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Fall decor that makes a home look expensive definitely doesn’t have to come at a premium price. Interiors knowhow can bring high-end results without a big spend.
An expensive fall look can be an aesthetic rather than the result of purchasing power, and that’s a principle that applies generally, as well as proving applicable to fall decor ideas.
fall decor on a budget? This is what interior designers recommend.
Fall decor that looks expensive
Making a home look expensive relies on understanding how to dress it, and which materials, textures, and objects to choose. Anything that makes your house look cheap is, of course, out of the question.
And whether we’re talking living room fall decor, fall color schemes, fall table decor, fall mantel ideas, or any other part of the home, the same precepts apply when introducing seasonal style. Be inspired by these interior designers’ suggestions to get the high-end look for fall.
1. Atmospheric lighting
The right lighting ideas are crucial to make a home look expensive – and key to creating the right autumnal atmosphere. ‘Fall denotes a particular coziness, and lighting is an easy way to nail it,’ says Dan Mazzarini, principal and creative director of BHDM Design and ARCHIVE by Dan Mazzarini.
‘It’s all about finding that sweet spot where functionality meets aesthetics – light dimmers work wonders,’ he advises. ‘With a simple adjustment, you can create a warm mood or set the stage for a cozy movie night. Our suggestions: Lutron Credenza plug-in dimmer and soft white dimmable light bulbs.’
Find the Lutron Credenza dimmer at Amazon.
2. Rich color schemes
Rich color schemes and muted undertones create a high-end look perfect for the season, says interior designer Artem Kropovinsky, and you can look to the color wheel to put them together. For the living room he suggests forest green complemented by subdued taupe, and for the bedroom: intense wine red contrasted with a mellow beige.
‘Shades like forest green and wine red impart a feeling of affluence and richness,’ he explains. ‘Melding them with understated tones enhances their depth without overpowering the ambience. Such hues mirror autumn’s spirit – the changing foliage and the snug essence of the time. The outcome? A fusion of warmth, plushness, and inviting atmosphere.’
Madison Popper, founder of the global interior design firm Chill Casa.
‘You can elevate the allure of your table settings by ensconcing glass vases with meticulously gilded branches and dried florals, crafting an opulent focal point, or add a heritage charm through the inclusion of resplendent gilded mirrors and carefully curated vintage artifacts, capturing the essence of timelessness and extravagance.
4. Accent wall color
Consider creating an accent wall to elevate a room and transform it for a new season. ‘I love a good accent wall paint color,’ says interior designer Chantelle Hartman Malarkey.
‘The right color in a room can bring it to life. I love one painted accent wall that can be a richer darker color that really looks beautiful during the fall season.’
5. Injections of color
For a chic take on fall decor, consider using accents of color. ‘Instead of the bright red and orange, opt for a neutral palette with selective small pops of color and subtle textures – this allows your fall decor to easily blend in with your existing pieces, making your space feel more cohesive and thoughtfully curated,’ says Jennifer Verruto, founder and CEO of Blythe Interiors.
‘For example, ditch a bright orange vase for a simple gold one instead. Something neutral, yet festive like gold, can easily transition to the following season’s decor. For fall, throw in some gorgeous, dried florals and then swap them out for something more wintery like holly leaves when the time arrives. This will make your decor feel more sophisticated.’
6. Premium seating decor
Dress up the seating around your home for a high-end look. ‘Apt seating adornments can be likened to fine jewelry for interiors,’ says Artem Kropovinsky. ‘Just as the perfect pendant can amplify attire, the ideal blanket or cushion can present furnishings in a more upscale light.’
For the living room, he suggests ‘silken pillows in colors harmonizing with the room, perhaps taupe or wine red’. And for the bedroom, ‘synthetic fur wraps casually placed on a solitary chair or the bed’s edge’.
‘Materials like silk and synthetic fur epitomize luxury. They’re not just visually stunning but also delightfully tactile, enriching the sensory experience,’ he says.
FAQs
How do you decorate for fall classily?
outdoor fall decor. Sophisticated fall weaths and elegant fall front door decor can strike a premium note and boost curb appeal. And for both inside and out, fall craft ideas can create decor that looks expensive but in which you invested just enough for the materials plus your own time.
Source: homesandgardens.com
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WASHINGTON — After years of proposals, counterproposals, interagency disagreement and political intrigue, the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency appear poised to finish their modernization of the Community Reinvestment Act’s implementing rules.
FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg said last fall that he expected the three agencies would finalize a joint rule updating the CRA in early 2023. But the intricacies of the rule, a shake-up of leadership and a string of midsize bank failures this spring likely contributed to pushing back that timeline, according to Jesse Van Tol, CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.
“You had a mini banking crisis in the spring that certainly pulled people away from this. You had a leadership transition at the Fed as well with [former Vice Chair Lael] Brainard’s departure, [and] you’ve gotten new Fed governors who came on board.” he said. “The light at the end of the tunnel is here, and I think we will see the final rule in October.”
Congress passed the CRA in 1977 as a way to address de facto lending discrimination faced by communities of color. The act requires that banks be graded on how equitably they are lending to low- and moderate-income customers and neighborhoods in their service areas, typically determined by where they have branches and deposit-taking automated teller machines. Banks need to receive a satisfactory mark in order to merge with or acquire other banks.
Given the advent of mobile banking, both banks and community groups have long agreed on the need to update the CRA — the most recent comprehensive overhaul of the rules was conducted in the 1990s.
Former Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting previously attempted to reform CRA implementation during the Trump administration, but community organizations argued the proposal effectively allowed banks to ignore underinvested communities and they threatened to sue the OCC when the plan was finalized in 2020. Otting’s proposal also failed to gain the support of Fed officials. The Biden administration then took on the task of reform, starting from scratch under the leadership of former Brainard.
The banking agencies issued a notice of proposed rulemaking in May 2022, but banking trade organizations raised a variety of concerns about the proposal. Banks argued that it would be too difficult to attain satisfactory ratings under the change, particularly under the retail lending portion of CRA exams. Banks also argued that the 90-day comment period was too short for banks to meaningfully respond to the proposed changes under the Administrative Procedure Act and hinted at a legal challenge if the rule was finalized as written.
Banking groups on Tuesday asked regulators to delay issuing the final joint rule due to uncertainty created by a constitutional challenge to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding structure and by the recent capital changes regulators have proposed as part of the Basel III accords.
But the regulators appear unfazed by that criticism. Ian Katz, a Washington analyst with Capital Alpha Partners, said that may be due in part to the closing window of opportunity that regulators have to finalize the rule and avoid a congressional repeal after the 2024 election. The Congressional Review Act allows Congress to nullify a regulation within 60 legislative days of its finalization with a majority vote in both chambers and approval of the president. Katz said that a real threat of an override exists if Republicans win the House, Senate and White House.
“If the administration wants to make sure that the rule can’t be nullified by a Republican administration and Congress, it probably needs to finalize it by roughly mid-2024 to avoid the other CRA, the Congressional Review Act,” Katz said. “I think they’ll put it out before then.”
But in addition to racing against the clock, experts say regulators also have to take their time to ensure that the final rule is not vulnerable to a legal challenge.
“CRA is complicated, and the proposal gives the banks a lot of different pieces they can attack. The banks are also asserting that the regulators are going beyond their statutory authority and that the proposal, if unchanged, would be vulnerable to a legal challenge,” Katz said. “I imagine the regulators have been taking a look at that and will try to make sure they put out something that won’t be easy to strike down in court.”
Van Tol said the agencies are highly sensitive to industry concerns and have spent a lot of time making certain the law complies with statutory authority. To craft a durable rule, the agencies — particularly the Fed, which is leading the rewrite — are likely to take all the time they have. Van Tol said this puts pressure on regulators to ensure the rule withstands the test of time.
“Because the banking trades have threatened to sue them, I think they are trying to make sure that they’ve dotted the i’s and crossed their t’s in such a way that the rules are best protected,” said Van Tol.
Ye the delay in finalization can’t all be attributed entirely to industry pressure, Van Tol said. CRA-related rules have historically been very difficult to get done, in part because the details are very complex and also because they require interagency collaboration.
“It’s an interagency ruling, it’s much more complicated to coordinate amongst three agencies — two of whom have boards — who have to vote on the proposal,” he said. “The Fed [officials] are perfectionists. If you give them time, they’ll take it. They’ll take as much time as they need to get to something they’re satisfied with.”
Dennis Kelleher, CEO of the public advocacy organization Better Markets, said part of the problem is that industry turmoil and agency turnover made an already tedious process more difficult.
“I think anyone thinking it was going to be finalized earlier this year was overly optimistic,” Kelleher said. “It would have been record-breaking for them to do all that and finalize by earlier this year. While we always prefer rules to be finalized sooner than later, we’re more interested in rules being finalized that are effective, workable, durable and achieve the intended goal. If that takes more time than less, better to get it right than be quick about it.”
