Best answer:

Answer by jwishz
Best thing is to put each property in a separate llc
You can do this yourself through the secretary of state or corporation commission in your state
That way if there is a problem with one it won’t hurt the others

What do you think? Answer below!

During the past sixty years, most economic, market, and interest rate cycles have lasted from two to five years, peak-to-peak. Rarely have any of the cycle-tracking market indices moved in tandem, and none of the cycles are considered to be particularly predictable.

 Individual securities (the stuff that indices are made of) complicate things significantly by having even less predictable cycles of their own. This generally uncertain atmosphere is the very nature of the financial markets. If investors could come to grips with the non-calendar, cyclical, nature of markets, it is likely that they could improve their investment performance considerably.

 In spite of decades of irrefutable evidence to the contrary, Wall Street has convinced most investors and far too many financial professionals that the calendar year is somehow investment relevant. Simple, yes; tax-code friendly, perhaps; but investment realistic— not.

 Too many experts have abandoned the financial world’s fascinating cyclical undulations for the simplicity of the planet’s annual orbit around the sun. It’s time for a change in direction— one that doesn’t ignore the realities of the investment markets. It’s time to get back on our “hogs”, and ride!

 Regardless of direction, all cyclical movements have proven to be excellent investment opportunities for Market Cycle Investment Management (MCIM) navigators. The MCIM Program uses a time-proven methodology that befriends market and interest rate cycles by using strategies that most often should produce:

 * Higher market value lows during market downturns.

* Moves to cash before corrections take over from rallies.

* Maintenance of planned income during financial crises.

* Faster movement to new market value highs.

* Steady growth in “working capital” in all market environments.

* Annual growth of realized “base income” in all portfolios.

* No major disappearing (unrealized) profits.

* Much better than average peak-to-peak market value numbers.

* Auto pilot maintenance of asset allocation structure.

* Reduction of analysis paralysis, appreciation of both rallies and corrections, and love of market volatility.

 The past twelve years have included two major market cycles and one significant economic crisis. Email me to see how well Market Cycle Investment Management accounts fared during this interesting segment of financial history. Read “Brainwashing the American Investor” to appreciate the MCIM program— in operation since 1970.

 All investors should become familiar with Market Cycle Investment Management accounts and the strategies they employ to keep portfolios on track from start up to retirement. As a family evolves over time, separately managed, “life cycle” friendly, portfolios will become necessary. For example:

 Group One -Taxable income and Investment Grade Value Stock (IGVSI) portfolios for tax deferred accounts

 * 70% IGVSI Equities and 30% Taxable CEFs

* 50% IGVSI Equities and 50% Taxable CEFs

* 30% IGVSI Equities and 70% Taxable CEFs

 Group Two – Tax free income and Investment Grade Value Stock (IGVSI) portfolios for taxable accounts

 * 70% IGVSI Equities and 30% Tax Free CEFs

* 50% IGVSI Equities and 50% Tax Free CEFs

* 30% IGVSI Equities and 70% Tax Free CEFs

Group Three – Tax managed portfolios, asset allocated as in Group Two, for taxable accounts.

 Notes: (1) Group One and Two portfolios would be managed in accordance with The Working Capital Model, as documented profusely in the books and articles of Investment Manager Steve Selengut. (2) Group Three portfolios would be managed similarly; however, tax loss selling will be used annually to offset a significant portion of trading gains. 

 Reasonable Expectations: (1) Portfolios should lose less market value during market corrections and recover to new highs more quickly. (2) Profit taking during rallies, regular cash flow, and strict stock purchase rules should produce quicker recoveries. (3) Income production from equities, combined with a significant income securities bucket, assure annual increases in “base income” levels.

 Market Cycle Investment Management replaces the racetrack mentality that runs today’s investment performance evaluation methodologies with a calmer, more cerebral, strategy.

 By looking at things cyclically, and analytically, instead of celestially and emotionally, we allow our strategy to prove itself over a reasonable period of time— as it has since 1970. 

 If the investment strategy makes sense in the long run, why knock yourself out in months, quarters, and years? Pick the MCIM program or programs that suit you best today and let them work you through the cycles the investment gods are preparing for your future.

