All Forum Posts by: Rigoberto Medina

@Guy Gimenez, that is fantastic advice and you are absolutely right. I am proud to say that I got my work ethic from my mom, she raised three very hard-headed boys on her own and did so working multiple jobs to ensure we had a roof over our heads and food on the table. I am no stranger to working. When I started in the industry I am in, working 84 to 100+hrs a week was commonplace and even now, after being in the oil and gas business for over 20yrs I still work 60hrs a week at my main job and teach classes on API inspection (I am an authorized API inspector by trade) from 6pm to 10pm. My norm is being up by 4am working till 4:30pm, heading off to the gym for an hour, then teaching class from 6pm to 10pm and then coming home to spend time with my wife and kids, more so on Sunday which is my 1 day off, as well as plan, read, and do what I have to do to get ahead in my industry. This may seem like a lot of hours and a lot of effort but my why has been clear to me for a very long time, my wife and my babies are my life, I would do anything for them. My mom is our responsibility, myself and my brothers. Up until now, I have been doing what I thought was the right way, working my butt off to get ahead in my industry, buying my kids everything they wanted so they did not have to know what it feels like to not have much like I did growing up. I won't say much about my wife as I don't know if she would appreciate me talking about her on a national forum but she grew up in the foster system and when we married I promised myself that she would never want for anything....My intentions were good, I think, but my direction was horrible. In going the way that I have, we have tons of nice "stuff" but no real assets (not assets as Robert Kyosaki explains it). Finally having the time to read "Rich Dad/ Poor Dad" was both mind-blowing and eye-opening and has led me to this change in my life. 

I have gained lots of great skills in the business that I am in. I know how to set goals, set schedules, hold myself accountable, and ensure that I meet or exceed those goals. I have learned how to lead and manage others as a crew lead and site manager. I know what it means to work and I have learned to realize that I most DEFINITELY do not know it all, not by a long shot, but I also know myself. With the help of this forum, I am starting to identify the gaps in my knowledge base and am devising a plan to close those gaps. I am putting pen to paper and giving myself goals and deadlines to make sure I keep moving forward, posting the original post on this subject was actually one of those goals. I, as I am sure you have, have had many people tell me things like "I'm going to be an API inspector like you" or "Ill come lift with you at the gym too" or "I definitely want to learn martial arts from you" and they may show up a time or 2 but then soreness kicks in or they find out how hard it is and I never see them again. That being said, I'm not going to tell you "I'm going to make it, I'm going to get my financial life in order and invest", I'm simply going to say, "Keep an eye out for me, you will definitely see me again, both on these forums and also in the future making deals."

Welcome to BP. I am new as well but what I have found so far is that there tons of great people here and lots of sound advice. I wish you the best.

@Guy Gimenez, thank you very much for the advice and you are very right. I am almost through reading "how to invest in real estate" and am learning a lot, also learning that there is a lot that I don't know and need to educate myself on. It's going to take a lot of learning and time for me to get there but I will get there. If it's not too much trouble, can you expand on what you mean in regards to learning the rules of business?  What facet of it would best lend itself to real estate investment? You are an active flipper/ rehabber so I know you are a busy person and I don't want to take too much of your time so if expanding on what you mean would take too much time, is there a book you can recommend? I have a set timeline for when I will do my first deal and I would like to make sure I am best prepared. 

@Arturo Martinez III, that web address worked. Holy cow! that is a powerful tool, thank you very much for pointing me that way. It calculates everything and tells you to the day when you will have the bill paid off. I have already started using it, it is actually encouraging, according to that site it won't take me as long as I thought to get debt-free and get my finances in order.

@Aaron K., sound advice sir, thank you very much. 

@Bill Goodland, from the great advice that everyone is giving me I have decided to pay off my highest interest rate debt first. In addition to reading up on real estate investing, I have also been doing some reading on budgeting and financing, and one of the things that were really eye-opening was the effects of compound interest. I found a web site online that has a compound interest calculator and when I punched in some of my credit cards and their interest rate, let's just say it almost made me sick. I can understand the psychological impact of paying off little debts but to allow that much money to keep bleeding out...I just can't do it

@Theresa Harris, you are most certainly right. One of the things that building a budget and digging into my finances forced me to do was categorize where my money is going. Once I saw that I am spending almost 5k a year on lunches and breakfast, made me a bit angry at myself but has also gotten me to start packing my lunch from home. I know it may seem like a small and insignificant step but I'm seeing just how much things can add up.

@Brant Richardson, 38,150 but I'm going to work my butt off to pay that off. It is a lot but I know that lots of other people have paid off more. We are currently renting a house so we don't have a mortgage...but that also means we are not building equity. 

@Ron Fletcher thank you for the suggestion, I will add it to my list of books to read. 

@Mac F. yes I am married. I am working on getting her on board to get our financial life in order. It is a pretty big change and some of them are a little hard for her to stomach but she is coming around. The good thing is that while she is not fully on board, she is not fighting me on it either. She is an incredibly good woman and I think that she sees the path we are on is not leading anywhere good. 

