A home equity loan is a form of secured loan, in that the borrower uses his or her house as collateral to secure the loan. People take out home equity loans for various purposes, such as undertaking home improvements or paying off debt (something-for example, money, a piece of property, or a service-that an individual owes to another individual or an entity).

The two basic types of loans are secured and unsecured home loan. In obtaining a secured loan the borrower presents the lender with some piece of property (for example, an automobile), of which the lender can claim ownership in the event the borrower fails to repay the loan (also known as defaulting on a loan). This property is known as collateral. Unsecured loans, on the other hand, do not require the borrower to have collateral.

This are also two type of home equity loan, first is open end and second is closed end. A closed-end home equity loan involves a fixed amount of money; the borrower receives the entire amount of the loan (known as a lump sum) upon completing the loan agreement process (or closing). Closed-end home equity loans usually have fixed interest rates (in other words the interest rate remains the same for the life of the loan). Typically the amount of the loan will depend on the amount of equity the borrower has in his or her house;

With open-end home equity loans, on the other hand, the borrower does not take the lump sum of the loan amount all at once. Instead the borrower receives the loan as credit (that is, as a maximum amount of money he or she can borrow), which the borrower can use as desired.

A home equity line of credit allows you to draw on your home’s equity without having to pay for closing rates. For those with bad credit, credit secured by your equity can provide you with low rates. Using your credit wisely, you can use a line of credit to reestablish a good credit rating. However, you need to choose the right lender to be sure you are getting a good deal on your rates and fees.

A home equity line of credit allows you to draw on your home’s equity without having to pay for closing rates. For those with bad credit, credit secured by your equity can provide you with low rates. However, you need to choose the right lender to be sure you are getting a good deal on your rates and fees.

What you look For In A good Home Equity Line Of Credit

With most lenders, you will not have to pay any closing fees. So you save on upfront costs of a second mortgage. Your rates can be fixed or adjustable. With most lenders, adjustable rates start out lower than fixed rate loans. It also allows you to borrow funds as needed. So you only pay interest on the amount which you use.

Fees are also part of a line of credit. You may possibly have early payment, minimum balance, or other fees. Mostly we look that different lender write loan their own term differently. While low rates are important, also take a look at terms when considering lenders.



Thanks to Daryl Stewart for contributing this article to our Equity blog:

Mortgage Refinance Rates

Preparation for equity trading

A farmer in remote Bihar borrows heavily from his zamindar to pay the dowry for marrying off his 11-year-old daughter (an extreme form of debt that we know will turn the farmer into a bonded labourer forever).

A newly married yuppie buys a car, TV, fridge on his credit card?(another form of debt that the yuppie hopes to repay with his zooming salaries).

In these instances we see that ?debt? has been incurred to spend beyond one?s current means. We learnt last time that typically whatever we earn either goes into buying food, clothes, or assets like a TV, car, etc. Or we save with the intention to use our savings during our retirement or buy a house, etc. In other words, we spend our earnings today or save it to spend it later. ?Debt? brings in a third element?while we postpone consumption when we save, we spend future savings when we borrow! In simpler terms, ?savings? and ?debt? are like day & night?they can never exist together unless it is twilight. Take the case of Nagesh, who we met up with last time. Nagesh is a very practical person who has learnt from the tough times in his life. Nagesh, just like any other human being, has dreams of buying a car, a big house for his family, but realises that he will only be able to get there in stages as his current earning capacity is too limited. He has been keeping his desires in check while continuing to save regularly and investing a part of it in shares of good companies. Nagesh bought a car last month by selling part of his holding in Zee Telefilms (about 100 shares @ Rs3500 that he had bought over a year back @ Rs100).

Manish has been Nagesh?s colleague for the last four years. Manish believes in living life king size. In his very first year he exceeded the credit limit on his credit card. He has been paying through his nose, shelling out interest at 3% per month on his credit card outstandings. Two years back, he availed of a car loan to buy a Maruti 800, at a monthly installment of Rs8000 when his post-tax salary was just Rs14,000! Last year, envious of Nagesh?s newfound wealth in shares, he decided to dabble in shares too. His broker recommended Blue Information Technologies Ltd. as a hot tip that would double in 3 months? time! Full of fervour, without even checking the background of the firm, Nagesh pledged his wife?s gold and borrowed to buy this stock at Rs150. A week later, he discovered that the stock had fallen 35% from his purchase price. When he called up his broker, he was aghast to find out that the stock had been suspended. His interest meter was ticking on the money he had borrowed while his principal was down the tube. Talk of the power of compounding!

