Afford Anything

Tag: real estate investing

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#392: Ask Paula: Did the Great Recession Lead to the FIRE Movement?

Colleen and her husband own SEVEN paid off rental homes. Now they’re heading into retirement and disagree on what to do with some of that equity.

Kevin wants to hit FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) and believes his motivation comes from witnessing the financial trauma of the Great Recession. He’s wondering if others are motivated to reach FIRE for similar reasons.

Anonymous wants to learn more about utilizing HSA accounts and Susan wants to learn more about investing in tax liens.

My friend and former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy joins me to answer these questions on today’s episode. Enjoy!

Do you have a question on business, money, trade-offs, financial independence strategies, travel, or investing? Leave it here and we’ll answer them in a future episode.

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#390: Ask Paula: Help! My Bills Are Too High

We start this episode with two anonymous callers who have opposite problems: one says her bills are too high, while the other is worried that she’s saving too much.

Anonymous (“Izzy”) saves A LOT. She wants to relax about her spending more, and start including more joy into her life. How should she approach the next 10 or 20 years, so that she can enjoy her financial security?

A different anonymous caller (“Starlight”) has the opposite problem: her expenses are mounting. Her bills make her uncomfortable. She wants to shake up her investments so that she can tap her assets in order to make her payments. Ideally, she’d also like to buy a house in Europe within the next 10 years. How should she do this?

John liked the episode with Bill Bengen, where we discussed the 4% rule.  However, he questions whether that rule should really be applied to the FIRE community.

Steve is a landlord who needs his property to cash flow, but doesn’t like to raise rents. What should he do?

Do you have a question on business, money, trade-offs, financial independence strategies, travel, or investing? Leave it here and we’ll answer them in a future episode.

Enjoy!

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#389: Invest Anywhere: Should I Bother Investing in Long-Distance Real Estate?

Welcome to Invest Anywhere, our monthly series on long-distance real estate investing. 

Invest Anywhere airs on the First Friday of each month and is co-hosted by Paula Pant and Suni Rao.

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Today we tackle one of the most common questions we hear:

“Should I bother investing in real estate?”
“Is the hassle worth it?”
“What’s the upside? Is this worth my time and effort?”
“Do I really want to do this?”
“Maybe I should just stick to index funds …”

How can you methodically, systematically dig into answering this question?

In this episode, we’ll help you take a personal inventory of four factors: your time, capital, relationships, and mindset.

Time, capital and relationships are the resources at your disposal, and your mindset governs how well you’ll use those resources.

These four factors will have a major influence on your experience as a long-distance investor.

And there’s good news:

Plenty of successful investors start out with empty coffers in one or more of these arenas.

They’re strapped for cash. They’re pressed for time. They lack connections.

In this episode, we discuss how to inventory your time, cash and connections (you might have more than you think!), as well as what to do if you’re lagging in one or more of these arenas.

Enjoy!

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#384: Invest Anywhere: Six Strategies to Make Money in Real Estate

Welcome back to the third episode in our special series, Afford Anything Presents: Invest Anywhere.

Invest Anywhere is a new monthly series that runs on the First Friday of each month. It lays out the information you need to invest in real estate at a distance.

Many of you want to invest in real estate, but you live in a high-cost-of-living area. (Ahem, California and New York). The homes in your city are prohibitively expensive, and they offer lackluster returns.

You could invest in a lower-cost area like Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Omaha or Wichita … but HOW? That sounds terrifying.

We’re here to dismantle that fear, piece by piece, by sharing our knowledge and experience.

The Invest Anywhere series is dedicated to giving you the guidance you need to make smart, confident choices about investing out-of-state.

It’s co-hosted between myself (Paula) and esteemed real estate investor Suni Rao, who’s experienced everything ranging from buy-and-hold rental investing to (accidentally) wholesaling. She’s managed short-term and long-term rentals. She’s owned houses, multi-units, and even a mobile home park.

She joins me in this episode to talk about a variety of strategies that will help you make money in real estate.

