For the case where I would be added as a co-owner and no rental income is being made:

• Seems like I would not have to declare anything on my US taxes
  • Filing FACTA doesn’t apply if I simply own the property, and it is not held in trust
  • Filing FBAR doesn’t apply since it only applies to bank accounts that have more than $10000
• For Canada, I would still need to pay tax to Ontario (called Land Transfer Tax, which is due at the time of registration)… should get legal representation in Canada for this
• For Canada, the giver would typically get taxed under “Deemed disposition” for Canadian Capital Gains Tax (the capital gains is the increase I property value since it was originally required), UNLESS it is the principal residence of the giver

https://chatgpt.com/share/67b26587-2d9c-8009-a799-387aef162817

For the case where I would be added as a co-owner and no rental income is being made:

• For US taxes, I must report your percentage ownership of the rental income and expenses
  • If you own 50% of the property, you report 50% of the rental income and 50% of the deductible expenses 
• Canada taxes rental income for non-residents at a 25% withholding tax rate on the gross rental income (unless you file an NR6 to be taxed on net income)
• For US taxes, you can claim a foreign tax credit (Form 1116) for any Canadian tax paid to offset U.S. tax liability.

https://chatgpt.com/share/67b26af7-d6dc-8009-8d29-38ff65c31f4a

Overall, installation and set up was easy, so going to go over some of the lessons learned.

Link to unit bought (Eonon Android 13 Car Stereo for Mazda 3 2010-2013, Octa Core 6+64GB): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HGWF5G3?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

First, this YouTube video was super helpful in learning how to install the unit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Ll4O1PSv_KU

On a high level, the head unit requires three cables to attach to the Mazda 3 (referring to the above diagram), and I took them out of the OEM head unit in this order:

• “Power Cable” (#13)
• AUX input for car (#29)
• Radio Antenna input (#12)

When removing, the power cable (#13) was the hardest. There is a latch at the bottom of it you have to press, but even after pressing you have to use a lot of force to get it out. Once that was out, mostly everything to get out and put back in was easy)

I will say though I still needed to understand some of the wire mappings using the instruction booklet. These ones in particular (from the above picture):

• There are many audio out RCA ports (ie 10, 11, 15, and 16), but at the end of the day, the sound is either coming out of the head unit from 20 and 21 (ie. the aux), or what is labeled 13 (Power cable”, since if you see the pin mappings, there are audio labels there… or maybe it just controls how much power goes to each speaker in the car)

I ended up attaching the GPS, USB 2/3, and mic cables, but honestly I think the only thing I just needed to attach is the GPS. Only thing I didn’t end up attaching is the USB1 cable (and also didn’t insert a sim inside the simcard holder). FYI the GPS, USB 2/3, and mic cables are going through an existing hole in the glove compartments.

Surprising feature that still worked with the car after installation:

• Steering wheel’s volume buttons
• Steering wheel’s advance track button
• When using the radio, the radio station gets displayed in the in unit (blue) dashboard screen
• Using head lights causes unit buttons to light up

After the unit was fully installed, these are things I did with the unit:

• In settings, connected the unit to my phone’s personal hotspot so it could get the time. Also told it to use my current coordinates for the timezone (to test out the GPS). Opened the unit’s map app to also confirm it knew where I was
• Played with the Radio, which is when I found out the station also shows in the car’s in unit display
• Opened the CarPlay app, which required to connect to my phone using Bluetooth (NOTE: Cannot use CarPlay wired with this unit, AND if you are using CarPlay, cannot have a hotspot with the phone since CarPlay itself used both bluetooth and wifi)
• Opened Maps app in CarPlay, and tested out to see if Siri could understand where I wanted to go with the mic being inside the glove compartment. It did (which makes me believe it is using the mic on the external part of the actual head unit)
• In settings, turned off the reverse detection, since putting the car in reverse will make the screen go blank if you do’t do this (Settings > Car > Factory (code is “126”)> Reverse Detection > Disable)
• Updated the head unit’s OS but connecting it to my phone’s hotspot and going to Settings > System > Check for updates (there was an OS update, and then after that there was an MCU update)
• In the Amplifier app on the unit, checked to make sure disabling and enabling Front Left, Front Right, Back Left, Back right speakers worked
• In the Amplifier app on the unit, under effects, enabled the Bass boosting feature
• In the Amplifier app on the unit, with the Equalizer, matched Spotify’s dance equalizer settings. At the time of this writing, still playing with the equalizer, but I think its getting close to what I want

