Utah Sales Tax Monthly Report For Food And Food: Fill & Download for Free

That we don't have a written constitution, but one that's based on precedent. When a tricky constitutional question comes up, no one really knows the answer.We don't get excited about freedom of speech. It's a bit of a non-issue. (And things seem to run smoothly - I'm pretty sure that any group like the Westboro Baptist Church would be banned/arrested fairly quickly. And no one would worry about whether their rights had been violated.) (And someone was recently sent to prison for what they wrote on Twitter. Update: It's happened again: Man jailed for antisemitic tweet to Labour MP).There is no right to bear arms, and no movement (worth mentioning) for a relaxation in very strict gun laws.There is not a big fuss made about the way that the British flag is treated. There is no flag code, and no pledging allegiance. You can set fire to a flag if you like - no one will take any more (or less) notice than if you set fire to any other piece of cloth or paper. You can buy Union Flag toilet paper.It's very, very rare to see a police officer carrying a gun. Most British police never carry a gun.Police in Britain fired their guns three times (that's three gunshots, i.e. three bullets) in 2013. No one was killed by those shots. (In 2012, one person was killed by being shot by the British police - I haven't seen information about how many shots were fired.)The last time a British police officer was shot and killed was 2012 (when two officers were shot). The time before that was 2007.Carrying a knife can get you arrested if the blade is more than 3 inches long and you don't have a good explanation of why you have it. You may not buy a knife if you are under 18 - even a butter knife. There is no movement for a right to bear knives either. Knives: the laws on buying and carryingIn 2011 there were 177,185 people born in the US living in the UK. (I didn't find a source of the opposite - British citizenship is not as clear as US citizenship.) That's approximately 1 person in 300, and includes Boris Johnson, the mayor of London.If you're born in the UK, you are not automatically a UK citizen.There is no separation of church and state. In fact, it's the opposite. The Queen, as head of state is nominally the head of the Church of England. She defers to the prime minister who appoints the person who actually runs it (the Archbishop of Canterbury). The Church of England bishops have a role in the goverment - there are 26 bishops in the House of Lords (imagine that 26 pastors of super-churches automatically sit in congress, and that these people led prayers at the start of each day. )Many state (public) schools are influenced by the church. I went to three Church of England (Controlled) schools - which is very common. In such a school, the local Church of England vicar chairs the board of governors. (I don't know if that's still the case - there was nothing special about it, this was a regular local school).Related to that, the monarch, and the heir to the throne may not marry a Catholic. (This is being debated [Jan, 2013] and astonishingly some people are objecting to changing this rule: Hark what discord follows when you meddle with the monarchy - Telegraph).The education system allows you to specialize early. I did not study history, geography, art, Spanish after age 14. At 16 I dropped French, English, math(s), chemistry, English. (I think you have to do some science up to age 16 now). At 16 you choose three subjects to study.Accents vary within a very small region. I grew up 35 miles North of Birmingham, and 40 miles south of Manchester. My accent would never be mistaken for one of them. (In a murder case, known as the Yorkshire Ripper, police received a tape which they believed was from the murderer. They believed that they had narrowed the accent down to one small town.) Here's a nice video on accents -None of these people have an accent like mine. The closest I could find was:Petrol (gas) costs US$8.60/gallon in London (today's price, today's exchange rate: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/mar/23/petrol-prices-rise ).Unless there is some sort of crossing, you should not cross the street at a corner. (Drivers will not be expecting you there). Crossings tend to be few yards down the road away from a corner.Most people teaching and working in universities are not professors. When I was an undergraduate there was one professor in the psychology department. I then went on to work in another psychology department of a university which had no professors (for several years).There's only one private university in the country. (There are a few very, very small places - but only one that you would really consider to be a university). It's the University of Buckingham.British people have very different ideas about how long a drive is. A 100 mile drive would be a long way. I told my mother I was driving to a ski resort almost 100 miles away. She asked where we were staying, because there's no way that anyone would drive 100 miles in a day, and then just drive home the