Firm:
Far North Capital LLC
Job Title:
Founder
Biography:
Chad Rixse spent 3 years in the bank-run private wealth management world working primarily with high net worth families and individuals. As much as he enjoyed helping this demographic, he realized that many people, particularly those from his generation, were far too often left behind.
Chad wanted to change that.
Chad's mission in life has always been to help others. As a child, he wanted to become a doctor because he found that helping others was such a rewarding experience for him. Although the medical field did not become his path, he's found another way to fulfill this mission.
The truth is, Chad believes his generation faces a unique set of circumstances. They live in a digital era surrounded by technology and a constant stream of information. Many of them are college educated and burdened with student loans. They lived through, and very well remember, one of the worst financial crises in history. Plus to top it all off, they were taught very little in school about healthy financial habits and preparing for the future.
None of this sat well with Chad as he has experienced many of these struggles first-hand. He knew he had to act. He knew he had to actually do something about it, so it's from that burning desire that Far North Capital was born.
Education:
BA, Spanish, University of Washington
Assets Under Management:
$1 million
Fee Structure:
Fixed
AUM
CRD Number:
6427741
Disclaimer:
Far North Capital LLC is an Investment Adviser registered with the State of Alaska. This communication is not intended as an offer or solicitation to buy, hold or sell any financial instrument or investment advisory services. We do not guarantee the accuracy or the completeness of any description of securities, markets or developments mentioned. The information provided is subject to change without notice.
It depends on your main priorities. If buying a house in the near future is your main priority, saving $400/mo will get you to the $30k you need in 4.5 years. If you want to buy sooner, you'll need to free up more cash flow by either pulling back on your retirement savings or by finding some sort of side hustle to make some extra cash. If buying a home is not your priority, however, I'd be looking at putting that extra cash towards your student loans, particularly the higher interest ones. You can use the debt avalanche method, where you allocate additional payments towards the highest interest-rate loan first until you have that one paid off then use all the money you were paying towards that one to pay towards the next highest interest loan. Mathematically speaking, this is the quickest and cheapest way to get out of debt. If buying a home or paying off your debt is not a priority, then you could save into either your taxable or your 457(b) plan. The 457(b) is tax-deferred and contributions lower your federal gross taxable income. However, right now your marginal tax rate is only 22% and if you were to max out your 457(b) contributions at $18,500/year, you'd still be paying around 22%. I'm going to say at your age, you should be focusing either on the home purchase or paying off your highest interest student loans, perhaps even at the expense of higher contributions to your retirement savings for a couple years.
I see no harm in doing that as long as you do pay it off during the interest-free introductory period. Plus, you are correct that it would help build your credit score. Make sure you prequalify for the card offer already though as every time you apply, it does a hard credit pull which stays on your credit history for 2 years and can negatively impact your score in the first 12 months, so just be cautious with the application process. The goal is to improve your credit, obviously, not harm it.
Yes, you could create a revocable trust to move the money into with your grandchildren listed as the beneficiaries. As part of the trust documents, you'd stipulate how those assets are to be disbursed and when. An estate attorney can help set this up properly for you.
When you take on private investors, really anything goes. They are not bound by the same rules and restrictions commercial lenders like banks are. An investor is always going to be looking to make a return on their investment. If they deem it to be high-risk, they may stipulate certain conditions in order to feel like they are fairly compensated for the level of risk they believe they are taking. Just like a lender who decides to lend to a person with poor credit - the worse the credit, the higher the risk, the higher the interest rate as a result. Although 12% interest on loaned funds in the startup investment world is nowhere outside the norm, it does seem rather excessive considering how much equity they have. Usually, in deals like this, they'll lend the money at a high-interest rate but will take only a minority stake as equity. If you are in a position where the business is starting to do well, I'd focus on either getting that $100k paid off as quickly as possible or, I'd see if you can restructure the deal considering the current financial health and trajectory of your startup. If you have the funds, you might also consider buying out that equity partner who loaned the money. Having 12% interest loan for anyone can be very costly and difficult to pay back, especially for a new business looking to become cash flow positive as soon as possible.
Before April 29, 2016, if you had already reached full retirement age by that point, you would've been able to file and suspend while your spouse started collecting a spousal benefit, however the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, created to help cut the costs of funding social security, did away with this loophole and it is no longer available to those who reached full retirement age after it took effect in April of 2016. If you were born in 1950 or 1951, your full retirement age was 66 which you obviously reached after April 2016, so if you wish to file and suspend, your wife will not be able to receive a spousal benefit until you turn on your social security benefits at age 70. Your benefit doesn't grow past age 70, so if you are needing the money for her now, you may want to consider starting your own benefits now. If you don't need the money and can wait until age 70, she'll collect 50% of your benefit for herself. Also, I should note, you are already at full retirement age so if you are still currently working, you can claim social security benefits and not need to worry about your own benefit being reduced as a result, though if your filing status is married filing jointly and your household income is over $32k/yr, at least 50% of your social security benefit is subject to taxation. Hope this answers your question!