House Butter and Guns

In Sunday's NY Times Real Estate section is a good article about people investing in buildings around NYC to build up equity for their retirement. The main point I got was that one should never get into a revenue negative deal, although revenue zero is OK. I guess it's OK so long as rents hold steady - that way you're at least paying down your mortgage. I think these types of investments may be somewhat immune to the real estate "bubble" so long as people are in it for the long haul and are willing to deal with upkeep, tenant headaches, and all that for a number of years. Now, if we could just get a foot in the door.

Also in the same section was a small article about holding rental properties in one's IRA - a great idea, but everything I've read says that the headaches involved with complying with IRA guidelines makes owning it outside of your IRA much easier. However, like the article says, if you have a large balance in a ROTH IRA, you could work realestate deals and keep the profits essentially tax free once you start drawing in retirement. Of course, my $3k Roth won't take me too far with this plan, but hey, it's an idea.

In other news - my cousin came home from Iraq this week to cheers and appreciation from everyone in my family. We're so thankful for him and for everyone who has had to fight for us. I guess like it or not, the soldiers fighting are doing it for us and I for one am greatful to them.