All Forum Posts by: Katie Douglas

@Aaron Mazzrillo

My husband and I are highly motivated. We just need more time/strategies to overcome a few obstacles and then we plan on investing heavily in real estate. These are things that I wish were mentioned more often in BP posts. Thank you for your comment and the resource suggestion. I will look it up!

@Chanté Owens

Thank you for this resource! It sounds very helpful and I will definitely bookmark it!

@Account Closed

I guess I wonder about a few things:

1. benefits/tradeoffs to having one income vs dual income; do we take on debt for more education or just focus on debt reduction? Also, we would probably have to move for me to find a full time job since we live in a rural area. There are some benefits to me staying home- I keep the house clean, cook daily, manage our budget, do research on financial matters, and do all chores/run all errands. My husband frequently works over 10 hours a day and most Saturdays. We are in a position to where we will be able to invest without a second income and I don't know if it makes sense for me to go to school now and take out more loans (and move) if we are going to have kids in a few years. And since we plan to invest heavily for income anyway. I don't mind working part time in the mean time. I will be teaching part time in about a month. However, I have applied to small retail jobs and have to either say I was unemployed for 2 years (and leave my recent references off my applications) or tell them I have a MA. I think many retail employers don't like that you have a M.A.

2. How much money should you spend to make money if you are also focusing on debt reduction? I follow a few blogs online about how to start an online business but you do need a little capital. It's risky and you could end up taking on more debt and not making money. I do have a fiverr account and a couple of ebooks that make a little money. Books cost a little bit of money to put together, though. Focusing on debt reduction seems to go farther at this point than little creative side projects. 

3. We are doing ok, but we just need to build skills, get more education, and put together savings to invest in the future. We need more specific information about investing either in a rural area if we stay where we are (investing in houses that are less than 100k- seems to cause issues with some lenders; or we need to figure out how to get some financial backers) or in expensive urban areas (we may move to Chicago for my husbands job and the housing prices are expensive there- mostly property taxes; the current rent rates don't seem to leave much left over after expenses). But if we move I can find a professional level job after a little additional training (we would take out debt for this) so we would have more money as a dual income household and we could get rid of both cars if we live downtown, it would actually make up for the increase in the cost of our own residence if we rent. This is probably where we would look at house hacking but many properties are $500k + so we would have to wait longer to save up a larger down payment. 

I think we are on the right track, it is just going to take a little longer than I would like. It just seems like other posts on the site aimed at young people are a bit glib about obstacles. 

@Bryan C. these are excellent points! I think more newbies would benefit from hearing about the sacrifices people make, how much time it actually took them to accomplish their goals, and about strategies they can use to overcome those obstacles. You can be highly motivated but not have the knowledge/skill to deal with your obstacles strategically or it may just take more time than people think to implement their strategies. 

@Account Closed

Thank you for your post, I think you make some really great points! You are right, I made this post in a moment of frustration after reading a post on the site. 

@Michele Fischer

Great advice! Thank you!

@Matthew Paul

Thank you for this advice, it sounds like a great plan!

@David Hays

The average wages would be enough if people didn't have other expenditures. 

Student loan debt is optional and you should move past it, but if you have other financial goals like investing in real estate you have to make some strategic decisions and the posts I have read on this site either ignore those decisions, come from OPs who didn't go to college, or had their parents pay for it. This is my point. That some of the advice is overly simplistic because chances are that many people will need to figure out how to move past it to meet their larger financial goals. 

My point wasn't about being married it was about the need to pay for weddings and that most people in their 20s will get married at some point. This needs to be a part of their financial plan and should be included in BP posts. Or, if the OPs had their parents pay for it they should say so. 

Consumer debt is optional, but again comes down to personal finance knowledge and decision making. Chances are the average person has some and needs to make strategic decisions and lifestyle choices to get rid of it. I think posts that include this information are more interesting than those that come from people who just had a bunch of money lying around and started investing. 

I am serious about the wardrobe. Coming out of college, many young 20 somethings probably haven't spent that much on a wardrobe and some professions require you to dress a certain way. Buying clothes that you can wear in all 4 seasons (we have really cold winters) in a professional environment can set someone back when they are first starting out. Those professional environments are part of what comes with some high paying jobs. It is a basic level expectation. This is not something you have to buy a lot of once you have it, but if you are starting from scratch and you are expected to have it once you start a position- it can set you back. 

Relocation costs- still something that can put people back before they even start their new professional jobs. 

Increasing rents are an issue if you are renting yourself and are saving to invest in real estate/purchase your own residence to save on costs. 

I think posters should simply note that the value of house hacking might have significant geographic variations. 

I agree with you about personal finances- however, if a post is targeted towards 20 somethings- maybe they should include this information to give context to how people were able to start so early. 

@Roy N.

In the US we have the same trends. However, it is happening more among people who don't have a college education. Overall people are getting married less and having fewer children. But most people still do and those who do are more likely to have a college degree. 

@Stephanie Garcia

Thank you for your post- it is very interesting. It sounds like we have some similarities- many of the houses around here are about $100k or are less but old and in need of significant repairs/updating. Closing on our condo would have cost more than $7k - which was doable for us, but we decided to apply that to debt reduction instead and give ourselves the option to move and purchase another house in a different location in the future. (One of our "pain points" would be learning about ways to deal with the debt to income ration requirement on mortgage applications). Also, there seem to be more hoops to jump through with mortgage companies if the mortgage amount is less than $100k (another area where we need more education). 

Thank you for your encouragement! Best of luck to you and your family!