College is fun. I am always glad that I earned my first degree, but I had $40,000 in student loans, and I insist that I could not use it.
I am a huge advocate of studying something that leads to a career and if you decide that you do not like it, unless you have better options elsewhere, at least use it long enough to pay off your loans before pursuing something else. If you have an actual skill you are more likely to be able to afford to pursue your dreams.
I used to always hear about out-of-state students that never got residency. Why pay ridiculous tuition for four times as long as necessary?
Graham Stephan always tells people to not go to college, but we will see how many realtors there still are in five or ten years.
People say that if you cannot afford 20% down then you cannot afford a house, but how will you ever afford a house if you can hardly save anything? Yes, there are many ways that things could go horribly wrong, but if you get a good inspection, and can get a mortgage comparable to what you were paying in rent, why wouldn't you?
I was wondering what the math would need to be to be safe with rental properties. I had thought that if you needed the rent from 8 to pay the mortgage for all 10 you should be safe, but since I cannot get a rule-of-thumb from anyone, I can only guess that a 10% profit margin would be reasonable, which isn't much of a safety net.
I have asked Kevin how many of his tenants have said they couldn't pay rent, but he hasn't answered. Someone claimed that Kevin was producing so many videos because he was broke, nobody was paying rent, and he needed the money.
People always want to complain about something.
I did math on how much Kevin is probably earning through YouTube and people just criticized me.
It seems absurd now that everyone insisted that house prices were going up forever. People said the same thing a few years ago, but nobody could have anticipated TPgate. At least I have not seen anyone claim that they tried to warn everyone, like I did about the housing crash, but maybe that did not happen until well afterward.
My sister bragged about how much value her house gained until it lost value, but she was half an hour from anyone and everyone. House values dropped and she was able to buy a house in a nice suburb for significantly less.
She rented out the old house and made enough to continue paying her mortgage, but she did not see the point. She had already bought a new house and they had relatively new cars, so she stopped paying her mortgage and charging rent.
The tenants ruined her old house and it went into foreclosure, just like most of the neighborhood.
I wish that she had rented out the second house when they moved to Oregon because, as we suspected, she moved back, but she could no longer afford that neighborhood.
Millions of people got in trouble in 2008 / 2009, but allegedly ridiculous numbers bought houses without any intention of paying their mortgage.
I cannot find anything about that now, but even though I put 2008 / 2009, many results were recent.
I do not know that I had a wake-up call, but arguably hitting bottom for me was only being able to pay some of my bills, skipping lunch to save money, and then joining the Army. Uncle Sam helped me pay all of my bills and the food may not have been great, but it was consistent.
The thing is, I don't know that I ever used my credit card recklessly, but I was an idiot about choosing my first one. My parents kept telling me to get one to pay for my schoolbooks while I looked for a job, I kept saying that credit cards were evil, and when I finally did not see any other way to make it happen, I accepted the first offer.
Did I mention that was idiotic?
It had crazy interest and an annual fee!
For whom would Financial Peace University not work?
I feel that his plan is like my opinions, boring and safe. Some people cannot be trusted with credit cards, but I feel like his reasoning is misleading. Banks make money from transaction fees and can afford to make using credit cards worthwhile.
In one of Graham Stephan's videos someone said "I don't do budgets, I just" and then described exactly how to do a budget.
There was one point, probably in the last year, where I did not have enough in my checking account to buy gas, I forgot to use my credit card, and I needed to transfer what little I had in savings into checking to cover it.
However, I usually have enough in the bank to pay my bills, buy inexpensive food, and occasionally get stuff that I do not necessarily need from Dollar Tree.
If I really wanted to buy a house or had some other goal then it would make sense for me to adopt a strict budget, but if I moved out I would still want to spent as much time here as possible. I never know when my brother will throw a tantrum, Mom will have her blood sugar drop, etc.
Plus I generally like them.
I try to use the credit card for everything and a couple of times a month I pay it off. Yes, I can automate it, but I like to make sure that I have enough in checking.
My savings account does not pay much, but I plan on getting the highest rate that I can for next year.
I have driven $2,000 beaters for years!
They are no longer worth that much...
I am not a fan of new cards or Volkswagens, but it sounds like everything is working well for you.
Well, I believe that I have a response from you elsewhere.