Hub Blogs

Hub Blogs contains fresh contributions written by Financial Independence Hub staff or contributors that have not appeared elsewhere first, or have been modified or customized for the Hub by the original blogger. In contrast, Top Blogs shows links to the best external financial blogs around the world.

Finance Tools every Business needs to Optimize Accounting Processes

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By Emily Roberts

For the Financial Independence Hub

Without robust accounting procedures in place, companies would go bust almost immediately. They would fail to comply with laws and managerial procedures and ultimately face business closure because of their ignorance and neglect.

In one form or another, poor financial management is often the bane of entrepreneurs and a source of constant regret for them as well. Do not make the same mistakes. Maximize the efficiency of the firm by streamlining your accounting processes. Keep track of your income and expenditures, but also do so in the most competent fashion possible. Otherwise, your company will be undertaking a series of needless fiscal risks.

Fortunately, finance tools can be utilized here, helping businesses to invest in their future with clarity and precision. Keep reading to discover which finance tools can play an important supporting role in your daily accounting processes.

Payroll Software

Late payments can affect staff morale, hampering their work ethics and affinity for your firm. If these problems are left unaddressed, then wronged employees may even launch legal proceedings to get what they are owed.

The question of compensating your staff fairly and on time should never be a roll of the dice. Instead, you should implement payroll software solutions, which can calculate any employee-related expenses accurately and automatically. Additionally, this technology can store all the payment information related to your employees securely, keeping personal records safe.

Payroll software is highly efficient, but it works best when other programs and features complement it. For instance, you should consider adopting state-of-the-art cybersecurity measures also. When sensitive company data is highly encrypted, you can prevent numerous calamities, such as criminals hacking your databases. Workers will also know and appreciate that you take their well-being seriously enough to invest in it further and implement additional measures.

Pension Software

Whether it is budgets or forecasting annual performance metrics, accounting is frequently about anticipating the future. Therefore, you should devote a sizeable portion of your time and resources to your firm’s pension schemes.

Make good use of tried and tested pension administration software for a completely web-based solution to these matters. Employers, trustees, and members can all access these services via their computers or smart technologies. An organization’s pension scheme process can also be fully automated with the right software, enhancing business productivity in unison. Ultimately, administering pension benefits has never been more straightforward.

Further advantages may follow from utilizing pension software also. After all, workers like to know they are being looked after. Invest in their future in this capacity, and you may build staff satisfaction, retain experienced workers, and create a more vibrant work culture.

Tax Software

Tax can be challenging to manage, especially when individual circumstances change what is required here. Tax mistakes can soon become overwhelming and spiral into much worse situations should they be left unaddressed.

Unfortunately, many business owners frequently make mistakes themselves with their business tax arrangements. The common errors of judgment involve registering their business as the wrong type of entity, poorly managing their records, and failing to pay themselves a reasonable salary after all their expenses. In these situations, the pressure can build and render entrepreneurs delirious and miserable. Continue Reading…

Letting go can lead us to Opportunity and Freedom

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Photo by Sebastian Staines on Unsplash

By Akaisha Kaderli, RetireEarlyLifestyle.com

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Often, we have the idea that letting go means the loss of something valued. This implies that there might be grief and pain involved.

Out of fear we envision ourselves in some barren emotional wilderness, with nothing around that is familiar so there has to be that dreaded chaos, right?

 And who wants that?

But what if letting go leads us to brilliance? To our own personal freedom of expression? What if this is Life’s way of steering our personal growth in a manner where we display our best talents?

Letting go could mean opening up.

Examples

 Art/music

Have you ever heard a musician or singer who is technically perfect: but there seems to be no soul? No felt connection to the audience?

Yes, all the notes are there and in the right place, but … something is missing.

There is no grab at my heart. I could just as well be chopping carrots in the kitchen for soup. It’s just routine, and maybe I should have bought a bag of frozen carrots instead.I always know when I hear someone “Who’s got it.” My eyes well up and I can’t reign it in. That’s my validation signature.

Photo by Daniel Angele on Unsplash

Chills on my arms, my eyes are glued to the performer and I am transported. The artist has whisked me away, and I want to go.

It could be a jazz singer who scats, a sax player having a riff or Billy Joel hitting the high notes for Christy Lee.

They let go and have entered “The Zone.”

Sports

Ok, here’s another example.

We have all seen outfielders throw their bodies at a fly ball just to catch that thing. Or a basketball player speed down a court and ram a ball into a basket. Ballerinas, ice skaters, skateboarders spin incomprehensibly – how can a physical body DO that?