Moral: Never stretch borrowings to invest in the stock market. Shares are long-term investments that cannot be matched with short-term borrowings. Ideally, one should repay all borrowings and then invest the surplus in equities. So, when we are debt free, we are ready to invest in equities! By the way, one is never too old or young to invest as long as one understands the investment one makes.

OK, we have understood that in the long run equities offer the highest returns. We have also learnt that one can invest in equities any time provided one has surpluses after repaying debt and meeting one?s expenditure! But how much do we invest?

How much depends on two criteria. One, the risk profile of the investor and two, the liquidity requirements of the investor! Now that we know Nagesh, his father and friend Manish well, let us understand this better through their actions.

Risk profile! Yes, let?s face it. No equity investments are free of risk. There is no such thing as a free lunch, mind you! There are a whole basket of risks to contend with and we will understand all of them very soon. For now, we need to appreciate that there are risks of losing. Looking at our three personalities, we can straight away rule out Manish. He can?t afford to take any risks as he is buried deep in debt and can?t afford to lose a penny! Nagesh on the other hand is just 35 years old and has a long bright career ahead of him, so he can afford to take greater exposure in equities and in slightly risky shares too (for instance, some stocks from our ?Emerging Star?, ?Ugly Duckling? and ?Vulture?s Pick? categories). Nagesh?s father, on the other hand, has retired and has no source of income other than the savings he has amassed. So he will be able to afford very little risk. Hence, he should be looking at stocks in our ?Evergreen? or ?Apple Green? categories to choose his investments (which is why, if you remember, Nagesh had suggested HLL to his father).

Let us now move on to liquidity. Liquidity requirements signify the need of cash to meet one?s payment obligations (and don?t have anything to do with human beings? fluid intake). Manish needs all the money he can get as he has to meet so many of his loan obligations. Nagesh on the other hand has an idea of his monthly expenses so he has a better fix on his monthly cash requirements. He also needs to maintain a certain amount of cash in liquid savings (savings bank deposit, etc.) just in case there are some unforeseen medical expenses to meet or an unplanned visit to his father?s place. Beyond these requirements, he can look at investing in equities. Nagesh?s father, on the other hand, has to meet his entire expenses from his savings and would have large requirements for immediate cash. Hence, he can allocate a smaller portion of his savings to invest in equities.

Judging the actions of the small world of people we know, we have realised that risk profiles vary with age, current financial position, even one?s own personality. Liquidity requirements too depend on similar factors. These two criteria will be different for different people, but one should not lose sight of one?s risk profile and liquidity requirement while investing in equities.

Way of making equity as your own

what we now need to figure out is how to evaluate which company to buy. I?m afraid this is where all those fancy sounding valuation tools come in? PE, RONW, ROCE, EVA, etc. Hey, hang on, it?s not as bad as it sounds. Stick around and we?ll demystify all the above in a jiffy.

But before you get into the complexities of the various valuations tools you can use and how you calculate them, we must table a fundamental principle:

?Investing in equities is akin to owning a business.?

Let?s now explore the full ramifications of this principle.

When you put your money in a bank deposit, you take a risk (albeit small, depending on which bank). In return, you get paid a small interest.

The bank takes on a higher degree of risk and lends that money at a higher interest rate to some businessman, or to a credit card holder who wants to buy a diamond ring for his wife. The bank pays your interest out of the money he earns from the businessman. Or the doting husband.

Whereas, when you buy shares in a company, you are not lending money to the company. By providing capital for the company, which is represented by an equity share, you are participating in the ownership of the company. Clearly, your risk is much greater in this case. Because, in this case, you are entrusting the company with the job of managing risk for you.

Relatively, the risk in lending to a bank is limited. For one, most of our neighbourhood banks are nationalised. So bank deposits are perceived to be backed by the government. There is little soul searching to be done as to which bank to choose. Even in doing so, the highest priority is accorded to a Nationalised Bank purely on the safety parameter. Obviously, when you invest in equities, even this notional sense of security, of a government standing guard over your money, isn?t available to you.

What kind of business would you like to enter?

Let?s look at this another way now. Let?s assume you want to invest your money into a business. How will you decide what kind of business to enter?

For starters, it should display the potential to earn you a return in excess of what the prevailing rate of bank interest is, right? Now you need to ask yourself what would be the essential factors in determining this return. And apart from the return angle, what qualitative factors should you be looking for?

