All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

I read a book with the same title back in the 1970s (not sure who the author was).

To this day, I use pen and paper to make lists, prioritize goals and tasks, and check items off as I complete them (focusing on doing the important stuff first).

Another potential resource to look into is a neighborhood association.

When I lived in San Jose, California, I was a member of my local neighborhood association. I would attend the monthly meeting from time to time (this was back when my entire net worth was in the equity of my house). Our elected representative on the city council would have his aide attend, who brought us the city hall news affecting the neighborhood (building permits, zoning changes, programs in the works) and would report back on the concerns we had. The wheels of government turn slowly.

One city-wide issue was graffiti, which prompted San Jose to implement a graffiti abatement program. But before that program was established, one of the neighborhood associations took the bull by the horns and offered a $100 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a graffiti artist. The law of unintended consequences took over when the 14-year-old doing the tagging turned himself in. The judge released him to the custody of his parents because he was a minor and that neighborhood association was legally obligated to pay the kid the $100 reward money.

It took me a few tries to figure out the system when I had to deal with my noisy neighbor here in Pensacola. Most of my life has been spent with people who want to get along with their neighbors. I hope I only had to deal with a one-time outlier, but time will tell.

You might want to check out the free neighborhood-based social networking site Nextdoor.com.  I use the daily-digest emails to stay current on neighborhood-related concerns, including crime and safety.

I agree with everything Pragya Singh said. I achieved my financial freedom through investing in the stock market rather than real estate, but the commonality is the mindset and not the instrument.

What I found fascinating is my friends could never understand my interest in money and personal finance. I got the cold shoulder whenever I brought up investing. I saw the 2008 financial crisis as a once-in-a-lifetime gift (I was able to Rothify a Traditional IRA for 50 cents on the dollar in terms of the taxes I had to pay). My friends were scared and thankful they weren't invested in the stock market. Now some are wondering how they will ever afford to retire.

Many people will believe something when they see it. I figured out I could also see something when I believed it ("when the student is ready, the teacher appears"). I'm presently undergoing this transformation with real estate, which I'm interested in doing in some fashion to diversify my stock market portfolio. When I tried doing real estate 15 years ago (the early 2000s), I got scared away by fast-and-loose real estate people who I thought were shady. It turns out they did me a favor by keeping me out of the inflating real estate bubble at that time.

Although it can be lonely at times, independent contrarian thinking is an advantage in the world of building wealth.

My landlord has a referral program.

The rationale is if the current tenants are good people, they probably hang around good friends ("birds of a feather flock together"). When I worked in Corporate America and a position opened up, the manager would always ask "who do you know" before advertising the job publicly (80% of the job market is "hidden" this way). Your current tenants are providing referrals for your prospective tenants. Someone who responds to an ad on the Internet is an unknown in terms of their character, even though they fill out an application and undergo a background check of some sort.

In the past, I would get a discount on a month's rent if I renewed my lease by a certain date. My new landlord does not offer this incentive, but the lease automatically converts to a month-to-month arrangement at a much higher monthly rent when the lease is up ("negative incentive") if I don't renew the lease. I've never received an incentive for paying the rent on time, but there is a late fee ("negative incentive") whenever the rent is more than a few days late.

Some larger companies have housing offices to help relocating employees find local housing. I found my first apartment this way back in the 1970s when I got my first job right out of school (I don't remember if I got a discount off my first month's rent for moving in). At least the landlord knows the prospective tenant really has a job.

Larger landlords with buildings in many cities make it easy for existing tenants to move to a unit in another city. When an employer transferred me to a different facility 30 miles away once, I was able to transfer to another apartment with the same landlord to be closer to my new job (the cleaning deposit transferred smoothly and the 30-day notice to vacate was waived). If I was a good tenant at my first apartment, I would likely be a good tenant at my second apartment.

I sold a home I had lived in for many years that had appreciated in price. I was able to exclude much of the capital gain from taxation due to the personal residence exclusion (https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc701).

