My good friend, Robert Kiyosaki, recently posted an interesting opinion on the USA Today blog at http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2010/02/column-we-need-two-school-systems-.html#uslPageReturn. In his blog post, Robert suggests two school systems, one for entrepreneurs and one for those who wish to be employees.

The number of comments already to this post is astounding. Clearly a reflection that the public sees challenges with the current school system. Personally, I like the idea of a parallel school system for those who want to be entrepreneurs. I, for one, would have loved going to a school for entrepreneurs. My earliest memories are of business ventures my friends and I started.

For the record, I always did well in school. For the most part, an "A" student. I liked school. I'm one of those who found reading enjoyable and didn't mind listening to the teachers. I took the very traditional route of going to school, then going to college and then getting a masters degree. My family was not wealthy. I paid for my own education, including graduate school.

Still, I would have loved attending a school for entrepreneurs. I am an entrepreneur, having successfully started and run two businesses in my lifetime - a CPA firm and a financial education company. I can't say that I learned anything about building or running a company in school. I had to learn it the hard way - trial and error. And I had lots of help from good friends and mentors along the way who were encouraging and supportive and willing to take the time to teach me with no expectation of payment or reward.

One of the things I like most about Robert's idea is that the instructors would work for free. I would like to be on that faculty. Heck, I was an adjunct professor at Arizona State University for fourteen years and it was practically for free, the pay was so low. I didn't do it for the pay. In fact, I don't know of any adjunct professors who do it for the money. (Adjuncts get paid less than janitors.) We do it because we love to teach and want to share our knowledge with the students.

I, for one, applaud Robert's idea of creating a second school system. This is creative thinking and we definitely need an alternative to the current public school system. It would be ideal to overhaul the current system, but given the power of the AEA, I don't see it happening any time soon.

Let me know what you think about a school for entrepreneurs.

Warmest regards,

Tom

One of our School of Tax Strategy students from Canada asks the following question about investing in real estate in the U.S.

Q: Is it possible to engineer a rental property investment so that it has positive cash flow and zero taxable income?

A: Most definitely. In fact, if you are leveraging properly (as much leverage as possible with a rate lower than your cap rate), then you should never have taxable income from an investment in U.S. real estate even if you have positive cash flow. The reason is the high depreciation deduction (capital cost allowance) that you receive on real estate. The best thing you can do to ensure no taxable income is to do a cost segregation on the property. A cost segregation breaks down the property into four categories - 1) land 2) building 3) land improvements and 4) building contents. You need a CPA (U.S. equivalent of a CA) or an engineer to do the cost segregation.

If you are thinking of investing in real estate in the U.S., be sure to contact us at 866.467.5809 and we will be happy to share with you some thoughts about how to structure your investment and get the most tax benefits available.

Warmest regards,

Tom

Mike from Canada, is interested in investing in the U.S. and asks a very good question.

Q: Apart from seller financing, are there other sources of financing available to foreign investors? Thanks

A: There are several sources of financing available to foreign investors in the U.S. I will admit, the easiest is seller financing. Other financing includes corporate financing. This requires you to own a business in the U.S. that establishes U.S. credit and can borrow using that credit. Another is private financing. This means going to private investors. My friend, Darren Weeks of Fast Track to Cash Flow in Edmonton, Alberta does this type of financing. Depending on the type of investing, you may also be able to get nonrecourse financing. This is financing that does not depend on the credit of the buyer but rather depends on the benefits of the real estate deal.

Warmest regards,

Tom