 Attend a seminar, adopt the program, and smile.

Simply put, Software Asset Management is a business process that can help you reduce your licensing costs and optimize your software assets. The business benefits of Software Asset Management are:

Reduce software licensing costs – only purchase/renew licenses for software that is used. Track all your license rights, such as upgrade, downgrade and transfer rights to optimize the way you account for and use your software assets.

Reduce help desk costs – on average, 50% of the time spend troubleshooting computer issues is spent on obtaining the computer configuration

Minimize unauthorized software usage, security risks – SAM empowers you to use the right software for you. Ensuring that your employees are using only authorized software helps increase productivity and avoid security risks.

Reduce business and legal risk due to not meeting regulatory requirements, or not complying with software vendor license agreements.

Better negotiation capabilities with your software vendors – knowing exactly what you have and what you need, as well as the number of licenses you need and your current license rights puts you in control in your next license negotiation.

Software Asset Management can help you reduce your overall software licensing costs by only purchasing software that you use and need, organize your licensing assets and keep track of your licenses agreements, terms and renewal dates. It is a process that helps you know which software is installed and used across your enterprise, and minimize unauthorized software usage. You can use it to better manage your software assets from a business perspective, reduce the cost of software licensing and improves your software asset utilization.

Proper management of your IT assets can help you save money and reduce your overall IT costs. According to IAITAM, proactive IT asset management can reduce your IT costs by up to 25%. By knowing which computers and software are used across your company, and matching the inventory information against your financial and contractual records you can make better IT decisions and get more out of your IT budget. IT Asset Management provides the following benefits:

1. Gain control over your assets, know which assets exist on your network, their configuration and the changes to these assets. A good asset management system would help you easily analyze the information to make decisions.

2. Implement procedures that will save you money a good IT asset management system would help you create and enforce policies and procedures that will save you money. You can implement software usage policies, standard hardware configurations, asset request processes and other processes that would help you extract more value from your assets.

3. Make better IT decisions by organizing your IT assets inventory and aligning it with your financial records and contracts you can better IT decisions. For example, you can better prepare for a contract renewal by knowing what you actually use and need to renew, what terms you negotiated in the previous contract or which computers are part of a hardware lease that is expiring soon.

4. Reduce help-desk and support costs by providing your support personal with detailed asset configuration you help them provide quicker issue resolution, and reduce your IT support costs.

5. Detect risks to your IT assets – analyze your IT assets to detect any potential risks such as missing security patches or improper anti-virus / anti-spyware protection.

6. Ensure regulatory and software license compliance.

To learn more about IT Asset Management for Small Business owners, and how getting started has become easier with on-demand IT Asset Management, visit SAManage at www.SAManage.com today and sign-up for a free 30-days trial of our service.

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To better manage your IT asset you need a tool that gives you instant IT Visibility — the detailed configuration you need of ALL of your computer assets. You should be able to easily view the updated configuration and physical location of each computer, server or laptop you have on your network. Tag each asset and assign it to users and technical owners. These hardware hardware properties includes CPU, BIOS, disks, sound cards and many others, and know exactly which software titles are installed and used on each of your computers.

When selecting an hardware asset management tool you should seek a tool that helps you track the hardware across your network, allowing you to know everything that happens on your network, with your computer assets and allowing you to easily maintain and access a full history of changes.

Corporations, small business, government agencies or educational institution, all require a comprehensive solution for managing software and hardware assets, controlling expenses, and automating license compliance. These are the key areas that you need to focus on when selecting a solution for your organization:

Inventory hardware assets, including computers, software, servers, laptops, and mobile devices that connect to your network. Get Instant IT visibility: View updated configuration and physical location of each computer, server or laptop. Search every hardware asset by CPU, by operating system, by vendor and many more. The Compliance Manager ensures IT compliance by tracking computers and software that are installed on your network.

Implementing an hardware asset management system will help you gain better visibility into your hardware assets and better control your IT infrastructure resulting with reduced IT costs.

