All Forum Posts by: James McCard

Jeez - I would love to do that for a few years just for the retirement benefits. Props to the company you work for offering that. 

I would recommend a Netspend account - yes it is a prepaid credit card but... it has a really good savings account attached to it. It pays 5% interest on 1000 dollars and you can have up to 3 accounts (meaning 3000). You can also use a Brinks prepaid credit card (which is run by netspend) and get another 3 accounts (meaning another 3k). So you get 6 accounts with 1000 bucks in them earning 5% you will be pretty happy. 

If that interests you send me a PM and I will send you a referral code that gets us both 20 dollars. 

I work for a dealer and very often we get better rates than consumers (we exclusively use credit unions).  I think sometimes dealers will mark it up a bit to make more money. Think of it like this. We sell 40-50 cars a month of which almost all are financed through our credit unions... VS a single person going to a credit union to get an auto loan. You just have to find a dealer that is willing to work with you. 

I guess we sort of do things a little different than most dealers though. 

233% is quite the match - what type of field are you in?

If they do not work with you - take your lumps and sell it private party - yes it will suck losing money but that 500 dollar car note could be used in a lot of different ways to benefit a future REI.

I work in the automotive industry in the service department attached to a used car lot. I am not sure I would do anything. Yes you do not drive a lot - although in my head for the first few deals for the times you need a truck you can rent or borrow one. If this becomes a much larger operation with multiple properties I think then a truck (perhaps in the businesses name) makes more sense. 

I grew up riding in the back of a Ford Taurus (which at the time was about the same size as a fusion). I never felt it wasn't ideal. I think for a few hundred dollars your best bet might be to get a roof rack in case you need to haul stuff or a small trailer and buy a hitch for the car. 

I know in the town I live in a inlaw apartment is allowed - provided you as the owner of the property is living at the property. You cannot rent the house out and then rent the inlaw apartment. 

I will echo what Mike said above - if it is something you do not feel comfortable doing do not even attempt it. For the 50-100 dollars it might cost just suck it up and stay safe. 

I am also a big Dave Ramsey guy (not about investing). I am talking about the debt snowball. I haven't always been the best with money but I am certainly not the worst either. I decided before I took on anything new (including REI) I wanted to be debt free (minus my primary residence). I had about 7k ( I can't remember maybe more or less). I took me just under a year to pay everything off.

Trust me when I say my credit is better, I feel better and I am saving money every month. I have an aggressive rate of savings now. In addition to maxing out my Roth IRA this year I am saving an additional 500 a month for REI and on months I am not doing home improvements I can save 1500 a month.

Get her into Ramsey - you will be glad you did. 

I think most will tell you indefinitely although it may be something that you can figure out for yourself - there is a school of thought that says what are the odds that a place will need a roof and another unit will be empty etc all at the same time?