In the long term, we all look for security. Business, being an entity, is also entitled to aspire for the same. The ideal business would thus have to have horizons where profits can be sustained. Like we mentioned above, there are external factors that determine the direction and growth of the activity. All this would need to be factored into a business plan that would have to sustain itself and grow over a period of years. Of course, on an ongoing basis, we would definitely have to get a feedback on the success of the business. Operations would have to be evaluated from market feedback, while the financial statements would give a view of the profitability of the concern.

The same concepts apply to stocks

Now, here?s the punch line. Everything we discussed above doesn?t apply only to running a business. The same concepts apply, even if you just own shares in the company.

We all know of a document called an annual report. This document is the most basic source for information available on the company?s operations. In the annual reports, the directors dwell, at times in length, explaining the nature of operations and the external environment surrounding the business and how it affected the company during the year.

If you take the additional effort of finding out the positioning of the company?s products in the marketplace, it would give a fair idea of the company?s reputation in the field it operates. All this with the objective of figuring out how stable the company?s operation is.

The company?s progress can be tracked periodically over close intervals of 3 months. This is through quarterly financial statements, the publication of which has been made mandatory by the regulatory authorities.

Next comes the question of management issues. The common question that pops up in this context is: ?How do I externally control the business if I do not have a say in the management??.

Ok, let?s assume that you are now running the business you chose. Can you, a single individual, handle all functions of the company? For a while, maybe. But once growth sets in, it would be humanly impossible to manage all the functions of an economic activity, viz. marketing, finance, procurement, etc. That?s when your business will need to morph from outfit to organisation status. Wherein the various functions are distributed across individuals, and finally the same is translated into a unified activity.

Similarly, as a shareholder, you end up delegating authority to others to run the organisation you have a stake in. Imagine Mr Narayana Murthy (Infosys), Mr Dadiseth (HLL) and Mr Anji Reddy (Dr Reddy?s) reporting to you. That?s exactly how the cookie crumbles.

The company whose equity base you have participated in is answerable. To you, as well as other shareholders of the company. Thus, while you as a joint owner have delegated the operations of the company to the professional managers and the employees, the management in turn is responsible to its shareholders. The management communicates through the balance sheet and the AGM, where shareholders voice their opinion on the performance of the company.

Infact, shareholders can actually participate in constructive criticism of the operation of the company.

Equity is enigma for most of people

If one were to conduct a survey to determine how people saved for their retirement, one would typically get the following responses…

?I put my money in NSC, post office schemes; they double in seven years!? (By the way, HLL in the last seven years is up seven times!!)

?I am too lazy, I leave my money in term deposits with the bank!? (Certain to retire as a pauper!)

?I am clever, I keep deposits with finance companies and co-operative banks. I make upwards of 20%.? (He forgot to mention that a few of them are like CRB! Forget the returns you will not even get your principal!!)

A very rare response would be: ?I invest in equities. I bought Infosys @ Rs500, Zee Telefilms @ Rs220?? (Anybody cares to do the sums for him?!)

Equities, or shares as they are popularly known, have been an enigma for most people. A majority of the middle class in India considers it akin to gambling. A majority of the rest is fascinated by the volatility and the short-term money-making opportunities and misunderstand equities to be a ?get rich quick? scheme. There are very few people who understand that equities offer the highest returns in the long run, adjusted for inflation or even otherwise. Take the case of Nagesh…

Nagesh has had a very conservative upbringing. However, he moved out of his home to pursue his higher studies and his eyes opened! He has been working with a leading MNC as a marketing manager. He has been wisely investing in shares for the last five years, relying on his broker?s advice after doing his own homework. On the other hand, his father worked all his life in a PSU and put all his savings in NSC and Life Insurance. He has retired today and has just realised that all his lifetime savings cannot help him lead a comfortable retired life. Nagesh is now trying to help his father out…

Nagesh: Appa, even now it is not too late. You must invest a portion of your savings in equity. You are getting disheartened because you want to live off the meager interest earnings on your savings. If you put a portion of the money in, say HLL, your money will double in 3 years, quadruple in 5 years!! Appa, equities have the ?power of compounding that is unmatched?.

Appa: Equity is very volatile. After you told me last time, I have been tracking the Sensex on Star News. It goes up two days then there is some political uncertainty and it falls. Sometimes it falls without any reason or otherwise goes up 15% in four days. I cannot handle it. At least here, my principal is safe and I get a fixed return.

