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in Financial Independence | Retire Early · July 24, 2020

Strategically Choosing a New Home to Reach Financial Independence

To achieve financial freedom, and retire early you must be willing to make some sacrifices. These sacrifices will vary from person to person.

The journey to financial independence requires that you save a substantial amount of money each month. This may mean increasing income, and/or decreasing expenses.

In most households, rent or mortgage is the biggest expense item, and strategically reducing your cost of living will significantly increase your chances to retire early. There are several ways to reduce household expenses. One of them is to move to a lower cost of living state or city. This is why we moved from South Florida, the sunshine state to Georgia without hesitation.

We loved our home in South Florida, there is no doubt about that. Our whole family is there. However, we hated the mortgage payment. We were paying $2,400 a month, and it was killing us.

During a road trip to Tennessee, we stopped by Georgia to visit my brother who lives here. He was telling us about his plans to purchase a home.


Just for fun, Ryan and I went into Zillow.com and were amazed by the home prices. The fact that we could get a house bigger than our Florida home at 1/2 the price was amazing. Not only that, but insurance prices were so much lower too. We also loved the various seasons and the scenery. The idea of Georgia was stuck in our minds and eventually, we decided that it was financially beneficial for us to move. We would cut a significant chunk of our expenses.

Initially, we were looking to buy a duplex and rent the other side, but it didn’t work out in the end, so we ended up getting a house. We moved to Conyers which is a city in the suburbs of Atlanta more in the countryside.

We purchased a 2,700 sqft 4 bedrooms/ 2.5 bathrooms sitting in 1.2 acres of land for $185,000. Our Florida house was $340,000 and about 1,000 sqft less.

I am not going to lie, coming from South Florida, it took some to adjust to the small-town life, the wilderness, and the quietness, but we now love it here. Our house might now be the nicest in the block, but it is OUR home. We have been working on adding our personal touch. Before and after pictures will come soon!

In addition to having a bigger house, our new mortgage payment is now $1,200 lower than it was in Florida which now allows us to allocate the extra money to debt pay-down and savings.

Additionally, given the lower cost to acquire real estate in Georgia, we will be able to grow our real estate portfolio at a faster rate.

Within 2 months of moving, we have already acquired an investment property which we got for $65,000. Details coming soon.

Sometimes you have to make difficult choices that may seem like sacrifices at first, but the results are so gratifying that they don’t longer feel like a sacrifice at all. We love our new home and yes, it is not as nice or centrally located, but we are happy at our new home. We are also at peace knowing that we are a step closer to reaching our financial goals.

Now, it is important to know that this worked out for us because of our specific circumstances. Everyone is different.

There were a lot of moving pieces to make this work for us. For example, arranging remote employment.

The important takeaway from this is that everyone’s financial independence journey is different. You need to define your goals and the approach that best suits YOU. Where do you draw the line? The point is not to make yourself miserable. Enjoy the journey!

We could have perfectly downgraded and moved into a cheaper house in Florida, but we didn’t because moving to Georgia was more in alignment with our overall goals. We wanted a big backyard for the doggies and my future babies, you know?! 🙂

What are your financial goals and what steps are you going to take to get there?

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

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New Blog Post 🚨 In this week’s blog post I am New Blog Post 🚨 In this week’s blog post I am going over why we bought a short-term rental, our experience so far. Plus what we did prior, during and after purchasing our first short-term rental in March 2022, a Cabin in Blue Ridge, GA.

Check it out at www.beyondjustnumbers.com or link in bio @beyondjustnumbers
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!

Want to join a free community of like-minded individuals? Join our REI Coffee Chat Community where we talk real estate investing, personal finance and financial freedom, and much more! Link in bio @beyondjustnumbers

Want to learn more about investing in real estate? Read my blog www.beyondjustnumbers.com

#realestateinvesting #realestateinvestor #creativefinancing #investmentproperty #buyrealestate #firemovement #debtfreejourney #financialindependenceretireearly #rentalproperty #investinginproperty #personalfinanceblog #wealthbuilding #planforretirement #investorlife #livefree #airbnb #moneyisfreedom #enjoythejourney #reicommunity #realestateinvestments #shortermrentals #cashflow #realestate
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. 

The investors I worked for were a wealthy family, so naturally, I thought… Real Estate requires wealth. I don’t have wealth. Therefore, I cannot invest. 

I figured… well shit, I need become wealthy so I can invest in real estate. Eventually, after educating myself I realized how wrong I had it. You can build wealth BY INVESTING in real estate.

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. 

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

You’ve found a property either on your own or through a realtor, you’ve run your numbers, you’ve got a lender and now you are ready to make an offer. What’s next?

In this post I want to discuss a few items:

✅Key components of a real estate contract
✅How do you make a compelling offer to ensure you get the property you want
✅The main contract contingencies and how they work
✅Communicating with your realtor

I also provide real examples of what we have done personally. 

Check it out at www.beyondjustnumbers.com

Let me know what you think!
If I listed all of the hats, I’d never end 😂. If I listed all of the hats, I’d never end 😂. Anyone else? Show me the multiple hats you wear and tag me. Let’s have fun with some reels.

Trying to get good at the real game like @investinginyourwealth. How did I do?
The fact that you are not where you want to be doe The fact that you are not where you want to be doesn’t mean you won’t get there. Greatness takes time. Focus on what you control.

And remember, it’s okay to pivot.

#mindset #realestate #firemovement #realestateinvesting #realestateinvestor #rentalpropertyinvestor #rentalproperty #cashflow #motivation #financialfreedom #financialindependence #financialindependenceretireearly
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
✅attend free educational events 
✅read BiggerPocket book on Real Estate taxes 
✅if you know anyone working with a really good Real Estate CPA firm, ask them what they are doing

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”. 

If they are good, they are going to research it and/or ask their CPA peer group. (CPAs and tax preparers also have Facebook groups where they collaborate with each other).

Here is a piece of advice, if they tell you “No, we can’t use this loophole or no, you don’t qualify to use this strategy” —> Ask WHY and “How can I qualify in the future?.” This way you confirm they did their homework and aren’t just being lazy. Don’t just take no for an answer. You can then get a second opinion by asking a question in a forum or to your peers.

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?”

#realestate
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