24 October 2018
Question: According to MSN: Money, what are six (6) hidden costs of being a homeowner?
Markets sell-off continues after US industrial groups warn over tariffs – Pg. 1
– US industrial companies unnerved investors yesterday with reports of rising prices and costs for products ranging from earthmoving equipment to Post-it notes, raising concerns that tariffs will add to inflationary pressure
– ….S&P 500 was down 1.4%
– There were also signs of weaker demand in some markets, adding to investors fears of a squeeze on earnings if companies could not pass on costs
– The IMF said this month that it expected the steady expansion in the world economy to continue into 2019, but warned that growth might have peaked in some economies
UN goal of globally affordable internet access rest at 2043 – Pg. 3
– …more than 2.3bn people, about 30% of the global population, lived in countries where a monthly mobile data allowance of 1GB was unaffordable, costing more than 2% of the average salary
– Growth in the number of internet users has slowed dramatically, in part because of a lack of affordability
– …almost two-thirds of the 3.4bn living offline are in Asia, with 1.5bn in China and India alone….
European Central Bank faces Rome dilemma over maturing QE bonds – Pg. 19
– The central bank plans to stop buying government bonds from the end of December, but next year will continue to reinvest billions of euros worth of maturing debt it holds back into the eurozone’s sovereign bond markets
– As with the QE programme, the purchases will be conducted according to the size of each Eurozone country’s economy and population, using a calculation known as the capital key
– The ECB will reveal the new calculations for the capital key at its last meeting of 2018 on December 13, when it will also say whether it intends to adopt the new key – or stick with the old – for the reinvestments
– The capital key methodology originated as a way of balancing the competing priorities of differing Eurozone members
– The solution was found in the capital key, which is used to determine the proportion of capital each of the national central banks must contribute to the ECB, and the portion of the ECB’s profits they would receive in return
– Thus the QE programme is linked not to the size of each country’s bond market, but to the size of its contribution to the monetary union’s economy and population
Answer: (1) Turning your house into a home (Prof Note: The cost of nik-naks, insta-hot, etc); (2) Regular maintenance; (3) Emergencies; (4) (Prof Note: No joke….the article had no #4); (5) Homeowners Insurance; (6) Increases in property taxes (Prof Note: Be very aware of the costs that are uncontrollable, e.g. Home Owners Association, Community Association, Property Taxes, emergencies that must be addressed (roof implosion), Insurance.)