\u201cA natural person who has individual net worth or joint net worth with the person\u2019s spouse that exceeds $1 million at the time of the purchase, excluding the value of the primary residence of such person.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nUsing your income as proof that you are accredited is easy – you simply provide a W-2 or tax return to the issuer of the investment in order to verify how much you\u2019ve earned for the past two years.<\/p>\n
Proving your net worth can be a bit more complicated. It requires a balance sheet, subtracting liabilities against assets. For example, a bank statement showing one million dollars in cash is not enough evidence to prove that you have a million dollar net worth.<\/p>\n
Instead, you need to provide a balance sheet detailing all assets (cash, bank accounts, 401Ks, IRA\u2019s, other investments, and cars) and then deduct all liabilities (student loans, car loans, and equity lines of credit).<\/p>\n
You cannot include your home equity as an asset, but you also don\u2019t have to include your mortgage as a liability – unless you took out a home equity line of credit or did a cash out refinance within the past 2 months. In that case, you\u2019d have to calculate the additional debt as a liability. Additionally, if your mortgage is higher than your home\u2019s value. you would need to include the amount that the loan is \u201cupside down\u201d as a liability.<\/p>\n
How to Boost Your NetWorth<\/h2>\n If you own a business, talk to your CPA about using the value of that company as an asset. This could significantly increase your net worth.<\/p>\n
If you have a lot of home equity, you may want to consider refinancing your home and taking some \u201ccash out.\u201d. As long as you wait 2 months. you can then count the cash you took out of your home as an asset.<\/p>\n
This can be a solid investment strategy anyway, given today\u2019s low interest rates. For example, if you took cash out of your home with 30 year fixed rate debt at 4% and then reinvested those funds into a note earning 8%, you would then be earning 4% on funds that otherwise would have been sitting as \u201cdead equity.\u201d The note you invest in should be secured to property, ideally at a low LTV, offering low risk to you as the noteholder. Be sure you understand the ins and outs of private lending before doing so!<\/p>\n
There are a few more reasons I prefer having debt on your primary residence.<\/p>\n
\nMortgages on primary residences tend to be the lowest cost debt you can get<\/li>\n If you are highly leveraged, the bank will help you negotiate with your insurance company in the case of a natural disaster, as they have more at stake than you do<\/li>\n Being leveraged offers a bit of asset protection as it is easy to search your home\u2019s value vs how much you owe on it.This is one of the first things an attorney researches before considering a lawsuit against you.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How do you become accredited? Today\u2019s crowdfunding platforms offer many new opportunities that investors may not have discovered in the past. However only accredited investors can participate, and you must reach certain accredited investor criteria to have that title. There is no formal certification issued from an agency or institution that confirms you are accredited.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
How To Determine If You Are an Accredited Investor<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n