same day.Related to this, the UK is small. The area of the UK is about the same size as Michigan. England is about the size of Louisiana.But the UK is densely populated. The population of the UK is about that of Michigan plus Louisiana plus Kentucky, Oregon, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Connecticut, Iowa, Mississippi, Arkansas, Utah, Kansas, Nevada, New Mexico, Nebraska, West Virginia, Idaho, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, Alaska, North Dakota, District of Columbia, Vermont and Wyoming,England, Great Britain, the United Kingdom and the British Isles are all different things. If you call someone English, when they're not, they might be insulted. (But it's OK to call them British, or that they're a citizen of the United Kingdom.)Cricket matches can last 5 days. And if it rains, it's a draw.No party ever gets a majority of the popular vote in parliamentary elections. In the 1997 election (the first Tony Blair won) the Labour Party won more seats than they had ever won before in a historic landslide victory . They got 43.7% of the popular vote (and 63% of the seats in Parliament). George W Bush squeaked a controversial victory in 2000 with 47.9% of the popular vote.British people are said to have bad teeth, until (relatively) recently, having bad teeth was a sign that they were your own teeth, not false teeth. A reason for pride.British plumbing is quite different from American plumbing. In the UK, for example, there tends to be a gap between where the drain pipe ends, and where the drain begins. The drain from the bathroom (not toilet) and kitchen sink might look like this (it's usually got a cover). It's somewhat unsightly (less so with a cover) but much easier to access when it's blocked.If you ever see a very long, very straight road, it's likely it was built by the Romans originally, and it's been updated since then. Watling Street is the most famous example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watling_StreetTown / city names that end in -cester or -chester (Worcester, Leicester, Chichester, Winchester) were founded, or named, by the Romans and tend to the in the South. Towns that end -by (Derby, Corby, Whitby) were named or founded by the Vikings and tend to be further North.Most people drive manual (stick shift) cars. If you pass your driving test in an automatic car, you will get a licence that only allows you to drive automatics. This is very rare. If you rent a car, it's likely it will be manual, unless you specify that you want automatic.Postcodes are much more specific than zipcodes. A postcode only refers to a few houses, and some businesses will have their own postcode. If you put someone's name and their postcode on a letter, it will probably reach them. If you put their house number and postcode, it will definitely reach them. (E.g. I use to live at number 49, YO31 1BP. There's only one house with that number in that postcode.)The best selling newspaper (The Sun) in the country prints a large, color picture of a topless woman (just to be clear, with breasts exposed), on page 3. Labour party politicians (equivalent of Democrats) are much more likely to want to do something about this than Conservative politicians (equivalent of Republicans).Sometimes you'll see older houses with what appears to be a window which has been filled in with bricks. This is because houses were taxed according to the number of windows - the window tax. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_taxThe first time it reached 100F anywhere in England was in Kent (South East) in 2003. (I'm not sure if it's happened again.)'Squash' is a drink. Lemonade is clear and fizzy (like 7-Up).Diet Coke outsells regular Coke.Healthcare is free (at point of use - it's paid for by taxes). I know that most Americans know this, but they don't really understand it until they experience it. If you are injured, you can go to a hospital or doctor or walk in center and they will treat you. You will pay no money. You will provide no ID. (They'll ask your name, for the record, but they won't know if you're lying). If you're in the hospital, it's free. If you're an inpatient in the hospital, food is free. Lab tests are free. Home visits are free. It's all free. (And the UK spends less on healthcare per person than the US).Scotland and Wales have separate parliaments, a little like a state. But they are still part of the UK. England does not have a separate parliament. But the Scottish parliament has more power than the Welsh parliament.If you need medication of any kind, it's a flat fee of around $12 per prescription, regardless of what it is (even if it costs less than that). If you're over 60, under 16, pregnant or poor, it's free. If you need a lot of prescriptions, you can buy a pre-payment certificate - (about) $50 buys all your medication for 3 months, $150 buys them all for a year. (This is different in Scotland, I believe).The exception to the prescription charge is for contraception. That's always free. This is not controversial.Dental treatment is free for children.In June 2012, it was reported that the prime minister was having lunch in a pub and went home, forgetting his 8 year old daughter. