Insider
by
charleshughsmith
Executive Summary
- The matrix of factors to consider in a Plan B residence
- What to know abot eacf of the five key factors
- Not all second homes are fully functional
- The challenges & benefits of maintaining two separate fully functional residences
If you have not yet read Part 1: Does Your Plan B Include a Second Place to Live if Plan A Doesn’t Work Out? available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.
In Part 1 we reviewed the three basic categories of Plan B Residences: temporary (to ride out an emergency); semi-permanent (to weather a recession/loss of income) and permanent (replacing Plan A residence with Plan B residence).
In Part 2, we’ll consider a Matrix of Factors that will help us choose the inevitable trade-offs of costs and benefits, and add a category—permanent maintenance of two fully functional residences.
The Matrix of Factors
While there are many factors in any Plan B, I’ve pared the key factors in Plan B residences down to five: cost, control, security, depth of resources and functions enabled. Each is on a sliding scale from low to high. There are costs and benefits to each being low, medium or high.
Let’s go over each factor.
Cost:
While cost measured by price is self-explanatory, this also includes opportunity costs (what else could have been accomplished with the money?), time (the hassle factor of how long it will take to get something done) and labor—how much labor must be invested to accomplish a goal.
There is even a stress cost: how much will this goal/project add to my stress load? Even if the money needed is on hand, the overall cost can be high in terms of time, hassle, stress and opportunity cost.
Control:
By this I mean ownership (of the land, the house, etc.), contractual control (of jointly owned assets, of any hired labor, etc.) and functional control, i.e. residency. As many have discovered to their regret, it’s possible to have legal ownership/control but end up with effectively zero functional control, as your house might be occupied by squatters or family members who morphed from allies to enemies.
Control is important because…
The Benefits & Challenges Of Maintaining A Retreat Property
PREVIEW by charleshughsmithExecutive Summary
- The matrix of factors to consider in a Plan B residence
- What to know abot eacf of the five key factors
- Not all second homes are fully functional
- The challenges & benefits of maintaining two separate fully functional residences
If you have not yet read Part 1: Does Your Plan B Include a Second Place to Live if Plan A Doesn’t Work Out? available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.
In Part 1 we reviewed the three basic categories of Plan B Residences: temporary (to ride out an emergency); semi-permanent (to weather a recession/loss of income) and permanent (replacing Plan A residence with Plan B residence).
In Part 2, we’ll consider a Matrix of Factors that will help us choose the inevitable trade-offs of costs and benefits, and add a category—permanent maintenance of two fully functional residences.
The Matrix of Factors
While there are many factors in any Plan B, I’ve pared the key factors in Plan B residences down to five: cost, control, security, depth of resources and functions enabled. Each is on a sliding scale from low to high. There are costs and benefits to each being low, medium or high.
Let’s go over each factor.
Cost:
While cost measured by price is self-explanatory, this also includes opportunity costs (what else could have been accomplished with the money?), time (the hassle factor of how long it will take to get something done) and labor—how much labor must be invested to accomplish a goal.
There is even a stress cost: how much will this goal/project add to my stress load? Even if the money needed is on hand, the overall cost can be high in terms of time, hassle, stress and opportunity cost.
Control:
By this I mean ownership (of the land, the house, etc.), contractual control (of jointly owned assets, of any hired labor, etc.) and functional control, i.e. residency. As many have discovered to their regret, it’s possible to have legal ownership/control but end up with effectively zero functional control, as your house might be occupied by squatters or family members who morphed from allies to enemies.
Control is important because…
by
Adam Taggart
For the next few days (until we fly back for this year's Peak Prosperity seminar), Chris and I will be attending the Summit At Sea, an exclusive investment conference produced by Robert Helms and Russell Grey, aka. The Real Estate Guys.
Wi-fi and power access depending, we are live blogging here the insights we're learning from our fellow speakers over the next few days.
Summit At Sea: Liveblog
PREVIEW by Adam TaggartFor the next few days (until we fly back for this year's Peak Prosperity seminar), Chris and I will be attending the Summit At Sea, an exclusive investment conference produced by Robert Helms and Russell Grey, aka. The Real Estate Guys.
Wi-fi and power access depending, we are live blogging here the insights we're learning from our fellow speakers over the next few days.
by
charleshughsmith
Executive Summary
- Understanding the difference between Artificial and Economically-Viable Communities
- What to look for in a retreat community
- Why regional assets matter
- The importance of "path dependence" in a retreat location
If you have not yet read Part 1: Having A 'Retreat' Property Comes With Real Challenges available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.
In Part 1, we considered the nature of security and independence, and found that the intuitively appealing remote cabin in the woods (RCITW) is actually highly insecure and does not reduce dependence on fragile global supply chains at all—it may well increase our dependence and vulnerability to disruptions.
Security is a function of an engaged community (eyes on the street, knowing one’s neighbors, reciprocity of caring) and occupancy. The remote cabin that’s rarely occupied is the acme of insecurity.
Here in Part 2, we’ll consider the qualities that create security and resilience in communities.
Artificial Communities vs. Economically Viable Communities
If we reckon a community is a collection of dwellings, we might be tempted to view all collections of dwellings as being roughly equal. This would be a great mistake, for communities divide very naturally into artificial communities and economically viable communities.
