Financial Samurai

Slicing Through Money's Mysteries

Masterworks Review: A Way To Invest In Fine Art

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You may not know this, but I create original artworks with the interior paint I use for each house I’ve bought since 2003. Not only is art fun, but maybe one day, these original pieces will sell for megabucks! So when Masterworks approached me to do a sponsored post about investing in fine art, I welcomed them with open arms.

Masterworks, founded in 2017, is an investment platform that helps non-accredited investors buy shares of fine art. The fine art market has been booming due a surge in wealth by the investor class. Further, with the growth of countries like China, there is more capital chasing fine art than ever before.



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Edly Review: A Way To Invest In Income Sharing Agreements (ISAs)

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Edly Income Sharing Agreement

An Income Sharing Agreement, or ISA, is an alternative way for students to pay for university. Traditionally, students take out loans and take all the risk. If a student graduates from college with no job or a low-paying job, a university isn’t going to make up the difference.

This asymmetric risk profile is one of the reasons why I’ve been imploring people to attend a more affordable college. If you’re not already rich or don’t receive free grant money due to your genius, please don’t overpay for college. Further, be smart about picking a major in high demand.

Unfortunately, with the overall student loan debt amount ballooning to ~$1.6 trillion in 2020, I don’t think many people are paying attention. Good thing there’s an alternative to taking out student loans in the form of an Income Sharing Agreement.

Instead of taking out a student loan at a potentially high interest rate, with an ISA, a student agrees to pay a fixed percentage of their earnings for a fixed number of months.

In a typical ISA, students would agree to pay a fixed percentage of their income once they are employed and are earning in excess of a specified threshold salary. This threshold is usually $30,000 – $40,000, depending on the ISA.

An ISA is quite different from student loans, which accrue interest during college and regardless if the student finds a job or not. Further, student loan payments generally have at most a 6-month moratorium after graduation before payments are due.

It seems to me the an ISA is a win for the student and a win for the investor. Therefore, I’ve invited Edly, an ISA investment platform to write a sponsored post and share further insights about this fast-growing asset class.



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The Definitive Guide To Farmland Investing: A Trillion-Dollar Asset Class

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I’m pleased to share with you a comprehensive guide to farmland investing by FarmTogether, a leading farmland investing platform and Financial Samurai sponsor. Not only is this article full of information, it will evolve with updated information as the landscape changes.

Farmland might be the world’s most promising untapped asset class, and the newest opportunity in real estate investing. Estimated at a value of over $2.5 trillion in the US alone (USDA), returns to farmland in the US have averaged over 10% for the last 47 years (Forbes). 

In fact, from 1992-2016, farmland assets averaged an especially impressive 12% average return, outperforming real estate (NCREIF) at 8.7% and the Russell Stocks Index 3000 at 8.8%. Farmland also has a history of preserving capital in times of economic downturns, displaying an impressive resilience over the past two decades (NCREIF).

Farmland investing is resilient to the economic cycle
Source: Nuveen

Still, it might come as a surprise that until recently, there haven’t been many options for non-institutional investors looking to get involved, aside from making the large investment and commitment needed to buy an entire farm outright. 

Thankfully, this is changing. New technology-driven platforms ours, which was reviewed on the site earlier this year, are offering fractional investment solutions that make it possible for a wider range of investors to participate.

This innovative technology is being introduced to the market at a time of huge changes in farmland ownership – as well as in farming itself – and hints at an unprecedented opportunity for a wider investor audience to share in these promising returns.



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AcreTrader Review: Unprecedented Access To An Overlooked Asset Class

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AcreTrader is a proud new sponsor of Financial Samurai. In my quest to continuously learn about new alternative assets and new promising investment platforms, I’ve invited AcreTrader to write a guest post about farmland investing. During times of uncertainty and stock market volatility, it’s nice to invest in real assets.

Mark Twain once said, “Buy land. They’re not making it anymore.”

Many investors view land as one of the oldest and most stable asset classes out there. Land is capable of generating great long-term returns with an added benefit of capital preservation during times of economic distress.

Now, online investing platform AcreTrader makes it easier than ever for investors to get involved. 



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DiversyFund Review: A Private REIT With No Management Fees

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DiversyFund is a real estate marketplace that enables nonaccredited investors to diversify into real estate investing for as little as $500. As an experienced real estate and real estate crowdfunding investor, this is my detailed DiversyFund review.

DiversyFund was founded in 2016, but really only received its Series A funding in early 2018. Therefore, DiversyFund is one of the newest real estate crowdfunding platforms with the least amount of funding.

The leading real estate crowdfunding platform for nonaccredited investors (which includes accredited investors) is Fundrise. Fundrise was founded in 2012 and is the creator of the private eREIT and eFund for real estate.

