Tag: financial independence

Categories
Reduce Spending

Save On Food

Food is in the top 5 of household expenses, so it is important to keep an eye on the food budget.

We could go very deep into how you can save on food, how to use coupons, what grocery stores can offer the best deals, but we’ll try to keep this one very simple as we feel that there are very quickly diminishing returns in trying to reduce food expenses.

The main factor driving up food cost is eating out. So keep eating out to a minimum. And that’s it! With that simple advice you’ll save the bulk of your money on food.

Then, if you’re on a stretch you can add:

  • No premade food, cook your own!
  • drink more water, remove soda and alcohol from your diet
  • if you eat meat, buy chicken, turkey or pork (if you can) rather than beef

And no, you do not need to eat ramen all year long. Rice, pasta, beans, lentils can serve as a good base. But you’d be surprised to realize that veggies are not always extremely expensive and the variety of meals you can easily cook can allow you to have a healthy diet without breaking the bank on food.

Categories
Reduce Spending

Save On Transportation Expenses

This one does not have a catchy coined term and I don’t feel like gifted enough to make one. Nevertheless, for most people transportation expenses is often the second biggest expense and it’s therefore well worth taking a hard look at ways to reduce this bill. Buying the newest car possible is usually what drives the cost up.

Save On Transportation Expenses

Alternative Transportation

Trying to figure out if you can do without a car can really help. A car is expensive: first you need to buy it, then you need to pay for insurance, maintenance and gas or electricity for electric vehicles.

If you live in a city with a decent public transportation system, this can be good way to save and forego that brand new car.

If you live close enough to work walking or using a bicycle rather than a car can also be a good way to save money.

But let’s face it, in most places in the US, it’s extremely hard to live without at least a car for the household.

Buy A Used Car

While buying a brand new car can be tempting, because this car won’t have any issue for a long time and it’s nicer, right? Wrong. A commuter car is a depreciating item, it is you guessed it, a liability. See asset vs liability. The game is then to limit expenses as much as possible, so instead buy a reliable, cheap and used car. In the US, there are a few Japanese cars that most car mechanics will be able to repair due to the abundance of repair parts. They are usually cheap to maintain and are among the most reliable models, not to mentioned the mileage is very good compared to most other cars. Toyota Corolla, Toyota Camry, Honda Civic, Honda Accord are vehicles that come to mind, circa 2010-2020.

The most cost efficient car we ever bought was a 1997 Toyota Corolla, we bought in 2010. The car had 116k miles. The maintenance was done, the timing belt had been changed at 80k miles. We had proof of the maintenance. We bought it for $2,950. It lasted until 2016 when the shocks broke down and the cost of replacement was not worth it. So we sold the car for $850 which could be re-sold for parts. Overall that’s just $2,100 for 6 years!!!

Our filter to find a decent car is:

  • Models: Toyota Corolla, Toyota Camry, Honda Civic, Honda Accord
  • Less than 15 years old
  • Less than 120k miles
  • Less than $4,000.
  • Proof of maintenance: that’s the tricky part. Very few owners keep the paperwork of the maintenance. But the very few who do are usually responsible people who take care of their car. For the models mentioned above, the timing belt should be changed at around 60-80k miles. That’s usually an ~$800 bill, so it better had been done.
  • Visual inspection: the engine should not be too clean. That’s counter intuitive, but you want a car that you know runs. If the engine has just been rebuilt, it may look clean, but you may not know if it will run. So you want a car that has not been heavily used, but nonetheless a car that is running regularly. Tires should have some life remaining: look at the thread on the tires, look for cracks (you do not want to see any).
  • Drive test: no weird noise. Starts properly. A bit of stop and go and a little bit of highway.

Buying from individuals off Craigslist or other similar websites is preferred than buying from a car dealership who will need to take their cut.

Yes, you will not find a lot of those. It took me a good 7 weeks looking at Craigslist daily. I only found a handful of cars worth looking at. And bought the first one that matched these criteria.