@Arturo Martinez III, that is fantastic that you are plugging away it, keep it up, in the grand scheme of things 1 year is nothing and to be debt-free, man, that will be so great. I tried to look up undebted.com but nothing came up, that is the right web address, correct?

@DeAnna Henson, I see, I misunderstood. That is exciting that there is a bigger pockets meetup in Corpus. Please do let me know when you set it up, I would love to be there. If I can help in any way, please don't hesitate to reach out. I would be more than willing to help in any way that I can.

@Aaron Belt, thank you for the warm invite, everybody has been so great. I just went to the website and will check out the book as soon as I can. I have a very quickly growing list of books to read. I am part of the way through "how to invest in real estate" that I got from the BP store. After that book, I am going to read "how to invest in real estate with little/no money down" followed by "your money or your life". I will read the book on the website after that. I work 60hrs a week and teach classes on pressure vessel, piping, and storage tank inspection after work so it takes me a little bit to finish these books but I am holding myself accountable to finishing "how to invest in real estate" by Thursday evening so I can post a summary by Friday. I will finish the others in similar timeframes, usually 2 to 3 days, and see about posting summaries as well. I am not the greatest at it by any means but perhaps it might help someone.

@Theresa Harris, thank you very much, that is some really awesome advice and a great way to look at things. That is a great point on needing rewards but not have to cost anything, embarrassingly enough, I had not thought of it that way.  I know it is going to be a somewhat long road, especially with the debt level that I have allowed myself to accumulate but I am sure I can do it. Thank you all for your advice.

@Aaron K., thank you for the advice. I think I will focus on paying off some of my highest interest debts first, they also thankfully happen to be some of my smaller debts. The more I think about it, while I would love to pay off my larger debts the quickest, I think the interest that I am being charged, a couple of cards that I have I am paying a little over 24% on, is what I am going to attack first. As for the BP pro membership, I paid for a year upfront so it is already paid for the next couple of months at least. I plan on building wealth using real estate once i get myself out of debt and position myself to do so. Do you really think I should get rid of the Pro membership?

Let me start with a little background on why I am posting this as it strikes me as a bit of a random post to just throw out there. The weekend of the 9th through the 11th I had to drive from Corpus Christi, Tx. to Clayton, N.C. and back. This gave me roughly 42hrs behind the wheel. I chose to use some of that time to listen to an audiobook that I have been meaning to listen to for a long time, Robert Kyosaki's Rich Dad/Poor Dad. To say that it was mind-blowing and eye-opening would be a gross understatement. I made up my mind then and there to change things in my life, dig myself out of the hole that I had gotten myself and my family into due to my bad financial habits and my ignorance of how money actually works and started devising a plan. As soon as I got it back home I wrote out my plan and forced myself into action. My 1st step was to post on bigger pockets (I have been a pro member for months now and have never posted or been active). I also found and signed up to go to a local REI meeting (I am somewhat shy and I figure that this will force me to come out of my shell and network with others who are in the real estate investment). Goal #3 was get a handle of my finances by developing a budget and stick to it to pay off all my debt so that i can position myself to be able to invest. This is the 1st step to my goal. I have created a budget, it is nothing fancy, I used a word document to list out all my bills and expenses as well as the due dates for the payments. From there, I created an excel spreadsheet making sure that I pay myself 1st and foremost every single paycheck (I am setting aside 20% of my paycheck to pay off debt) and to track where my money is going. In addition to this, I have downloaded an app to my phone that will allow me to track my income and expenses real-time (not sure if stating which one it is would violate forum rules so i will refrain from doing that). Now comes the longest part of my goal, i have to stick with it.

So, why post about it? Several reasons. 1.) it was one of my action items so I had to get it done. 2.) accountability. It helps a ton to be held accountable and the way I figure it if people follow my post or my progress, I have to stay accountable to more than just myself and my family. Finally 3.) advice. For starters, does everyone budget for things like going out every once in a while or should I just laser focus on paying off debt. Currently, with 20% going to debt payoff which I will pay myself first, I still have a little bit of money left over, its not much but its something. Do I roll that into the 20% to pay off my debt faster? Do I use that to maybe take the family out once or twice a month? what have you done and how has it worked

Next question, what should I pay off first? Largest debt or highest interest debt? Part of me is saying "get rid of those large debts first but if I have a smaller debt that is charging me more interest, should I get rid of them first?

Doing this has opened up more questions and I am assuming that is a good thing. I am currently reading "How to invest in real estate" as one of my goals but I think after I am done with that one I am going to find a good book on budgeting to make sure I am doing it right. 

@Clint G., great to meet you. I will add "secrets of the millionaire mindset" to my growing list of books to read, thank you for the recommendation. In regards to the REI meetup, its the Corpus Christi Real Estate Investor Club. I found them on meetup.com and they are meeting this Saturday at Millers BBQ at 10305 Leopard street. It is being hosted by a gentleman named Matt Downs. Little nervous about going but if everyone there is as great as everyone has been here on bigger pockets, it should be a great experience and opportunity to network. You say you host a monthly meetup? I would love to get plugged into that, please let me know what I have to do.