Real Estate

There's No Easy Money

There’s No Easy Money

We’ve all seen ’em… the infomercials telling you that YOU can be rich by just following a few simple steps to buying real estate with no money down.  Think of it – none of your money is involved and soon enough you’ll be retired, sitting on the beach with an endless supply of piña coladas being served to you day and night.  Easy money… it’s that simple!! Wait – what?!  Who buys this crap anyway?? I do. Well ok, I […]

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Protecting Yourself When Buying Rental Property

Protecting Yourself When Buying Rental Property

When I bought my first house back in 2003, I had plans to live there for a couple of years, fix it up, and then turn it into a rental property.  The idea sounded simple enough, but I ran into a lot of headaches along the way. I knew location was important, but I didn’t know where I should be looking.  I also didn’t know how to properly determine cash flow and ROI (return on investment).  And I didn’t take into consideration

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Do I Cut Back on my Roth to Reach FI Sooner?

Do I Cut Back on My Roth to Reach FI Sooner?

As some of you know, I’ve been a little bummed lately with my countdown to financial independence (FI) and early retirement being a ways out.  Although I have a plan to retire before my 50th birthday, I just feel like this is too far out. Every day that I spend at work is one less day that I get to spend with my daughter.  Granted, this is the summer when she’s not in school, but it’s tough regardless (which I’m sure it

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If You Need Money, You'll Always Work for Less...

If You Need Money, You’ll Always Work for Less…

I’m a big fan of satellite radio.  I’m also a big Howard Stern fan.  Years ago, when Howard went to satellite radio, I bought the lifetime package for Sirius satellite radio for about $400. I definitely got a number of good years out that deal.  Eventually though, Sirius made my life difficult. Back in 2009, I bought a new Chevy Malibu which had XM radio.  As some of you may know, there was a Sirius XM merger years ago so that should be all good, right?

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Using a HELOC for Smart Reasons

Using a HELOC for Smart Reasons

A home equity line of credit (HELOC) is an interesting entity.  In essence, it’s a line of credit that a lender gives you using the equity in your home as collateral.  A HELOC is similar to a home equity loan and this sometimes causes confusion with borrowers.  There are a few differences between the two though… Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) Does not necessarily advance you all the money at once – you are given a line of credit you can draw from as needed

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The Steps to Wealth

The Steps to Wealth

I just finished reading The Richest Man in Babylon.  I had a lot of recommendations to read this and I’ll tell you that, for as old as this book is (originally published in 1926!!), the content still holds strong.  Great book if you’re trying to find your way to wealth.  There is some very sound advice that stands the test of time, such as saving at least 10% of what you make and that you can live off your income, but you

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It's All About the Geese, Not the Eggs

It’s All About the Geese, Not the Eggs

I was listening to another podcast from the BiggerPockets guys and their guest this time around was Natali Morris.  The podcast was called Limiting Beliefs That Hold You Back From Incredible Wealth.  Although the podcast was interesting, that’s not really the point of this post. It was something that she mentioned in the middle of it that for some reason really jumped out at me and that’s what I wanted to share.  Natali said that when her father was in the midst of his divorce, he was referring

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Just One Thing...

Just One Thing…

If you’re reading this article, you’re probably someone interested in or already on the way to the world of financial independence.  Regardless of why you’re here, I think we all know some of the basics of reaching that goal: Get out of debt ASAP – This is the #1 step that needs to be done… and this refers to bad debt like credit cards, car payments, etc.  This does not necessarily mean good debt like mortgages on rental property that serve as assets helping to provide you with cash

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Why a $5,000 Tax Return Refund is Actually Good News

Should I Use a HELOC to Pay off My Rental House?

Last week I was listening to a BiggerPockets podcast and their guest was Clayton Morris from Fox & Friends Weekend.  I’ve never seen the show and didn’t know who Clayton Morris was, but it was actually a very good podcast.  Clayton’s one of those guys you can tell just by listening to that he’s extremely intelligent and the show was very entertaining as well.  After I was done listening, I found his blog online and that led me to an interesting article he

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Tying Up Loose Ends...

Tying Up Loose Ends…

I recently realized that I have a number of loose ends out there from previous posts that my regular readers might be wondering about.  So I thought I would take an opportunity to put out a post following up to hopefully tie up those loose ends a bit… Switching to an Accountant This was the first year I decided not to use TurboTax and go to an accountant.  If you remember, I had three goals with this: Check over my work Get

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