Updates

Life, Job Update & Rental Property Success!!

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Hey, it’s been a while!

I haven’t forgotten about this blog — I simply haven’t had much to say in regard to my financial journey since I’ve been out of work since August due to my hectic fall semester schedule and my chronic illness. I’ve also been super busy fixing up the house that I’d bought back in late June.

Life and Work

First of all, about my job — I hate it. It’s draining, having to deal with talking to 40 to 60 different people everyday, dealing with their problems and sometimes even getting yelled at. Sure, the pay is decent, but it’s not worth my sanity and well-being. So having to take a leave of absence for school did not require any second thought.

Speaking of school — I don’t believe I ever mentioned it, but I’m currently finishing up my degree in secondary education: a high school teacher, basically! I’ve got one semester left, which is student teaching. I’ll be doing that next fall, but in the meantime I’m back at my cushy and boring-as-hell insurance job. Once I finish my degree and earn my teaching certification, I’m quitting my job and jumping into the world of substitute teaching ASAP — I’m not quite ready to be a full-time teacher, haha.

The Rental Property

Now, as for the house — it’s all fixed up and rented out! It took a lot longer than I anticipated on the repairs, but it was an absolute breeze to rent out once it was finished. I currently have some great tenants in there, who I rarely ever hear from unless it’s time pick up the rent. Nice!

I’ll post the “financials” in my next progress update post, which I’ll be writing up soon!

NP.

I GOT THE HOUSE!

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If I was nervous putting an offer in on the house, then hoo’boy am I totally losing my shit now, knowing that my offer of $18,500 was accepted! Oh man. Where do I even start with this post? Oh yeah. That I actually just closed on the house today. 

The Financials
Really though, I guess a great place to start would be with the financial details, right? So I purchased the home for a total of $18,621 after everything was said and done. There was also a $513 past-due water bill on the home, too, which I thought I’d have to eat, but thankfully it turns out that’s not the case. Woo!

The House
The house is a 3/2 ranch style home with a pull-down attic and very oddly-shaped bedrooms. There’s also a massive tree in the front yard that, when I look at it, I simply see an insurance liability more than anything else. Regardless, it’s a nice little place that I’m hoping to rent out at a good price after I clean it up, paint, and do a little of this and that.

(I’m going to start a second blog, Neurotic Landlord, where I’ll document my journey in investment real estate and landlording in greater details. This blog I’m going to keep strictly for all-things financial, so I won’t talk too much about the house itself. Instead, I’d rather talk about…

The Plan
The goal is simple: Do the necessary repairs, get it rented out for $550/mo, and use that to pay back the taxes, insurance, and the personal loan that I took out to purchase the home in the amount of $19,000 at 12.99% interest for six months until I’m able to refinance. Right now, I’ll barely be making enough to cover the PITI with about $50 left over to pocket for later, but once I refinance I’ll be looking at $310/mo. (not including repairs and vacancy).

I’ll make another post in the upcoming days that’ll focus more on the financial side of things with a breakdown of the expenses, but right now I’m kinda crunched for time. Gotta go get the utilities turned on and get to work! Work as in my day job, by the way, lol. Work on the house will commence tomorrow!

Until next time!

NP

Progress Report #2 | Slow Savings

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There’s nothing new to report, but since it’s been a month since my last post I figured I should update with something.

So far, my savings have taken a bit of a halt due to recently moving. I need to purchase all new bedroom furniture, plus a desk, so it’s setting me back a good $1000.

…I’m also splurging and building myself the PC that I’ve been putting off for literal years, so make it more like $2000.

Regardless, I’m still putting away $500 minimum into my savings for a property down payment, so that’s good! I’ve got a total of $6,500 saved up so far… Only a $700 difference from my last update post, but oh well!

One of these days I’ll make a post that shows my current breakdown of my income and expenses. You know, once I have a desk to work at, lol.

Why is furniture so expensive?

In the mean time, I’m still working toward investing in Fundrise as well as trying to build that affiliate website… I don’t have much time outside of work, unfortunately, but I’m trying! Haha. Oh, and I’ll definitely make a post about Fundrise when I finally get around to trying it out!

’til next time!

NP.

Progress Report #1 | My First $5,000!

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I’ve saved up a total of $5,000.

That’s insane.

To be accurate, I’ve actually saved up $5,800 so far since starting my new job back in later September of 2017. That might not sound like a lot, but to me, it’s quite a hefty chunk of change — plus I was still able to take a nice week-long California vacation!

