All Forum Posts by: John Shipley

Thank you for reminding me why I retired from my CPA business - Ugh.  Kudos to those CPAs above who the time to respond in the middle of tax season.  As a suggestion to everyone, the best time to bring up questions like this with your tax preparer is during the summer or fall, not in the middle of tax season.

 Well, I think @Christina Carey beat me to the $25,000 check but I'll confirm that Vena Jones-Cox offers a course titled "The Very Unsexy but Oh-so-Critical Fundamentals of Making money in Real Estate".  It covers the basic skills that an investor needs to know no matter what investing strategy they use.  Not making a sales pitch for Vena or the course, though all of her educational courses are top notch.  If @Christina Carey doesn't collect on her $25,000 PM me for my address to send me the check :-). 

Definitely agree. Leadership and that the REIA is a not-for-profit organization are important.

My experience with the Cincinnati REIA has been just the opposite of Stone's. I've been attending the meetings fairly regularly for the past two years and have found them to be very content rich. If you attend one of the main semi-monthly meetings when one of the national speakers comes through that portion of the meeting does have some sales with it. So what? Learn what you can for free and ignore the rest. But for the most part the meetings are lead by local investors with nothing to sell. Annual dues are less than $200. Between the main semi-monthly meetings and the various sub-groups there are probably 5-10 or so potential meetings each month that are strictly content and networking with local investors. BTW, I am not involved in the leadership of the group. Just a member who has found a lot of value in the group.

Well, you've gotten a lot of good advice here.  Everyone says do not file, but it sounds like you've already made up your mind to file.  I'll add my voice to everyone else.  

Please do not just focus on your short term math calculations.  Filing will affect other areas people have already mentioned - job applications (really important), insurance rates, contractor licensing, etc.  These items don't fit into your calcs but they are very important and will follow you for a long, long time.  

Please consider other options.  You say you have to start school in 7 months.  Why?  Can't you put that off for a year, even two, if necessary?  You'll be surprised how much you can pay off in a year if you work at it.  $26,000 may feel like to big of an amount to handle, but believe me you can do it if you want to.   

Read the posts again from @Jim Shepard and @Account Closed.  There's great advice in those posts.   Also, ask yourself how you will feel about yourself under both options.  I can guarantee you working through this debt and paying it off will provide you with an great deal of confidence and self-worth that will be invaluable to you for the rest of your life.  

Whatever you decide good luck to you.

Sure hope you didn't change that blue and white (and purple) kitchen Jameson.  That's awesome ;-)