When reached for comment, officials at the OCC indicated they are working on the rule and incorporating public feedback.
“The OCC has been working with the Federal Reserve and FDIC to modernize and strengthen the Community Reinvestment Act to expand financial inclusion and opportunity for all Americans, especially the underserved,” they noted in an email. “The agencies received hundreds of detailed and thoughtful comments on the notice of proposed rulemaking, and we are working together to consider the suggestions.”
The FDIC and the Fed did not comment for this story.
Van Tol said that for all the bluster about a possible legal challenge, he is skeptical that banks would actually follow through on their threat to sue their prudential regulators over the rule.
“I think the trades sending that letter [on Tuesday] is just an attempt to continue to delay, which is really just an attempt to kill it,” Van Tol said. “It will be interesting to see if they do. I think it’s one thing to sue the CFPB; I think it’s another thing entirely to sue your prudential regulator. I wouldn’t want to be in that position.”
He added that banks also must toe a fine line in opposing the CRA, given how such a stance could contradict banks’ previous stated commitments to racial justice.
“Some banks will think twice — many of them having made statements about their commitment to racial equity, their commitment to the community in the wake of George Floyd — about suing over a rule that fundamentally is about lifting up underserved communities,” he said. “I think obviously that’s the reason why they work through their trades, to shield themselves from criticism.”
Source: nationalmortgagenews.com
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Trump tariffs could hurt US economy
You may have noticed that the Republican presidential candidates are starting to up the ante ahead of the 2024 elections, with one man leading the way in the polls. But with that in mind, the White House issued a statement on Wednesday expressing concern over former President Donald Trump’s proposal to implement new tariffs on all foreign imports, asserting that such a move would adversely affect American working families, disrupt the economy, and contribute to inflation.
According to reports, Trump convened a meeting with his key economic advisors at his private golf club in New Jersey last Wednesday, dedicating two hours to outline an economic plan with a focus on trade for his potential 2024 presidential campaign. This initiative was detailed in an article by the Washington Post on Tuesday.
During the meeting, one of the proposals discussed was Trump’s intention to establish a comprehensive baseline tariff on nearly all imports to the United States, should he be reelected, as outlined in the report.
In response to these developments, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates remarked, “Combining a sweeping tariff tax on the middle class with more trickle-down tax welfare for rich special interests would stifle economic growth and fuel inflation,”
Bates emphasized that President Biden is firmly opposed to such a strategy, citing concerns that it would result in elevated prices and increased inflation. The Biden administration remains committed to collaborating with international allies to address “trade abuses committed by countries like China.”
Source: en.as.com
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In February 2020, Tenisha Tate-Austin and Paul Austin decided to erase all traces of their existence in the Northern California home the Black couple had created for themselves and their children.
They “whitewashed” their home by removing their family photographs and African art displayed around the house. They had a white friend place some of her own family photographs around the home and greet the appraiser as if she were the homeowner.
The couple wanted to see if they’d get a better home appraisal than the one they had received three weeks earlier.
The experiment worked. This time, the appraisal (by a different appraiser from the same appraisal management firm) was almost 50% higher. In three weeks, the value of their Marin City home, 11 miles north of San Francisco, had gone from $995,000 to $1,482,500.
In March, the Austins settled a fair housing lawsuit alleging race discrimination against the licensed real estate appraiser; they’d reached a settlement in October with the appraisal management company.
Sixty years after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his most iconic speech calling for civil and economic rights and an end to racism, one of the biggest roadblocks to building wealth for Black Americans is still in place: The housing gap has widened from the time it was legal to discriminate based on race.
In 1960, eight years before the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits property owners, financial institutions and landlords from discriminating based on race, the homeownership gap between white (65%) and Black (38%) stood at 27 percentage points. In 2021, or 60 years later, that gap had grown: 73% of white households owned a home compared with Black homeownership at 44%, a difference of 29 percentage points, according to the Urban Institute.
“We missed out on a better interest rate because of the unfair appraisal we received,” Tenisha Tate-Austin said in statement through her lawyer. “Having to erase our identity to get a better appraisal was a wrenching experience. We know of other Black families who either couldn’t get a loan because of a discriminatory appraisal and therefore either lost the opportunity to buy or sell a home, or they had to sell their home because they had an unaffordable loan.”
Explore the series:MLK’s ‘I have a dream’ speech looms large 60 years later
Housing gap:‘We are a broken people’: The importance of Black homeownership and why the wealth gap is widening
King fought racist housing practices in ChicagoThough King knew housing was an important topic when he made his 1963 speech (it included the line “We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one,” his focus was ending segregation in the South, said Beryl Satter, professor of history at Rutgers University in New Jersey and author of “Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America.”“The speech was about jobs and ending segregation of drinking fountains and restaurants, buses, trains, movie theaters and swimming pools to help pass the Civil Rights Act,” she said. Once that was accomplished, King trained his sights on housing in the North, particularly Chicago, where he focused on enforcing a pre-existing law on open housing, Satter said.The open housing laws in Chicago already forbade real estate agents from steering Black families into Black neighborhoods and dictated that housing should be made available regardless of race.“But like many such open housing laws, it was not enforced,” Satter said.In January 1966, King moved with his family into an apartment in North Lawndale on the West Side of Chicago to bring attention to the poor living conditions of Black families living without water, electricity and heat. He marched with Black and white supporters into segregated white neighborhoods to call for open housing.“And there he was met with the most violence he had ever been met with in any of his civil rights struggles. He said that the violence in Chicago made the whites in Mississippi look good,” Satter said. “He was hit with a stone while marching in Chicago, and he kept going.”Fair Housing Act became law after King’s deathFrom 1966 to 1967, Congress regularly considered a fair-housing bill, but it was ultimately defeated.“It was the first time that a Civil Rights Act had been defeated since the ’50s,” Satter said. “There was massive white resistance to any law or direct action that threatened racial segregation and housing. It was something that whites in the North fought to the death to keep.”After King was assassinated in 1968, President Lyndon Johnson pushed through the national Fair Housing Act as a memorial to King, whose name had become closely associated with the fair housing legislation.The undervaluation of homes in Black neighborhoods, decadeslong housing segregation, a systemic denial of loans or insurance in predominantly minority areas, a persistent income gap, and a historically limited ability of Black parents to leave their families an inheritance have contributed to the nation’s financial disparity, experts say.
During the housing boom of the early 2000s, Black Americans ages 45 to 75 disproportionately held subprime mortgages, loans offered at higher interest rates to borrowers characterized as having tarnished credit histories. Many of these mortgage holders lost their homes and have been unable to return to homeownership.
These trends will affect retirement prospects for Black Americans and their ability to pass down wealth to the next generation, making it not just one generation’s problems but an intergeneration disparity, experts say.
White wealth surpasses Black wealth
In 2016, white families posted the highest median family wealth at $171,000. Black families, in contrast, had a median family wealth of $17,600, according to the Federal Reserve. Homeownership has long been considered the best path to build long-term wealth, so increasing the rate of homeownership can play an important role in closing the wealth gap, experts say.
Over the past decade, the median-priced home in the United States gained $190,000 in value, making the typical homeowner 40 times wealthier than if they had remained a renter, according to a report released in April by the National Association of Realtors.
Some signs of hope emerged during the coronavirus pandemic, when mortgage rates were at historic lows.
During that time, Black homeownership rates increased by 2 percentage points, surpassing the white homeownership rate, which increased just 1 percentage point.
The historically low mortgage rates enabled high-earning, highly educated Black households to boost homeownership rates. Most high-income white households already were homeowners, which explains the smaller magnitude of growth, according to the analysis.
Black homeownership rate saw small improvements
From 2019 to 2021, the homeownership rate for Black households went from 42% to 44%; for white households it went from 72% to 73%.
After experiencing a continuous decline since the Great Recession, the Black homeownership rate finally made gains between 2019 and 2021. The reason was pent-up demand, said Jung Choi, a researcher at the Urban Institute.
“This suggests that affordability really matters,” Choi said. “Now, with the surge in interest rates, we are already seeing a sharp decline in Black homebuyers as well as younger homebuyers.”
Satter said King’s final book, 1967’s “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” cautions against complacency simply because there are laws on the books.
“He really understood that having a law in books was the beginning, not the end. Today we have the Fair Housing Act of 1968, and there are ongoing local, state and national laws that are supposed to stop housing discrimination,” Satter said. “I think King would have predicted that they would not be effective if there wasn’t a larger public will to enforce it and a strong political organization pushing to enforce it.”
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a housing and economy correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on Twitter @SwapnaVenugopal and sign up for our Daily Money newsletter here.
Source: usatoday.com
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Robo-advisors have barely been around for 10 years, but in the past couple of years several have been steadily expanding their investment menus, and even offering valuable add-on services. One of the leaders in this regard is Wealthfront. The robo-advisor has been growing its investment capability in every direction but is now even offering financial planning. The platform now bills itself as offering High-Interest Cash, Financial Planning & Robo-Investing for Millennials. If you’re looking for more than just investing, Wealthfront has it. And as has become their trademark, it’s all available at a low cost.