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jun/11/david-cameron-daughter-behind-pub. This was generally reported as "Ho ho, shows he's human. I've done that too." Imagine if the president had gone for lunch with his daughter to a bar, and forgotten her there. The reaction might be different.An MP doesn't have to live in the area they represent. They don't even need to have any connection to it. Boris Johnson (current mayor of London) stood for election in Henley without any prior connection to it. The reason being that Henley was a seat that the Conservatives (his party) were virtually certain to win. People can stand for election in multiple constituencies (not at the same time though). One way of proving you are a good campaigner is to stand in a seat that your party is very unlikely to win (and hence is not competitive to get the position), and then to do better than expected. Having shown you are a good campaigner, this means you are more likely to be selected to stand in a seat which is marginal.In 1971, the UK changed to decimal money. Before that, the money system was based on that introduced by the Romans and was extremely convoluted. There were four farthings (until 1960) or two halfpennies to a penny. 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shilling (240 pence) in a pound. A guinea was 21 shillings. There was a 10 shilling note, and a sixpenny bit. A crown was 5 shillings. A half crown was 2 shillings and 6 pence. A threepence coin was three pennies. After the changeover, people would ask "What's that in old money?", the phrase "Old money" came to mean the old way of doing something. If you said something was two metres, and I asked "What's that in old money?", I'd be asking how many feet and inches it is. After the conversion, a shilling was worth 5 pence (1/20th of a pound), and was still called a shilling or a bob. A ten bob bit is a 50 pence piece. (A friend of my father's had moved to the UK and was buying something in a second hand store. He asked how much something was, and the shopkeeper said "10 bob". He had no idea what that meant, so he said "How much?" The shopkeeper thought he was haggling, and said "All right, what about 4op?" More here: £sdBanknotes (bills) are different sizes, to help partially sighted and blind people tell them apart. Coins are also designed (thickness, diameter, shape, edge) to be able to be distinguished by touch for the same reason.NOTE: This one isn't really true. See : Is Muhammad the most popular boy's name in Britain? and Martin Beer's comment below. The most common first name for boys would be Mohammed, if there weren't so many different ways to spell it (e.g. Mohammed, Muhammad, Mohammad).There are strict rules about what can be called a city. Towns are sometimes granted city status on special occasions, in 2000, for the millenium, Brighton and Hove became a city, as did Wolverhampton. More here: City status in the United KingdomSales tax is set nationally, and its called Value Added Tax (often, but not always, pronounced 'vat'). It's currently set at 20%. It applies to goods and services (unlike sales tax in the US). It originally applied to 'luxury' goods, but that definition has increased. For example, adult clothes have VAT, children's clothes don't. Hot takeaway food has VAT, cold food doesn't (so if a store microwaves something for you, they should charge VAT, if you eat it cold, they don't). Frozen peas have VAT, canned peas don't. It's very rare for anything in shops selling to the public, rather than business, to have the price before VAT, so most consumers don't know what it applies to and what it doesn't.Children are allowed in many bars and pubs in the UK. Heck, they're encouraged. Many pubs have outdoor or indoor playgrounds to keep children amused while their parents can drink a beer (or whatever).Many cities have a football (soccer) team, or more than one named for them (Manchester City, Manchester United). London doesn't. (Although London has many teams, they don't have London in their names.)Counties are the (another, very rough) approximation of states in the US. But counties get shuffled about more often. Rutland ceased to exist (as a political entity) in 1974, but it was reinstated in 1994.The vast majority of households in the UK will have an electric kettle, for heating water to make tea and coffee.Lots of surnames are named after places. But these don't tend to be large places - there are very few people with the surname "London". Something like your occupation, or your city of origin, would be used to identify you - you were "Jack from London", but if it were a big place (like London) that might not be useful, because there could be more than one Jack from London (so your occupation might be used). The most common surname based on a place in the UK is Burton (which is known for its beer).Grilled cheese sandwiches don't exist. The closest thing would be a 'toastie' or a toasted sandwich (made in a sandwich toaster).Arugula is called 'rocket'.You can drink alcohol in a bar from the age of 18. You can drink beer, wine and cider if you are eating a meal and with an adult at 16. You can drink alcohol at home at 5.Cider always has alcohol in it.Chips (which an American would call 'fries') are typically served with salt and vinegar - ideally malt vinegar. Some pubs which are very finickety about their beer will not have vinegar, in case it contaminates the beer.Marmite is delicious.

