Real Estate

The 4 Ways to Make Money with Rental Properties

The 4 Ways to Make Money with Rental Properties

10 Comments / Real Estate, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

For those of you who have been regular readers, you know that I’m starting to get a little more involved in the real estate world with rental properties.  As of this posting, I have a single-family home that I’ve been renting out for several years now and I recently purchased a duplex.  I think that owning rental properties is not only a great way to start an income stream, but it’s also a hedge against having almost all our eggs in […]

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The Rental Property Investment Chase [Part 3]

The Rental Property Investment Chase [Part 3]

8 Comments / Real Estate, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

It’s time for the final segment of this series.  In Part 1, I talked about how I decided that it was time to stop letting life pass me by and get back on track with finding another rental property.  In Part 2, we went over the deal that we had found on a good duplex.  Now, I want to give you an update on where things stand with the duplex. We closed on the property in mid-December (2015) and everything was

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Mistakes and Lessons of a Real Estate Investing Newbie

3 Mistakes I’ve Made as a Real Estate Investing Newbie

10 Comments / Real Estate, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

I’ve learned that real estate rental property can be one of the best methods of passive income.  Instead of putting all your eggs in one basket with the stock market, you can set yourself up with steady rental income that can last a lifetime.  Additionally, you pick up some tax benefits and might even get some appreciation off the properties as some icing on the cake. Because of that, I’m starting to chase this a little more.  However, I’ve also made some mistakes

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Another A-Ha Moment

Another Aha Moment for Financial Freedom!!

10 Comments / Real Estate, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts / /

I had my first aha moment when I figured out that there was a way out of the rat race.  I realized that reaching financial freedom and retiring early is not just a long-shot dream – anyone can do it!  That was a real eye opener for me, so I’ve been putting my nose to the grind and working on making this happen.  I’ve been building up my 401(k) plan, Roth IRA, and savings accounts.  I also bought my first rental property a number

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Do You Own Cash-Flowing Assets?

3 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Real Estate / /

Since I was a kid, I had it set in my mind that I was going to be rich.  And for years, I thought that the only way to become rich was to accumulate as much money as possible.  And while that is one way to get rich, it’s probably not the most efficient – especially because inflation loves to work against the money that you’ve saved.  It took me a long time, but I’ve learned that the accumulation of

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73 Questions to Use When Interviewing Property Managers

2 Comments / Guest Posts, Real Estate / /

Hey everyone – I’ve been wanting to find someone to do a guest post for a while now and recently I’ve been talking with Caleb Malik from Active Renter.  He’s put together an article that’s an excellent complement to my post Is a Property Manager Worth the Money? so I thought it would be a great opportunity to bring him in to share with you. So please enjoy!! — Jim   About the Author: Caleb Malik is a digital marketing coordinator for a property

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Top 10 Financial Goals for 2016

Our 8 Financial Goals for 2016

8 Comments / Debt, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Real Estate, Saving / /

This past year was an exciting one for us, albeit a little bit of a roller coaster ride.  However, we were able to pick up a new rental property, max out my 401(k) and contribute up to the match in my wife’s account.  We also added to our Roth IRAs and a little bit in my HSA, and continued to save a good deal in our online savings account. No time to rest on our laurels though – last year’s financial goals are in the

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Rental Property Chase

The Rental Property Investment Chase [Part 2]

4 Comments / Real Estate, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Saving / /

Well that was fast.  Really fast.  One of the things that Robert Kiyosaki talks a lot about in his books is that you should look at 100 properties, make offers on 10, and buy 1.  Well, I was intent on looking at a number of them (maybe not 100) until a great deal pretty much unfolded right in front of me. If you remember where we left off at in Part 1, I had a potential rental property that my financial

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Rental Property Chase

The Rental Property Investment Chase [Part 1]

9 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Real Estate / /

An enormous help to financial freedom is owning assets.  The key to assets is that they pay you even when you’re not working.  I’ve talked previously about my rental house and how it’s currently paying for the mortgage and a little extra.  The big payoff though will be once the mortgage is paid off and I’m done with my full-time job.  That will be a nice stream of income coming in every month. You can save a ton of money in

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Should I Pay Off My House Early?

8 Comments / Real Estate, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

You’ve been doing well with your finances.  You don’t have any car loans or credit card debt.  You’ve been socking away money in your 401(k), Roth IRA, and other investments.  Now you’re looking for more avenues to help put yourself in a better position with your money. Eventually, you start asking yourself that one question… the one that can really stir up some good debate… Should I pay off my house early if I can? On one hand, you have that huge feel-good aspect

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