What is Wealthfront?
Based in Palo Alto, California, and founded in 2011, Wealthfront has about $25 billion in assets under management. It’s the second-largest independent robo-advisor, after Betterment. And while dozens of robo-advisors have arrived in recent years, Wealthfront stands out as one of the very best. There isn’t any one thing Wealthfront does especially well, but many. And they’re adding to their menu of services all the time.
Their primary business of course is automated online investing. You can open an account with as little as $500, and the platform will design a portfolio for you, then manage it continuously. Your money will be invested in a globally diversified portfolio of ETFs–just like most other robo-advisors. But Wealthfront takes it a step further, and also adds real estate and natural resources.
Like other robo-advisors, Wealthfront uses Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) in the creation of portfolios. They first determine your investment goals, time horizon, and risk tolerance, then build a portfolio designed to work within those parameters. MPT emphasizes proper asset allocation to both maximize returns, and minimize losses.
But in a major departure from other robo-advisors, Wealthfront now offers the ability to customize your portfolio and get access to a variety of investment methodologies and portfolios, including Smart Beta, Risk Parity and Stock-Level Tax-Loss Harvesting. And more recently, they’ve also stepped into the financial planning arena. They now offer several financial planning packages, customized to very specific needs, including retirement planning and college planning.
If you haven’t checked out Wealthfront in the past year or so, you definitely need to give it a second look. This is a robo-advisor platform where things are happening–fast!
How Wealthfront Works
When you sign up with Wealthfront, they first have you complete a questionnaire. Your answers will determine your investment goals, time horizon, and risk tolerance. A portfolio invested in multiple asset classes will be constructed, with an exchange-traded fund (ETF) representing each.
The advantage of ETFs is that they are low-cost, and enable the platform to expose your portfolio to literally hundreds of different companies in each asset class. With your portfolio invested in multiple asset classes, it will literally contain the stocks and bonds of thousands of companies and institutions, both here in the U.S. and abroad.
Wealthfront offers tax-loss harvesting on all portfolio levels. But they’ve also added portfolio options for larger investors, that include stocks as well as ETFs. The inclusion of stocks gives Wealthfront the ability to be more precise and aggressive with tax-loss harvesting.
Each portfolio also comes with periodic rebalancing, to maintain target asset allocations, as well as automatic dividend reinvestment. As is typical with robo-advisors, all you need to do is fund your account–Wealthfront handles 100% of the investment management for you.
More recently, Wealthfront has also added external account support. The platform can now incorporate investment accounts that are not directly managed by the robo-advisor. This will provide a high-altitude view of your entire financial situation, helping you explore what’s possible and providing guidance to optimize your finances.
And much like many large investment brokers, Wealthfront now offers a portfolio line of credit. It’s available only to investors with $25,000 or more in a taxable account, but if you qualify you can borrow money against your investment account and set your own repayment terms in the process
Wealthfront Features and Benefits
Minimum initial investment: $500
Account types offered: Individual and joint taxable accounts; traditional, Roth, rollover and SEP IRAs; trusts and 529 college accounts
Account access: Available in web and mobile apps. Compatible with Android devices (5.0 and up), and available for download at Google Play. Also compatible with iOS (11.0 and later) devices at The App Store. Compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices.
Account custodian: Account funds are held in a brokerage account in your name through Wealthfront Brokerage Corporation, which has partnered with RBC Correspondent Services for clearing functions, such as trade settlement. IRA accounts are held with Forge Trust.
Customer service: Available by phone and email, Monday through Friday, from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Pacific time.
Wealthfront security: Your funds invested with Wealthfront are covered by SIPC, which insures your account against broker failure for up to $500,000 in cash and securities, including up to $250,000 in cash.
Wealthfront uses third-party providers to maintain secure, read-only links to your account. The providers specialize in tracking financial data, as well as employ robust, bank-grade security, and in general, they follow data protection best practices. In addition, Wealthfront does not store your account password.
Wealthfront Investment Methodology
For regular investment accounts, Wealthfront constructs portfolios from a combination of 10 different specific asset classes. This includes four stock funds, four bond funds, a real estate fund, and a natural resources fund.
Each portfolio will contain various allocations of each asset class, based on your investor profile as determined by your answers to the questionnaire. The one exception is municipal bonds. That allocation will appear only in taxable accounts. IRAs don’t include them since the accounts are already tax-sheltered.
Notice in the table below that most asset classes have two ETFs listed. This is part of Wealthfront’s tax-loss harvesting strategy. In each case, the two ETFs are very similar. To facilitate tax-loss harvesting, one fund position will be sold, then the second will be purchased at least 30 days later, to restore the asset class. (We’ll cover tax-loss harvesting in a bit more detail a little further down.)
The ETFs used for each asset class are as follows, as of December 29, 2018:
US Stocks | Stocks | Vanguard CRSP US Total Market Index (VTI) | Schwab DJ Broad US Market (SCHB) |
Foreign Stocks | Stocks | Vanguard FTSE Developed All Cap ex-US Index (VEA) | Schwab FTSE Dev ex-US (SCHF) |
Emerging Markets | Stocks | Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets All Cap China A Inclusion Index (VWO) | iShares MSCI EM (IEMG) |
Real Estate | Real Estate | Vanguard MSCI US REIT (VNQ) | Schwab DJ REIT (SCHH) |
Natural Resources | Natural Resources | State Street S&P Energy Select Sector Index (XLE) | Vanguard MSCI Energy (VDE) |
US Government Bonds | Bonds | Vanguard Barclays Aggregate Bonds (BND) | Vanguard Barclays 5-10 Gov/Credit (BIV) |
TIPS | Bonds | Schwab Barclays Capital US TIPS (SCHP) | Vanguard Barclays Capital US TIPS 0-5 Years (VTIP) |
Municipal Bonds (taxable accounts only) | Bonds | Vanguard S&P National Municipal (VTEB) | State Street Barclays Capital Municipal (TFI) |
Dividend Stocks | Bonds | Vanguard Dividend Achievers Select (VIG) | Schwab Dow Jones US Dividend 100 (SCHD) |
Wealthfront’s historical returns are as follows (through 1/31/2019). But keep in mind these numbers are general. Since the portfolios designed for each investor are unique, your returns will vary.
Specialized Wealthfront Portfolios
As mentioned in the introduction, Wealthfront has rolled out several different investment options, in addition to its regular robo-advisor portfolios. Each represents a specific, and generally more specialized investment strategy, and is typically available to those with larger investment accounts.
Smart Beta: You’ll need at least $500,000 to be eligible for this portfolio. Smart beta departs from traditional index-based investing, which relies on market capitalization. For example, since Apple is one of the most highly capitalized S&P 500 stocks, it has a disproportionate weight in strict S&P 500 index funds. In a smart beta portfolio, the position in Apple will be reduced based on other factors.
In general, under smart beta, the weighing of stocks in the fund uses a variety of factors that are less dependent on market capitalization. There’s some evidence this investment methodology produces higher returns. This portfolio is available at no additional fee.
Wealthfront Risk Parity Fund: This is actually a mutual fund–the first offered by Wealthfront. It involves the use of leverage with some positions within the portfolio. It attempts to achieve higher long-term returns by equalizing the risk contributions of each asset class. It’s based on the Bridgewater Hedge Fund, and requires a minimum of $100,000, with an additional annual fee of 0.25% (0.50% total). This is the only Wealthfront portfolio that charges a fee over and above the regular advisory fee.
Socially responsible investing (SRI): Wealthfront just recently began to offer a specific SRI portfolio option. Once you sign up, you’ll be able to customize your portfolio and add socially responsible ETFs.
Sector-specific ETFs: If you want to invest in a particular portion of the market, such as technology or healthcare, Wealthfront gives you the option to build a portfolio that focuses on certain industries to portions of the stock market.
Customized Wealthfront Portfolios:
Wealthfront also lets investors build their own portfolios, which is somewhat uncommon among robo-advisors.
Most robo-advisors will build your portfolio automatically based on your risk tolerance and goals. If you like that service, Wealthfront can do it. However, more hands-on investors are free to make tweaks to the automatically designed portfolio by adding or removing ETFs.
You can also build a portfolio entirely from scratch if you’d rather. You can choose which ETFs to invest in and how much you want to invest in them. You can then let Wealthfront handle things like rebalancing and tax-loss harvesting while maintaining the portfolio you desire.
Wealthfront Tax-loss Harvesting
If there’s one investment category where Wealthfront stands above other robo-advisors, it’s tax-loss harvesting. Not only do they offer it on all regular taxable accounts (but not IRAs, since they’re already tax-sheltered), but they also offer specialized portfolios that take it to an even higher degree.