Nagesh, if you use the same Sensex as a benchmark, then the index was 1220 in September 1990 and currently trades at 4800 in September 1999, up four times in 9 years! Even if you had put in money at the height of the market frenzy in 1992, you would have still made money. The market benchmark is just an indication; the concept is to invest in specific good companies. Think Company, Appa, and don?t let the short-term market volatility scare you! In September 1990, HLL was trading at Rs115, while it trades at Rs2500 levels now! 22 times in 9 years!!

Appa: Even then, why put my savings in risky equities?

Nagesh: An equally important thing to understand is: ?Why does one save?? One saves because the productive span for any human being is a small portion of one?s entire life. I may live for 80 years but I can only work between the ages of 24 and 60. Hence, it becomes important during our productive lives to earn surpluses and save them for the period when we can?t be productive and earn. Having said that, Appa, you would also recognise that it is important to retain the purchasing power of our savings. In other words, we all know that we used to purchase grains at Rs2 per kg 5 years back, while we pay Rs10 per kg for the same now. The price will keep on increasing as the population living off a fixed area of land increases. Hence, it is also important that whatever we save now at least fetches us an equal quantity when we retire…have I lost you?

Appa: No, I was just thinking. You are right. I deposited Rs10,000 seven years back in NSC and I just got Rs20,000 now. Seven years back, I used to get vegetables for Rs25 and it used to last for a whole week and then we were four of us. Today, I buy vegetables for Rs100 and it barely lasts for a week though there are just the two of us!

Nagesh: Exactly. That?s why people used to buy gold and land to protect their savings from inflation. However, those were the days when communities were small and agriculture was the only activity. As population grew, needs grew and there was a compelling need to improve efficiency. Hence, factories came up to exploit economies of scale. To cut a long story short, investment in productive assets is the best way of preserving savings and creating wealth. Equity is the most productive asset.

Appa: What is the connection?

Nagesh: Equities or shares represent ownership of businesses that own productive assets like plant & machinery and intellectual capital to produce more goods. On the other hand, when you put money in deposits or lend directly, the money ultimately finds its way to purchase productive assets as companies borrow to fund their business! Just like we save to take care of our retirement, productive assets are created to meet greater demand for goods in the future, because of increasing population and its ever increasing needs. Who ever borrows to fund the asset hopes to make more money on his equity than what he pays for on his borrowings. So, savings in deposits or any other fixed income instrument is sub-optimal! Hence, intuitively too, equity has to make lots more money in the long run than any deposits, because there will be no borrowings if the equity owner realises lesser money!!

Appa: All that is fine. But some companies don?t do well?

Nagesh: Obviously they are risky as certain businesses find the going tough. But collectively, they are not only very essential but very profitable. Hence, the returns on equity are always higher to compensate for the additional risk. Risk is a part and parcel of life. There are so many bus, rail and two wheeler accidents, but that doesn?t mean that we prefer to walk everywhere. Even if we decide to walk, we run the risk of being hit by another vehicle! One should only take care to invest in the right businesses, which have assets capable of earning good returns. Hence, these will have to be businesses that have a bright future. Nobody thinks of buying a bullock cart now!…



Thanks to Phuleswari Narzary for contributing this article to our Equity blog:

Private Equity Investment

A home equity loan is a loan that is secured by the equity of the borrower’s home. Because the borrower’s home is security for the loan the lender will usually offer an interest rate that is lower than it would be for an unsecured loan. The most common reasons for getting a home equity loan are paying for home improvements, paying off other debts that have a higher rate of interest, and paying for other expensive items such as a college education or medical bills.

A borrower should only seek a home equity loan if they are sure that they can repay the loan. If the borrower defaults then the lender could foreclose on the borrower’s home and sell it to recover their losses. A borrower must have equity in their home before applying for a home equity loan. If the borrower’s home is worth less than the balance on their current mortgage(s) then there is no equity to borrow against.

There are two types of home equity loans - a closed end home equity loan, and a home equity line of credit. A closed end home equity loan is a lump sum loan that is repaid in monthly payments over five or ten years, and usually has a fixed interest rate. If the rate is fixed then it is easy to create a loan amortization schedule that shows the balance remaining on the loan after each payment. Variable rates are uncommon for this type of loan because the payments are fixed, so a change in the interest rate might mean that the payments are no longer enough to cover the interest expense. This would lead to a negative amortization, where the unpaid interest is added to the loan balance.