Whatever happened to the Stock Market Cycle; the Interest Rate Cycle; Baby Jane? How did Wall Street get away with pushing these facts of financial life down the basement stairs? Most investors, I’m beginning to believe, and all financial advisors, media representatives, and market gurus have abandoned these fascinating curves for the comfort of a straight-edged twelve-month playing field… simple, yes; realistic, not. I have to wonder if things would be different with a more investor-friendly tax-code, but that would be far less lucrative for The Wizards…

Investing with a calendar year focus has no basis in the realities of finance, business, or economics… isn’t it obvious that the Stock and Bond Markets are far more closely related to the Business Cycle than to the Earth’s around the Sun? Investopedia reports that, during the last sixty years, most business cycles have lasted three to five years from peak-to-peak. The Stock Market Cycle (in terms of the S & P 500 Average) is the period of time between the two latest highs of that average which are separated by at least a 15% decline in the average. The second high needs only to be 15% above the nadir, it doesn’t have to represent a new All Time High (ATH). Interest rates (based on the 10 Year Treasury Bond), seem to cycle in the two to five year range, and are much more closely related to Business or Economic cycles than they are to the Stock Market Cycle. Confused?

Well, you should be. Although they are closely intertwined, none of these financial realities are predictable and, therefore, need to be dealt with as hindsightful tools in the performance analysis process… a process that needs to be undertaken using personalized expectations. How many times in the last 20 years do you think that any of these cycles peaked on a December 31st? The “I’ll try this approach for a year or so and then change if it doesn’t work out better than everything else” mentality, combined with a regressive tax code that rewards losses more than gains, has killed cyclical analysis dead. It’s time to get back on our hogs and try something old. Let’s re-cycle peak-to-peak analysis like we do plastics and paper products. It might just put more “green” in our retirement programs. As recently as 1980, Separate Account (the first Mutual Funds) Investment Managers were reporting fund performance in terms of income generation and peak-to-peak growth in Market Value. But that was before investing became the number-two spectator sport in America.

Few investment professionals would argue with the observation that a viable investment program begins with the development of a realistic plan, and most would agree that investment planning requires the identification of long-term personal goals and objectives. Some experts would even agree that the end result should be a near autopilot, long-term and increasing, retirement income. Asset Allocation is used to organize and control the structure of the portfolio so that it operates in a goal directed manner. Is this easy or what! It would be if the average investor would just let things alone long enough for them to work out according to the plan. That’s the rub. Wall Street, the financial media, and financial professionals (including CPAs) have no interest in letting things work out according to plan… even if it’s a plan that they designed.

Is it clear that calendar year performance evaluation allows an average of just six months for an equity selection to ‘perform’? Is it clear that the change in Market Value of an income security over the course of a year is meaningless? Is it clear that a portfolio containing both types of securities cannot be compared with an average or index that is comprised of just one or the other? It is crystal clear until it’s your portfolio that has had the audacity to shrink in Market Value over the course of the year! Human nature is predictable but not necessarily rational. Mother Nature’s financial twin’s twisted sense of humor, though, is both… and totally unrelated to third rock movements.

If the change in a portfolio’s Market Value is really so important (the Working Capital Model would argue that it is not), why not do it over a period of time that recognizes where we happen to be, cyclically? Interest Rates have cycled seven or eight times over the past twenty-five years; the stock market has been nearly twice as volatile. Peak-to-peak analysis, although hindsightful, raises a type of question that can, at least, be portfolio personalized for analysis:

(1) Did my Equity portfolio grow in Market Value between January 2000 and January of 2002, or between January 2002 and either January 2004 or June of 2006? These were cycles on the DJIA, which at its high in June 2006, was still below the ATH established in early 2000. These are meaningful time periods that can be used to study the effectiveness of various equity-only portfolio strategies. S & P 500 cycles were pretty much the same.

(2) Does my Income Portfolio generate more income today than it did the last time interest rates were at these levels is still the most important question that should be raised… regardless of Market Value. Sorry.

But as important as it may be to determine the answers to such questions, it is equally important to understand why the results were what they were. Did I withdraw money from the portfolio, or take losses on investment grade securities for tax reasons? Did I fail to follow the plan, or lose control of my Asset Allocation? Did I change variable expenses into fixed expenses or allow tax considerations to keep me from realizing profits. Were there changes in the investment markets that would make peak-to-peak analysis less meaningful than in the past?