Wealthfront starts with a tax location strategy. That involves holding interest and dividend-earning asset classes in IRA accounts, where the predictable returns will be sheltered from income tax. Capital appreciation assets, like stocks, are held in taxable accounts, where they can get the benefit of lower long-term capital gains tax rates.
But for larger portfolios, Wealthfront offers Stock-level Tax-Loss Harvesting. Three specialized portfolios are available, using a mix of both ETFs and individual stocks. The purpose of the stocks is to provide more specific tax-loss harvesting opportunities. For example, it may be more advantageous to sell a handful of stocks to generate tax losses, than to close out an entire ETF.
Given that Wealthfront puts such heavy emphasis on tax-loss harvesting, it’s not surprising they’ve published one of the most respected white papers on the subject on the internet. If you want to know more about this topic, it’s well worth a read. The paper concludes that tax-loss harvesting can significantly increase the return on investment of a typical portfolio.
US Direct Indexing
US Direct Indexing is an enhanced level of tax-loss harvesting that Wealthfront offers to people with account balances exceeding $100,000.
Instead of building a portfolio of ETFs, Wealthfront will use your money to directly purchase shares in 100, 500, or 1,000 US companies. By buying shares in so many companies, Wealthfront can emulate an index fund in your portfolio while owning individual shares in the businesses.
Owning individual shares in hundreds of companies makes tax-loss harvesting easier as it lets Wealthfront’s algorithm trade based on movements in individual stocks rather than in funds. This can increase the number of tax losses that Wealthfront harvests each year, reducing your income tax bill.
Other Wealthfront Features
Wealthfront Cash Account
Wealthfront offers a cash account where you can safely and securely store your money for anything–emergencies, a down payment for a home, or to later invest. By working with what they call Program Banks, Wealthfront has quadrupled the normal FDIC insurance on this account, so you’re protected for up to $5 million.
There’s also no market risk since it’s not an investment account and the money isn’t being invested anywhere. You can make as many transfers in and out of the account as you’d like, and it only takes $1 to start.
So what’s the catch?
There really isn’t one. Wealthfront will skim a little off the top to make some money before giving you an industry-leading 4.30% APY, but other than that, you’re just giving them more financial data. Since we’re doing this all the time with technology anyway, it shouldn’t make that big of a difference.
I see no downside, especially if you’re already a client of Wealthfront.
They’re really making a play to be your all-in-one financial services provider, too.
A new feature, just launched, is the ability to use your cash account as a checking account. This includes the ability to access your paycheck up to two days early when you set up a direct deposit. Additionally, you can invest in the market within minutes using your Wealthfront Cash account. Put the two together and you give yourself the ability to invest more than 100 days more in the market. The account also allows you to auto-pay bills and use apps like Venmo and PayPal to send money to friends or family. Account-holders also get a debit card to make purchases and get cash from ATMs. And you can use the account to organize your cash into savings buckets – like an emergency fund, down payment on a house, or other large purchase – and use Wealthfront’s Self-Driving Money offering to automate your savings into those buckets.
If you have cash that’s getting rusty in a traditional bank account and you want to earn more, the Wealthfront Cash Account is a great place to keep it.
Read more about the cash account in our Wealthfront Cash Account full review.
Wealthfront Portfolio Line of Credit
This feature is available if you have at least $25,000 in your Wealthfront account. It allows you to borrow up to 30% of your account value, and currently charges interest rates between 3.15% and 4.40% APR depending on account size. You can make repayments on your own timetable, since you’re essentially borrowing from yourself. And since the credit line is secured by your account, you don’t need to credit qualify to access it.
Wealthfront Free Financial Planning
This is Wealthfront’s entry into financial planning. But like everything else with Wealthfront, this is an automated service. There are no in-person meetings or phone calls with a certified financial planner. Instead, technology is used to help you explore your financial goals, and to provide guidance to help you reach them. And since the service is technology-based, there is no fee for using it.
The service can be used to help you plan for homeownership, college, early retirement, or even to help you plan to take some time off to travel, like an entire year!
Simply choose your financial objective, enter your financial information, and Wealthfront will direct you on how to plan and prepare.
Self-Driving Money
One of the biggest and largely unrecognized obstacles for most investors is something known as cash drag. That’s when you have too much of your portfolio sitting in cash, which may earn interest, but it doesn’t provide the investment returns you can get in a diversified investment portfolio.
Wealthfront has addressed the cash drag dilemma with their newly released Self-Driving Money features. It’s a free service offered by the robo-advisor that essentially automates your savings strategy. It does this by automatically moving excess cash to help meet your goals, including into investment accounts where it will earn higher returns. And in the process, it eliminates the need to make manual cash transfers, and the judgment needed to decide exactly when to make that happen.
Our vision of Self-Driving Money is going to be a complete game-changer for people’s finances, said Chris Hutchins, Head of Financial Automation at Wealthfront. We want to completely remove the burden of managing your money so you can focus on your career, your family or whatever is most important to you.
You can take advantage of Self-Driving Money from the Wealthfront Cash Account. You’ll set a maximum balance for the connected account, which should be an amount that’s more than you expect to spend or withdraw on a monthly basis.
How It Works
When Wealthfront determines you’re over your maximum balance by at least $100 it will schedule an automatic transfer of the excess cash based on your goals. For example, you can tell Wealthfront you want to save $10,000 in an emergency fund, then max out your Roth IRA, then put the rest toward saving for a down payment on a house. Once you set the strategy, Wealthfront will automate the rest.
And before it happens, you’ll receive an email alert, then always have 24 hours to cancel the transfer if you need to cover unexpected expenses. You’ll also be able to turn on and off your Self-Driving Money plan at any time.
It’s usually possible to set up automated transfers from external accounts into most investment accounts. But what sets Wealthfront apart is the fact that it will make those transfers automatically. They will make sure you always have enough cash to pay your bills, then automatically transfer any excess into your savings buckets or investment accounts to improve the return on your money.
The strategy is designed to optimize your money across spending, savings, and investments, and to make it all flow with no effort on your part. You can simply have your paycheck direct deposited into your external checking account or Wealthfront Cash Account, cover your expected monthly spending, then have excess funds automatically transferred into the Wealthfront account of your choice.
By delivering on its Self-Driving Money vision, Wealthfront is taking the robo-advisor concept to a whole new level. Not only do you not need to concern yourself with managing your investments, but now even funding those investments will happen automatically. The result will be near complete freedom from the financial stresses that plague so many individuals.
Wealthfront Fees
Wealthfront has a single fee structure of just 0.25% per year for their advisory fee. That means you can have a $100,000 portfolio managed for just $250, or only a little bit more than $20 per month.
The one exception is the Wealthfront Risk Parity Fund, which has a total fee of 0.50% per year.
How to Sign Up with Wealthfront
To open an account with Wealthfront, you’ll need to be at least 18 years old, and a U.S. citizen.
You’ll need to provide the following information:
- Your name
- Address
- Email address
- Social Security number
- Date of birth
- Citizenship/residency status
- Employment status
As is the case with all investment accounts, you’ll also be required to supply documentation verifying your identity. This is usually accomplished by supplying a driver’s license or other state-issued identification.
As mentioned earlier, you complete a questionnaire that will be used to determine your investment goals, time horizon, and risk tolerance. Your portfolio will be based on your answers to that questionnaire, and will be presented to you upon completion of the questionnaire.
For funding, you can use ACH transfers from a linked bank account. You will also have the option to schedule recurring deposits, on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis. The platform can even enable you to set up dollar-cost averaging deposits.
If you already have a brokerage account with another company, Wealthfront makes it easy to transfer your funds to your new account. If you’re invested in ETFs that Wealthfront supports, Wealthfront will assist with an in-kind transfer.
That means that you won’t have to sell your shares before transferring funds, which lets you avoid capital gains taxes that would be triggered by a sale.
Wealthfront Alternatives
Wealthfront’s closest competitor, and the robo-advisor that offers the most comparable services, is Betterment. They also have an annual advisory fee of 0.25%, but require no minimum initial investment. That could make it the perfect robo-advisor for someone with no money, who plans to fund their account with monthly deposits. Read the full Betterment review here.
Related: Wealthfront vs. Betterment
Another alternative is M1. Also a robo-advisor, M1 enables you to invest your money in what they call “pies”. These are miniature investment portfolios comprised of both stocks and ETFs. You can invest in existing pies, or create and populate pies of your own design. Once you invest in one or more pies, the platform will automatically manage it going forward. What’s more, M1 is free to use. Read more about M1 here.
Related: Wealthfront vs. Vanguard
Read More: The Best Robo Advisors – Find out which one matches your investment needs.
Wealthfront Pros and Cons
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Investment options: Wealthfront offers more investment options than just about any other robo-advisor, particularly for investors with at least $100,000.
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Reasonably priced: The annual fee of 0.25% is extremely reasonable, especially when you consider the degree of sophistication offered by Wealthfront’s investment methodology.