We don’t have a professional clergy. We don’t have a seminary in the traditional sense. Our leaders don’t have divinity degrees. They all support themselves with their own careers separate from the Church. They serve typically for three to seven years before somebody else is rotated into leadership. Here are some of my local leaders. They are not paid by the Church. A lot of them seem to be lawyers or dentists.The tithes with which they are entrusted go straight into a central account in the Church offices in Salt Lake City, where it is managed professionally as well as according to principles written out by inspiration from God. All tithing money is only spent or invested for building and sustaining His kingdom on earth, present and future. The examples below will show you that God has given the Church an extensive — and expensive — mandate.You can go to Salt Lake City and see the offices. You can also go to museums, libraries, and visitors’ centers, all welcoming the public for free.There is no admission fee or donation box.Most of the Church’s funds go toward building meetinghouses in more than 100 countries, at the rate of more than one per day. All projects are paid in full before groundbreaking, so you won’t ever see any sign at a constuction site painted look like a big thermometer. You also won’t see a meetinghouse with a leaky roof or unkempt lawn.You’re welcome to drop in anytime you see one and visit our meetings and inspect the grounds and buildings, which are built to exceed the commercial standard. One thing you will never see inside is a collection plate.You’re probably familiar with some of our 70,000 young missionaries. Although they are largely supported by their families and whatever money they could save from jobs during high school, the Church pays their airfare. There are also a dozen missionary training centers on five continents.This adds up to a lot of airline tickets. There is also the expense or running over 300 mission offices and motor pools worldwide.The Church’s senior leaders also rack up quite a few frequent flyer miles. These 12 here have a calling to testify of Christ to the whole world, and by the looks of their schedules, they are serious about it.Beyond travel expenses, they and about 100 other General Authorities are offered a parsonage that is more than I earn, but less than my supervisor makes - the point being that these men are way underpaid, given their role as being part of a council responsible for leading millions of people and overseeing billions of dollars. And even then, not all of them accept the money. Money simply can’t be said to be their motivation. It’s important to consider that the 12 apostles you see here work six days a week, 11 months a year for the rest of their lives. They never retire.So this is about 100 paid men leading a 16 million-member growing global organization. Among these hundred-or-so, there is a council of 18 who are responsible for the management of several billion dollars worth of annual donations. The money the General Authorities receive is not paid out of tithes, but rather from church-owned business interests. Given their general level of success as professionals prior to assuming these leadership responsibilities (surgeons, judges, CEOs, university presidents) I’m sure most of them took a serious pay cut to serve.These inspired female leaders are also jetting around the world at Church expense almost as much, teaching, providing guidance, and sharing the gospel.There is a headquarters staff that includes clerical, IT, financial management, media, engineering, custodial, groundskeeping, travel, security, and cafeteria personnel. They are paid market-rate salaries out of Church funds. Their salaries and benefits do come from tithes.The single most expensive item the Church owns is Brigham Young University, with its flagship campus in Provo, Utah, and others in Idaho and Hawaii, as well as the Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies and a superbly-directed London Centre. If you’re not one of the 28,000 students at BYU, you can still take the same religion classes weekdays at one of the LDS Institutes of Religion next to college campuses all over. Free. There’s also a high school version to increase scriptural literacy. Again, free.With the Church subsidizing BYU by 70%, it is an excellent value in education, a private school with tuition comparable to a state school’s. In addition to over 100 major fields of study, every student must take four semesters of religion classes to graduate. There is no undergraduate theology major. (Where would they find jobs?)The Church is working to maximize digital resources, posting