The past year has wreaked havoc on the United States, particularly in the real estate industry. Many people have purchased homes that they can't afford, banks are foreclosing like crazy, and many people are in a state of financial crisis. But, there is a silver lining, particularly if you are one of the people that didn't buy your home at the height of the bubble (and are therefore still right side up on your house - meaning it is worth more than you owe on it) or enter one of those pesky sub-prime mortgages or adjustable rate mortgages that reset last year.
As I've mentioned before, one way to build wealth is to create more money for yourself. Another way to build wealth is to save money doing what you are already doing. The post today is about saving money doing what you are already doing, namely paying for your house.
If you weren't aware, mortgage rates, because of the housing crisis, are at the lowest rates they have been at in some 20 or thirty years. This means that instead of paying 6-7% interest on your mortgage, you can now pay around 4% (if you qualify, which is easier said than done these days). This can lower your monthly payment by hundreds, even thousands of dollars (and you could continue to pay what you pay now into the principal in your house and pay off your house super fast while saving a bunch of money!).
For example, let's say you own a house in Austin, Texas, and you want to refinance your mortgage to save some cash. If you go in, qualify, and get your interest rate lowered 1-2 percentage points, your Austin mortgage refinance will save you great amounts of money.
But why do it now? Interest rates aren't going to get much lower, and if you have the time you should get it done. Why waste money paying interest that will never help you pay off your house or save for retirement? Get your home mortgage refinanced today and save big time dollars!
Showing posts with label Building Wealth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Building Wealth. Show all posts
April 22, 2009
March 23, 2009
Our First House Sold! And We Only Lost a Little Money!
In the never ending saga that is building wealth, trying to get rich, and now a day just trying to survive, our first house flipping adventure is over with the sale of house number one. It closes on Friday, and everything appears to be a go. Although we did end up losing a little money ($6,000 or so), it could have been so much worse, and is worse for so many others out there. I think the difference was, we weren't necessarily trying to get in and out to make money on the bubble. We created value and just happened to get a time in the housing market when everything went down. Oh well.
Now that we have sold the house, we are looking for a different place, much smaller, in a different city (Seattle - new job). Before we get a new house, however, I think we are going to rent for a bit. One of the major downfalls of our new living spaces will be a new lack of closet space. Before we had a huge walk in closet with a large amount of space. Now we have nothing but a little dinky 8 by 3 foot closet. So organizing the closet is going to take a little work. I think instead of looking all over the place for a book on space I'm just going to buy some closet organizers and use them to do all of the work for me.
I guess though, if the closet space is my biggest worry, then that isn't too bad. And as far as our next house, I think we are going to continue to look for value that we can add and then sell, but maybe not quite the undertaking we did the last time. I'm thinking appliances, some paint, but not the entire house. Nothing that costs over $5,000. And it will have a ton of closet space, which will be nice.
I'll continue to keep you up to date on all of my financial workings, hopefully in a little more detail than I have been. But in the meantime, remember that the key to financial success, to working toward the "big closet" if you will, is to keep costs low, keep returns high, and keep your nose to the grindstone.
Now that we have sold the house, we are looking for a different place, much smaller, in a different city (Seattle - new job). Before we get a new house, however, I think we are going to rent for a bit. One of the major downfalls of our new living spaces will be a new lack of closet space. Before we had a huge walk in closet with a large amount of space. Now we have nothing but a little dinky 8 by 3 foot closet. So organizing the closet is going to take a little work. I think instead of looking all over the place for a book on space I'm just going to buy some closet organizers and use them to do all of the work for me.
I guess though, if the closet space is my biggest worry, then that isn't too bad. And as far as our next house, I think we are going to continue to look for value that we can add and then sell, but maybe not quite the undertaking we did the last time. I'm thinking appliances, some paint, but not the entire house. Nothing that costs over $5,000. And it will have a ton of closet space, which will be nice.
I'll continue to keep you up to date on all of my financial workings, hopefully in a little more detail than I have been. But in the meantime, remember that the key to financial success, to working toward the "big closet" if you will, is to keep costs low, keep returns high, and keep your nose to the grindstone.
