All Forum Posts by: Dan Goeckel

Quote from @Michael Moreno:

Dear Community,

I hope this message finds you well. I'm currently faced with a financial dilemma and would greatly appreciate your insights and advice.

Background: I am 23 years old and earn a monthly salary of $3992.00. While I am committed to aggressively paying down my debt, particularly my mortgage, to achieve financial freedom in 12 years, I find myself losing money every month due to my repayment strategy.

Financial Breakdown:

• Monthly Income: $3992.00
• Mortgage Payment: $1608.86
• Additional Mortgage Principal Payment: $1000.00
• Furniture Payment: $500.00
• Water Softener System Payment: $370.00
• Investment Contributions:
  • Coinbase: $500.00
  • Schwab: $500.00
  • TD Ameritrade: $812.50

Current Mortgage Status:

• Remaining Balance: $249,000.00
• Interest Rate: 4.875%

Dilemma: While I aim to invest in various accounts and accelerate my debt repayment, I am burning through my cash at a faster rate than anticipated. I am banking on a promotion in the fall, but without it, I fear I may run out of funds.

Question: Given my situation, what strategies would you recommend? How would you manage finances and investments if you were in my shoes?

Thank you all in advance for your invaluable advice and insights.

Good morning Michael. I read most of the replies and I read your description of your financial situation. I disagree with a lot of the replies(if this is personal finance related), they are not right or wrong but I just disagree. Title on your post is personal finance? I believe that to be so. In this case there seems to be missing income/expenses(living expenses) not discussed? Which is your choice, thank you for sharing what you have(shows you want to make changes), but in order to give a good assessment I’ll make some simple assumptions and ask you these simple questions; 

Do you have a personal budget?

Have you heard of Dave Ramsey? Beans and rice, look him up, not for RE but personal finances.

1. Figure out a personal budget (ie: groceries 5-15% of your take home, clothing 2-5% of take home, etc. account for EVERY dollar. It took us 2-3 years to settle on a solid budget. We started about 16-17 years ago and still keep a personal budget.

2. Pick up a side “gig” to make extra money above and beyond your income…don’t let pride get in the way (I did when I was your age; new car, nice clothes, one job because I “went to school” to work one job; BS). My wife drove out van till we gave it family and they had it for 6 months, frame broke, axle broke from being worn out. Eventually went to Goodwill for my clothes, ate bologna sandwiches for lunch for years (I don’t/won’t now, lol), cut my own hair (still do, because I don’t have a lot of it anyway), we refinished garage sale furniture and sold it, we shoveled driveways, then got into online sales of dvd/blurays (still do it) weekends and nights sending stuff out. We put it all towards our mortgage and 12 years into a 30 year, paid off personal mortgage then used that equity to buy another building. 

3. Live like one else does now so you can live like no one else does later…like 15-20 years!!! Part of this includes; Reference above, eat “beans and rice”, make your meals (healthier anyway) learn to not worry about what other think, even your friends when you don’t go out all the time.SACRIFICE for your goal. Don’t follow the herd.

If this is RE finance related then by all means take in a lot of the replies above. OPM is not a solution to a personal finances or taking out further loans.

If you would like an excel file listing out a personal budget guide, we give it out to tenants if they want it, then please reach out. I would love to help and see you succeed!

sincerely, 
Dan

We were offered an off market rural 16 unit two building investment at $800,000. Each building has a boiler system and tenants pay electricity. We would be responsible for gas and water sewer. Current owners use RUBS for other items. Current rents average $850. (8)two bedroom 1.5 bath and (8) single bed/bath. It is about an hour from us and we currently self manage (16) units. Our reserves are about 7 months and we have a HELOC open to us but hesitant because it is so far away and we also work our "9-5". Currently it would be a break even on expenses estimated. If we do a land contract and put $107,000 down after selling one maybe two building, net gain for us of (8) units.…we are waiting on $$$ for taxes, water and gas to run boiler system. But the buildings we have are good appreciation and good cash flow overall. We can afford to give up some cash flow but it would make things risky tight for 3-4 years. Any things to think about please?

Quote from @Markus Shobe:

Quickbooks can work for you and so can Xero. I have been using Quickbooks for my clients for years. One thing I do like is that it sync's with a lot of apps. I have a lot of clients that do Airbnb's and we can connect Quickbooks to Bnb Tally and it imports and classifies everything perfectly. 

Thank you for your input Markus!

Quote from @Brandi K.:

@Dan Goeckel if I understand your question correctly yes. I manage 25 rentals with it, our personal expenses and an additional business. Its way cheaper than quickbooks.. Can create about a report you could want. I have multi units and single families. It does not do payroll.

If possible could my wife get in touch with you soon to ask a few questions about Quicken? More her than me. I handle majority of maintenance, investigating macro of opportunities and she handles all the micro and finances.

Quote from @Brandi K.: 

@Dan Goeckel look into quicken. They have a version specifically for rental properties. I believe it's called home,rental and business. Been using for about 7 years.

 Brandi, can the software classify the building independently from expenses to income as well as supplier?

My wife does the books and if it were me I’d buy what ever looks easiest, typically more expensive, but that isn’t always the answer. We are full time working and are up to 16 doors so our time is valuable and we are trying to find faster better ways of doing things without spending a lot of money. Primarily so we can save those costs towards another property in the future.

@Mark S.Thanks Mark!

Quote from @Brandi K.:

@Dan Goeckel look into quicken. They have a version specifically for rental properties. I believe it's called home,rental and business. Been using for about 7 years.

@Brandi K. Thank you!

@Todd Lennig thank you!

One of the other things we are looking to do is have a “tab” for each building for income and expenses and QuickBooks can do that at the high end.

Quote from @Ali L.:

@Dan Goeckel Try Xero and Zoho Books

Thanks Ali. Have you used Xero?