From a friend who recently purchases a condo at Hayes Valley (who lived in the Beacon), here is some tips:

• For tax purposes, you want to take out a mortgage of up to $750,000. That is the max amount you can deduct from your taxes (well, the interest payments for it. It is important to note it doesn’t matter the interest percentage… which is sort of strange, it just matters on the principle loan)
• Escrow company for him was recommended by the seller’s real estate agent
• Had to sign real copies of contracts at the end (including a finger print!)
• The payment to the real estate agents (both buy and sellers) is from the seller of the property (so they add 5% to the selling price, and give 2.5% to each real estate agent)
• Had 3 viewings. 2 were stage with furniture, and one is empty
• My friend put slightly more than 50% down payment
• Apparently he had a horrible time with Bank of America (he used them for the mortgage). They were basically a week late with the paper work.

1)

Investment Property (Maximizing Tax Deduction Benefits for it)

Active income: Things listed on your W2

Passive income: Things like income from long-term (ie. a year) renting out your investment property (the income you get from your tenants)

For tax benefits, if you have a place as your primary residence, you can only deduct $10,000 from your taxes. For investment property, you want to turn it from passive income to active income . Why? so you can deduct the depreciation of certain things from your W2 (can’t deduct appreciation from passive). How to turn it active? You do short-term rentals using things like AirBnb. (There are 4 main things about a house that appreciates/depreciates: Land, frame of the house, appliances, and the pipes/electrical things). Although land appreciates, you can deduct depreciation of the frame of the house (I think setting the depreciation to $0 after 27 years is a thing). This only works for houses, and not condos.

2)

Return on investment example (buying vs. mortgages):

For your first year (say you buy a place that is $1000000, and it appreciates 6%, so at the end of the year it is worth 1060000:

• If you buy: (1060000 – 1000000) / 1000000 = 6% ROI
• If you do a mortgage (say the downpayment you paid is $200000): (1060000 – 200000) / 1000000 = 86% ROI

The one thing that the above does not factor in is the interest you’re paying on the mortgage that year (or the property tax).

3)

For condos, if buying, my sort of Golden Rule for buying vs. getting a mortgage vs renting is this:

The monthly cost of owning a place should not exceed how much I spend on rent in one month. Therefore, if the following is not true, than I rather buy:

(HOA) + (Property Tax) + (Mortgage Payment [interest portion only???]) – (Interest Deducted from Taxes) < Monthly rent

The reason for the above is that people say renting is throwing away money. Technically you’re throwing away money with HOA and Property Tax (so those definitely need to be below monthly rent)

4)

Mortgage Example

$2600 is the monthly  mortgage payment:

• $1400 in interest
• $800 Principle

Still need to account for property tax and HOA

 

 

-A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is an entity with no central leadership. Decisions get made from the bottom-up, governed by a community organized around a specific set of rules enforced on a blockchain

-There is no way for users to communicate through the blockchain, so they need something like Discord or Clubhouse

-One example is when someone named Bob wanted to buy the US constitution. A community didn’t want him to own it, so that community formed a DAO to raise enough funds to buy it (this example does have a lot of flow up questions, like which person would actually physically keep it? Also, where does the voting come into play? But what does make sense is the “stake” part, since people now will be able to earn money on this investment if someone else buts the constitution for a higher price). More on the ConstitutionDAO can be found here: https://nftevening.com/us-constitution-rare-copy-to-be-acquired-by-constitutiondao/

-One key distinction between people donating to something like Kickstarter is that with a DAO, people have a stake in something (ie. investing in something). Kickstarter you get something back

-Another example is say a community wanted a movie funded. There would be participants that would have a stake. They may, want to make certain decisions, like whether or not brad Pitt or Ryan Reynolds should be the star. People’s votes are directly proportional to their stake. If people don’t like the outcome, they can pull out (but then if the movie is successful, then they won’t be able to reap the benefits of their would have been investment)