March 26, 2008
Building Wealth | Passive Income
Building Wealth - Passive Income - Personal Finance
Building Wealth includes many things: reducing debt; planning for retirement; taking advantage of tax rules; passive income; and expanding your income base. This post is about expanding your income base, and the things I have planned to expand my income base.
Blogging for Money Making Money Online
There are a ton of ways to make money online, some of them good, some of them bad. I am following a method I picked up online (for free - if you have to pay for it, it sadly, is probably a scam) from another blogger. From what I've learned so far, it is not complicated, although it does take some work at the beginning. It involves setting up blogs, getting a good page rank, getting visitors, and selling them stuff when the content isn't exactly what they are looking for. If he were reading this site he'd tell you this isn't the right thing to do, but you can learn about the finer points of making money online by visiting his site (he will note that I made his link a quality one, though).
I am still in the initial stage of this, and still getting my mind around what needs to be done to be succesful using this method, so I don't have a lot of success at this point. But I'll keep you posted.
Working a Side Job to make Money.
I am an attorney, and my job allows me the opportunity to utilize my talents outside of my day job for the benefit of myself. This can be an option for many others too. It just takes some thought about the skills that you have and how you can apply them outside of your job to make a little extra cash. Often this means consulting, coaching, or some kind of teaching.
I am a property attorney, with a majority of my work surrounding acquiring properties, drafting purchase contracts, and condemnation and eminent domain. Click on the link to check out that site. This allows me to help others going through the real estate process, whether it be in condemnation, the purchase or sale of a house, or any other property issues that might arise.
This too, is a burgeoning enterprise, just getting started, so I don't have a lot to report. I promise to keep you updated though.
Flipping Houses for extra money.
I have also taken to flipping houses for extra money. You may ask how that is possible with the housing market in the state its in today, but I think this is the perfect time to get into it. The extent of my exposure, despite my great feelings about the market, is small. But I don't want to get in too deep.
Right now I am flipping one house, the one I live in. It is almost finished, and when complete, should make about $20,000 profit. This isn't bad for a first effort, and the goal with this flip is more to learn what I'm doing, become acquainted with contractors and home repair, and have my house fully paid off in a couple of years (I plan to take the profit from this house and move over to a similar house, doing the same thing, until I have no house payment - I think 4 years should be enough time to reach my goal).
Online Poker.
Believe it or not, there are a lot of suckers out there playing online poker, just waiting to give you their money. All it takes is a little practice, some patience, and enough self-discipline not to chase cards, and you can actually make decent money playing poker.
For my exploits, I've started with only $10, and hope to build that up to $1000 by July. To to that I'll start playing with very small stakes, hopefully building my experience as I build my bankroll. I'll keep you posted on this progress as well.
Online Sports Betting.
Some people also believe you can make money betting on sports online, NFL betting. I'm still an amateur, but I know if you do it right you can make decent money betting on sports, particularly if you use NFL betting software. All you have to do lose all your money making stupid bets, like parlays and the like, and concentrating finding good match ups that you can take advantage of.
Making More Money is Easy. It just takes drive.
There are no easy money answers. Everything takes work, discipline, and effort. Even scamming people takes time to learn. If you want to make more money, build your wealth, and stop living paycheck to paycheck, take a step back, evaluate your skills, and put them to good use. Before you know it, you'll be making a ton of money.
Building Wealth includes many things: reducing debt; planning for retirement; taking advantage of tax rules; passive income; and expanding your income base. This post is about expanding your income base, and the things I have planned to expand my income base.
Blogging for Money Making Money Online
There are a ton of ways to make money online, some of them good, some of them bad. I am following a method I picked up online (for free - if you have to pay for it, it sadly, is probably a scam) from another blogger. From what I've learned so far, it is not complicated, although it does take some work at the beginning. It involves setting up blogs, getting a good page rank, getting visitors, and selling them stuff when the content isn't exactly what they are looking for. If he were reading this site he'd tell you this isn't the right thing to do, but you can learn about the finer points of making money online by visiting his site (he will note that I made his link a quality one, though).
I am still in the initial stage of this, and still getting my mind around what needs to be done to be succesful using this method, so I don't have a lot of success at this point. But I'll keep you posted.
Working a Side Job to make Money.
