Since I live in California and all my real estate rentals are in Texas, I heavily rely on property managers to look after the day-to-day landlord responsibilities. I get asked about this a lot… Who manages the properties? How do you find a good property manager? What stuff do they handle, and is it all worth the cost? This post is a brain dump of everything I know about
Why You Need an Investment Diary (With a Backup!)
Digging through my old emails, I found this one I sent to my brother five years ago... > On May 27, 2015, at 10:03 PM, Joel <@gmail.com> wrote: > Good news: We have signed all closing documents and transferred closing money to the escrow account. Just waiting for confirmation that all was settled correctly. We are officially homeowners as of 5/27/15! >
Coast Financial Independence: Building Wealth, Even If You’re Not Saving Any Money
The concept of “coast financial independence” can be tricky to understand. Here are some fun comments and questions I’ve received recently... “So, let me get this straight… if you are spending the exact same amount that you’re earning each year, it sounds like you’re living paycheck to paycheck! How do you grow wealth when you’re not putting anything into your retirement
Net Worth Report – Numero Uno!
Can you believe it’s October already! As much as I love the holiday season, the tight-ass inside me calls the next 3 months the “expensive season” where our costs get a little crazy on food, travel and gifts! 🎃 🦃 🎄 🎁 🎅. Today I’m sharing my very first ever net worth report. Well, kind of ... this is a partial and simplified version,
The “Great Wealth Transfer” Has Begun …
This article is about The Great Wealth Transfer. But before we get to that, a quick hypothetical question to help me explain why this is so important ... What would happen if you took all the money in the world and split it up evenly across all the people in the world? Let’s say there’s $360 trillion in ‘wealth’ floating around the world right now, and we divided it up
We Ditched Our Big City Life for a Small Town, and Our Finances Thanked Us
Ever think about packing up all your stuff and moving your family to a small, less expensive town? That’s exactly what Joe DiSanto and his wife did. In today’s post Joe shares their transition across the country, cutting their budget by 60% (!!!), and all the good and bad stuff along the way. Quick note: Joe’s budget numbers might be much higher than yours! (They’re
Churning Bank Accounts for Cash Bonus Rewards
One of my 2020 goals was to start taking advantage of cash bonus rewards via new bank account signup promotions. This is similar to “travel hacking” or “credit card churning,” except the bonuses are paid in all cash, and there’s no credit applications involved. I’m by no means an expert in this type of stuff, but I’ve done a pretty decent job so far this year and made $2,200
10 Ways to Stop Impulse Spending
Do you know how easy it is to blow $10,000 in 1 year on useless crap? Easy! Just do $27.40 of mindless impulse spending each day for a year. Everyone falls victim to some type of impulse buying. For me, it’s usually at the brewery right before I pay the bill and leave. I see those fancy branded pint glasses with the brewery logo on it... Suddenly I convince myself that it’s
Kids and Money: “It All Starts With the Allowance”
[Since last month’s post about teaching kids financial independence, I’ve received a TON of awesome comments and stories from parents sharing how they teach their kids about money at home. Today’s post is from a longtime Budgets reader, Shane H, who has implemented a weekly allowance for his kids and is teaching them how to budget, save, and give to charity!] **** Money
You Don’t Have to Be Good at Math to Be Good at Personal Finance
Happy Friday! Who’s looking forward to an awesome weekend!? 🙋♂️🙋♀️ Today I’m gonna share something a little embarrassing… It’s the final report card from my graduating year at high school. Check this out: As you can see, Math was my worst subject. 29 out of 100... I’ve never scored lower than 29% on anything