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#379: Invest Anywhere: 4 Benefits and 5 Challenges of Long-Distance Real Estate Investing

Welcome to our First Friday bonus episode.

Once a month, Afford Anything presents a special feature called Invest Anywhere, in which we teach our audience how to invest in real estate from thousands of miles away.

We kickoff today’s episode by discussing current market conditions. Yesterday the Fed raised interest rates by another 50 basis points, which means mortgages are more expensive than they’ve been in years. Additionally, jittery investors worried about an impending recession led the stock market to its worst day of the calendar year so far.

How should we interpret the current market conditions? Is this a good time to buy an investment property? We cover this in the first 20 minutes of today’s episode.

Next, we discuss 5 challenges associated with investing in long-distance real estate investing: (1) fear, (2) accountability, (3) traction, (4) stress, and (5) relationships.

We elaborate on each challenge and offer solutions.

Finally, we discuss 4 benefits to investing out-of-state: (1) competitive ability, (2) diversification, (3) returns, and (4) repeatability. We elaborate on four types of diversification: economic, strategy, business cycle, and asset based.

Enjoy!

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#373: Invest Anywhere: The 5 Ways Real Estate Makes Money

On the First Friday of each month, we air a special bonus episode.

Historically, these episodes have been the same as our normal weekly shows. They alternate between interviews and community Q&A episodes.

But for more than a year, I’ve wanted to create something special, something that makes these monthly bonus episodes stand out […]

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#372: Ask Paula: I’m 33 and Want to Retire at 45 – What Should I Do?

Eve has been investing in her brokerage account and the tax liabilities are starting to add up.  She wants to retire in 12 years and is wondering if she should invest in after-tax contributions and plan on a Roth conversion.

Anonymous has rental properties and wants to start building his kids credit histories.  Is it a good idea to add them as co-borrowers on the mortgage?

Lily is really excited about investing in real estate, but househacking wasn’t the right fit.  She’s looking for advice on investing in opportunity zones through crowdfunding platforms.

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#368: Ask Paula: Talk Crypto To Me

Alex is curious about cryptocurrency. How should she analyze the returns promised by different platforms and where can she go to  learn more about crypto in general?

Grace wants to buy a manufactured home for rental income. Should she calculate her returns differently for a manufactured home?

Thomas and his wife have parallel goals of saving for a down payment and contributing to retirement accounts.  How should they balance both of these goals?

In today’s episode, former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy and I tackle these tough questions.

Do you have a question on business, money, trade-offs, financial independence strategies, travel, or investing? Leave it here and we’ll answer them in a future episode.

Enjoy!

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#358: Ask Paula: Should I Invest in Index Funds More Actively?

Where is the balance between the risks and potential returns of actively and passively investing in index funds?

Where do you place your savings after you max out your retirement and HSA accounts?

How do you finance building a rental unit when there’s already a home on the lot?

Is it more beneficial to buy back pension time with post tax deductions or a 457b plan? Or should I not buy back pension time at all?

In today’s episode, former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy and I discuss the purpose and practice of mindful money.

Do you have a question on business, money, trade-offs, financial independence strategies, travel, or investing? Leave it here and we’ll answer them in a future episode.

Enjoy!

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#352: Ask Paula: Should I Pull Money from My Emergency Fund to Invest or Pay Off Debt?

Anna and her husband have volatile income, but Anna thinks that having 18 months of living expenses is unnecessary. She’s torn between paying off her student loans ($30,000) or investing the money. Mentally, she always figured she would pay off her debt first, but wouldn’t investing pay off in the long run?

Charlotte and her husband are taking a phased approach to financial independence, where they need to bridge two gaps before they each turn 59 ½. How can they calculate how much they need at each phase?

Elle has a retirement plan in place, but her company is adding a Roth 403(b) option soon. Should she stay the course or adjust her strategy in these last five years before retiring?

Sara wants to purchase land and build her dream house by refinancing her rental property and turning her current home into a second rental. How can she improve this plan?

Joe Saul-Sehy, my friend and former financial planner, joins me to tackle these questions on today’s episode. Enjoy!

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