REI Lifestyle Blog | A Real Estate Investors Finances

I recently had to inquire about replacing my roof with my insurance company. I had a roof guy out to my house to tell me about the damage, gave me the date of different issues I could claim. I had bent back shingles and asphalt had flaked off of a lot of major parts. I also had dents in the shingles indicating hail damage.  After everything was done, he left and wrote up an entire report and gave me a speech for when I call the insurance company. I thought, "this is crazy, right?". We're gearing up for war trying to gather information on getting my roof replaced. It was like a crime scene. He had chalk lines around all the hail damage and smudged the wind damage so it wouldn't look as exciting. On my personal home insurance hail is a 1% deductible and wind damage is a 2% deductible.  Not so obvious to me at the time the insurance company will push to do the wind damage replacement. Same replacement, but as a homeowner, I would be on the hook for more money out of pock...

Today is the day that you've decided you want a change! You're tired of working every month just to be in the same situation next month no matter how hard you try by yourself. Living paycheck to paycheck is the normal life for most Americans these days no matter their financial status or ranking.  You get that glorious bi-weekly deposit and it's off to the races! You've got bills to pay, food to buy, mouths to feed, cars to gas, and many other items on your to-do list that leaves the bank account a little on edge after a few days.   Now everything is taken care of, for the moment, but now we just wait another 2 weeks to repeat the cycle all over again. Is that how it's meant to be? Does it feel right barely having enough to get through to the next big payday and then it just drains out as fast as it came? You're not alone, but that certainly doesn't mean you have to put up with it anymore! What does it mean to Live Paycheck to Paycheck? As I kind of got into...

This has been a year full of ups and downs across many different aspects of life. Since COVID-19 has started people have lost jobs, started jobs, changed career paths, and gone on unemployment. This has been some of the worst months for certain people and some of the best for others. Due to all of the changes going on right now and that continue to happen one of the biggest questions on everybody's mind is, "Should I refinance my home?", "Will a lower monthly payment help us get through these harder times?", "Will a shorter loan term give me more money for the future?", "Does paying less interest matter to me?". Everybody has questions about this new uncertain future and hopefully some of the information belong will hope answer that for you, and if not feel free to reach out  and we can discuss your specific situation.  How much does a refinance cost? This can be the biggest hurdle for many people when it comes to changing up their mortgage. ...

It's finally time to get this on paper for the first time ever! Of course I have various spreadsheets and apps talking about my expenses, assets, and my goals for increasing one while minimizing the other(honestly could go either way), but putting out a list to the universe of what needs done to break the ceiling on a 7 figure net worth is totally different.  Obviously this awesome idea comes from  J. Money over at Budgets are $exy and his Millionaire Club . We're all wannabes just out here getting it done. From the looks of it though, several have crossed that threshold and I'm looking to follow closely behind! In order for me, Ryan, to become a Millionaire, I pledge to do the following (each year): Start contributing to my 401k - My company currently does an automatic match of 3% so I don't have to contribute any minimums. I'm not currently contributing due to limited funds and my drive to purchase real estate at a young age. I'm slowly realizing putting all o...

So you want to get into Real Estate Investing, but don't know where to begin? You see everybody talking about the bigger margins online and you really want to get in on that, like really. You start researching around about the different expenses you have to deal with, how to do a market analysis to figure out where and how to buy. Things get overwhelming pretty quick, believe me I know!  Enter the Property Management company (PM). You find out they pretty much take care of everything! No more worrying about tenants, or getting up in the middle of the night to fix pipes! It all sounds good and dandy at first, but wait....how much does a service like this cost. You scour the web looking at different sources, start calling around and finally get someone on the phone who knows what they're talking about. You hear the dreaded numbers..10% of gross rent, or in some cases $100 minimum.  Btw if anybody tried to charge you a "minimum" maintenance fee, then walk away while you...

I was different during my time in service. At 19 years old my peers were barely starting college, lived with their parents and joined to pay for college. Not sure exactly why, but I wanted a Career. Classic case of the board game Life if you ask me.  Early on it was pretty easy to tell that college wasn't going to be the best choice for me. I just felt uneasy about sitting down the school counselors to sign my life away on a bunch of loan papers and government assistance. I didn't want the pressure of those loans hanging over my head for the next 10 years not knowing how I was going to get them paid off. I knew I was a hard worker and could go far in Tech if I was given the opportunity.  This put me in a very different boat than my peers. Again, I wanted a career that I knew I would be good in and take me very far in life. I was not confused about my life, nor did I want to spend 4-8 years in college "figuring it out" while I racked up debt every year. I got myself my...

    How does a bank think I'm going to come up with money for a down payment if I'm there asking for a loan??  This idea always confused me when I was buying my first home, simply because I didn't know how money worked. I didn't realize how appraisals happened, asset valuations, and market fluctuations affected a banks decision to lend to you.  Now we'll get into the weeds of why big Banks act this way to help us understand how it can be beneficial to both sides.  What is LTV? Banks like to make sure their money is secure when they lend it out. They go through extensive long term processes to make sure the person receiving the loan is serious about the situation and won't try to make off with their money.  A major thing banks do to ensure this, for homes specifically, and various business ventures is only loan a certain amount of the Assets value, or Loan To Value(LTV) . That way if you ever end up upside down on your house or business the bank can take tha...

Today is going to be a great day, because any day is a great day when you're taking steps to eliminate debt. Whatever those steps may be and mean to you. We're diving into my personal take on Dave Ramsey's methods and the debt snowball .  I've heard about these methods for as long as I can remember since I've started talking to a wide variety of people about money everybody recommends taking a look at Dave Ramsey. I always recall saying "who's Dave Ramsey?", "Why is everybody SO obsessed with Dave Ramsey?". His name kept coming up over and over again, basically a household icon at this point. I had to get to the bottom of this. Who is Dave Ramsey? This man is a very dynamic individual. He started in real estate investing and lost it all . During the 80's a popular method for building wealth was selling ownership in overleveraged properties to people looking for a tax haven. Eventually the government caught up and adjusted the tax code . T...

The other day Home Warranty plans jumped back on my radar. I was going over my savings plan for some of the major repairs around my house and my 10 year timeline with a friend. "You should just get a Home Warranty and save the headache". I'm a reasonable guy so combined with my previous knowledge and studies I took a deep dive into Home Warranties to find out if they're really worth it. The Savings The idea behind a home warranty is that you pay money in over time and whenever issues come up with your appliances or home the warranty should just cover it and everybody is happy. On top of paying $50 per month on average for a plan you're also expected to cover the first $75-$100 of each repair that's made depending on the service you use.  Home warranty companies will always force you to try to repair something multiple times before they'll let you file a claim for a replacement. My HVAC guy charges $89 to visit my property. You pay the first $75 and the hom...