So by taking away the move-your-money, racetrack, mentality that runs today’s investment performance evaluation methodologies, we create a calmer, more cerebral, management exercise with which to tweak our investment strategy. We may have gone backwards because we stayed on the sidelines instead of buying when prices were low. It may have been the strategy, it may have been the management, it could have been the diversification formula, or the buy-sell-hold decision-making rules. It may even have been the fear or greed that influenced our judgment. By looking at things cyclically, and analytically, instead of celestially and emotionally, we either allow our strategy to prove itself over a reasonable period of time or obtain the information needed to change it constructively.

The recent popularity of Index ETFs has detracted from the usefulness of both the popular market averages and the most useful market statistics. Issue Breadth, 52-week High and Low, Most Actives, Most Advanced, and Most Declined figures now include thousands of these hybrid and derivative securities. A bigger problem is the artificial demand created for index-included securities, a demand unrelated to corporate financial statement fundamentals. Another problem for Investment Grade Value Stock only investors is the absence of a well-recognized average or index to use for analysis… the IGVSI and related Market Stats should help.

Analyze this: if the strategy makes sense in the long run, why knock yourself out in months, quarters, and years? Where have all the cycles gone…

Wall St. Training Self-Study Instructor, Hamilton Lin, CFA introduces the major jargon and finance terminology in finance. What exactly is the sell-side and the buy-side and do they affect the capital markets and why do they have a symbiotic relationship? What exactly is investment banking, sales & trading and research? How is it that asset management is the flip opposite and yet very similar at the same time? Put those questions to rest with this Overview of Financial Markets overview. This course is offered FREE for six months at: www.wstselfstudy.com Register for this course FREE at www.wstselfstudy.com For more information of the video courses previewed here, go to: www.wstselfstudy.com Over 80 hours of online, interactive Self-Study Videos! ***SPECIAL YOUTUBE OFFER*** Receive 20% off 5 month purchase at: www.wstselfstudy.com Use Discount code youtube20 Wall St. Training Self-Study provides online, video-based, self-study financial modeling training solutions to Wall Street. Our interactive course modules are Excel-based and specialize in advanced and complex financial modeling, valuation modeling, investment banking, mergers & acquisitions and leveraged buyout training topics. Enhance your skills and master the content required by Wall Street investment banks, M&A, research, asset management, credit, and private equity firms.

By effectively managing the life cycle of an organization’s IT assets, the IT manager has significant influence to improve an organization’s overall performance, reduce costs, improve effectiveness, and improve and demonstrate the IT department’s ROI. Managing an Enterprise’s IT assets is essential for an organization’s competitiveness today. Deploying an IT Asset Management system will help avoid failures and quickly identify wasted IT resources and other inefficiencies.

Corporations, small business, government agencies or educational institutions, all require a comprehensive solution for managing computer and software assets, controlling expenses, and automating license compliance. Enterprises require an end-to-end solution that is capable of:

Taking IT Inventory, including computers, software, servers, laptops, and mobile devices that connect to your network. Get Instant IT visibility: Have an accurate Computer Inventory and easily view updated configuration and physical location of each computer, server or laptop. View over 200 different hardware properties and know which software titles are installed on each computer. Search every IT asset by CPU, by operating system, by vendor and many more. Then export the data to CSV, PDF or HTML files directly from each view, giving you an easy way to export your data from the service and create useful reports. The Compliance Manager ensures IT compliance by tracking computers and software that are installed on your network and matching your software inventory against your software licenses to determine compliance status.

Online IT management software such as SAManage allows you to make sure that your organization has the ability to manage their IT assets throughout their lifecycle, and helps you better manage your enterprise IT assets.

It’s been a long and hard decade…

Having been managing investment portfolios and accounts for the past decade both professionally and personally, me, like an army of other portfolio managers out there, are not only looking for the perfect trading system, but also the perfect way to manage an investment account.

Indeed, there are whole bombardments of theories of risk management and portfolio management out there that it is mind boggling. There are risk management concepts that attempt to govern each investment trade and position sizing based on complex probability calculations and there are even concepts that were born in Las Vegas, claiming what high stake poker gamblers do. The problem with these concepts is that they are mainly mathematical concepts that took the human factor out of the game completely.

