to deal with the homeless (Google "homeless bussing"). When I was leaving San Jose in 2015, for example, the city issued a press release saying it was closing down the largest homeless camp in the country.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-jungle-largest-homeless-camp-in-us-2013-8

Those living in their cars know how long they can park on the street before they have to move to a different spot. Some homeless people have advanced degrees (which they earned before they become homeless).

Whatever homeless story you read about in Silicon Valley, there is a similar story here in Florida.

I grew up in the Dolgeville, Little Falls, and Salisbury area (south Herkimer County) near Utica. I spent four years in Troy as a student (RPI) before moving to California (Los Angeles and San Jose). I'm now living in Pensacola in no-state-income-tax Florida.

Markets are created when people place different values on an asset.

I sold because I valued the cash more than the real estate. My buyer bought because he valued the real estate more than the cash.

I was a motivated seller facing dozens of motivated buyers.

Thank goodness people are arriving in droves. I would hate to be a motivated seller with no offers.