Also keep the record of all the maintenance you did, it may help you get a few more bucks when trying to sell the car.

Shop for insurance

Once you have the car, you want to shop for insurance to see what insurance company has a good deal at a given time. That can save you a few hundred dollars a year.

 

Overall you can save thousands of dollars per year, that’s more income to redirect towards investing to bring you closer to financial independence.

Sources

[1] https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-household-budget

Categories
Reduce Spending

House Hacking: The Best Way to Save Money For Financial Independence

For most people housing is the biggest expense and it’s therefore extremely important to limit spending on housing so you can save money. If you’re on a path towards financial independence, remember you need to invest money and to invest money, you need, well, money. So you need to spend it wisely and save wherever possible. So back to housing and what exactly is house hacking and how can this help you?

House hacking is a term that has been famously coined by Brandon Turner, former podcast host at BiggerPockets and seasoned real estate investor. It essentially describes several creative ways to reduce your housing expenses.

Let’s go through the different ways you can save money on housing. Depending upon your personal situation, some may be easier or more convenient to implement than others but let’s go through them anyway.

House Hacking: The Best Way to Save Money For Financial Independence

Understanding House Hacking

House hacking is a real estate investment strategy that allows you to live in your property while generating rental income from other units or portions of the property. By doing so, you can significantly reduce or even eliminate your housing expenses, creating a path towards financial independence.

The Benefits of House Hacking

Reduced Housing Expenses

House hacking provides a unique opportunity to minimize your housing costs by leveraging the income generated from renting out a portion of your property. This can free up a substantial amount of money to be invested elsewhere, ultimately accelerating your journey towards financial freedom.

Increased Cash Flow

With the rental income from house hacking, you can generate positive cash flow. This means that not only are you living in your property for free or at a significantly reduced cost, but you’re also earning extra income that can be used for savings, investments, or even paying down debts.

Building Equity

As you make mortgage payments, the value of your property appreciates over time, allowing you to build equity. House hacking enables you to expedite this process by utilizing rental income to contribute towards mortgage payments. This can help you build wealth and create a solid financial foundation for the future.

Learning Real Estate Investing

House hacking serves as a stepping stone into the world of real estate investing. It allows you to gain hands-on experience in property management, tenant relations, and the overall dynamics of the real estate market. This knowledge can be invaluable as you progress towards expanding your investment portfolio.

Consider living with roommates

Rather than renting a studio, you may want to consider renting a house with roommates and split the cost. It’s often more cost effective. I lived several years with roommates at a time where a studio was renting for around $1,500/month in my area, while the rent split among roommates was around $1,000/month, saving $500/month or $6,000 per year. While it looks like a nice saving, it’s nothing compared to what comes next.

Buy a small multi-family

Probably the most popular house hack and considered as the traditional house hack, it consists in taking an FHA loan (if you live in the US) to buy a small multi-family building, for example a duplex or a triplex or quadruplex, live in one unit and rent the other unit(s). If the price is right, meaning that you do not overpay for the property, and the interest on the loan is low enough, it is possible to have the rent cover the loan and some of the expenses and you can pretty much live for free. This strategy works best when buying a home is more advantageous than renting and it usually tends to be in cheaper housing markets. In more expensive markets, the rent will usually not cover the expenses, so while it can still reduce your expenses you’d need to verify how much would pay, should you rent in your area to see if it financially makes sense.

Why an FHA loan you may ask? It allows you to buy a property with just a 3.5% down payment. So if you look at  a $100,000 property, that’s just $3,500 you need to put as a down payment.

When done properly that’s how you can get rid of your biggest expense. The earlier you can do it, the more money you can save and invest.

Rent out rooms

This is somewhat a combination from the traditional multi-family house hack and the renting a place with roommates. Essentially you can buy a home, live in the living room or if the house has a basement, turn it into a livable space. Then you can rent out he remaining rooms. By renting individual rooms it may be possible to cover the cost of the house: loan, taxes, insurance, completely covering your housing cost.

