All Forum Posts by: Michael Powell

@Steve Vaughan

That's cool.  Every investor has different entry and exit timelines and objectives.  Some invest for cash flow, some for appreciation, or both.  For me, my philosophy is: 

passive income > personal expenses = freedom.  Since starting a family, my numbers have gone up lol!  But well worth it.

Michelle, 

Are you looking for an asset allocation strategy to smooth out your investments?  I like 1/3 real estate, 1/3 common stocks, and 1/3 bonds as an asset allocation strategy but it will definitely vary by how much of a risk taker you and your husband are!  

A great book on asset allocation is Asset Allocation: Balancing Financial Risk by Roger Gibson . 

Thomas Stanley, in Millionaire Mind, says most millionaires have only about 20% in equities of public corporations.  

Hi Jacob,

I was in your position at age 24.  I was working full time, going to school, living with my parents, and trying to figure out how to buy my first property.

My big break came when I joined my local real estate investment club and started attending their Toastmaster meetings.  From that group, I met investor friendly realtors as well as deca-millionaire investors.  Little did I know ten years later, I would be investing with a deca-millionaire I met from that club.  

Talk to as many experienced people as you can, get to know them, take them out to lunch, and you'll be surprised how many are willing to help you succeed.  

As a result of my attendance at the club, a realtor brought me some deals - owner financed properties that I got at 5% and 10% down.  It got my foot in the door.  I had still had to learn things the hard way when it came to being a land lord (I had to evict my first tenant!), but some things in life you can only learn by doing.  

John,

Your advantage, in addition to your youth, is that you know the direction you want to head in life.  You're graduating with a strong degree where demand > supply.  Though you may not want to work a 9-5 job, that job will help you obtain the seed capital you need to get your real investment going.  Use your energy and enthusiasm to study real estate and how to make the numbers work.  You've got fire in the belly so turn it into something.  It won't take long.  

When I was 25, I worked as a financial analyst for a year and I used almost all my salary to buy investments or purchase advertising for my business.  There was no guarantee any of my efforts would pay off, but I was determined not to have to work a job and sit in a cubicle all day long - not when the weather outside was so beautiful and inviting.  The day I left my cubicle job, I took a trip to Honolulu with my best friend and my younger brother.  Will never forget the feeling.  

If you use your 60k as a down payment to leverage 300k+ of real estate, you could have several properties that in total bring $1000 / month cash flow.  It's going to be challenging, and you're likely going to have to look at hundreds of houses to find the right deal, but it's not impossible.  You'll also likely need to manage these properties yourself to hit your cash flow target.  

My first couple deals were owner financed properties where I only put down $5,000 or $10,000 dollars. Since they were owner financed, I didn't have PMI expense. So it's definitely possible to spread out your 60k as down payments for multiple properties and achieve your goals but a lot has to go right.

Welcome to BP, Anthony!  Loving that traffic to the Heights, eh?  haha...  one day we will all read BP on our self driving cars on our commutes.

You're in a great spot to invest in buy and hold real estate!  I'm about 40 mins away in Sugar Land.  

Mike

Congratulations!  That's massive!  

Welcome to BP, Cullen!  I'm in the Sugar Land, Area.   Awesome that you got to backpack in Europe for 6 weeks.  Me and my wife love to travel as well, but it has been harder with two little ones.  Have a Happy New Year!

Mike

Jay,

I'd probably keep it highly liquid as your business grows.  Sudden, rapid growth can make 100k disappear pretty fast.  As another poster suggested, I would keep reinvesting in your business as it's your area of specialization and getting solid results for you so far.   If you want to invest in real estate passively, you could always partner up with others as an investor.  If you're an accredited investor, you could invest part or all of your 100k in private placements.  There are also REITS (best held in a retirement account bc of the taxable distributions) - I use my Vanguard brokerage to hold REITS.  

Hey Eric, welcome to the forum, I’m a fellow Houstonian.  This website is an amazing resource.  Good luck on your journey!  26 is an exciting age to be!