175 karma · joined February 8, 2017
One thing that struck me - towns down there had a template. 90% of towns we drove through were just a blood plasma "donation" center, a dollar store, a gas station, and a cemetery. Very bleak existence out there, oil and gas boom notwithstanding.
citation needed? genuinely curious - are there studies about long-term returns from housing vs. other asset classes (namely public equities)?
I reckon they probably take some cut as a licensing fee, but seems like participating in the upside would create significant incentives over the current regimes.
[0] https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-h...
[0] https://disrn.com/news/email-provider-suspends-trump-campaig...
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_behavior_therapy#D... [1] https://www.bustle.com/p/what-is-mammalian-diving-response-t...
Back of the envelope math: Majority of their portfolio is very short term, let's assume 6 months duration which is a 0.5yr weighted average life 300B in annual originations Assume they can get similar leverage as US securitization markets, which would be 95% advance rate (5% "skin in the game" for Ant)
Then the equity required would be: 300B0.530%5% = ~2.25B, and they were planning to raise $30B as part of this IPO
[0] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/authorizedparticipant.a... [1] https://www.janestreet.com/what-we-do/etfs/
Learned this from a great NYT article on Hokusai focusing on another print from the same series: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/07/arts/design/h...
[1] https://www.theinformation.com/articles/andreessen-horowitz-...
Separately we have retirement savings programs (usually called a 401k) that are offered by private sector employers, often with a match. Employees can invest a percentage of their paycheck in the program, and companies will match that contribution to a certain level to incentivize savings. When you leave the company you can keep the account or roll it somewhere else. Unfortunately these contributions are capped by federal law at no more than $19,500 per year per person. There are tax benefits to the 401k - you can choose to pay tax on the contribution when you make it and pay no income tax on those funds in retirement, or not pay tax now and pay income tax in the future. This is a lot better than investing in a taxable brokerage account, because you get taxed on the income as well as the securities.
Also, VC returns are distributed according to a power law because most startups won't pan out. Private equity buys companies later in their lifecycle, banking on levering up stable operating cashflow rather than banking on the product becoming the next FAANG unicorn. There's a bit of a continuum between VC -> Growth Equity -> Private Equity.