Based in San Diego, California, DiversyFund has been primarily focused on commercial real estate opportunities in Southern California.



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EquityMultiple Review: Real Estate Investing Made Simple

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In my quest to understand all the top real estate crowdfunding platforms, I’ve put together this comprehensive EquityMultiple review.

The NASDAQ is now up over 20% and the S&P 500 is roughly back to even year-to-date. With a strong recovery in stocks, money should be looking for lagging recovery opportunities in real estate.

EquityMultiple actually contacted me back in 2017, a couple months before my first child was born. At the time, I was too focused on ensuring everything went smoothly with my family to pay attention to anything else.

Now, I have all the time in the world between 4:00 am – 7:30 am and after 9:30 pm. With roughly $500,000 in real estate crowdfunding capital returning to me over the next three years, now is the time to do more research.

Here is my EquityMultiple review with answers from Soren Godbersen, Head Of Growth.



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Streitwise Review 2020: A Secondary Market Real Estate Platform

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One of my goals in thew new decade is to learn about as many passive real estate investment opportunities available. I have over $500,000 of capital that should be returned over the next two years. The capital will be reinvested in various real estate opportunities to sustain and grow my passive income portfolio. This article is a comprehensive Streitwise review.

Because I want to diversify my real estate exposure to non-coastal markets, I thought it would be good to do some research on Streitwise, a real estate platform which is focused on secondary non-gateway markets that have the potential to generate higher dividends.

Streitwise approached me last year to do a review but I was too busy at the time. Now, with another year of operating experience under its belt and the economy gradually opening up in 2H2020, let’s see how they are doing and what their plans are going forward.



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Vinovest: Investing In Fine Wines As An Alternative Investment

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During shelter-in-place, alcohol sales skyrocketed as millions of Americans entertained themselves at home. The rise in alcohol sales got me thinking about whether there is an investment opportunity in wine. After all, when times are good, people drink. And when times are bad, people might drink even more!

It just so happens there is a way to invest in fine wine via a platform called Vinovest. As someone who is a fan of wine and lives only 1.15 hours away from Napa Valley and Sonoma, I am excited to learn more about their platform through this sponsored post.



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Personal Capital Review 2021: Best Personal Finance Tool

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I’ve been using Personal Capital’s free financial tools to track my net worth, manage my cash flow, and optimize my investments for over eight years. Let me share with you the most thorough and honest Personal Capital review about their free financial application.

From 2013 – 2015, I was also a consultant for the firm. Therefore, I have intimate knowledge of their people, their technology, and their product. I still keep in regular contact with all the senior management.

It’s my belief that Personal Capital is hands down the best free financial tools you can find online. It helps you manage your finances and achieve a more secure retirement. I’ve tried everything from Excel, to Mint, a plethora of other financial apps, and nothing comes close to Personal Capital’s tools.

With Personal Capital, you can do the following things for free:

  • Automatically track your net worth
  • Analyze your investment portfolios for excessive fees
  • Analyze your investment portfolios for proper asset allocation
  • Track and manage your income and expenses
  • Run various retirement planning calculations to ensure a better financial future

Personal Capital currently manages over $13 billion in managed client assets. They also track over $900 billion in assets for over 2 million registered users for free. This amount is a testament to their money management capabilities and product offerings.

Their competitive advantage is that they built their company from the ground up with technology at its core. As a result, they are much more flexible in tailoring offerings to meet consumer demand. Let’s move onto the detailed Personal Capital review.



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Fundrise eREIT™ Review: Real Estate Investing For All Investors

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After publishing my post, Focus On Trends: Why I’m Investing In The Heartland Of America, a couple readers pointed out that Fundrise, one of the leading real estate crowdfunding platforms, actually offers a Heartland eREIT.

Further, on February 13, 2019, Google announced they are investing $13 billion in heartland real estate to expand their offices and data centers. The trend to the heartland is real!

One of the unique things about all of Fundrise’s eREITs™ is that you don’t have to be an accredited investor ($200K+ income, $1M+ net worth excluding primary residence) to invest due to Regulation A+ of Title IV of the JOBS Act.

Regulation A+ is a type of offering which allows private companies to raise up to $50 Million from non-accredited investors. Think of Reg A+ like launching a mini-IPO, but with lower fees than the traditional IPO process.

Given I’m bullish on the heartland for the next 20 years, the Heartland eREIT™ sounded like a promising investment. 

I wanted to provide a review, even though the Heartland eREIT™ is no longer available, because the review will give an idea of the innovative thinking by Fundrise as we invest in the new 2020 decade.

Fundrise is all about creating different types of eREITs for investors to diversify with less volatility into real estate. Hence, the Heartland eREIT review is pertinent to all Fundrise eREITs.



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