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Tax-loss harvesting: This is available on all accounts, and Wealthfront is probably better at this investment strategy than any other robo-advisor.
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Portfolio credit line: Gives you the ability to borrow against your portfolio with ease, and represents a form of margin investing.
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Financial planning feature: The financial planning service is free to use and is available to all investors.
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Limited access for smaller investors: Some of the more advanced investment portfolios and services are available only to investors with $100,000 or more to invest.
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$500 minimum initial investment: It’s a minor issue, though some competitors require no funds to open an account.
FAQs
[faqs-content id=”MXKBSNXLNBBI5PDCYD4XJTU4PM” /]
Should You Sign Up for Wealthfront?
In a word, absolutely! Wealthfront is one of the very top robo-advisors, and you can’t go wrong with this one. Not only do they offer far more services than most other robo-advisors, but they also allow you to grow along the way. For example, as your account increases in value, you can take advantage of more sophisticated investment strategies, including advanced tax-loss harvesting.
That Wealthfront offers its portfolio line of credit and free financial planning services only makes the platform a bit more attractive, But the real benefit is the actual investment service. Wealthfront’s investment service comes extremely close to that of traditional human investment advisors, but at only a fraction of the annual cost.
Source: doughroller.net
Apache is functioning normally
Many people will look back at 2013 with regret, perhaps realizing that there was a golden opportunity to purchase a home at a major discount. And snag a record low mortgage rate to boot.
Today, home prices aren’t so low, nor are mortgage rates. Yes, they’re both lower than they were during the previous boom, but they’re markedly higher than they were just 12 months earlier.
What’s clear today is that real estate cycles move fast, if the last few years were any indication.
Back in 2011 and 2012, most didn’t want to touch real estate with a 10-foot pole, but in early 2013, it became a manic buying frenzy.
There weren’t enough homes on the market to quench the appetite of hungry buyers nationwide.
And the few homes that did come to market went to all-cash buyers, aka investors with deep pockets. New families and first-time home buyers simply got outbid and moved on to the next property.
Often, that next property wasn’t their dream home, nor did it fit their original needs. But the desire to get in a house, any house, was strong. Feverish even. Not exactly ideal conditions.
Fast forward to early 2014 and for sale signs are collecting dust, getting sun or snow damage, and falling apart. There’s even talk of another housing bubble.
Scan your local listings and you’ll probably see a fair amount of properties that have been on the market for months, if not more than a year.
In Between a Seller’s and Buyer’s Market
- Things seem to be leveling out between buyers and sellers
- But that doesn’t mean the pendulum is going to swing the other way
- It’s common during real estate recoveries
- To have lulls and hiccups on the way up
Unfortunately, it’s not necessarily a buyer’s market either. The reason properties are stagnating and inventory is beginning to rise is because the rent vs. buy ratio isn’t all that favorable for the latter.
If you do the math, it could make sense to buy that home, but it’s not nearly as compelling as it was just a year ago.
In 2013, it was a veritable no-brainer in most cases. Today, it could go either way. It’s becoming balanced, one could say.
The problem is that many homeowners looking to list their homes still think real estate is white-hot, meaning expectations to book a generous profit far exceed reality.
There’s also the issue of affordability, which has kind of crept into the headlines lately. Most media still put forth the idea that “it’s a great time to buy,” but among those rosy outlooks are disturbing affordability issues.
After all, there are consequences when home prices surge and mortgage rates climb back to more normal levels. And this would be fine if the economy was chugging along again and prospective home buyers were getting raises and socking away more money.
But that’s not really the case at the moment. Things are still very tenuous at best.
Beware of the Coming Investor Selloff
- One thing any homeowner should worry about
- Is what real estate investors will do with their inventory
- They purchased a countless (high) number of single-family homes recently
- Which at some point they’ll likely dump because they won’t want to be in that business forever
Adding to the wobbly economic outlook is the fact that investors own a ton of homes across America.
And word on the street is they don’t plan to hold them very long. A survey issued last week by Zillow indicated that most economists, real estate experts, and market strategists believe investors will sell the majority of homes in their portfolios during the next three to five years.
In other words, lots of inventory will make its way to market, perhaps all in a small window of time.
That might explain why panelists polled by Zillow also expect home appreciation to slow considerably in the next few years.
On average, 4.5% appreciation is expected through the end of 2014, followed by 3.8% in 2015 and 3.3% by 2018, figures closer to historic norms, and nowhere near what we experienced over the past 12 months.
Zillow also noted that home values increased just 0.2% from December to January, the slowest pace in 18 months.
You can blame the weather, or seasonal patterns, but the number of properties listed on Zillow increased 11.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis in January from a year earlier, the fifth straight month year-over-year inventory went up.
Expect that to continue as more homeowners gain enough home equity to sell, and investors cash in after a couple of amazing years.
If you’re a buyer, it’s going to get easier to purchase a home as time goes on, you just might pay more than you’d like. But at least you won’t be involved in a bidding war…and heck, you might even get some seller concessions!
Source: thetruthaboutmortgage.com
Apache is functioning normally
Self-doubt and embarrassment can creep in at a moment’s notice without warning. Insecurities, whether stemming from childhood or developing as a young adult, do not discriminate. Here are some of the most common complaints. Which would you rank number one?
1. Hair Loss
For women and men alike, early onset shedding can drain self-confidence. “I started losing my hair when I was 18. Now I keep my hair really short so it isn’t so noticeable,” one Redditor posted. “Also, lots of hats!” Now that’s looking on the bright side.
“Just remember: bald is sexy, balding is not,” an encouraging response read. “Sounds like you made the right choice! No shade on anyone who wants to rock a comb over, you do you boo.”
2. Nose Goes
From young children and teens to grown adults and baby boomers, most have wrestled with admiring their side profile.
“I hate my nose” was among the top comments regarding physical features.
3. The Number on the Scale
While being overweight can trigger a person, being underweight is equally stressful.
“My weight; I’m super skinny and find it impossible to put on any weight.”
4. Being at a Loss for Words
“Not coming up with anything to say … It’s so embarrassing because it can happen in the beginning of a conversation out of nerves. Makes me feel very uncomfortable, and that person loses interest.”
Anyone in public speaking is sure to relate.
5. Surface Level
“I have eczema (a genetic skin condition that often looks like a flaky sunburn, no matter how much lotion I put on), and I know it makes me physically less attractive. When I get turned down for dates, I can’t help but wonder, was it because of my bad skin?”
6. Wordy Worry Wort
As it turns out, keeping someone from getting a word in edgewise is a major faux pas.
“I’m so scared of being annoying or too out there.”
7. Heated Handshake
Whether the result of too much coffee, the shivers, or a touch of nervous energy, temperature changes happen to everyone.
“When people point out the shakes in my hands or my overheating… I have an autoimmune disorder that causes temperature regulation issues.”
8. Not So Pearly Whites
“I don’t have perfectly white teeth,” said one comment.
“My dang teeth. Years of bulimia messed them up royally, and now, instead of weight issues, I have far more expensive dental problems,” another posted in reply.
Coffee, red wine, and smoking are said to have contributed to stains and discoloration.
9. Hairy Human
“I have a tiny bit of a beer belly, but it also has a dark peach fuzz, which is not acceptable in women,” said one Redditor.
10. Lips with a Lisp
Speech impediments are often significant sources of insecurities plaguing teens. However, lisp is among the most common (and treatable) issues.
Source: Reddit.
We’ve all been there – sitting through a movie that we can’t help but cringe at, but somehow it still manages to hold a special place in our hearts.
These 10 Terrible Movies Are Still People’s Favorites
20 Cities So Bad People Will Never Visit Again
Have you had a bad experience visiting a city and sworn never to return? Not every trip is a great experience.
20 Cities So Bad People Will Never Visit Again
10 of the Greatest American Bands of All Time
When it comes to music, the mantra “beauty lies in the eye of the beholder” holds truer than ever. Nevertheless, we’ve worked hard to pinpoint the best American bands ever.
10 of the Greatest American Bands of All Time
10 Crazy Good Movies Where Women Are the Bad Guys
Are you looking for a movie night with a twist? Look no further than these Reddit-voted top ten films where women take on the destructive bad guy role.
10 Crazy Good Movies Where Women Are the Bad Guys
25 Extraordinary Sequels and Remakes That Outshine the Originals
Every once in a while, a movie sequel or remake surpasses the original film. After polling the internet, “Name a single movie where the sequel or remake was better than the original?” Here are the top-voted responses.
25 Extraordinary Sequels and Remakes That Outshine the Originals
About the Author
Source: financequickfix.com
Apache is functioning normally
Self-doubt and embarrassment can creep in at a moment’s notice without warning. Insecurities, whether stemming from childhood or developing as a young adult, do not discriminate. Here are some of the most common complaints. Which would you rank number one?