its whole curriculum and news releases on the official Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints web site, providing uplifting programming on YouTube as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and outreach at ComeUntoChrist.org, including live chat with these guys. (Knocking on doors is so 20th century.)Nevertheless, printing costs still exist. Like many other organizations, we are sharing the The Holy Bible. We also want to flood the earth with the Book of Mormon. This is what I saw last week when I opened the nightstand at a hotel in Minneapolis.The bling-iest expense for tithing is the temples. These are special buildings, distinct from the ordinary meetinghouses in form and purpose. They are not open to the public, but are reserved as sacred, quiet spaces for spiritual instruction, rituals, and covenant making. Here is the one just outside Washington, DC. You’re welcome to visit the grounds and the adjacent visitors’ center, which hosts free lectures and concerts.There are 155 of these temples, with several more under construction or recently dedicated in the Philippines, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Brazil, and the United States. More are in planning stages. They are paid for before ground is broken.If you get a chance to go on one of the public tours (free, of course) before a new temple is dedicated, you will see where a lot of this money goes. Take a look at this video from the new one in Rome. Temples are so ornate because building them is an act of high worship. Solomon spared no expense. The modern temples are no less sacred.The Church also sponsors the world’s most extensive archive of genealogical records in the world, Free Family History and Genealogy Records called FamilySearch. The searchable database is growing at more than a million names per week. My late uncle (not a member of the Church) used his local Family History Library to map out our pedigree.You probably have a local Family History Center you can visit to find your ancestors. (Of course it’s free.)One place you can’t visit is the Granite Mountain Records Vault, where these records are permanently safeguarded from humidity, civil disturbances, natural disasters, and even nuclear war. #extremepreppersSince it is privately owned, we don’t have to depend on the government or invite anybody in.All this microfilm is being digitized for free public use on the Internet.One of the purposes of the Church is to help the poor.This warehouse is the center of an international system of storehouses of food and emergency supplies.The government has no involvement in any of it. This funding comes from the donations we make as Church members when we skip two meals a month and contribute the cost of the meals to a local fund to feed the hungry within our local congregation. The money left over from that goes to fund this larger program to feed our own as well as disaster victims of any faith.There are over 100 smaller storehouses that help the needy. They often share space with LDS Employment Resource Services & Work Agency and with LDS Family Services. Although primarily to benefit Church members in distress, the Church also operates Humanitarian Service to help with disaster relief. Here’s a report on some recent efforts to help in Floridaand in Texas.The annual budgets for local congregations, which pay for refreshments, youth activities and camps, office supplies, party decorations, photocopies, etc., come from tithing funds. As top writer Adam Helps notes, “The congregations run a pretty lean budget but it’s still a lot of money.”So when we pay tithes and other offerings, we are supporting the Lord’s work, not a professional clergy.We live by this biblical law of the tithe, whereby members of the Church have the privilege to contribute 10% of their income voluntarily. For this reason, we don’t have rummage sales, bingo, pledges, or any other kind of fundraiser.There has not been a major financial scandal since the nationwide wave of bank failures in 1837.The Church does own some profit-making businesses and real estate, including much of Hawaii, Missouri, and Florida. These pay taxes the same as any other commercial enterprise.The Church has not incurred any debt for over 100 years, and will never borrow again. A small portion of the tithes received go into a rainy day fund for the Church’s operations in case there is an economic downturn.So come on by and meet us sometime. Find us with the Meetinghouse Locator. You’ll probably hear sermons or lessons about things like faith and repentance, service, forgiveness, Jesus Christ, His Atonement, the Restoration of the fullness of His Gospel, priesthood authority, family life, being a good neighbor, studying the scriptures, overcoming personal challenges, and living a clean life in a dirty world. There will also be a few opportunities to get out and serve your neighbors. But one thing you will never hear is an appeal for money.Ask any Church member about this. These are sacred funds that are donated by the faithful, many of whom live in very meager circumstances. Church