Teachers and other essential workers could get a break under expanded rules for affordable housing, according to a recent Treasury note. (iStock)
To boost affordable housing projects, the U.S. Treasury Department plans to ease state and local government access to unspent COVID-19 funds.
The Department said it will update rules to allow state and local governments with remaining resources to use those funds on eligible housing projects, according to a recent statement. It has also expanded eligibility to support housing projects serving families earning up to 120% of the area’s median income, a revision from 65% previously.
State and local governments may also use unspent money to fund Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-supported affordable housing projects for teachers, firefighters, nurses and other workers, which are increasingly priced out of specific markets.
According to a Reuters calculation, this move could unlock as much as $40 billion in unspent money from the $350 billion State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund. The funds are part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) — a $1.9 trillion stimulus package meant to speed the country’s recovery from the public health emergency. ARPA stipulates that all state and local fiscal recovery funds must be invested in housing supply before the obligation deadline at the end of 2024, and funds must be fully expended by the end of 2026.
“Allowing state and local governments to spend unused COVID funding on affordable housing will have a remarkable impact on America’s low-income workers,” Justin Lundy, CEO of the audible real estate listing service Lundy said.
President Biden has called on Congress to invest more than $175 billion in affordable housing initiatives, according to a White House statement.
The administration has proposed using some of the funds to build and maintain millions of affordable homes for rent and ownership, such as accessory dwelling units and manufactured housing, and to incentivize state and local governments to reduce barriers to affordable housing development.
The Biden administration has also proposed a new Neighborhood Homes Tax Credit. The proposed federal initiative would enable better affordability for home buyers by injecting $16 billion for adding more housing stock to the market and $10.1 billion for down payment assistance. The tax credit would be provided on the condition that low- or middle-income homeowners occupy the home.
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Biden has also called on Congress to create legislation giving a $10,000 tax credit to first-time homebuyers and those who sell their starter homes. The credit would be spread over two years and credited as $400 monthly payments.
The tax credit would be equivalent to reducing the median home’s mortgage rate by 1.5 percentage points over two years. Over the next two years, it could help more than 3.5 million middle-class families purchase their first home. Expanding the credit to those who buy their second home could also help improve the housing supply for those in the starter home market.
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A major exchange-traded fund provider is trying to take the volatility out of bitcoin investing.
Calamos Investments launched the Calamos Bitcoin Structured Alt Protection ETF (CBOJ) on Wednesday. The firm brands it as “the world’s first downside protected bitcoin ETF.” It is built with risk-adverse investors in mind.
“You can get in all day long. Get that 100% protection. And then at the end of the day, we’re going to strike the cap,” the firm’s ETF head Matt Kaufman told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week.” Bitcoin is a volatile asset … we don’t want the price of bitcoin to move on you overnight.”
The firm launched the new bitcoin ETF on Wednesday. It coincides with a winning month for bitcoin. The cryptocurrency is up 10% as of late Thursday afternoon.
According to a Calamos press release, the fund provides access to bitcoin in a risk-controlled environment.
“Many investors have been hesitant to invest in bitcoin due to its epic volatility,” Kaufman said in the release. “Calamos seeks to meet advisor, institutional and investor demands for solutions that capture bitcoin’s growth potential while mitigating the historically high volatility and drawdowns of this fast-growing and high performing asset.”
Calamos has more crypto funds on deck. It is set to launch Calamos Bitcoin 90 Series Structured Alt Protection ETF (CBXJ) and Calamos Bitcoin 80 Series Structured Alt Protection ETF (CBTJ) on Feb. 4, according to the Calamos website.
‘You’re not going to see meme coin ETFs from Calamos’
Despite the firm’s appetite to offer cryptocurrency funds, Kaufman told “ETF Edge” there is one group Calamos will not consider.
“You’re not going to see meme coin ETFs from Calamos. But the ability to access bitcoin in a way that meets your risk tolerance, that’s what we’re about,” Kaufman said.
Entrepreneur Eric Malka had to completely shift his mindset when he sold his company and became an investor. Since then he’s learned many lessons he’s now passing to his kids.
When The Art of Shaving — which Malka and his wife Myriam Zaoui founded in 1996 — was bought by Procter & Gamble for a reported $60 million in 2009, Malka realized he needed to educate himself.
“When an entrepreneur like me is lucky enough to have a liquidity event, then we’re faced … with managing assets without proper training,” he told CNBC by video call. Investors must focus on being patient and on long-term returns, whereas company founders often look at a short-term plan, “almost an opposite” mindset, Malka said.
He took courses on wealth management, read books on investing and now has a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, private equity and real estate, with about 10% allocated to riskier investments. In 2014 he founded private equity fund Strategic Brand Investments.
The lessons learned when you lose are more valuable than the ones when you succeed.
Eric Malka
Co-founder and CEO, Strategic Brand Investments
When it came to educating his children — sons aged 14 and 16 — about money, Malka’s attitude has been to help them learn from the ground up.
“One of the challenges I faced with my teenagers early on, is their belief that it’s very easy to make money by investing through social media and through what they hear from friends,” he said. His older son thought he could generate a 20% monthly return, which Malka described as “very concerning.” So, Malka let him invest a small portion of his savings, hoping it would provide an opportunity to learn — and his son lost 40% of that investment after trading currency futures.
“I hate to set up my child for failure, but sometimes, you know, the lessons learned when you lose are more valuable than the ones when you succeed,” Malka said.