1. Hair Loss
For women and men alike, early onset shedding can drain self-confidence. “I started losing my hair when I was 18. Now I keep my hair really short so it isn’t so noticeable,” one Redditor posted. “Also, lots of hats!” Now that’s looking on the bright side.
“Just remember: bald is sexy, balding is not,” an encouraging response read. “Sounds like you made the right choice! No shade on anyone who wants to rock a comb over, you do you boo.”
2. Nose Goes
From young children and teens to grown adults and baby boomers, most have wrestled with admiring their side profile.
“I hate my nose” was among the top comments regarding physical features.
3. The Number on the Scale
While being overweight can trigger a person, being underweight is equally stressful.
“My weight; I’m super skinny and find it impossible to put on any weight.”
4. Being at a Loss for Words
“Not coming up with anything to say … It’s so embarrassing because it can happen in the beginning of a conversation out of nerves. Makes me feel very uncomfortable, and that person loses interest.”
Anyone in public speaking is sure to relate.
5. Surface Level
“I have eczema (a genetic skin condition that often looks like a flaky sunburn, no matter how much lotion I put on), and I know it makes me physically less attractive. When I get turned down for dates, I can’t help but wonder, was it because of my bad skin?”
6. Wordy Worry Wort
As it turns out, keeping someone from getting a word in edgewise is a major faux pas.
“I’m so scared of being annoying or too out there.”
7. Heated Handshake
Whether the result of too much coffee, the shivers, or a touch of nervous energy, temperature changes happen to everyone.
“When people point out the shakes in my hands or my overheating… I have an autoimmune disorder that causes temperature regulation issues.”
8. Not So Pearly Whites
“I don’t have perfectly white teeth,” said one comment.
“My dang teeth. Years of bulimia messed them up royally, and now, instead of weight issues, I have far more expensive dental problems,” another posted in reply.
Coffee, red wine, and smoking are said to have contributed to stains and discoloration.
9. Hairy Human
“I have a tiny bit of a beer belly, but it also has a dark peach fuzz, which is not acceptable in women,” said one Redditor.
10. Lips with a Lisp
Speech impediments are often significant sources of insecurities plaguing teens. However, lisp is among the most common (and treatable) issues.
Source: Reddit.
We’ve all been there – sitting through a movie that we can’t help but cringe at, but somehow it still manages to hold a special place in our hearts.
These 10 Terrible Movies Are Still People’s Favorites
20 Cities So Bad People Will Never Visit Again
Have you had a bad experience visiting a city and sworn never to return? Not every trip is a great experience.
20 Cities So Bad People Will Never Visit Again
10 of the Greatest American Bands of All Time
When it comes to music, the mantra “beauty lies in the eye of the beholder” holds truer than ever. Nevertheless, we’ve worked hard to pinpoint the best American bands ever.
10 of the Greatest American Bands of All Time
10 Crazy Good Movies Where Women Are the Bad Guys
Are you looking for a movie night with a twist? Look no further than these Reddit-voted top ten films where women take on the destructive bad guy role.
10 Crazy Good Movies Where Women Are the Bad Guys
25 Extraordinary Sequels and Remakes That Outshine the Originals
Every once in a while, a movie sequel or remake surpasses the original film. After polling the internet, “Name a single movie where the sequel or remake was better than the original?” Here are the top-voted responses.
25 Extraordinary Sequels and Remakes That Outshine the Originals
About the Author
Source: financequickfix.com
Apache is functioning normally
And what is Better.com best at?
According to Garg, the company has developed a one-day mortgage product that provides a commitment letter within 24 hours. It is possible, said Garg, because of Tinman, a platform that interacts directly with the customer — meanwhile, in other platforms in the market, a human extracts information from borrowers, he said.
Better wants to sell this platform to other companies, becoming a “mortgage-as-a-service” company or a white-label provider of mortgage tech, Garg said. When asked how relevant this business will be, Garg refers to Amazon, a company that drives two-thirds of its sales from third-party sellers. “We aim for a similar mix.”
It took Better two years to go public. The transaction will result in an infusion of up to $750 million from sponsors Novator Capital and SoftBank. The business combination closing, announced Wednesday, unlocks approximately $565 million of fresh capital, including a $528 million convertible note previously committed from affiliates of SoftBank and additional common equity from funds affiliated with NaMa Capital (formerly Novator Capital).
The company went from a $500 million profit and 11,000 employees in 2020 to only 950 employees by June 2023. It incurred an $89.9 million loss in the first quarter of 2023. During this period, Better faced the deterioration of the mortgage market due to surging rates, along with the fallout from bad press after Garg laid off employees via Zoom in December 2020.
Garg said the company has come a long way from that episode. “I’ve gone through extensive coaching and professional development,” he said. “Better is a much more mature company, and I’m a much more mature and empathetic leader than I was.”
Garg offered his views on the company’s IPO strategy in an interview with HousingWire at Better’s New York office.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Flávia Nunes: Better took nearly two years to go public, with Aurora’s shareholders’ merger approval extended three times. What happened, from your standpoint?
Vishal Garg: I can’t comment on the process at the SEC. But all I can say is that it was worth it. In that time, the market, the industry and the consumer changed dramatically. We went from the lowest interest rates on record to the highest interest rates on record in the past 20 years, from great housing supply to the most constrained housing supply in many years. We’ve just worked hard to address all of these challenges head-on.
Nunes: The transaction will infuse the combined entity with $750 million in new capital. How will Better use these resources? And what role will SoftBank play?
Garg: The first thing is: we’re going to be very prudent because we’re still in a very bad macroeconomic climate for mortgages and housing in general. Secondly, we are going to continue to invest in our technology and drive products, like One Day Mortgage, that are innovative and groundbreaking and drive the adoption of those products across the industry.
[SoftBank] will be a significant shareholder—no seats on the board. Being public means I have to answer to a whole new set of shareholders, which we’re happy to welcome, and other than that, we will drive innovation and growth.
Nunes: How is Better prepared for the scrutiny of being a public company?
Garg: We’ve had a lot of scrutiny from external sources. We passed our first CFPB exam with really great results. We have been subject to multiple Fannie Mae audits, all with great results. We generally have viewed our ability to have a technology platform where the technology makes the decisions rather than people making the decisions, and technology creates tasks for the consumer rather than people creating paths for the consumer. That technology platform has helped us maintain best-in-class compliance and regulatory audits. We’ve made a substantial investment in those systems, and we continue to believe they’re going to help yield great results as we’re a public company.
Nunes: Better was a very efficient refi shop during the Covid years when rates were historically low. How can Better succeed in a purchase market?
Garg: It took us six years to do $100 billion of refinances and to build an industry leader in refinances. Over the past two years, we’ve had to pivot very hard so that 90% of our business is purchase mortgages. To do purchase mortgages, we knew it was not enough to just be cheaper, because Better could save consumers money on their mortgage versus the MBA [Mortgage Bankers Association] average, but we had to be faster and easier to use.
We’ve done that through products like One Day Mortgage, which are helpful to a consumer if they’re buying or shopping for a home because literally the same day that they enter into a purchase contract, they can get a commitment letter on their mortgage. We believe that the innovation, which we launched earlier this year, has yet to really play itself out in the mortgage industry. As we get widespread adoption of One Day Mortgage, we will be able to grow our purchase volumes dramatically, [much] in the same way that we did our refinance volumes.
Nunes: But how is Better building relationships with real estate agents, financial planners, and other professionals, who can help you get more customers and win in the purchase market?
Garg: The bulk of leads are actually generated from the internet. We’ve been able to consistently get that cost of acquisition down, such that the internet is now a viable source of customer acquisition for us. We’ve always been very good at direct customer acquisition and reaching consumers directly. We’ve always had the ability to get consumers from direct advertising.
But more recently, we have partnered with Realtors. As you know, we took our in-house BRE [Better Real Estate LLC.] operation, deprecated it, and launched a partnership operation with Realtors. We’re partnering with Realtors, we’re helping Realtors win new business and get new business by referring Better’s customers who don’t have a Realtor to those realtors, and then also helping realtors understand the power of One Day Mortgage and how it can speed up the mortgage process.
Nunes: What is the rationale behind the change at Better Real Estate, pivoting from in-house licensed professionals to a partner agent model?
Garg: We had to shut down our in-house division, and with that came the associated layoffs. When we had agents, we were not large enough to provide the consumer full coverage [geographically]. Honestly, our in-house platform was not nearly as efficient as some of the best agents in the country.
Our overall model has changed from being a one-stop-shop, where we do everything in-house, to being a one-stop-shop where we do the things in-house that we’re the best at. With One Day Mortgage, we are the best at delivering a fast response to a consumer along with an industry-leading price.
For things like homeowner’s insurance, title insurance, and realtors, we’ve now just become a marketplace. We match the consumer with a partner capable of delivering the best product to them. So, we ended [Better Real Estate] for the sake of efficiency and savings for the consumer. We partner with best-in-class agents, insurance companies and title companies.