Maybe as a skier you have caught air and you know that sensation of flight for yourself.

That’s my point.

To let go, is to leave the ground and enter genius territory.

Fear and contraction

When we begin to learn something new – cooking, Latin dancing, painting on canvas, surfing – there are basics. We learn the techniques, the rules, the boundaries. And then to develop proficiency, we leave them behind. Continue Reading…

Retired Money: how to prepare for “Transitory for Longer’ inflation

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As oxymorons go, you have to love the phrase “Transitory for Longer,” which comes up in my latest MoneySense Retired Money column. It looks at inflation, which of course is in the news virtually every day this summer, and one reason why stock markets are starting to weaken again (along with renewed Covid fears). You can find the full MoneySense column by clicking on the following headline: How might Inflation impact your Retirement plans?

As with trying to divine short-term moves in stocks or interest rates, I view predicting inflation — whether near-term, medium-term or longer-term — as somewhat futile. So the column preaches much the same as it would about positioning portfolios for stock declines or rises in interest rates: broad diversification of asset classes.

Asset Allocation for all Seasons

The ever useful four asset classes of Harry Browne’s Permanent Portfolio I find may be a good initial mix of assets to prepare for all possibilities: stocks for prosperity, bonds for deflation, cash for depression/recession and gold for inflation. Browne, who died in 2006,  famously allocated 25% to each.

That’s a good place to start, although as I point out in the column, many might add Real Estate/REITs and make it a five-way split each of 20%. Some suggest 10% in gold (both bullion ETFs and gold mining stock ETFs), which might be expanded to include other precious metals like silver, platinum and palladium. Some might add to this a 5% position in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which some view as “digital gold.”

To the extent stock markets and interest rates will forever fluctuate over the course of a retirement, such a diversified approach could help you sleep at night, as some asset classes zig as others zag. Seldom will all these assets soar at once, but hopefully it will be just as rare for all to plunge at once.

Annuities and new “Tontine” approaches

Another approach to this problem is not so much Asset Allocation but what finance professor Moshe Milevsky has dubbed “Product Allocation.” Continue Reading…

Everything you need to know about Multifamily Commercial Real Estate Investing

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Real estate low-rise construction building for multiple families

By Veronica Baxter

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

If you are looking to get serious about real estate investing, then a multifamily commercial real estate investment offers you a great ROI, portfolio diversity, and strong growth potential. But, before we get too far ahead, what exactly is a multifamily property?

What is a Multifamily Property?

In the commercial real estate sector, a multifamily property is an apartment building that has five or more units. According to this definition, multifamily properties are very diverse. They can include everything from towering apartment complexes to city rowhomes converted by property developers.

Because there is a wide range of property types that can be designated as multifamily property, many smaller investors with less capital than large investment conglomerates can potentially reap some of the benefits.

Later on in the post, we will discuss three methods investors use to invest in real estate, but it helps to mention them here to show that even smaller investors can get in on the lucrative returns of real estate. Investors can directly purchase the property or pool their capital with other investors in a real estate investment trust or private equity firm.

Opportunities for both Passive and Active Investors

Another benefit of investing in multifamily commercial real estate is that it is profitable whether or not you are an active or passive investor. As the names imply, active and passive investors assume opposite engagement roles with their investments. Though there is plenty of nuance and overlap between the two, in general, passive investors are in it for the long haul. They plan to hold on to the property for as long as possible. In contrast, active investors see multifamily property as an opportunity to buy cheap, renovate and sell at a higher price.

For Passive Investors

Passive investors often leave the property management and financial management to other parties, which truly embodies the idea of passive income. Many of these investors receive only quarterly disbursements from the portfolio manager and have little else to do with the procedural technicalities. Passive investors, in this sense, only really front the initial investment and reap the rewards.

This passive strategy has been shown to be less risky over time and, as a result, more lucrative. In addition, passive investors see multifamily commercial real estate investments as tangible assets to grow their wealth in.

For Active Investors

Active investors search the markets for opportunistic buys. For example, they often look for cheaper, older property to renovate and refurbish into more expensive multifamily property. Then, after the flip, they either sell for a much higher price or hold if the asset is projected to appreciate rapidly. In general, active investors take more risks than passive investors, but when they strike gold, the profits come fast.

They are much more hands-on in their approach, working alongside developers, contractors, and designers to upgrade older properties. As a result, they must know the commercial real estate process and terminologies, such as NOI, commercial real estate cap rate, and other terms.

