All Forum Posts by: Helen De la rosa

@Cody L. thank you, Cody, for sharing your strategy. I admire you are in a position to protect your assets with non paper money already...
 

Do you have any more insights to share? 

Balancing greed vs fear is the million dollar puzzle to solve at this July 2019 time point. 

*Fear calls for switching into safety net of precious metals etc...look at Venezuela, one ounce of gold sells for 818,749 VES on 01/01/2019, and 9,796,679 VES on 07/03/2019. What kind of annual return is that once the paper currency start losing its charm...

 *Greed says that the dollars will be okay for a few more years, so just focuses on growing cash flow/ return using real estate investment. 

1/4 of my assets are tied up in mutual funds under 401K /kids 529 that I can not move around. Started 529k when my kids were born, thought it was a super great investment. Now they look like golden handcuffs with limited investment options to choose from. 

Have a paid off house that I thought was an asset. After listening to the Rich Dad Poor Dad book yesterday, I now realize it is a Liability not an Asset - every year the house is draining cash through property taxes in addition to lost opportunity cost of the principle tied in the house. Just curious, what do you do with your main residence - get a home equity loan (at 5.5% ) to transfer the risk to the bank?

So having one arm tied behind my back, I am trying to figure out what I can do with the remaining 2/4. SFR's vs Commercials?

* SFRs? - Using 25% down payment, I can grab a few quarter million SFRs to put tenants in and hedge against dollar devaluation while benefiting from tax shield etc...

* Commercial ? Crowdstreet or Real Crowd? I don't know enough to get into the commercial space, so thinking online ones might be a safer bet to start with ...

@Joshua Brazle Hello, Houston!! What's your concern of the conventional loan?

I am new here too, so sharing for your reference...

recently got 4.875% for 30-year conventional loan on investment SFR, which was about 1% higher than a primary residence loan...

I later asked around, 

* home equity loan would be around 5.5% , which is higher than taking an investment loan...

* a commercial loan would run around 6% 

* hard money would be even higher starting around 8-9%

@Anthony Dooley

US dollars still counts for the largest reserves in central banks around the world, per wikipedia quoting IMF report ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_foreign-exchange_reserves

That being said, it's worthwhile watching crazy drivers getting on the road ( like the spending deficit). 

Supposedly the silver to gold ratio is at 26 year high, hope it will rebound from here... Anyway, I picked up $23k in SIVR EFT in early morning to diversify my stock holdings...https://www.bullionvault.com/gold-news/gold-silver-ratio-061220191

Mr. Warren Buffet did say in an interview that he would have picked up more real estate if to start his investment career again...

@CJ M. still trying to figure out what to do...yesterday and today, I did pick up some BAR ( one of the gold ETFs ) and SIVR ( one of the silver ETFs) in my portfolio when the market dipped...

On the real estate investment, my option/vision list keeps growing , lol

option 1 - get a few more SFR and rent to S8

option 2 - how about multi-family units?

option 3 - how about getting some land and build a fourplex? 

option 4 - how about just jump into the crowd-street and pool in there?

...

Do I draw a 2-hour driving radius within Houston so I can go check on my property?

Do I venture out to San Antonio? How about Austin?

BTW, did you get a chance to read the June 25th CBO The 2019 Long-Term Budget Outlook? 

https://www.cbo.gov/publication/55331

Good news is that 2019 deficit forecast would be under $1 trillion , bad news is the forecast was showing starting in 2022, the deficit will be above $1 trillion ( $1,000,000,000,000, yeah, 1 with 12 zeros) and keep growing.  

@Logan Hassinger Thank you, Logan! I read through the Safeguard Advisors website, it look great!

What do you think about BroadFinancial? It looks convenient where I can fill out form online to complete the application. The check book control package look attractive, at $1095 after a July 4th $200 discount :-) 

https://www.broadfinancial.com/self-directed-ira-plans-custodian-checkbook-control/

I will need to set up one with pretax 401K , then another with after tax Roth IRA, so, want to make sure to control the expenses/cash flow of start up costs.

Thanks again for your insights! 

Which company do you use for self directed IRA? I found there are quite a variety of them. From charging a flare fee then transaction fees for every check, wire transfer, annual tax reporting etc.

Thanks for your advice in advance!

@Jake Miller

How did your loan and construction work out? In mid June 2019, I inquired about half million construction loan, and was quoted around 6%...

@Brian Bundy

I found this old post helpful, especially the Linwood- didn't know one can order pre-made home packages like a lego then have builder finish it.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/topics/399943

A SFR one unit ( 5 bedrooms , 3.5 baths) @ 4.875% mortgage rate.