leaders handle this money as if it were the widow’s mite in Mark 12:41–44. It is amazing to watch what happens with all this, and even more amazing to be part of it.I hope this is helpful.Related contentWhat would it be like if Jesus was active today instead of two thousand years ago?Should a jobless person tithe?Does the LDS president get paid?How do Mormons justify spending two billion dollars on a mall, instead of feeding the poor?The LDS Church has brilliantly amassed billions in their rainy day fund. What could they do with that kind of money? Could it even put a dent in US poverty or public health or is it better to keep that money out of circulation?What is a typical occupation for a Mormon?What was President Gordon B. Hinckley's greatest contribution as president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?If the LDS leaders are truly fallible men that can be tempted, why don’t Mormon members demand transparency in the church’s finances, if not for anything other than keeping them honest?What is the cost for renovating the LDS Temple in Salt Lake?Are most students at BYU Mormons?How do you feel about reports that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS, Mormon) has misled members on investing $100,000,000,000 that was donated by members for charitable causes?Why do Mormons call themselves Christians?What (chapter and verse) in the Bible or Book of Mormon does it show that the LDS priesthood is the only authority God recognizes and is necessary for salvation?How does one achieve the first presidency for the LDS Church?What are the LDS temple questions?Does the LDS Church believe in separation of church and state?What are Mormon mission trips like?What was President Gordon B. Hinckley's greatest contribution as president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?How do Mormon missionaries make money?If a church, like the LDS (Mormon) church, charges a fee for full membership, shouldn’t they be taxed as a business?What does the Mormon Church do with all of its money?If the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) is the restored church, why aren't they Jewish? Didn't Christ practice Judaism?Whom do members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints pray to?In the LDS church, are young women and young men combined, or are they separate groups?In the aftermath of a second American civil war in the near future, would the LDS church attempt to found its own nation?

We’ve got real estate tycoons and we’ve got stock market tycoons. We’ve even got wealthy bond investors such as Bill Gross who pulls in over $100 million a year.It’s important to realize there are no renter or cash tycoons. The return on rent is always -100% every single month. Meanwhile, the return on cash averages a paltry 0.1% nationwide, even after the Fed rate hike.REASONS WHY REAL ESTATE IS BETTER THAN STOCKS1) You are more in control. Every physical real estate investment you make puts you in charge as CEO. As CEO, you are able to make improvements, cut costs (refinance your mortgage now that rates are back down post now that Trump is disappointing on some of his main promises), raise rents, find better tenants, and market accordingly. Of course you are still at the mercy of the economic cycle, but overall you have much more leeway in making wealth optimizing decisions. When you invest in a public or private company, you are a minority investor who puts his or her faith in management. Sometimes managers commit fraud or blow their companies to smithereens through unwise acquisitions. Nobody cares more about your investment than you.2) Leverage with other people’s money. Leverage in a rising market is a wonderful thing. Even if real estate only tracks inflation over the long run, a 3% increase on a property where you put 20% down is a 15% cash-on-cash return. In five years you will have more than doubled your equity at this rate. Stocks, on the other hand, generate roughly 7% – 9% a year including dividends. Leverage also kills on the way down, so remember to always run the worst case numbers before purchase.3) Tax advantageous. Not only can you deduct the interest on up to $750,000 on your primary home for 2018, you can also sell your primary home for tax free profits up to $250,000 for singles and $500,000 for married couples if you live in the home for the last two of a five year period. If you are in the 28% or higher tax bracket, it behooves you to own property. All expenses associated with managing your rental properties are also deductible towards your income. Income limits do apply however, so make sure you don’t make much more than ~$166,000 a year total.4) Tangible asset. Real estate is something you can see, feel, and utilize. Life is about living, and real estate can provide a higher quality of life. Stocks aren’t event pieces of paper anymore, but ticker symbols and numbers. When the world comes to an end, you can seek shelter in your property. Real estate is one of the three pillars for survival, the other two being food and shelter.5) Easier to analyze and quantify If you can calculate realistic