I am an attorney, and my job allows me the opportunity to utilize my talents outside of my day job for the benefit of myself. This can be an option for many others too. It just takes some thought about the skills that you have and how you can apply them outside of your job to make a little extra cash. Often this means consulting, coaching, or some kind of teaching.
I am a property attorney, with a majority of my work surrounding acquiring properties, drafting purchase contracts, and condemnation and eminent domain. Click on the link to check out that site. This allows me to help others going through the real estate process, whether it be in condemnation, the purchase or sale of a house, or any other property issues that might arise.
This too, is a burgeoning enterprise, just getting started, so I don't have a lot to report. I promise to keep you updated though.
Flipping Houses for extra money.
I have also taken to flipping houses for extra money. You may ask how that is possible with the housing market in the state its in today, but I think this is the perfect time to get into it. The extent of my exposure, despite my great feelings about the market, is small. But I don't want to get in too deep.
Right now I am flipping one house, the one I live in. It is almost finished, and when complete, should make about $20,000 profit. This isn't bad for a first effort, and the goal with this flip is more to learn what I'm doing, become acquainted with contractors and home repair, and have my house fully paid off in a couple of years (I plan to take the profit from this house and move over to a similar house, doing the same thing, until I have no house payment - I think 4 years should be enough time to reach my goal).
Online Poker.
Believe it or not, there are a lot of suckers out there playing online poker, just waiting to give you their money. All it takes is a little practice, some patience, and enough self-discipline not to chase cards, and you can actually make decent money playing poker.
For my exploits, I've started with only $10, and hope to build that up to $1000 by July. To to that I'll start playing with very small stakes, hopefully building my experience as I build my bankroll. I'll keep you posted on this progress as well.
Online Sports Betting.
Some people also believe you can make money betting on sports online, NFL betting. I'm still an amateur, but I know if you do it right you can make decent money betting on sports, particularly if you use NFL betting software. All you have to do lose all your money making stupid bets, like parlays and the like, and concentrating finding good match ups that you can take advantage of.
Making More Money is Easy. It just takes drive.
There are no easy money answers. Everything takes work, discipline, and effort. Even scamming people takes time to learn. If you want to make more money, build your wealth, and stop living paycheck to paycheck, take a step back, evaluate your skills, and put them to good use. Before you know it, you'll be making a ton of money.
April 9, 2007
Compound Interest.
Building Wealth - The Magic Math of Compound Interest
Ever wonder why some people are so adamant about saving money (including me)? Ever wonder why some people seem to always have money, particularly those in traditionally wealthy families, but you never do? Although not completely the answer, compound interest has a lot to do with building wealth and retiring early.
Compound interest is the concept of adding accumulated interest back to the principal, so that interest earned on interest from that moment on. Confused yet? Another way of explaining it is with an example. Say you put $1,000 dollars in a high-yield savings account (the only place it should be if it’s in a savings account) at 4% interest. Under traditional interest guidelines, you could expect to earn $40 in one year from the $1000 you invested in the savings account.
Using compound interest principles, however, that $40 becomes $1040.81 (assuming the interest is compounded daily – this number will be different depending on when the interest is added back into the principal). Wow, 81 cents isn’t much, you might be saying, but take that out ten years, and what would be $1400.00 is now $1491.79. You’ve now made $91.79 where you would have had only $400. $91 may still not be a lot to you, but you had to absolutely nothing to earn it. You were paid for your money!
Again, this may not seem like much, but as you add to your principal and it grows, the money can start to add up fast. Imagine the scenario where you have $10,000 or $100,000 in the bank. The interest can be substantial. As this grows, your wealth grows too. At some point, if you become wealthy enough, you can live just on the interest earned by your wealth (Imagine earning 4% interest on a billion dollars – that’s $40,000,000 or forty million dollars!).
So, it is important to, as you accumulate wealth, to get that wealth working for you, even while you are sleeping. Compound interest can do that for you.
Remember to get your money working for you so you don’t have to. Take advantage of the magic of compound interest, and you’ll be wealthy before you know it!
Building Our Empire
Ever wonder why some people are so adamant about saving money (including me)? Ever wonder why some people seem to always have money, particularly those in traditionally wealthy families, but you never do? Although not completely the answer, compound interest has a lot to do with building wealth and retiring early.
