![](https://biggerpockets.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/member-blog-image.jpg)
![](https://biggerpockets.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/logo@3x.png)
My take on certain debts
Okay I recently got a message in my inbox asking me about student debt. This individual asked me what I knew about it and what I thought on the matter. We hear that we shouldn't pay our debt down and just keep reinvesting the profits into more real estate. Well my take is this is only true with financing on properties, not credit card, auto, or student loan debt. These items I think should be paid off quickly. reason being is you can save money on the interest paid. But if you really want to invest every dime then I recommend consolidating your debt and refinancing it for lower terms, I also recommend this if you are trying to pay the debt of fast, here is why.
The scenario is $9,000 is student debt with an interest rate of 7% and a realistic goal of paying it off in 3 years ( I am not sure if this is the remaining term or just the goal) and monthly payments of 250. Well first I hate writing 5 checks a month so I want to consolidate this debt. My first avenues is using a HELOC to do this, the other benefit of this is it also refinances the debt for this scenario. With my HELOC I would have to only pay $100 (the min monthly payment from 5k to 20K). However if I take 25K out then I now am $123/month. So I would take that 25K and pay off my student debt and take the remaining $16K and invest it. Now when the monthly payment comes around I would pay $250 since I would pay down the overall debt down faster. Now what would I do with that $16k, well I would see if I could find a partner that would allow me to invest my 16K into their project with agreement I would take the percentage of the profit (say 16% on a 100K project) and help him and learn from him on the project. After the project I would take my profits (say $3,200 on a 20k profit total on the project, 16% of 20K= $3,200) then take that $3,200 and repeat the process compounding my gains and continue to do this until my draw period is over (5-10 years) and then pay off the remaining amount on my HELOC. This is a great way to kill 3 birds with 1 stone. Bird 1 is the debt being cheaper. Bird 2 is learning and jumping into REI, Bird 3 is $$$$$$$$ and the beautiful wonder of compounding.
Now lets say I do not have the benefit of having a HELOC then I would consolidate and refi the debt, in this case with SoFi (no i am not being paid by them nor do i represent them) at 2.750% over 5 years for a monthly payment of $160. Then I would take that remaining amount and do one of three things. #1 would be to bank the $90 saving and attempt what I did earlier, someone is more likely to let you tag onto their projects if you're willing to put money and time into the project. #2 is use that $90 for marketing and build a website then go to direct mail to get a deal and split it with a partner for say 60/40 or 75/25 going to them if I was brand new and have no flips on my belt. I would then use the profits to completely pay off the debt so I can save overall on interest payments. #3 use the $90 for marketing and try whole selling.
What would you do if you had $9,000 in debt and a high interest rate? let me know!
Comments (2)
thank you @Richard Bastar !
Sean Carroll, almost 7 years ago
Love this article Sean!
This is some good stuff and a good starting point for some new people - with the different options I think it makes things easier for people as well as giving them some thinking power about the different possibilities.
Cheers,
Richard Bastar, about 7 years ago