expenses and rental income that’s all you really need when it comes down to valuing a piece of property. If you can borrow at 3% and rent out for a 6%+ yield, you’ve likely found yourself a winner. Real estate is immediately exploitable if you have the financial means to invest. There’s not only the cash flow component but the underlying equity component that helps investors build wealth. Stocks require you to trust what the company reports. There are countless ways for companies to massage their numbers to make things look better than they really are e.g. adjusting accounts receivables, adding one off gains, and using various amortization or depreciation strategies to name a few. Take a look at Zillow for the latest estimates, comparables, and sales history. It’s so easy to do research on real estate compared with researching stocks.6) Less visible volatility. Your house value could be tanking and you would never know it since there isn’t a daily ticker symbol. During bad times, the utility of your home really helps soften the blow as you enjoy your home and create great memories. During the 2008-2009 downturn, I still got to enjoy my vacation property in Lake Tahoe 15-20 days a year even though its value was plunging. Meanwhile, looking at the TV or computer screen just made me mad. When your investment is less volatile, it’s much easier to stay the course and not sell at the bottom.7) A source of pride. Making money for money’s sake is a pretty empty feeling after a while. Every time I drive by my rental properties I feel proud to have made the purchases years ago. I know that my money is working as hard as possible so I don’t have to. Real estate is a constant reminder that taking calculated risks over time pays off. There is an indescribable feeling nobody tells you once you’ve closed on your property. Even though the bank probably owns most of it in the beginning, you literally feel like the King or Queen of your castle. When you die, you can pass on your pride to your children or closest companions to let them create their own memories. Further, there is a “step-up” function where your heirs inherit the property based on the value of the property at the time of passing so that the cost basis is higher, which helps lower tax liability if the property is ever sold.8) More insulated. Real estate is local. If you’ve made a good decision to buy in an economically strong region, you will be more insulated from the national economy or the global economy. Spain blowing up is likely not going to affect the rent you can charge. Brexit actually helped drive mortgage rates lower as foreign investors bought safe US Treasury bonds. Look at prices in superstar cities such as NYC, Hong Kong, Singapore, London, Paris, and San Francisco. They fall the least, recover the soonest and gain the most. Of course, industries in your area could suddenly disappear and leave you broken as well. Of course, it’s also a good idea to diversify into lower cost regions of the country for higher yields. I do this through real estate crowdfunding and focus on real estate projects in Texas, Nebraska, Utah, and Tennessee.9) The government is on your side. Not only do you get generous mortgage interest tax deductions and tax free profits, you get bailouts if you can’t pay your mortgage. The government also aggressively went after banks to force them to extend loan modifications to bad and good creditors. I even got a free loan mod recently to my surprise. Programs such as HARP 1.0 and HARP 2.0 are allowing folks without hefty downpayments to get in on the action. There are plenty of non-recourse states such as California and Nevada which don’t go after your other assets if you decide to stop paying your mortgage and squat for months. When was the last time the government bailed individual investors out of their stock investments?Home prices will probably start slowing down in 2018 and beyondREASONS WHY STOCKS ARE BETTER THAN REAL ESTATE1) Higher rate of return. Stocks have historically returned ~7-9% a year compared to 2-4% for real estate over the past 60 years. You can also go on margin to boost your returns, however, I don’t recommend this strategy given your brokerage account will force you to liquidate holdings to come up with cash when things go the other way. Your bank can’t force you to come up with cash or move out so long as you are paying your mortgage.2) Much more liquid. If you don’t like a stock or need immediate cash, you can easily sell your stock holdings. If you need to cash out of real estate you could potentially take out a home equity line of credit, but it’s costly and takes at least a month.3) Lower transaction costs. Online transaction costs are under $10 a trade no matter how much you have to buy or sell. The real estate industry is still an oligopoly which still fixes commissions at a ridiculously high level of 5-6%. You would think the invention of Zillow would lower transaction costs, but unfortunately they’ve done very little to help lower expenses. They are in cahoots with the National Association of Realtors because they are their