Compound interest is the concept of adding accumulated interest back to the principal, so that interest earned on interest from that moment on. Confused yet? Another way of explaining it is with an example. Say you put $1,000 dollars in a high-yield savings account (the only place it should be if it’s in a savings account) at 4% interest. Under traditional interest guidelines, you could expect to earn $40 in one year from the $1000 you invested in the savings account.
Using compound interest principles, however, that $40 becomes $1040.81 (assuming the interest is compounded daily – this number will be different depending on when the interest is added back into the principal). Wow, 81 cents isn’t much, you might be saying, but take that out ten years, and what would be $1400.00 is now $1491.79. You’ve now made $91.79 where you would have had only $400. $91 may still not be a lot to you, but you had to absolutely nothing to earn it. You were paid for your money!
Again, this may not seem like much, but as you add to your principal and it grows, the money can start to add up fast. Imagine the scenario where you have $10,000 or $100,000 in the bank. The interest can be substantial. As this grows, your wealth grows too. At some point, if you become wealthy enough, you can live just on the interest earned by your wealth (Imagine earning 4% interest on a billion dollars – that’s $40,000,000 or forty million dollars!).
So, it is important to, as you accumulate wealth, to get that wealth working for you, even while you are sleeping. Compound interest can do that for you.
Remember to get your money working for you so you don’t have to. Take advantage of the magic of compound interest, and you’ll be wealthy before you know it!
Building Our Empire
January 9, 2007
Building Wealth is More Than Flipping Houses.
Building Wealth - Passive Income - Retiring Early
Although most posts here so far have concentrated on my house flipping venture, I wanted to let you know that this site is about more than that. In addition to making money by flipping or rehabing houses, I want this site to be about building wealth in general - what to do with the money you have now to maximize its returns and what to do with all the money you will make in the future.
This includes the magic of compound interest, taking advantage of tax laws and retirement plans to maximize returns, other money making ventures (from sports gambling to loans to blogging online for money), creating passive income, and little things you can do to make a little bit more here and there.
Although many sites focus on how to make what you have get you more, my philosophy is to always be building your empire. A popular analogy explains it very well. Imagine all the money you have is water in a bathtub. All the expenses you have are holes in the tub letting water (money) out. When ever you want something new you have three basic options: first, don't get it because you don't have enough water in the tub; second, plug up or slow some of the other leaks (reduce some expenses) so you have enough water left over to get what you want; or third, fill the tub with more water. I subscribe to the third philosophy, so I'm always trying to fill my tub with more water (while always monitoring the leaks).
Hopefully this isn't too Steve Pavlina for you. I'm all for personal development, but don't want to come off like a hack while trying to get you on track to building your empire.
So, if you want to make more money, make more money with the money you've made, and keep filling that "tub" with "water," stay tuned!
Building Our Empire
Although most posts here so far have concentrated on my house flipping venture, I wanted to let you know that this site is about more than that. In addition to making money by flipping or rehabing houses, I want this site to be about building wealth in general - what to do with the money you have now to maximize its returns and what to do with all the money you will make in the future.
This includes the magic of compound interest, taking advantage of tax laws and retirement plans to maximize returns, other money making ventures (from sports gambling to loans to blogging online for money), creating passive income, and little things you can do to make a little bit more here and there.
Although many sites focus on how to make what you have get you more, my philosophy is to always be building your empire. A popular analogy explains it very well. Imagine all the money you have is water in a bathtub. All the expenses you have are holes in the tub letting water (money) out. When ever you want something new you have three basic options: first, don't get it because you don't have enough water in the tub; second, plug up or slow some of the other leaks (reduce some expenses) so you have enough water left over to get what you want; or third, fill the tub with more water. I subscribe to the third philosophy, so I'm always trying to fill my tub with more water (while always monitoring the leaks).
Hopefully this isn't too Steve Pavlina for you. I'm all for personal development, but don't want to come off like a hack while trying to get you on track to building your empire.
So, if you want to make more money, make more money with the money you've made, and keep filling that "tub" with "water," stay tuned!
Building Our Empire
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