All Forum Posts by: Johnathan Walton

Keypads are great but they aren't necessary and they're not nearly as cost effective as a manual key. You can get a key from Kiwi that lets you rekey the lock if someone loses a key instead of having to replace the entire lock upon a lost key.

https://www.kwikset.com/smartk...

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All of you are inspiring me even more :)

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Update: I ended up getting on some military orders in January (I'm in the National Guard) and with the SCRA benefits for active duty military, all of my interest rates dropped to 4%. They'll stay that way for the life of the loans so I started saving up for the multifamily property. With my added pay, tax return, and ability to save, I have enough to cover the closing costs + reserves. Using the BiggerPockets tools, I've found several great places that I can house hack in.

Before I dive in, if anyone has any more advice on my specific scenario I'm all ears. Once I'm house hacking, I'll have more cash to pay my loans off faster.

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Originally posted by @Alyssa Dyer:

@Johnathan Walton keep us posted on how it turns out!

Will do! Because of the feedback I've received, I'm leaning towards sticking with my original plan of paying everything off as fast as I can before investing. I didn't want to sell the car because I actually don't mind driving now (I generally hate driving in Los Angeles traffic) but after the feedback, I'm going to crunch the numbers to see if I can gain more than 6 months from selling the car. I personally don't think 6 months is terribly long to wait so I can drive a car I enjoy. I'll also compare selling it to refinancing it.

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Originally posted by @Mike Hourihan:

@Johnathan Walton what kind of car?

Tesla Model 3

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Originally posted by @Jonathan G.:

@Johnathan Walton

Jonathan, why are you messing with such high interest loans with that nice credit score?. You already know all the answers but what you need is a plan with a time line. You need to refinance that personal loan ASAP to something lower. Check with your bank and if your not already a member of a credit union, check out that too.

Next, sell that car and get something cheaper (but not “cheap”) like a reliable Honda, Toyota, or older Lexus.

Have a goal to have all of this done in the next two months. Then you’re going to go into 2021 with that same amount of income and you’re going to be killing it with moving closer to your goal to buy property.

I guess since I'm down to two loans left I'm just getting antsy. But I'll contact a few banks to see if they can move me into a lower APR loan.

Thanks for the reply!

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Originally posted by @Renee Moomey:

@Johnathan Walton I can see this working either way, without the big car loan. I'm curious what those payments are and how changing that factor could change your timeline.

It's $1125/mo. Selling it and buying a $7000 car would make me debt-free 6 months faster and I'm estimating the monthly payment would go to around $200 per month if I financed the new one for 36 months.

So I'd go from 18 months of debt to 12 months of debt. I really like the way it drives and I planned on keeping it until the wheels fall off so I'm thinking I'll suffer through the extra 6 months. Or even refinancing it, based on the advice I've received here, and paying it off after I'm living in the duplex/triplex.

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Originally posted by @Darnell Kuykendall:

@Johnathan Walton

Hey john,

Great question and some great answers on here. I myself am having the same somewhat issue where I did pay off the car (25k) at the beginning of the year. however school loans are there at 45k with 4.5% interest. Which I said I want to have these paid down and start saving for a mult family unit in mass. John if you didn’t want to get rid of the car, ( which I think you should) have you tried refinancing at a lower rate at least? Just another option. But getting rid of that high debt would ease your mind.

Darnell

I haven't tried to refinance anything as of yet. Originally I figured by the time I got to the debt I'd pay it off faster than it would make sense to refinance so I never really bothered but if I ended up holding on to the debt for an extra year so I could start investing now then I think it would be a great idea to look into refinancing.

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Originally posted by @Alyssa Dyer:

Congrats!

I persoanlly paid off all debt before investing, but in hind sight I wish I would have started a little sooner. I just had car debt at a low interest rate. I could have been making money to pay off the car.

I'd likely save up, then house hack, then get rid of that 15% loan ASAP, then focus on buying. If the $45k car either is needed for a sales job (lame that it matters, but sometimes it does) hold onto it, otherwise I'd ditch it for something practical.

Good luck!

That's originally what I was thinking of doing but I wasn't sure if it made sense. I'll keep running the numbers since I have till January to decide for sure.

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Originally posted by @Jon Schwartz:

Originally posted by @Johnathan Walton:

My credit score is around 785 right now. I took the loans out when it was much lower. According to a calculator I found online, my front end DTI is 13% and back end is 33%.

I did some math and selling the car to buy a $7,000 car would save me 6 or 7 months so I'll just pay them both off before investing.

Thanks for the advice, everyone!

Dude, you got this sh*t figured out. You didn't need the forums!

My analysis would look at the opportunity cost of waiting to buy that duplex or triplex. For example, if you can get into a duplex in January 2021 that reduces your living expenses by $1000/month, then your opportunity cost of *not* buying it is the $8000 or what-have-you until you pay of your debt. Does that compute with you? Have you looked at the situation in this light?

Best,

Jon

Jon,

That makes sense. The rough numbers I came up with just now seem to fall towards paying off the 15% loan and then refinancing the car loan. I just don't have the cash right now to buy in January so I'd have to save up for about 6 months which would put me in June when I'd be ready to actually buy.

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All Forum Posts by: Johnathan Walton

Johnathan Walton has started 2 posts and replied 14 times.

Post: door locks recommended for Rent by the room?

Post: QOTW: Do you have a BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal)?

Post: Should I pay off two loans before saving to invest?

Post: Should I pay off two loans before saving to invest?

Post: Should I pay off two loans before saving to invest?

Post: Should I pay off two loans before saving to invest?

Post: Should I pay off two loans before saving to invest?

Post: Should I pay off two loans before saving to invest?

Post: Should I pay off two loans before saving to invest?

Post: Should I pay off two loans before saving to invest?