Publicly, we’ve gone from over 11,000 people to about 1,000 people. Along that journey, we have become much more efficient.
Nunes: Better rolled out the “One Day Mortgage” in January. What is the share of clients getting a mortgage commitment letter within 24 hours? What are the challenges for the product?
Garg: I’ll be able to tell you that soon. All I can tell you is One Day Mortgage has been an amazing lever for our customers, and customer adoption has been off the charts.
The biggest challenge initially was reengineering the entire process of tasking out to the consumer, getting their income, getting their assets, and figuring out which of their debts they might be paying off. All of those things are processes built to begin in the old mortgage process to be weeks long because of the overall process of 60 days that it took to close a mortgage.
Now, if you say to a consumer, ‘I’m going to give you a commitment letter in one day,’ all of those sequential processes have to be parallel processes. [So this] can’t be done by humans. The machine has to do all of them.
The other thing we have to do is use technology to predict which customers can qualify for One Day Mortgage based on just the data that’s in their pre-approval. The first job is predicting which customers might be able to be qualified for this pathway, and the second step is then delivering the product within 24 hours.
Nunes: How has the company changed internally to offer One Day Mortgage?
Garg: We had to build an underwriting and processing operation that was 24/7, which is unheard of in the mortgage industry. We had to have the machine provide a lot of the steps —more of the steps than are traditionally done. Most mortgage companies use technology to collect data. We’re using technology to decide the data itself [that should be fed into it]. Our rules engine Tinman can]do all of that work of getting to a commitment letter and reduce the number of human touches involved. We have offices in New York, Charlotte, Irvine, and India.
Nunes: Last August, Better partnered with Palantir to create the proprietary loan platform you mentioned, Tinman Marketplace. What makes this technology competitive?
Garg: The Tinman platform fundamentally differs from the traditional mortgage industry platform. The traditional mortgage industry platforms —like Encompass or Empower Pro — are more built around capturing data and storing data that humans extract. So, a human underwriter might extract from looking at someone’s paystub, what their income is, and then type that into Empower Pro or Encompass, and then use that along with other things to calculate the consumer debt-to-income ratio or other things.
Tinman interacts directly with the consumer; captures the data directly from the consumer; puts it into the calculation engine; figures out what their debt-to-income ratio is going to be; figures out which investors that the debt-to-income ratio is compatible with; routes it into those investor engines; and gets the appropriate pricing. If there’s anything that needs to change, it then automatically displays that to the consumer. So, it’s a very different process than a human entering and taking out data and then coming back to the consumer.
Nunes: How do you review the data customers are providing for accuracy?
Garg: We’ve built one of the largest training data sets in the industry. Anytime we have a rule change that we put into the system, we run it against all the loans that we’ve done previously to see if that rule was applied today, whether it would be consistent or not. This gives us a lot of comfort versus actual human underwriters. Our error rates are substantially lower than that of the rest of the industry as a result. I can’t disclose the error rates.
Nunes: Does Better.com want to be more like an originator or a “white-label” platform, just like Blend?
Garg: Before the pandemic struck, we were on our way to doing that [white-label platform]. We had Ally Bank and American Express. With the pandemic, a lot of those efforts took a backseat. Now, you will see us leverage Tinman to be the mortgage platform of choice all the way to closing for a variety of banks. Now you hear a lot of the banks are getting out of the mortgage industry because it costs them too much to originate. We plan to offer the platform to many other financial institutions, mortgage lenders, and Realtors to use for mortgages as a service.
Nunes: How relevant will the white-label platform be compared to Better’s origination business?
Garg: If you think about a concept like Amazon, Amazon drives two-thirds of its sales from people who are leveraging the Amazon platform, third-party sellers, rather than running it through their own distribution warehouse. So, we aim for a similar mix.
Nunes: What is your strategy with origination channels?
Garg: Right now, we have direct and partnerships, like Ally and Amex, large-scale private white-label partners. We have not done correspondent or TPO [third-party mortgage origination] yet. We are considering it. We have had conversations [with brokers], but I can’t give more details. If the consumer desires a local expert and wants to be handheld every step of the way locally, then a broker might make a better option than what we traditionally deliver today. So we’re thinking about that.
Nunes: What does the path to profitability look like?
Garg: First, we are in the worst mortgage market ever, in a very bad housing market, with a low housing supply. A lot of the issues that we are having today are a result of the macroeconomic environment. That being said, we have to continue improving our conversion rate, which will lower our customer acquisition cost and improve our efficiency,resulting in lower processing costs.
Today, we are about 45 basis points cheaper than the industry average as of Q1. On a $400,000 mortgage, we’re about $1,800 a year cheaper. [We plan] to maintain price competitiveness. That means that we have less money to pay for all the things, and that requires us to be even more efficient in customer acquisition and the processes.
We always guaranteed to the consumer that we would either beat their rate or give them money. We’ve been involved in the price war. As many of the big players in the industry take a step back, that will improve profitability for everyone.
But I can’t say [when Better will be profitable].
Nunes: Would you consider M&A?
Garg: To date, we’ve done three acquisitions, primarily in the U.K. We would be interested in acquisitions here in the U.S. that help us expand our footprint or the range of products that we offer to customers.
Nunes: When the layoff through Zoom happened in December 2020, the board ordered you to take a month-long break from your role, and you went through a mentoring process. Where are you and Better in the journey to recover from that episode?
Garg: Better is a much more mature company, and I’m a much more mature and empathetic leader than I was. I’ve gone through extensive coaching and professional development. With respect to where Better is, the consumers love Better, and we continue to have amazing customer experience scores, and customers come to our doors every day. While there was no other way that we could have done what we did with respect to the layoffs over Zoom, we believe that we’ve learned a lot from it.
Nunes: Where is the mortgage market in the current cycle? Are we close to a market turn?
Garg: I don’t know when the next refi boom will happen. There was a story in Bloomberg about the economist of Goldman Sachs thinking that the first-rate cut is coming in June of 2024. But it’s completely unpredictable. We’ve never had an inflationary environment like what we’ve just had and coming out of it.
Now that inflation is going down, we’ll see what happens — whether we have a hard or soft landing. What is going to be exciting for Better is that One Day Mortgage works well for purchase. One Day Mortgage works extraordinarily well for refinance.
Nunes: What have you learned from the last refi boom?
Garg: We grew our headcount way too quickly. We underestimated how high the rate increases were going to be. This time, we’re going to do a much better job.
Source: housingwire.com
Apache is functioning normally
Calling all leaf peeping people.
Nestled in the bosom of autumn’s embrace, there exists a symphony of colors awaiting an eager audience. For those who find enchantment in nature’s shifting hues, leaf peeping is a pastime as enthralling as it is ephemeral. Across the United States, cities cast their autumnal spell, inviting explorers to wander amongst fiery reds, burnished oranges and golden yellows that dapple the canopy of trees.
In case you didn’t know, leaf peeping, or foliage tourism, refers to the popular outdoor activity of observing and enjoying the vibrant and colorful displays of autumn foliage, particularly the changing leaves of deciduous trees. Enthusiasts often engage by taking leisurely drives, hikes or strolls through forests, parks and scenic routes to witness and appreciate the breathtaking natural spectacle.
The transitory brilliance of fall foliage beckons, creating a spectacle that both captivates and enchants. From East Coast towns nestled amidst mountainous splendor to Midwest cities flanked by vast forests, the stage is set for an awe-inspiring show of nature’s artistry. These cities offer not only a front-row seat to the spectacle but also provide an array of experiences and activities to complement the leaf peeping adventure.
Cape May heralds the arrival of autumn with a flourish of colors, transforming the landscape into an enchanting canvas of reds, oranges and yellows. The charm of this historic coastal town is elevated in the fall, as tree-lined streets and lush parks become an oasis for leaf peepers. Each tree seems to tell its own story, with leaves changing at their own pace, creating a dynamic display of nature’s artistry.
The serene beaches, usually the highlight of the warmer months, become a backdrop to the kaleidoscope of foliage, offering a unique blend of natural beauty that enchants visitors and locals alike throughout the entirety of the season.
What makes Cape May an exceptional destination for leaf peeping is not just the foliage itself but the town’s quaint, Victorian architecture that adds an air of nostalgia to the experience. The town’s picturesque setting, complemented by boutique shops, cozy eateries and the iconic Cape May Lighthouse, further enhances the appeal.
Thanks to its proximity to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg is a haven for leaf peeping when autumn descends. The mountains and valleys provide a vast canvas upon which nature paints a masterpiece each year. With a kaleidoscope of colors, the foliage creates a dramatic backdrop against the rugged mountainous terrain. It’s no wonder that Gatlinburg has earned a reputation as a top destination for leaf peeping, providing a vantage point to witness the grandeur of autumn in all its glory.
