Have you ever had a nightmare where you discover one day that everything you believed to be true turns out to be wrong? I read an article in the “Money” section of U.S. News and World report the other day that listed 10 common investing rules that don’t apply anymore. I think this is a very common phenomenon and not only in investing and finance. We get something driven into our heads when we’re young and unless we go back to school, we seldom get a chance to benefit from more current thinking. Did you know, for example, that you won’t necessarily drown if you...
Averages are supposed to be rather dull and undramatic. After all, they’re just “average.” No one would put a bumper sticker on the family car that says, “My Son is an Average Student at George Washington Elementary School!” But I have one average that will make your head spin like Linda Blair’s in “The Exorcist”: The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles is $2,550. Now, let’s set that average against another Los Angeles real estate average: The average home value in Los Angeles is $536,000. Losing at the rent game Here’s why I mention those...
“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.”– David Brinkley I suppose few of you know who David Brinkley was. He was a newsman and together with Chet Huntley was a pioneer in the world of nightly, national news broadcasts. They were active when Walter Cronkite was probably the biggest name in television journalism. And with the history lesson over, let’s look at what Brinkley was saying. He was talking about overcoming adversity. We like that theme here at Evoque Lending because we’re essentially in the...
We’ve all been there; an opportunity presents itself that is just too good to be true. Your head juggles the million and one things that are on your “to do” list that need to be taken care of in order to make it a reality, and of course at the top of that list, is the need for the all mighty dollar. Such was the case for someone that we knew all too well. A couple of weeks ago an old familiar face dropped by, it was an existing client who had called upon our services for a hard money loan on, believe it or not, more than ten previous occasions. With a smile that...
We live in an age where we take a lot of things for granted. When we plug in an appliance, we know that we’ll get electricity to power it up. When we climb into our cars and turn the key, we know the engine will fire. When we go to the ATM and slip our card into the slot, we know we’ll be able to make a cash withdrawal – unless you’re in Greece. Recent economic strains have shown us that the financial system we all depend on may not be as solid as we have always accepted. When Cyprus ran into financial trouble, bank depositors received a “hair cut” – they woke...
