First, two famous quotes: “I hate paying taxes. But I love the civilization they give me” —Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (jurist, former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America) “I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization.” —Also Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Seems like he couldn’t seem to [...]
Real estate—the most expensive consumer good. Or does it have to be? Look around at the newspaper headlines. The median home value in Los Angeles is $696,900. The average house price in London is £644,215 (about US$828,191). That’s the Western World. What about the East? Singapore: S$1,183,375 (US$874,372). For only HK$4.34 million (US$553,398) you can [...]
One of the fundamental differences between buying a home, and investing in real estate, is who pays the mortgage. In Japan because interest rates are low, the differential between a residential mortgage and an investment mortgage may only be 1%. Given that the residential mortgage is invariably the cheaper of the two, you could be [...]