Let’s face it, if you have ever managed a portfolio or an investment account, you will know that it is never as simple or left to chance as a game of poker and it is never as mechanical and emotionless as the mathematical calculations claim.

After a decade of thinking along these lines, I realized that these portfolio management concepts are important but there must be something on top of these that must govern the mind that executes these concepts. This “Meta Program” must be the “Operating System” in the mind of the portfolio manager and rule the way the portfolio manager or trader looks at a portfolio or investment account. With such a “Meta Program” in mind, the portfolio manager will be able assess changes in a portfolio or investment account in the right light and to behave in ways that are appropriate to the prevailing situation.

Here I present my personal “Meta Program” called the Portfolio Management Art of War.

Every Investor, Trader, Fund Manager or Portfolio Manager is an Emperor or King of his or her own trading Empire. Your Empire exists in a world that is engulfed and consumed in an eternal warfare. This world is called the Exchange (stock, forex, commodity or whatever exchange you are involved in.).

The boundaries and resources of your Empire are defined by the size of your Fund. Some Kings have bigger territories and some have smaller ones but all are driven by the common need to survive in the Exchange by expanding their territories and boundaries.

As a King, your mandate in the Exchange is to find ways and means to expand your Empire over time. If that cannot be done, you will soon find that you might not be the King of this Empire for very long.

In order to expand one’s territory, one must lead one’s Empire into war against the rest of the Exchange. Some Kings are more aggressive and some, more conservative. Regardless of level of aggression, every King’s resources must be committed in various ways into battle against the Exchange. Every winning battle expands the King’s territory and every losing battle loses part of the Empire and the boundaries shrinks. Some King has a target boundary size but know that as long as you remain a King, you will one day be drawn into battle against the Exchange again. The war in the Exchange is eternal.

In order to battle in the Exchange, every King must have a Strategy. Some splits one’s army up into many squads which fights independently and some engages in a total war against the Exchange with the whole Empire leaving only very little backup. Some organizes one’s army into many functional squads, with some squads fighting more aggressively and some squads fighting more conservatively. This Strategy is called the Portfolio Management System that the King chooses to adopt. Each squad then fights using specific Tactics called Trading Systems.

How a King chooses his Strategy and Tactic depends largely on the part of the Exchange that a King chooses to fight in. Every part of the Exchange (Forex or commodity or equity etc..) has its own unique characteristics and rules of engagement which the King must be thoroughly familiar with.

Every time a King sends forward a squad to do battle in the Exchange by drawing upon his Empire and placing a position in the Exchange, it must always be held in mind that there is no guarantee that you will ever see that brave general that was being sent forth again. If the squad loses, you lose a part of your Empire to the Exchange. Therefore you must take very frequent look at the overall map of your Empire (which should always be pinned up prominently in your war room.) and monitor how far back the Exchange has taken your Empire before thinking about and making your next move. If the squad wins, that general expands your Empire farther into the Exchange. That gives you more resources and more troops to wage your next battle. The King must then decide how these new resources are to be deployed… shall he assign the new troops into his existing squads? Should the King hold the new troops and resources back as backup for future battles? Should the King expand on the number of squads using the new troops? Strategic deployment of these resources could turn the tide of the entire war.

Before a King sends a squad forward, he must first assess the capability of the General that is to lead this assault. This is your Research. If you are highly confident that this General will win the battle, should you give him more troops so that he can claim more territory? If you are slightly less confident of that General, should you cut back on his troop or hold back the assault altogether?

Finally, if your Empire has been compromised and the Exchange has claimed a significant portion of it, is it time you consider a change in Strategy and Tactics? Even if the Exchange has claimed a large portion of your Empire, you might still be able to wage a series of battles so successful that you could probably claim the Empire that you started with and maybe even more, like so many famous Kings and Generals in the world. So, even if your Empire has taken a rough hit, it is not time to surrender yet. You are the King. If you give up, the whole Empire falls.