Benefits of Multifamily Commercial Real Estate Investing

Whether you seek to become an active or a passive investor, there are numerous benefits to multifamily real estate investing. Here are a few of the advantages:

Diversification

Having a diverse investment portfolio helps to mitigate the risks associated with economic downturns. Generally, commercial real estate is not highly correlated with the movement of the stock market, so it is an ideal asset class to hold opposite of stocks. Moreover, having wealth invested across various assets is the surest way to reduce risks if the stock market crashes or in lieu of a natural disaster that disrupts the global markets.

“Forced” Appreciation

Commercial property is valued on NOI, or net operating income, whereas residential real estate is usually valued on comparisons with other similar properties. NOI valuations allow property managers to directly increase the value of their property by raising rent and reducing operation costs. This alters the NOI equation, which, in turn, raises the value of their property. This is called forced appreciation.

Dispersion of Vacancy Risk

The more units in a property, the less any one vacancy will affect revenue. This is one significant benefit to investing in a multifamily property. If you rent out your residential property, you are solely dependent on your tenant for income. However, the more tenants you have, the less impactful a single vacancy will be. Multifamily property investments reduce the risks associated with numerous vacancies.

Lease Escalations

It is common practice for commercial leases to have escalation clauses built into them. These clauses stipulate rent increases over time. If operational costs generally remain stable, then the yearly ROI increases with the periodic rent increases.

What are different ways to Invest?

As mentioned above, there are three main ways investors can invest their capital in multifamily real estate. These different methods allow both large and small investors to get a stake in commercial property.

Direct Purchase

A direct purchase involves an investor or group of investors coming together to purchase commercial property directly. They usually form an LLC for liability purposes and have total control over the process. This freedom comes with a cost, however. The investors are responsible for finding a property, raising capital, and negotiating a deal. Once purchased, the investors are then entirely responsible for managing the property, drawing up leases, and outreaching to potential tenants.

This is a very involved route. For new investors looking to diversify their investment portfolio, this might not be the best place to start.

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are corporations that perform the above functions of a direct purchaser but as a corporate entity. Investors buy shares or stocks in the corporation, which can be publicly or privately traded. Continue Reading…

How to generate Passive Income 

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Image Credit: Pixabay

By Mike Khorev

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Many of us strive for financial security; luckily, passive income investments open up the opportunity to make extra money on the side. 

All you need is the willingness to put in some fundamental groundwork: you don’t necessarily need savings to kickstart your investment. There are plenty of options when it comes to generating passive income that go far beyond the realms of compound investing. Here are some fresh ideas to get you started.

1.) Investments

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs)

Exchange-Traded Funds, known as ETFs, are a great way to invest in the stock market without needing to research individual companies. Investing in ETFs provides both capital gains and dividends. Diversify your investments to receive the maximum benefit. ETFs are rather low maintenance and yield a lower risk than regular equities.

Dividend-paying stocks

Feel the benefits of dividend stock investments with a range of stocks yielding up to 5% dividends. The hardest part is knowing which stocks are worth investment. The best way to generate larger profits is to choose dividends that come with franking credits. Stock market unpredictability is no secret, be willing to face a sudden rise and fall in value or cut dividends altogether.  

Robo-advisors

If you’re looking for an affordable financial advisor to manage your investments, Robo-Advisors could be for you. They personalise automated trading decisions based on your financial targets, limits and time frames for a fraction of the cost. They are one of the most passive forms of income. 

2.) Real estate

Rental income

Rental yield can be one of the most profitable forms of passive income. Experts state that small apartments containing 1-2 bedrooms have more success on the market generating returns of over 8%. Real Estate Agents will handle legal documentation, rent collection, and advertise your property for a recurring fee of 5-12% of the monthly rent.

Airbnb

Airbnb is a thriving marketplace with host’s estimated monthly earnings sitting at $924 per month. While properties are free to list, hosts are charged a 3-5% service fee and are liable to income tax. Many hosts invest earnings into outsourced housekeepers to maintain passiveness. 

Real estate investment trusts (REITs)

REIT investments are perfect for those who are interested in real estate without the responsibility of sustaining individual properties. Typically, REITs support non-residential buildings such as offices, apartment complexes, and retail centres. Commercial buildings are famous for yielding large profits, passive income will be paid in the form of dividends.

3.) Content creation and advertising

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate links are more negotiable than ever, not only do they support affiliate businesses, they are also a manageable form of passive income. Invest some time into digital content creation that generates healthy volumes of traffic. Aim to recommend products you truly believe in to build a trusting relationship with your audience and boost clicks.  Continue Reading…