All Forum Posts by: Brian Cook

@Dan Gilfrich

Thanks for the reply Dan! I agree with you that the key to financial independence is saving more as a % of your take home income. I've had Mint for a couple of years (started in college) and sometimes dread checking that site since I spend money on unnecessary purchases... 

As for the SOFI suggestion, I'm not sure if that applies to me since I am technically paying down the student loans that were taken out for me in my parent's name. Also, I am trying to aggressively pay this down and since I'm living at home still...I think I can pay them off by the end of 2016 (if all goes to plan). The refinancing of loans would help but with a 1.5 yr timeline to pay the loans off the effect wouldn't be too material correct?

@Jerry Padilla

Thanks for the response Jerry! Unfortunately, I don't have much in savings for a down payment. However, I am currently living with my parents so there is no monthly housing payment at the time.

I am interested in house hacking a multi family but am not sure where to find these properties. Could you recommend the best way to find these? I think it'd be awesome to move out and not add a huge monthly rental or mortgage expense and it would be a good way to get my feet wet in the rental side of RE investing!

@Ramon Jenkins

Thanks for the solid advice! I guess I was a little hesitant to talk about my RE aspirations especially with my coworkers but in terms of shared capital that might be a really good idea in the future!

I've looked into SOFI and refinancing but I'm not sure if that's possible since I'm actually paying down the 75k in student loans that are under my parent's name (they took out the loans during undergrad and I'm paying the loans down after I became employed).

If you don't mind, could you recommend the best way to find a multi-family/duplex to "hack"? My understanding is that you buy a property and then rent it out so that the other family is essentially paying for the mortgage. My question is how do people find these properties? I've looked on Zillow/Trulia but haven't seen any in my area.

@Mike 

@Mike D'Arrigoundefined

Thanks for the advice! Yes I agree with you that I'm fortunate to have a high paying income at this age. What would your recommendation be in regards to investing in rental properties vs flipping properties while working my current day job? 

I also recognize that a 5-year timeline is arbitrary/improbable but I guess my goal is to be at a point where I can walk away from the job and still have a source of income and an outlet for work as soon as possible!

@Jean Bolger

Thanks for the tip! I've done some reading on MMM which got me excited about the concept of Financial Independence/Early Retirement. I know one of the fundamentals in MMM is to pay off all debt as quickly as possible. Would you recommend paying down the entirety of my student loans before investing in real estate (rentals, flipping)? It would take me through the end of next year if I can limit lifestyle purchases like you said.

@Jeff Rabinowitz Thanks for your reply!

Yeah I guess a 5-year timeline is partly b/c I'm not happy with my job and would want the freedom to walk away if and when I start a family. I should have been more specific in my question but I guess my main concern is if achieving that financially independent point is possible while still working at a 9-5 career? To me, it seems that the BRRRR strategy may be possible given the constraints of a day job but I'm not sure whether that would be wise when compared to dumping any savings into an index fund and letting compounding work over time.

I think this site is awesome with regards to everyone's willingness to give advice and guidance and I know I'm just getting started when it comes to diving into the realm of RE investing. Thanks for the encouraging words!!

Hi all,

My name is Brian and I've been lurking around on these forums for about a week. I'm currently 25 years old and am making about ~130k in my day job. I'm located in New England. I guess my question to you all that have experience with real estate is whether real estate is a good option to achieve financial independence fairly quickly (by age 30, is that too ambitious)?

Some relevant info:

~75k in remaining student loans (at a high interest rate of 8%)

~12k in remaining car loan

~Expect to make 130k-140k gross income

My goal is to achieve financial independence as quickly as possible. My job is not horrible but I'm not thrilled about the typical track of working until age 55+. I was wondering if anyone could offer advice about investing in real estate and more specifically:

- What would you do to balance investing in real estate (flips, rentals) vs. paying down my existing debt?

- What would be the quickest way (without a HUGE amount of risk...clearly there's risk in any investment) to achieve FI? I'm not opposed to keeping the day job to fund the real estate investments.

- I live in a high COL area (New England) so how does that affect investing strategy...Are out of state investments (either flips or rentals) out of the question?

- How much seed capital (cash) would you recommend for someone in my situation?

I would love to provide more specific information about myself if that will help. Thanks for any and all advice/encouragement you can offer!

Cheers,

Brian