The Borrow Smart Chronicles
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The Borrow Smart Chronicles - Investing, Time and Picking Your Own Rate

The Borrow Smart Chronicles - Investing, Time and Picking Your Own Rate

Episode 26

Todd Ballenger
May 03, 2024

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"The secret to mastering your time is to systematically focus on importance
and suppress urgency."

Oliver Emberton

There is never enough time, but one thing we know for sure is that time waits for no one - whatever time is, we all have the same amount of it. When investing, time can be your friend or your foe.

Guide to Retirement

Discover our Guide to Retirement, updated annually to provide an effective framework for supporting retirement planning conversations.

am.jpmorgan.com/us/en/asset-management/adv/insights/retirement-insights/guide-to-retirement

There is so much in this guide. In a recent coaching class, we worked on how lenders are embracing financial literacy to educate their consumers and partners. The big aha! is that those lenders are becoming more financially literate as they help others.

In this video, I walk you through a quick review of my favorite parts of this retirement guide in hopes that it is helpful to you, and also that you find it a resource you might want to share with family members, clients, partners, etc. I’ll point out some key aspects of how these are covered in depth in our CALM education.

a BORROW SMART CONCEPT
Pick Your Rate

One idea for helping clients feel better about their interest rate is letting them know the rate they pay is largely under their control. The note rate is only the note rate if a borrower makes payments according to their note - which is a minimum, not a maximum amount required each month.

“The moment a client makes a single extra payment, the note rate is no longer accurate.” Your goal is to learn how to communicate that clearly. Essentially, by asking the client to pick the rate they’d like to have, and then showing them how that is possible, you put the rate discussion back in the hands of the client, and help to remove their frustration at you (like you control the rates) in a way that makes them feel empowered.

Download Sample Pick Your Rate Calculator - and try it on your own mortgage to see how it feels to you. The decision to actual repay the debt directly or to repay in a side fund is based on your EPR.

LIABILITIES and DEBT
What’s Happening?

What’s your time frame? Rates have been trending down since the 1300’s

and when they move up people want to keep those lower rates

rates are rates

but that locks up a lot of equity

and make it hard for new people to enter the market

as bigger down payments are also needed

and if people keep spending and not saving, that will be difficult

they can’t keep printing money for themselves like the government can

“Regret for wasted time is more wasted time.”

Mason Cooley

REAL ESTATE
What’s Happening?

improvement from prior week

housing is helping the economy even with the difficulties of higher rates

prices up over 6% in the last year

prices are going up globally, with Australia still kicking our butts

but we have growth plans ahead, with 4.3% appreciation next year per Goldman Sachs

“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

Thomas A. Edison

Why I Don’t Invest in Real Estate

Real estate has been a great investment all your life, so you think it will continue. But your life experience has been an outlier. Housing prices might stagnate or shrink in the coming decades.

unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/why-i-dont-invest-in-real-estate?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

ASSETS and INCOME
What’s Happening?

Gold for the lead in growth assets this year

last week was a buzz saw of higher returns

some months are better than others

the problem is most aren’t saving - time in the market is more important than timing the market!

and the earlier you start the better

seasonality is different in bull and bear markets

“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

- T.S. Elliot

ON BEING HUMAN
What’s Worth Sharing?

If you are about to skip this, don’t! Share it with one person that needs to hear it now!

The Lifegiving Benefits of Befriending Our Mortality

A new poem for national poetry month

open.substack.com/pub/andreagibson/p/benefits-of-befriending-our-mortality?r=oyw0d&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

“Avoid destructive thinking. Improper negative thoughts sink people. A ship can sail around the world many, many times, but just let enough water get into the ship and it will sink. Just so with the human mind. Let enough negative thoughts or improper thoughts get into the human mind and the person sinks just like a ship.”

Alfred A. Montapert