A home equity line of credit works like a giant credit card, except that there are minimum withdrawal amounts as well as fees for each withdrawal. The interest rate on this type of loan is usually variable. Therefore, the monthly payment amount will change depending on the current interest rate and the current loan balance.

Currently, home equity loans are difficult to get unless the borrower has excellent credit and a lot of equity in their home. This is because the home equity loan will be in second position behind the first mortgage, which makes it difficult for a lender to recover any money if the borrower defaults. However, a home equity loan is much easier to get if the borrower does not have a first mortgage because the equity loan would then be in first position. In that situation a borrower may find a home equity loan easier to get than a traditional mortgage.

There is also a tax advantage to getting a home equity loan. Home equity loan interest is usually tax deductible if the borrower’s primary residence is the home offered as security. The borrower should check the tax code or ask a tax professional for advice if they want to take advantage of this tax deduction.



Thanks to Derek Farley for contributing this article to our Equity blog:

Equity Tips

Your home equity is the appraised value remaining in your house after you subtract the remaining balance you owe on your existing mortgage(s). It can be thought of as the part of the house you actually own instead of the bank: the part you’ve paid for so far.

It isn’t difficult to build equity in your home, and chances are if you’ve owned your house for a while and have been making your regular mortgage payments, you probably have built a considerable amount of home equity already. Though the housing market rises and falls in cycles, the overall tendency is consistently upward. In other words, property values tend to rise over the long term.

How Can Home Equity Be Used?

Once you have equity in your home, you can start to use it to fund nearly anything you want or need. Having equity in your home puts you in a powerful position, as you can use it to qualify for credit and borrow money. Buy a new car, take that dream vacation, fund a college education, make renovations and improvements to your house. Whether to pay for an emergency or finance a dream, there are two primary ways to tap into the wellspring that is your home equity: a home equity loan or a line of credit.

What Are Interest Rates Like?

A good question to ask before borrowing money from any source is: how much is it going to cost in the long run? Because your house is being used as collateral on the loan or line of credit, the risk for the lender is considerably lower, and therefore interest rates on these loans are usually lower than the average interest rate on a credit card.

Home equity loans and lines of credit are, however, usually higher than the interest rate on the average fixed rate mortgage. And in general, home equity loans usually have lower interest rates than lines of credit.

What Are Some of the Other Benefits?

As if borrowing money weren’t advantage enough, there are a bevy of other benefits as well, including:

* tax advantages (in many cases, interest paid on home equity loans and lines of credit are tax deductible)

* you can use equity to build more equity (if you tap into home equity to make improvements to your home, you raise your home’s value, thereby building more equity)

* debt consolidation (you can use it to pay off higher priced loans or debt)



Thanks to Daniel Riley for contributing this article to our Equity blog:

Private Equity Investment

A home-equity loan might be the right option on whether you need amount for college, home improvement, or even medical bill. This is a type of loan that uses home as a collateral and this can be classified into two categories: The closed end such a loan; and the open end home-equity loan.

Closed End Equity Loan- is like a traditional loan and this is also called as ’second mortgage’. With this, the borrower receives the full amount loaned at the time of loan’s closing. It is paid back on monthly basis.

Open End Home-Equity Loan- it is a lot more flexible compared to closed end. Instead of acquiring the full amount loaned, the borrower gets a line of credit. The borrower can also choose when to borrow the money. This type of loan usually have a variable interest rate. The borrower can choose how much money to borrow against the home’s equity.

The basic concept of a home equity loan is that you can borrow against the current equity in your home, so the more equity you have the larger loan you can actually receive. In other words, to acquire an equity loan you are using your home as collateral, or the basis, for the such a loan. If you do not pay the equity-loan back, then your home is at stake and may be foreclosed upon. Therefore, it is important to understand more about this so that you are able to ride on the how this business flow.

You will need to know all of this concepts or information before you apply for a home equity loan to know if you have enough equity to even apply for a home equity-loan. In addition, the more you know about applying for and negotiating rates for a home-equity loan the better deal you will receive. Always put in mine, knowledge is power and the more home equity loan knowledge you have the more powerful you will be able to negotiate.

Home-equity-loan is searched well with online tool. Here you need to fill an online application form. Then you find number of lender approaches you with their loan quotes, repayable term, and rate of interest. It is the easiest and convenient method to reach your desired loan deal.

You can learn additional ideas on how to this business flow by visiting some websites. This is very useful if in case you want to engage in this business.



Thanks to Stephen Campbell for contributing this article to our Equity blog:

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