-One other interesting thing is bitcoin and ethereum THEMSELVES are DAO (people enter into agreements to buy and sell the cryptocurrency according to a set of terms (dealing with each other’s private / public keys and smart contracts), and everything is tracked on the Bitcoin blockchain). (I guess the voting part might be that )

-other notes: Platforms that allows the average user to become rich (Mark mentioned a platform that would allow DOAs to be seemingly created for everyday things)

-Website that explains DAO on a high level: https://cointelegraph.com/ethereum-for-beginners/what-is-a-decentralized-autonomous-organization-and-how-does-a-dao-work

-Future reading for DAO and NFTs: https://nftevening.com/what-is-a-dao-and-how-does-it-relate-to-nfts/

Patching:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNWWwlHaaiY

-Note: do not need to listen to anything about the Network Node (since you do not have one)

-For the movers, make sure to pay attention to the fact that you are using the 20 channel mode, not 17

-TODO: the pan is backwards for the 3D. This post may have the answer (need to try it): http://www.ma-share.net/forum/read.php?5,50375,50377#msg-50377

–

 

Other tips:

-This post explained that you should connect the board to the top right USB-C port (since it its the fastest), and that you should also wait a minute for the board to be fully recognized by the software (https://forum.malighting.com/thread/3682-usb-c-adapters-for-macbook-pro-models/)

-GrandMa3 apparently is all about tree structures now (ie that is how everything is organized)

 

Some upcoming videos to watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfYaQUOvnZ0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkEja0iQ59c

https://www.youtube.com/user/MALightingInt/videos

Remember that call options are contracts that give the person holding the contract the right to buy at an agreed upon price, called the “strike price”.

Now for the person buying the call option, they expect the stock to go up. In our example here, let’s say that the current stock price of XYZ when the call option is bought is $50, and the agreed upon strike price is $55. Of course the person who bought the call option would theoretically exercise this contract if the price goes higher than $55 (since the lowest amount they can pay for a stock is $55, or the strike price). Remember though, they did pay a premium (which let’s say in our example is $4 per share, and a single call contract has 100 shares). Therefore the person who bought the call would ideally want the stock price to hit $59 to break even, and therefore would probably exercise at $59.

For the person who sold the call option contract, there are usually two ways in which he would do that. One is either naked, or covered.

Selling a call option naked, the person does not own the stock, and the hope the stock price will go down. Therefore the only profit to be made is through the premium (in the example above that would be $500. For the graph below, that would be $200). As the stock price increases in value, so does how much there person will need to pay to acquire the stock they don’t have (so if the option is exercised, then they would lose: [(current stock price – strike price)] * 100 – premium. The fact is the current stock price could go to infinity!

Now what should you do as a seller of a naked call option. There are 4 alternatives. If the stock price is below the strike price (called “out of the money”, which is counter intuitive since this term is more for the buyer of the call), then you can: (a) wait for the contract to expire ( online it doesn’t seem like people do this), or (b) buy back the call option at a cheaper price. If you are in the money (so the stock price is above the strike price, and there is likelihood the call option buyer would execute), then you can: (a) buy the contract back for a higher price, (b) buy the underlying stock itself at the current stock price so you get protected as the price goes up, or (c) wait till it get executed, then buy the stock (which is not the usual course of action since the stock price could go higher).

(in the example below, the premium is $2 per share, the strike price is $105, and the $107 listed is because of the premium  + the strike price).

(https://www.investopedia.com/articles/optioninvestor/122701.asp)

Selling a call option covered (aka covered calls), unlike selling a naked call, the person also wants the stock price to go up because the fact is, they already own the stock. Continuing from the example at the top of this post where the call option contract was sold when the stock price is $50, and the strike price is $55, and the premium is $4 per share, then as the call option seller, it it makes sense that you make money from premium, plus if the stock price goes up to the strike price of $55 (and therefore could get executed), then you also make $5 per share. (realistically the call option buyer would not execute until the stock price is at $59 so they can also get back what they paid in their premiums… but the seller would ever only see $55 as that is the strike price).

The “substantial lost” part of the graph below is there since you do have to hold onto your stock until the option contract is executed or expires. During that time the stock price could go to $0. If you end up selling your stock during the contract, that would put you in a naked position, which then the naked covered calls section above applies).

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/optioninvestor/08/covered-call.asp