#38 | Interest Rates and Charitable Giving feat. Kevin Lyons

Practical Tax with Steve Moskowitz

Anchor Funding CEO Kevin Lyons joins Steve to discuss the interest rate hikes and explore both investment and tax opportunities during this technical recession. Episode Transcript Intro: Welcome to the Practical Tax podcast, with tax attorney Steve Moskowitz. The Practical Tax podcast is brought to you by Moskowitz, LLP, a tax law firm. Disclaimer: The information contained in this podcast is based upon information available as of date of recording and will not be updated for changes in law regulation. Any information is not to be considered tax advice or legal advice and does not form an attorney/client relationship. Further, this podcast may be construed as attorney advertising. You should see professional consultation for your individual tax and legal situation. ------------------------- Episode Content --------------------------- Chip Franklin: Welcome to another edition of Practical Tax with tax attorney Steve Moskowitz. Steve, there's been a lot in the news recently about interest rates and refis and how that's affecting the country, the industry, and everything that goes along that. I remember in the past, people say, well, interest rates are high people tend to, instead of sell, they do repairs and additions and upkeep and stuff. But I don't know where we are right now with that number. If it's a number that we're going to see smooth out soon, will Powell do that? Or will we continue down this road? Joining us right now is Kevin Lyons. Kevin is the CEO of Anchor Funding and old friend of mine. I've known Kevin for a long time, and he's nice enough to join us here with Steve Moskowitz on Practical Tax. Kevin, hello. Steve Moskowitz: He doesn't look very old, Chip. Chip Franklin: Your right. Kevin Lyons: Thanks Steve. Chip Franklin: Hi you Kevin. How are you? Kevin Lyons: Good guys. How are you? Steve Moskowitz: Great. Chip Franklin: Good. Let's just jump right into this. We've known each other a long time and we've spoken over the last 15 years and we've seen interest rates go up and down. Let's talk about where we are right now. And how do you feel people responding to the higher interest rates? Again, those of us who live in the '70s like Steve and I, they don't seem that high. But how are people responding to you right now when you're talking about everything from new mortgages to refis? Kevin Lyons: Well, we've had a really good run the last few years. So everyone's taken advantage of incredibly low interest rates. But if you look at interest rates over the course of time and you guys obviously remember, and so do I, and any viewers watching. Rates in the '80s and '90s and early 2000s were a lot higher. So when you go from rates in the- Steve Moskowitz: I remember in the 20% bracket. Kevin Lyons: Yeah, exactly. When you got 15% and 10%, that was a good rate. So the sticker shock that's come into play is rates in the twos and threes suddenly becoming fives and almost as high as 6%. So anytime you get that, you're going to get a change of scenery and the scenery's changed. However, it looks pretty good for the long term. Chip Franklin: Yeah. We're both all in California, all three of us. And here's something that always occurred to me. So people might put off buying because the rate went up a little bit, but the housing market doesn't seem to be slowing down at all and it's continuing to move. Does it make sense to still buy at a little bit higher rate to offset the increase in the value in cost of homes as they go forward? Kevin Lyons: That's a very interesting question, and we have that conversation pretty much daily. My personal opinion is yes. And the reason I say that is, and this is obviously my two cents, the Fed has done a really good job of raising rates really quickly, in fact, there's a three quarter point high coming up shortly and another half a percent in November, they've taken such extreme measures in such a short period of time...