It’s a point that resonates with Gregory Van, CEO of Singapore-based wealth platform Endowus. He and his wife have children aged eight, six and three. He said he’ll be teaching them that it’s important to make mistakes when the stakes seem large to them, though may be small in reality. “The emotional muscle, and humility required to be a good investor is something that people need to develop on their own,” he said.
Teaching kids how to invest
For Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos, president and co-founder of real estate company Flag Luxury Group, educating kids early about money is key.
She and her husband allocated a “low risk” sum of money to each of their three children in middle school for them to pick companies to invest in. “Our children chose Apple, Amazon, Google and Alibaba. All but one had terrific runs. As long as they kept their money in the market and continued to be thoughtful in their approach, we added every year to their nest egg,” she told CNBC by email.
Olarte de Kanavos said her experience in real estate investing taught her the value of patience. “It influenced my business approach by emphasizing long-term strategy over quick gains,” she said. The mother of three described her own investments in the stock market as “very conservative, in order to best manage the huge risks that we take in our real estate business.”
Give them an allowance no later than the first grade.
Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos
President and co-founder, Flag Luxury Group
She suggested having children explain why they want to buy certain stocks, because it “can demystify investing and make it an exciting and integral part of their education,” she said.
Van said he talks to his young kids about the tradeoffs of investing in their own terms. “I ask them: ‘If we invest this $100 and it goes down by $70 next year, how will you feel?’ ‘Do you want to spend $100 today on a toy, or have it turn into $200 in 10 years when you are 16?’,” Van told CNBC via email. “Surprisingly, they are very rational and always go for delayed gratification,” he said.
Van and his wife have investment portfolios for each of their kids, mostly made up of gifts they’ve received during holidays such as Chinese New Year. “Given their long investment horizon, they are in very diversified, multi-manager, low-cost equities portfolios,” Van said, and he shows his children their portfolios’ performance — positive or negative — whenever they ask.
Budgeting and saving for children
Age-appropriate advice is very important, Malka said. His focus right now is teaching his children about budgeting, providing them with a fixed allowance per month.
“In the beginning, you know, they would spend in 10 days what they were supposed to spend in 30 days … now I’ve been doing this for eight months or nine months, now they’re really managing it properly, and I think that’s a skill they don’t realize they’re being taught,” he said. He recommended the book “Raising Financially Fit Kids,” by Joline Godfrey, which provides advice by age-group.
“Give them an allowance no later than the first grade,” is Olarte de Kanavos’ suggestion. “The purpose of an allowance is to allow them to learn to make their own decisions about money and to manage the repercussions that come with their choices,” she told CNBC. “As they get older, teach them about saving, the concept of interest, and the difference between good and bad debt,” she said.
For Roshni Mahtani Cheung, CEO and founder of media company The Parentinc, long-term thinking is important. She and her husband opened a fixed-deposit account for their eight-year old daughter for the money she receives at Chinese New Year, and at Diwali she receives a gold coin. “My goal is for her to grow up financially savvy, confident, and ready to make her own decisions,” Mahtani Cheung told CNBC by email.
Talking to kids about their inheritance
A concern for the wealthy members of advisory network Tiger 21 is how and when to talk to their children about their inheritance. “They are most concerned about their kids leading independent productive lives and don’t want knowledge about the wealth they will inherit to distract them or take them off course,” said Tiger 21’s founder and chairman Michael Sonnenfeldt in an email to CNBC.
Around 70% of the network’s members want to wait until their kids are close to 30 years-old and have established careers to detail what they might inherit — and when, Sonnenfeldt said. “However, about 30% of members want to begin working with their kids in their late teens or early 20s to teach them to become responsible stewards for the wealth they will inherit,” he said. Both approaches are valid, he added.
“I suggest that parents encourage open, values-driven conversations about money and investing,” Sonnenfeldt said.
Check out the companies making headlines after the bell : Boeing — The airplane maker saw shares dropping nearly 2% in after-hours trading after the company released preliminary fourth-quarter financial results. The company said it expects to post a loss of $5.46 per share for the fourth quarter as the results were affected by a nearly two-month labor strike last year and other issues at the manufacturer. Texas Instruments — The semiconductor stock slipped more than 2% in extended trading after the firm issued a disappointing earnings forecast for the current quarter. Texas Instruments said profit will range from 94 cents to $1.16 a share, compared with an average estimate of $1.17 per share, according to LSEG. The company did beat on the top and bottom lines for the last quarter, however. CSX — The transportation giant saw shares falling 2% in after-hours trading after the company reported a revenue miss. CSX reported revenue of $3.54 billion in the latest quarter, lower than the $3.58 billion expected by analysts polled by LESG. Intuitive Surgical — The medical device manufacturer’s stock dipped about 2% in extended trading even after the firm posted better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the last quarter. Intuitive reported adjusted earnings of $2.21 per share, 42 cents above an estimate from LSEG. East West Bancorp — Shares of the bank holding company lost 3%. Earnings for the fourth quarter came in at $2.10 per share, narrowly missing analysts’ expectations of $2.11 per share, per FactSet. Revenue topped expectations, however, landing at $675.8 million per share, while analysts polled by StreetAccount sought $659.1 million. Twilio — Shares of the cloud communications software maker surged more than 11% in extended trading after the firm issued a rosy profit forecast for the next few years at a Thursday investor event. The company also provided strong free cash flow guidance for 2025, with a revenue forecast that was in line with expectations.