| You can use IRA fund to buy real estate, as long as it's an investment
Q: I read an article recently in the Milwaukee Journal that you had written about buying real estate with IRA money. If we are buying vacant land (forested), can we use our IRA money to purchase this land outright? Could I consider this an investment, or does it have to be something that produces income, such as rental property? I could sell firewood if I had to since the land is forested. A: You can use IRA funds to buy this property. The property has to be an investment, and there can be no personal beneficial use by you or anyone related to you. The property selected need not be income-producing. Vacant land is an acceptable investment option. Any work that is done on the property must be contracted through a third party and all costs must be paid from your IRA funds.
Tax rules that leave a queasy feeling
Yours truly attended a KPMG presentation on the new investment tax rules last week. The lunch before the presentation wasn't the source of the indigestion rather the discussion on the tax rules and their practical implication was the cause of the curdling just above the belt line. The new rules the change to the fair dividend rate (FDR) for overseas investments and the new portfolio investment entity (PIE) regime have been put in place with the best of intentions. But then, the road to hell is also paved with good intentions. The logic appears to be that by getting rid of the "grey" list an overseas investor would no longer restrict investments to the seven grey list countries, thus there should be no difference between investing in British stocks or those trading on the Jamaican or Iraqi stock exchanges from a tax perspective.
There is No Crisis in California's Pension System
The pension system for California's teachers, firefighters, peace officers and others who serve the public is fundamentally sound, despite what you have been hearing from Arnold. In many ways, this mirrors the battle over Social Security in 2005. You have a Republican politician inventing a "crisis", in an attempt to privatize a secure working system with a risky and untried plan. In this case, they want to hike up the age of retirement and switch people over to inefficient 401k plans. Arnold put together a commission to look at the problem. They held their first meeting the day before yesterday: Dave Low, a representative of the California School Employees Association, told Fritz that his 58-year-old sister, a schoolteacher for more than 30 years, is fighting cancer and was recently forced to retire to deal with her illness.
VIEW: The land of no army —Saleem H Ali
Every year when I visit Costa Rica to lead a seminar on environmental conflict resolution, I encounter students from all over the world at the University for Peace who marvel at the ability of this nation to live without an army. Last year, there were three Pakistani students in attendance at the University who wistfully wondered if such a situation was ever possible in our own country
As archaeologists delve into the past to unearth the earliest indications of human civilisation, they usually search for weapons. Since time immemorial, human societies all over the world appear to have a natural proclivity for warfare and hence the need for armies and weapons. Such implements have not been used for subsistence hunting alone but rather for attacks. In his notable book Constant Battles, Steven LeBlanc has dispelled any vestigial notion of a noble savage by describing human pugnacity through the ages.
Opening View: Will Upgrades Keep Tech Afloat?
Futures are flat this morning, hovering close to the break-even mark as investors await the "official" start of earnings season with the release of quarterly figures from Alcoa (AA: sentiment, chart, options) after the close. This morning, the International Council of Shopping Centers and UBS Securities stated that chain store sales for the week ended April 7 rose four percent compared to the year-ago period. On a week-over-week basis, sales rose 0.9 percent. Meanwhile, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD: sentiment, chart, options) has been boosted from "neutral" to "buy" at UBS, with the broker seeing limited downside for the chipmaker. "We believe AMD is poised for a rebound in the second half of 2007, as AMD improves its mix and launches Barcelona for servers; however, we maintain Intel has the advantage.
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