With this “Meta Program” in mind, you will be able to apply many of the famous art of war and their centuries of wisdom on top of the modern finance techniques that you have learnt in order to have even more certain survivability for a long time to come.

Every King needs a tactical map. I have made one such map which you can use for free in order to have a strategic overview of your Empire and help you keep the metaphor in mind at
http://www.mastersoequity.com/metamap.htm

For everything you want to know about option trading, please visit http://www.optiontradingpedia.com

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Business or organizational strategy is intended to drive all decisions within an organization. It provides a direction, a rallying point, and a litmus test for decisions at all levels. Hence, it only stands to reason that strategy would drive the projects, programs, and the project portfolio management process. Good projects map well to organizational goals. In fact, the best organizations make sure their initiatives are in alignment with their strategic plan. Whether for project initiation or for simply evaluating how the value of a project fits within the organization, becoming familiar with the strategic plan is invaluable.

Background
Here is some background on strategic planning, project management, program management, and project portfolio management.

There are many approaches to strategic planning. One approach is to think through these 5 points for the organization:

1. Vision – where the organization wants to be in the future
2. Mission – purpose, or why the organization exists
3. Values – organization’s culture and priorities
4. Goals – results that the organization desires in carrying out its mission 5. Tactics and Initiatives – actionable behaviors and initiatives supporting all above

It is important for project managers to understand where their project fits into the organizational strategy. What organizational goals does it support? Does it support the organization’s vision and mission? How are the organization’s values being expressed in the execution of the project?

It is equally important for a program manager, with responsibility for an initiative, or program, which involves several projects, to understand how the program supports the organizational strategy. The program manager needs to make sure the individual projects align to organization strategy, and that the project set as a whole that make up the program support that vision.

Project Portfolio Management is concerned with selecting the projects that best support the organization’s vision and strategy. PPM works with a list of candidate projects and assembles critical data on each, such as cost, resources, purpose or objective, expected return, risks, and more. With a formal strategy in hand, assuming there is one, the PPM process involves mapping the products to the various elements of the strategy. One of the keys with such data is to be realistic by checking assumptions versus actual on projects and programs in the portfolio over time. Establishing the appropriate parameters for this data is important to accomplishing the desired results.

What the PMI Says About Portfolio Management
“The Standard for Portfolio Management” published by the Project Management Institute (PMI) states that in order to be successful, the portfolio management team must:

1. Understand the organization’s strategic plan.
2. Establish determining factors for managing the portfolio based on the strategic plan.
3. Consider all of the organization’s projects, programs, and other portfolio components.
4. Follow agreed-upon processes.

The standard clearly articulates the importance of the relationship between strategy and project portfolio management!

Working Together By Thinking “Outside the Box”
Project managers develop plans to execute the projects in the portfolio, and then lead the effort to implement the plan. Likewise, program managers develop plans for their programs, but they do it for a higher level entity that contains many projects. In each case, the Project Manager or Program Manager “owns” his/her project or program. It naturally follows that portfolio managers “own” their respective project portfolios. The element that MUST tie the portfolio managers, program managers, and project managers together is strategy, which often requires some “out of the box” thinking on the part of the respective managers. Strategy needs to be the common thread through the project portfolio, programs, and projects.

By taking “ownership” of a portfolio, program, or project, professionals are addressing the “what”. So how can they “think out of the box” within the overall organizational context to be more effective? The answer is by being driven by the “why” by clearly understanding the link to strategy. Maintaining that tie throughout implementation is a challenge, and can be supported by devising feedback processes to ensure that everyone is aligned with strategy. Each area needs to produce metrics that map back to the stated strategic initiatives of the organization, and communicate those metrics among the project portfolio management team, project teams, and program management teams on these metrics to “close the loop”.

Call to Action
The project portfolio management team, project teams, and program management teams need to take ownership of the “why” as well as the “what” in order to ensure their actions are aligned with the strategic direction of the organization. They need to be intimately aware of organizational strategy, and if there is no formal strategy, they need to devise one and verify it as formally as possible. They need to think “outside the box” by mapping the projects and programs back to the strategy, and taking ownership of the whole process.

CFA Exam Global Portfolio Management. The complete CFA exam videos are available at www.allenresources.com

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