Live-in flip

A live-in flip consists in finding a home below market value that needs to be renovated. You would live in house while renovating it. Live in it for at least 2 years to reduce the amount of capital gain taxes you’ll need to pay when you sell it, if you live in the US, as this relates to the US tax code. Then you finally sell it. The amount of money you make when you sell can cover your housing cost for the past couple years.

Overall there are various ways to reduce or completely eliminate your hosing cost and it’s extremely important to take a hard look at these options as reducing the biggest household expense can go a long way to boost your savings and your investment power.

Sources

[1] https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/6-house-hacking-strategies-you

[2] https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-household-budget

[3] https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidgreene/2018/12/04/house-hacking-how-financially-savvy-people-live-in-expensive-markets-while-saving-money/?sh=4cd1fc0470f0

Categories
Financial Literacy Investing

The Importance Of Investing And Investing Early

If you’re considering financial independence and early retirement, investing is not an option: you must invest if you ever want to have a chance to reach financial independence, by definition. In its simplest form financial independence means your money is working hard enough to cover your lifestyle so you no longer need to exchange your time for money, meaning you no longer have to work.

Also living of savings can only last for so long and there’s only so much you can save.

If you expect to retire at 40 years old, expect to spend $50,000 per year until you leave this earth, let’s say at 80 years old, to keep the math simple, that’s 40 x $50,000 = $2,000,000 you need to save by age 40. Assuming you start working at age 20, you’d need to save $100,000 per year for 20 years.

Assuming you live a lifestyle similar to what you expect in retirement, you’d need to earn a gross income of around $200,000 per year. Here goes the math:

  • At $200,000, you can expect to pay around 25-30% in taxes. That leaves you with $140,000-$150,000.
  • $40,000-$50,000 of living expenses
  • That lives you with $100,000 saved up.

While a few jobs can allow you to earn this much, it’s unlikely for most to earn such a high income at such a young age.

And that’s where investing comes to the rescue. Sure, you need to work to start earning and saving money, but this money should not sit idle and it should also work for you, so you can reach your goal. Investing will help you boost your income, until it eventually gets you financially independent.

Let’s consider a few scenarios to see how they compare. The first year we start with $5,000 and each year after that we assume the following:

  • Saving $5,000 per year
  • Saving $5,000 per year and investing half of the money at a 7% yearly return
  • Start saving $5,000 per year, and each year increase the saving by $1,000 (So the first year we save $5,000, the second year $6,000, the third year $7,000 and so on and so forth…)
  • Saving $5,000 per year and investing all the money at a 7% yearly return
  • Start saving $5,000 per year, and each year increase the saving by $1,000, investing all the money at a 7% yearly return

Here is the evolution over time:

By saving $5,000 per year, after 40 years you’ll end up with $200,000. Not too bad, but not enough to retire comfortably.

If you just invest half of the money each year, you’d double the money getting slightly over $420,000. It already shows how important investing is.

Now, without investing, but by increasing your savings by $1,000 each year (either by getting a raise, changing job or starting a side hustle), you end up with around $940,000. And this shows how important it is to increase your savings as your income grows.

Then, going back to the $5,000 / yr savings and investing everything, it beats increasing the saving rate and you’ll end up shy of the $1 million mark with around $998,000. Again it shows how important investing is as far as growing your wealth.

Finally, combining both the increase of savings over time and investing show the power of compounding and we’d end up with over $3,000,000 which is more than 3 times the next best results.

Now that growth happened over 40 years and this shows the importance of starting early. The earlier you start, the easiest it will be to grow your portfolio leveraging the compounding effect.

Now 40 years is still a long time, if we want to reduce the time it takes to reach our goal, whatever it is, we realize how important it will be to save aggressively to bootstrap the investment growth.