In Gatlinburg, leaf peeping is not just about the visual spectacle. The town itself adds to the charm of the experience with its cozy cabins, artisan shops and local festivals celebrating the harvest season. And of course, you can find Dollywood nearby and catch the sights from one of their thrill rides. Each corner of Gatlinburg holds the promise of a new discovery, a chance to immerse oneself in the culture of the region.
Stowe pops up as a leaf peeping paradise in the fall. The town’s forested mountainsides and scenic vistas are transformed by autumn’s palette. As the leaves begin to turn, the surrounding Green Mountains come alive with a dazzling display of nature’s artistry. Stowe’s picturesque landscapes, which range from meandering streams and lush valleys to rugged peaks, offer a multitude of vantage points for prime foliage tourism.
Stowe’s charm goes beyond the fall flora, extending into the town’s character and quiet yet lively nature. The quaint New England village, with its white steepled church and charming wooden buildings, complements the autumnal spectacle and adds a sense of nostalgia to the leaf peeping experience. The town’s local farms, artisan markets and cozy cafes provide a taste of Vermont’s culinary bounty, with creative delights always on display.
With its mountainous terrain and aspen groves, Park City is an underrated destination for leaf peeping when autumn rolls around. The town’s elevation and unique mix of deciduous and evergreen trees provide a canvas for a captivating display of fall colors. As the season progresses, aspen leaves transform from a shimmering green to brilliant gold, creating a stunning contrast against the deep green of the surrounding pine trees.
The mountainsides seem to be brushed with golden paint, and the reflection of the leaves in the waters of nearby reservoirs adds to the visual splendor. The scenic drives and hiking trails that weave through the Wasatch Range offer leaf peeping enthusiasts countless opportunities to immerse themselves in the beauty of the season, with every turn revealing a new perspective of autumn’s handiwork.
This former mining town has retained its historic charm while evolving into a world-class destination for outdoorsy types. As the fall colors take center stage, the town comes alive with festivals, art fairs and other community events that celebrate the season’s bounty.
Fayetteville is a hidden gem in the heart of Appalachia that becomes a sweet spot for leaf peeping when fall casts its spell on the landscape. The dense forests and rugged cliffs that surround the town display a mesmerizing mix of warm hues, creating a spectacle that captures the imagination.
The nearby New River Gorge serves as a dramatic backdrop for the shifting shades of the season. As the leaves begin to change, the gorge becomes a sea of color, drawing the eye to the undulating waves of foliage that blanket the hills. Leaf lovers can explore the winding trails that offer panoramic views of the gorge or take a scenic drive along the rim to witness the grandeur of nature’s transformation. If you’re brave enough, you can even take on the Gauley River whitewater courses, which start attracting tourists for several weeks following Labor Day.
Fayetteville’s charm as a leaf peeper’s delight is further enhanced by the town’s natural resources and welcoming atmosphere. As the leaves change, the town becomes a hub for outdoor enthusiasts who come to explore nature’s extreme sports or hike to see gorgeous views. The town itself provides a warm and welcoming setting for locals and visitors alike to savor the sights and sounds of autumn however they see fit.
Lewes stands as an unsung hero of the leaf peeping world. Its quiet charm and historic beauty are amplified by the fall foliage that adorns its oceanside streets and parks. Leaves of every imaginable shade flutter in the wind, creating a rustling symphony that mirrors waves crashing on beaches.
The world seems to slow down, inviting visitors to lose themselves in the colors that paint the town anew. Whether walking along the tranquil banks of the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal or exploring the nearby Cape Henlopen State Park, there is no shortage of opportunities for anyone looking to fall in love with the leaves while catching beachside views of Delaware Bay.
Come fall, time-worn brick houses punctuated by white picket fences provide a stark contrast to the vivid leaves. It’s as if the town has been draped in autumn’s finest attire. The simple pleasure of walking down the cobblestone streets, catching glimpses of crimson and gold, allows one to feel connected to the rhythms of nature. Another plus? It’s a 90-minute ferry ride away from our first destination on this list, Cape May.
With its panoramic vistas of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Clayton becomes a sight to behold as the fall season unfolds. The undulating hills surrounding the town are painted with a medley of miraculous colors, creating the perfect canvas for leaf peeping.
The nearby Chattahoochee National Forest offers an array of scenic viewpoints and overlooks, where leaf peepers can pause and soak in the breathtaking vistas. Whether it’s the reflection of the autumn foliage in the waters of Lake Burton or the panoramic view from Rabun Bald, Clayton’s natural beauty comes alive during the fall, making it a must-visit destination to see the leaves in peace.
Clayton’s Main Street offers a taste of true Southern living and adds a delightful layer to the leaf peeping experience. Fall festivals and farmers markets create a sense of community and connection, allowing visitors to explore the local culture and savor the flavors of the season. The combination of stunning natural beauty and local charm makes Clayton an undeniably unique destination for leaf peeping.
The mix of cottonwood, aspen and oak trees in Taos offers a stunning contrast against the backdrop of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. As the leaves change color, the landscape transforms into a captivating palette of natural perfection, reflecting the warm tones of the surrounding adobe buildings.
Taos’s many scenic drives and hiking trails provide anyone looking to see the fall leaves with countless vantage points to capture the beauty of the season. The Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway, which loops around the mountains and valleys, offers breathtaking vistas of the changing foliage. Whether exploring the town’s historic streets or venturing into the nearby Carson National Forest, Taos presents a unique and awe-inspiring leaf peeping experience.
As the leaves change, Taos becomes a hub for art festivals, harvest celebrations and cultural events that reflect the region’s diverse heritage. Strolling through the town’s art galleries, exploring the Taos Pueblo or attending a local festival allows visitors to immerse themselves in the history and creativity of the region.
Bardstown’s sprawling distilleries and horse farms are evolved by autumn’s gorgeous display of colors. The winding roads that meander through the countryside offer leaf peepers the chance to immerse themselves in the season’s beauty, with every turn revealing a new creation straight from Mother Nature’s paintbrush.
The nearby Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest provides a retreat for those seeking to explore the changing foliage on foot, with miles of hiking trails that traverse woodlands and meadows. Whether enjoying the view from a scenic overlook or taking a leisurely drive along the Bourbon Trail, Bardstown presents a leaf peeping experience that is as rich and nuanced as the bourbons that are crafted in the region.
From bourbon tastings and distillery tours to fall festivals and farmers markets, Bardstown offers a taste of Kentucky’s food and culture. Beyond that, the town’s historic buildings, quaint shops and inviting eateries provide a warm setting for those seeking to savor the sights and flavors of the season. Plus, it’s about an hour away from both Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky’s largest cities.
In Ridgway, the surrounding aspen trees that dot the slopes of the San Juan Mountains undergo a remarkable transformation, their leaves turning a brilliant gold that stands in striking contrast to the deep green of the pines and the rocky crags. The Dallas Divide, a scenic byway that winds its way through the mountains, offers a front-row seat to this spectacle. Whether taking in the view from a scenic overlook or hiking along the trails that traverse the Uncompahgre National Forest, Ridgway offers a leaf peeping experience that is as awe-inspiring as it is humbling.
Known for its role as the backdrop for classic Western films, Ridgway exudes a sense of authenticity and rugged charm that complements the beauty of the season. As the leaves change, the town becomes a hub for outdoor enthusiasts who come to explore the trails, go mountain biking or try their hand at fly fishing in the Uncompahgre River. The town’s many local businesses offer a taste of Ridgway’s culture and hospitality, providing an inviting setting for those seeking to savor the sensory delights of fall in Colorado.
A borough known for its urban vitality and cultural diversity, Brooklyn offers an unexpected yet delightful setting for leaf peeping. The tree-lined streets and parks that punctuate the cityscape become canvases for the hues of autumn, transforming the neighborhood into a burst of temporary color amidst the concrete jungle.
Prospect Park, designed by the creators of Central Park, offers a sanctuary for those seeking to immerse themselves in the beauty of the season. Whether strolling along the park’s pathways or pausing to take in the view from a bench, Brooklyn offers a leaf peeping experience that is as dynamic as the neighborhood itself.
From open-air markets and art exhibitions to food festivals and live performances, Brooklyn offers a taste of the city’s rich cultural fabric. The fusion of natural beauty and urban energy creates a unique setting for leaf peeping, allowing visitors to experience the magic of the season while exploring the rhythm and pulse of the city.
Peep the leaves in the perfect place this fall
And thus, as the leaves take their final bow, the symphony of colors draws to a close, leaving the observer in a state of enchantment. Leaf peeping, an activity celebrated by nature enthusiasts, artists and aimless wanderers alike, reminds us of the impermanent beauty that fills the world.
So pack your bags, grab your camera and step out into the world to relish the visual splendor that these cities provide. In the embrace of these autumnal landscapes, you are sure to discover the magic that dances in the leaves, find inspiration in the changing colors and revel in the ephemeral beauty that nature bestows.
It’s time to find your next apartment in one of the stunning cities listed above. Start your search here.
Source: rent.com