In artificial communities, security is poor and difficult/costly to improve. In economically viable communities, the multiple layers of stakeholders provide self-reinforcing homegrown security.
Artificial communities are consumer communities—they produce essentially nothing. Economically viable communities produce goods and services as a function of their natural-resource advantages (good soil, adequate water, river ports, coastal harbors, advantageous weather, etc.) and concentrations of capital (rail lines, banks, universities, an entrepreneurial culture supported by local government, etc.).
History has not been particularly kind to defensive strategies, which is what most artificial communities are. This is why…
Doing ‘Retreat’ Right
PREVIEW by charleshughsmithExecutive Summary
- Understanding the difference between Artificial and Economically-Viable Communities
- What to look for in a retreat community
- Why regional assets matter
- The importance of "path dependence" in a retreat location
If you have not yet read Part 1: Having A 'Retreat' Property Comes With Real Challenges available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.
In Part 1, we considered the nature of security and independence, and found that the intuitively appealing remote cabin in the woods (RCITW) is actually highly insecure and does not reduce dependence on fragile global supply chains at all—it may well increase our dependence and vulnerability to disruptions.
Security is a function of an engaged community (eyes on the street, knowing one’s neighbors, reciprocity of caring) and occupancy. The remote cabin that’s rarely occupied is the acme of insecurity.
Here in Part 2, we’ll consider the qualities that create security and resilience in communities.
Artificial Communities vs. Economically Viable Communities
If we reckon a community is a collection of dwellings, we might be tempted to view all collections of dwellings as being roughly equal. This would be a great mistake, for communities divide very naturally into artificial communities and economically viable communities.
In artificial communities, security is poor and difficult/costly to improve. In economically viable communities, the multiple layers of stakeholders provide self-reinforcing homegrown security.
Artificial communities are consumer communities—they produce essentially nothing. Economically viable communities produce goods and services as a function of their natural-resource advantages (good soil, adequate water, river ports, coastal harbors, advantageous weather, etc.) and concentrations of capital (rail lines, banks, universities, an entrepreneurial culture supported by local government, etc.).
History has not been particularly kind to defensive strategies, which is what most artificial communities are. This is why…
by
Chris Martenson
Executive Summary
- Why economic growth is not going to ride to the rescue
- The alarming warning signs the auto, fine art, retail & housing industries are flashing now
- The actions you should be taking now to protect yourself from (and position for) the coming crash
If you have not yet read Part 1: Why This Market Needs To Crash available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.
Sometimes I wonder if I'm ever going to run out of new things to say about the state of the world, especially economics. The more obvious our predicaments become to me, the less appetite there seems to be ‘out there’ to discuss them.
What more can be said about a system that is so obviously corrupt and destined to fail, and piles up more and more evidence that this is the case, and yet refuses to engage in the most minimal of introspection?
Well, lots as it turns out.
You see, we're finally getting to beginning of the end. Our long national — and global — experiment with using flawed economic models is now running smack dab into reality.
The edifice of central planning omnipotence is crumbling and when it finally breaks down in earnest, the financial markets will implode, the central banks will be overrun and discredited, and investors will discover that overly-long parties come with massive hangovers.
There will be hell to pay.
For reasons we have discussed previously, and extensively, GDP growth has not been a feature of the world stage for over a decade, and is unlikely to return both because of debt levels that are far too high to support rapid growth and because any return of rapid growth will run smack into higher oil prices.
So…how’s that story working out? Not so hot. It’s been sub-par on a global scale for more than a decade. And the same is true for the US.
And here’s where we are today…
Positioning Yourself For The Crash
PREVIEW by Chris MartensonExecutive Summary
- Why economic growth is not going to ride to the rescue
- The alarming warning signs the auto, fine art, retail & housing industries are flashing now
- The actions you should be taking now to protect yourself from (and position for) the coming crash
If you have not yet read Part 1: Why This Market Needs To Crash available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.
Sometimes I wonder if I'm ever going to run out of new things to say about the state of the world, especially economics. The more obvious our predicaments become to me, the less appetite there seems to be ‘out there’ to discuss them.
What more can be said about a system that is so obviously corrupt and destined to fail, and piles up more and more evidence that this is the case, and yet refuses to engage in the most minimal of introspection?
Well, lots as it turns out.
You see, we're finally getting to beginning of the end. Our long national — and global — experiment with using flawed economic models is now running smack dab into reality.
The edifice of central planning omnipotence is crumbling and when it finally breaks down in earnest, the financial markets will implode, the central banks will be overrun and discredited, and investors will discover that overly-long parties come with massive hangovers.
There will be hell to pay.
For reasons we have discussed previously, and extensively, GDP growth has not been a feature of the world stage for over a decade, and is unlikely to return both because of debt levels that are far too high to support rapid growth and because any return of rapid growth will run smack into higher oil prices.
So…how’s that story working out? Not so hot. It’s been sub-par on a global scale for more than a decade. And the same is true for the US.
And here’s where we are today…
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Community
by hgrootveldgmail-com 
Peak Financial Investing
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