September 13, 2014
What are REITs? What is the most efficient way to invest in them? Why?
What are REITs? What is the most efficient way to invest in them? Why?
Reits are real estate trusts. They are a group of income producing properties that are held in a fund, public reits are the best and privates should be avoided due to poor performance. You should keep reits in a tax shelter due to the large amount of income they produce that is taxed like normal income and not long term capital gains.
Well said, Garrett. Let’s review.
A REIT is a Real estate investment trust and it comes in many different varieties. Most should be avoided. Stay away from all private REITS (sold by brokers as they lock up your money into high risk individual investments) and that includes individual one’s that contact you for “investment opportunities.”
A publicly head no-load REIT index fund can be a nice addition to a portfolio based on its negative correlation (goes in the opposite direction of other investments in many cases), it’s high yield, and consistent return over time (8% or so). Garrett was spot on in recommending the tax shelter based on the high yearly dividends it produces. This means keeping this type of investment in your company retirement plan at work or a Roth IRA outside of work at a place like Vanguard.
Go to Vanguard.com to learn more on this subject. The link is here:https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0123&FundIntExt=INT. Always educate yourself BEFORE investing in ANYTHING.