source of advertising revenue.4) Less work. Real estate takes constant managing due to maintenance, conflicts with neighbors, and tenant rotation. Stocks can literally be left alone forever and pay out dividends to investors. Without maintenance you’re able to focus your attention elsewhere such as spending time with family, your business, or traveling the world. You can easily pay a mutual fund manager 0.5% a year to pick stocks for you or hire a financial advisor at 1% a year. Or you can just manage your portfolio yourself due to so many free financial tools online.5) More variety. Unless you are super rich, you can’t own properties in Honolulu, San Francisco, Rio, Amsterdam and all the other great cities of the world. With stocks you can not only invest in different countries, you can also invest in various sectors. A well diversified stock portfolio could very well be less volatile than a property portfolio.6) Invest in what you use. One of the most fun aspects about the stock market is that you can invest in what you use. Let’s say you are a huge fan of Apple products, McDonald’s cheeseburgers, and Lululemon yoga pants. You can simply buy AAPL, MCD, and LULU. It’s a great feeling to not only use the products you invest in, but make money off your investments.7) Tax benefits. Long term capital gains and dividend income are taxed at lower rates (15% and 20%) than the top four W2 income rates (28%, 33%, 35%, 39.6%). If you can build your financial nut large enough so that the majority of your income comes from dividends, you could lower your marginal tax rate by as much as 20% or so, depending on the current legislation.8) Hedging is easier. You can protect your real estate investments through insurance. If disaster strikes, it’s often a pain to get your insurance company to pay for damages because the burden is on you to prove your claim. With stocks, you can easily short stocks or buy inverse ETFs to protect your portfolio from downside risk.9) Potentially less ongoing taxes and fees. Holding property requires paying property taxes usually equal to 1-2% of the value of the property each year. Then there’s maintenance costs, insurance costs, and property management costs. You can build your own portfolio of individual stocks and bonds for just $5 a trade. Or you can have a digital wealth advisor like Wealthfront build and maintain your investment portfolio for just 0.25% a year in assets under management after the first $15,000. They use their research and algorithms based off modern portfolio theory to best manage your money based off your inputted risk tolerance.CHARACTERISTICS MOST SUITABLE FOR REAL ESTATE AND STOCKSReal Estate* Believe wealth is made up of real assets not paper.* Know where you want to live for at least five years.* Do not do well in volatile environments.* Easily spooked by downturns.* Tend to buy and sell too often. High transaction costs ironically keep you from trading too often.* Enjoy interacting with people.* Takes pride in ownership.* Likes to feel more in control.Stocks* Happy to give up control to those who should know better.* Can stomach volatility.* Have tremendous discipline not to chase rallies and sell when things are imploding.* Likes to trade.* Enjoy studying economics, politics, and researching stocks.* Don’t want to be tied down.* Have a limited amount of capital to invest.NO BAD CHOICES IN A BULL MARKETThe choice between investing in real estate or stocks is like choosing between eating a chocolate cake or a hot fudge sundae. Both are good provided that you don’t go overboard. When you are younger, investing in stocks is easier and makes more sense since you have less money and are more mobile. As you get older you probably want to set some roots so owning at least your primary residence is beneficial.With stocks, it’s terrific to see portfolios go up. But after a while, it becomes unsatisfying to see more money accumulate in your brokerage account. Money needs to be spent on something, otherwise, what’s the point of saving and investing?Whatever you do, don’t own nothing. Inflation will rob you of your financial happiness when you are older and less willing or able to work. Own assets that rise with inflation such as stocks and real estate. Let’s just pray the bear market doesn’t return, but it sure seems like things are slowing.My latest investment focus is on investing in real estate crowdfunding deals through a company called RealtyShares. I’ve got $710,000 invested with them after I sold my rental house in San Francisco in June 2017 after owning it for 12.5 years. I think real estate crowdfunding is a great hybrid to focus on real estate returns WITHOUT all the headaches of managing property.Further, I think it is wise in 2018 and beyond to focus on investing in the heartland of America where real estate values are cheaper and net rental yields are higher compared to buying coastal city real estate. Prices are too expensive now, cap rates are too low, and technology is basically arbitraging work opportunities.Related: Focus On Trends: Why I’m Investing In The Heartland Of AmericaRegards,Sam