All Forum Posts by: Mac F.

Great thread. Some painters drop cloths are always handy. Making clean up as easy as possible is good for the sanity.

Ben Graham's The Intelligent Investor

@Jordan Blanton, a lot depends on how much you have in personal and business reserves. Also it depends on your family situation (do you have kids, do you want them, do either you or your wife plan on cutting back on work/staying home with future kids, etc...).

I'd pay off the student debt, put the rest into reserves (if you don't have them yet), and then move forward.

@Andrew Ralston  it depends on how much you are saving and over which period of time. An extra 1% interest on $10k is only $100. You could make that in an evening driving Uber.

If your grandmother's a US citizen, with a will/estate drawn in the US, and the cash from a common type of asset that was in the US (ex. bank account contents, proceeds from home sale, etc...)-- should be relatively simple as long as you keep records of where the money came from.

If any of the above aren't true have a conversation with an accountant and a good attorney that deals with foreign estates, estates of foreign nationals, etc...

If you use your GI Bill when you're not on active duty, you can pretty easily get your school and books paid for, plus a nice tax free BAH (E5 w/ dependents rate I believe). Financially that may be a better decision than using it now, especially since you don't know what you want to study. Business and math courses tailored for what you need to succeed will never hurt you. You might even use this as a way to get paid for an internship.  

Do you have the option of passing on the education benefit to your spouse and kids (even if you don't have them yet)? There were some changes to the policy on this recently.  

@Tyler Daly, I would pencil out and run numbers on six scenarios:

1. Stop retirement contributions, work like crazy, eliminate student loan debt, save up personal reserves, resume retirement investing, save enough for down payment on duplex, buy duplex.

2. Continue retirement contributions, work like crazy, eliminate student loan debt, save up personal reserves, save enough for down payment on duplex, buy duplex.

3. Stop retirement contributions, work like crazy, make minimum student loan debt payments, save up personal reserves, save enough for down payment on duplex, buy duplex, resume retirement investing.

4. Continue retirement contributions, work like crazy, make minimum student loan debt payments, save up personal reserves, save enough for down payment on duplex, buy duplex.

5. Stop retirement contributions, work 40 hours, make minimum student loan debt payments, save up personal reserves, save enough for down payment on duplex, buy duplex, resume retirement investing.

6. Continue retirement contributions, work 40 hours, make minimum student loan debt payments, save up personal reserves, save enough for down payment on duplex, buy duplex.

Five and six are the worst options.  Temporarily stopping retirement contributions gets you to owning property faster and won't have a huge impact on your total portfolio at 59.5.  Estimate your rate of return in your Roth at either 8 or 10%-- no higher. 

My personal preference is option one-- relative to the other options, it won't cost you many months and will put you in a better position to invest if you decide to go it alone (either your partner or you could meet someone and decide to move, for example). 

 Paycheck parking is a gimmick that sounds good. It makes spending easier (which means you are likely to spend more). Making spending harder (more painful) has a much bigger impact. When I want to keep my spending under control I do things like: creating and following a written budget, only using cash for impulse purchases, using a debit card for purchases instead of a credit card. All of these have the impact of limiting my spending and have an impact much bigger than any gimmick I've tried. It was also more sustainable for me.

Paycheck parking can have a small positive effect on your credit score but, if you pay your credit card bills before the credit bureau reporting date rather than the due date, you'll probably get a similar impact on your credit score. Over time it won't matter because your consumer debt/income ratio will have improved because you are steadily eliminating the debt. Actual consumer debt elimination will make the biggest difference.

You're braver than me. With that income and a one year old at home I couldn't even think about rental property investing unless I had $10k in the bank for emergencies.