As I said some time ago in my last post, I’m currently saving up for a down-payment on a multi-family property. I’m thinking about $10,000 to $12,000 should be plenty enough for the price range multi-unit properties go for in my area, so I’ve still got a ways to go. Still, I’m proud to be able to say that I’ve saved so much!

Aside from that, I wanted to make a short post to keep this place updated on what I’ve been up to and where I’m currently at, financially. So I’ll lay it all out in a quick bullet-point list:

  • Saved $5,800 towards down-payment for first investment property.
  • Opened a Roth IRA at Vanguard with $1,000 to start.
    • Set up automatic deposits of $200/mo. from my checking account.
  • Got a (very small) raise at work. New salary? $34,050.

That’s it. Nothing to really write home about, but it’s something.

Anyway, while I’m saving up for that down-payment, I’ll be working on two small goals. (1) I’ll be working on building a niche affiliate website to see if I have the knack for it, and (2) I’ll also be saving up a little chunk of $500 so that I can give Fundrise a try.

‘Til next time!

NP

 

Finally Got a Cash Account!

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Jeez, it feels like it’s been forever since I updated this blog. Well, I don’t have much to say in terms of news, except for the fact that I finally took the plunge and converted my Robinhood Instant account to a Cash account!

Unfortunately it took forever–a few days for some trades to settle, and another 3-4 days for the actual conversion to be complete. But the good news is that now I can day trade as much as I want!

(Well, obviously that’s not true since I have to abide by the T+3 rule and I have a very limited bankroll to play with… but you get the idea.)

Anyway, I’m only playing with profits that I’d earned from that DCTH spike last month, so about $750.  Honestly, that’s peanuts. But for now it’ll have to do, since I don’t have any source of income to really funnel into my RH account. Although I am looking for jobs at the moment. I really need at least a good $2500 to start making any real notable profits, preferably $5000. All in due time.

I don’t have anything else to really add, so I guess I’ll post another update maybe next week with a summary of my day trades through the week! However I will let it be known that I managed to make a ~1.3% return on my bankroll during my first full day of day trading yesterday. That comes out to like, a whopping $10.68 or something, lmao. Like I said–peanuts! But hey, any profit is good profit! If I were playing with $2500 rather than $750, that 1.3% could have been $32.50 instead of $10.68 😛

Look, it’s not a lot but it’s a lot more than I’m making now! Hahaha.

AKS

Vacation Time!

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I wish I could write a post detailing on how I saved a bunch of money on my 5 day NYC vacation, but honestly I’m afraid to look at my credit card balance, lol.

I haven’t had much to post about since, as I already said, I’ve been on vacation; that, and there’s the fact that I’m still waiting for my three free day trades to free up so that I can use them again, so I haven’t been playing around with Robinhood. Ugh, it’s like a drug–I’ve been craving stocks this whole past week. Weird.

Although I did make $13 today from a quick flip of some DCTH trades I’d been holding onto since last Friday. What? Free money is free money 😛

Since I think I’ve gotten enough, I’ll probably go ahead and make the permanent switch over to a cash account rather than Robinhood Instant. ~$750 isn’t a lot to play with, especially considering the 3-5 day wait period necessary for funds to settle before being able to use them again after selling stock off, but I hate having limited day trades. Plus I’m excited to start documenting my 100k Robinhood Challenge!

Well, I guess I already did start it, unofficially, anyway–but that’s beside the point.  Oh, and now that I got to visit NYC? I have an unyielding desire to live there. I knew I had expensive taste, but sheesh. For someone who’s an anxious, neurotic mess, I found the subway system rather soothing, and the crowded streets sort of helped me to take myself out of my head for once.

Okay, I’m rambling.

Talk to you all soon!

AKS

Welcome? I Guess?

AlexLeave a comment

I dunno.

I’m gonna make this first post on this shiny new blog of mine short and sweet.

What it is. Me complaining/rambling/whining/bragging/literally anything else-ing about financial nonsense, be it stocks, savings, insurance, real estate, etc. This is my “road to financial freedom” blog, basically. God, that sounds so dumb. Let’s just… call it my online finance diary (like that’s any better).

What it isn’t. A financial blog that has it’s shit together and is run by a successful individual who knows how to play the game and probably retired at 32.

Posts will probably be super sporadic because I’m (1) a millennial with the worth ethic of a sloth and (2) I don’t have much anything of interest to post about. Yet. Regardless, all of my posts will be 100% honest, straightforward, and unfiltered.

So, yeah. Welcome.

A.K.S.