All Forum Posts by: Marco Aceves

4 year old article 

Excited to meet you all!

Awesome! Congrats!

I have a question: Did you let the seller stay an extra month on your dime or did they pay you for the month or how did that work?

Freaking awesome!!! Congrats man and can't wait to hear how it went.

Build the discipline to save a percentage of your income (for me and my wife, it is 30%). As soon as our w2 direct deposit hits, without a second thought or hesitation 30% goes into our "Investment Fund". Before we got into real estate, that money would go directly into the stock market. 

1. You MUST be disciplined.

There is no way around that. The book that really helped my wife and I get serious about saving money (amongst many!) was The Richest Man in Babylon.. further solidifying the concept was "The Millionaire Next Door" (again, there are many many many books we've read that re-enforce the concept of saving but those two really stick out)

2. You MUST track your expenses

We were spending $600-$700 per month on groceries (for two people!!!!(no, this is not a joke)) and on top of that we were eating out every other day so most of the food bought at the grocery store went bad and had to be tossed. On top of the ~$650 for groceries, we were spending about $450 more a month on eating out and of course millennials love craft beer and nice wine(lol).

We went from 0-100 from the beginning and started eating out only once a week and gave ourselves a $50/week grocery budget except when we needed paper goods. We only bought what we knew 100% we needed and would actually cook. This was definitely hard at first  but we got used to it after a few weeks. and although after about 6 months we did increase our grocery budget a little bit so we could treat ourselves to a nice steak or whatever, we were saving significant money by then. 

Had we not tracked our expenses,  we would have never really saved the money we did (and now continue to do). We went from saving  X amount of dollars to saving an EXTRA $800-ish/month by tracking our expenses and deciding to do something about it. It ain't nothing to it but to do it!
(We sometimes do eat out more than once a week, or go a bit over budget with groceries but it is much more manageable and responsible than before, were human after-all)

3. You MUST take action. 

You can read all the books you want, listen to as many podcasts, watch all the YouTube videos but if you don't take action.. its not going to happen. You can literally start today by choosing to make coffee at home instead of getting that venti frappe from Starbucks.
Look at your bank statements.

Im curious as to what you mean by airport is one of the top in the country 

Wife and I are excited to attend!

Brittany,

My wife and I have also decided to pull the trigger here in Raleigh or the surrounding areas. I recently found out that Toyota is moving a plant to Greensboro NC so that could be a market to look into as Im sure you have seen that the Raleigh market is sizzling hot right now.

Good luck!

Thank you!!

Thats an awesome way to bring in the new year! Congrats!!