I moved to an area with a lower cost of living and am renting while I assess my opportunities for buying a smaller home at a lower price. In theory, I could have fixed up my previous home and rented it out. But I've never been a landlord before and didn't want to make the newbie mistakes with my accumulated home equity (which is in a different state from where I'm living now). Previous home equity in the form is cash provides me with alternatives, including remaining a renter if that's what I decide to do.

I was lucky back when I was a homeowner in that I had quiet neighbors.

But I had a close call when I first moved in. My next door neighbor at the time turned out to be the entrepreneurial type who was also a "mail order minister" (until the IRS shut down the "Church of Life"). He was open about remodeling his back yard to hold wedding receptions, but the business would have been illegal due to zoning, so he befriended all of us so we wouldn't complain. Luckily, the authorities shut him down for other reasons and he moved on. However, I had contingency plans in place to report him if it ever came to that.

After he moved away, my neighbors told me the person who sold me the house was worried this guy would scare me off and had the mail order minister scale back his activities until after I moved in. In today's world, my seller would have had to disclose this potential issue in the selling documents, but he was probably within the limits of the law at the time (the 1980s).

I wasn't so lucky when I first moved into my present apartment.

The building had quiet hours written into the lease. But one of my neighbors was loud at times, both before and after quiet hours were in effect. I was advised to work with the neighbor, but his response was that since he wasn't trying to upset me, it wasn't my problem if his noise upset me. The apartment manager (who didn't live there) needed independent third-party verification before taking action. I finally got it after about a year (the apartment had a "three strikes" policy and it took me awhile to get the strike count I needed to get rid of him). My neighbor would lay low for a time after being warned and would then slowly increase his noise again. I used protective ear plugs and ear muffs during this year, along with making contingency plans about moving if the situation didn't get resolved.

My takeaways from my experiences are to be persistent and learn the rules of the system. Noise problems are symptomatic of larger issues. Municipalities have ordinances on the books, but getting them enforced can be a challenge because code enforcement people are understaffed and the police have strict rules they have to follow when responding to complaints. Sometimes the persistence has to rise to the level of becoming a community reform leader (New Worry for Home Buyers: A Party House Next Door), but the end outcome can be positive.

In my case, a carpet was installed after my noisy neighbor moved out, which provided half the solution, and subsequent neighbors were reminded about the quiet hours at the time they signed the lease, which provided the other half (these people also had the attitude of wanting to get along with their neighbors and kept their noise down as a result). I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I've never had to use the ear plugs since.

Google "umbrella insurance" and decide for yourself.

Do You Need Umbrella Insurance? What Is It and How Can It Help You?

The 1% Fear Being Sued But Shun Umbrella Insurance

I'm a risk-adverse individual.  For example, I bought earthquake insurance when I lived in California, which is expensive (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsKp2WYi4X8). My neighbor did not, figuring the Government would come to the rescue with low-cost loans should the Big One ever hit.

My insurance agent gave me the same advice -- get umbrella coverage for the value of the assets (rounded up to the next million [or more if you're worried about it]). The reason is that if I ever do anything stupid and seriously injure someone, the jury is going to be sympathetic to the victim. As a property owner, I would be seen as the rich dude.

Although some lawyers say they settle for the amount of the insurance coverage, there is nothing to stop the court from awarding a larger amount if the plaintiff's lawyer decides to go for it. Then if you happen to win the lottery someday, the plaintiff gets paid the outstanding judgement from the lottery winnings before you get paid whatever is left over.

When I told my prospective landlord I was retired and had no job or income, I was told the alternative way to qualify was to show a latest savings account statement with at least a $10,000 balance in it.

If the landlord had asked for login credentials, I would have walked. But if the landlord had asked to look over my shoulder after I had logged in from one of my devices, I would have gone along with it.

My landlord wanted the warm fuzzies that it was going to get paid. But I've read where the lenders to some landlords want proof of tenant income to verify the rents are secure enough to cover the mortgage payment.