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in Budgeting Tips | Money Talk · September 13, 2020

Let’s see the budget – August

I talk about budgeting quite a lot and some people think Ryan and I live a miserable life because we let a budget rule our life. However, it is thanks to budgeting that we are able to take risky investing decisions without worrying whether or not we’ll be able to meet our obligations. 

Of the two, I am more into the budgeting than Ryan, but he can always count of me to keep us in check. 

Below is a screenshot of our August budget. Nothing really complicated. We’ve been using a google sheets for about a year now and we just tweak it each month. We use this in conjunction with Wave Apps.

As you can see, our budget is by no means, the eat ramen all day, type of budget. It is somewhat lean, but not extreme. It still allows for entertainment, eating out, traveling, etc. 

I am sacrificing some stuff, but that’s because I am prioritizing things that matter most to us, like a smart bed. 

A couple of things to note: 

Affirm/Mattress

Even though we had the cash at hand, we made a conscious decision to finance our new mattress. It was 0% interest and we would rather use the money to fund the renovations of Big Horn. 

Car Payment

I paid off my car in 2017, but Ryan’s car still has a payment. He has $5,000 left, but he has 0% interest, so we are not rushing to pay it off just yet.  I will be making a post on why we refrain from paying off certain debt next week.

Student Loans

As you can see, there is no budget line in August for student loans. These are deferred with 0% interest and we made a conscious decision to defer payment until the Big Horn refinance. At which time, I will make a lump sum payment.

Emergency Fund

We are currently allocating $300 a month to building our emergency fund. We had $4,000 at the beginning of August, but had to use to payoff a business line of credit. Once Big Horn is refinanced, we will replenish this. Our goal is to build a $25,000 emergency fund. 

Sinking/Prepaid Funds

We like to save ahead for future trips, gifts  and other bi-annual or quarterly expenses. I send the money to our Ally account where these are allocated into their corresponding buckets. 

When the trip is booked or the insurance is paid, I transfer the money from our savings into our checking account and offset the expense. This way, my budget remains consistent throughout the year. 

Note that in August, I was over budget for gifts/vacation. Generally, I would have transferred the money over from savings to offset this expense, but decided not to because we had extra money from prior month. 

Food and Household 

This is where I always go over budget. For August, we decided to tighten up a bit and surprisingly came under budget. 🥳

Previously, I would buy without looking at the price tag. I was buying in bulk at BJs not realizing I was not really saving that much money. 

I switched it up a bit and shopped from Aldi and BJ to get the best out of my money.

I have to admit, I HATE cooking, but it is a sacrifice I am willing to make. Ryan and I are not that sophisticated when it comes to food, so we don’t need much to make a pretty decent plate for less than $2 per serving.

So far, I am enjoying the challenge to cook a good meal at the lowest cost possible. I’ve even learned a trick or two! Most days, I prefer to eat home cooked meals anyways. 

Of course, I occasionally burn the food 🤷🏻‍♀️, but it’s gotten better! 

The way I see it, spending less on food means I can spend more on things that I care about more like travelling or buying investment properties.

Credit Card Payments

We have one credit card in the amount of $5k that we have not paid off because it has 0% interest until December and we rather put the money to work until then. Once we refinance Big Horn, this one is going bye bye.

The Remaining Income

The rest of the money that we are not using to pay personal expenses is going towards Moonstone Realty to cover businesses obligations and buy more investment properties.

Anyways, that’s our budget! I think I touched on the main budget items. 

Until next month!

This post may contain affiliate links. I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this blog.

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I can’t stress this enough. Some investors are l I can’t stress this enough. Some investors are looking to make money from day one, but that’s not always the case. It wasn’t for us and I’ve talked to a lot of rookie investors who have told me “Thank God I have my personal finance situation together.” 

This is just my opinion. Do you agree? Let me know in the comments!

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I used to think that investing in real estate was I used to think that investing in real estate was for the rich. I became in love with real estate while working for a real estate investment company that owned hundreds of units. This was back in 2011 and I was 20 years old at the time. I had less than 5 years permanently living the US, so I had no idea about anything. I grew up in Colombia and the only talk of money we ever had was the lack of it. 

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Took me a couple of years to figure it all out. Hence, why I didn’t start investing until 2019. I wish I had figured out earlier, but it is what it is. In just 3 years of investing in real estate, I was able to accumulate more wealth than I ever thought possible. 

Just to give you an idea…Did you know you could invest in real estate with as little at 3.5% of the purchase price? For a $150,000, that’s only $5,750. Buy a duplex that needs a little bit of work, fix it up, rent one side and live in the other. This will reduce your monthly expenses significantly, save the money and do it all over again.*

Of course it’s not that simple, but it’s also not that difficult. There are some particular steps and considerations which is  why I recommend doing further reading on the subject. 

Book Recommendation:
✅“The House Hacking Strategy” by Craig Curelop and ✅“Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down” by Brandon Turner. 

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🚨 New Blog Post! Continuing the “Getting Star 🚨 New Blog Post! Continuing the “Getting Started in Real Estate Series” 

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We see a lot of advice around hiring a real estate We see a lot of advice around hiring a real estate friendly CPA. However, when you look up  CPAs that specialize in real estate, they can be pricey.  However, that doesn’t mean that other CPAs or tax professionals aren’t good. They might not be particularly aware of certain items, but they can research and collaborate with theirs peers. Perhaps it may require you to do a little of work to compensate. Things you can do:
✅ listen to The Real Estate CPA podcast or join the Facebook group
✅follow social media accounts of the pricey Real Estate CPA and take notes of what they are saying
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Then use that to go your CPA or tax professional and be like “Hey, is this something we can do for me?” They’ll probably say, “Let me look into it”. 

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So don’t panic if you don’t have a real estate CPA or tax professional. 

Next video I’ll be answering the question… “Can I skip the tax professional altogether and do my own taxes?”

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