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Shopping for a Car: Lease, New, or Used?

on August 05, 2020

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Why a Financial Planner Isn't for Me

For my friends who are financial planners and financial advisors, this is not meant to be a critique of you or your profession. I often still contemplate working towards my own CFP certification . This article is simply my expression of why I've always felt a disconnect from the standard advice of most financial planners and how I've realized that my goals are different than the vast majority seeking financial help. When looking at a financial planner, let's first start with a basic understanding of what a financial planner actually does. Generally, financial planners help clients understand their current financial situation, and help them navigate and differentiate the various investment options that can help them on their path to their financial goals. There are a several setups that financial planners generally use and they are compensated based on a few different structures: commissions, fee-based/hourly, assets under management. Commissions : The financial advisor rec

Shopping for a Car: Lease, New, or Used?

If you've ever shopped for a car, you've probably debated how to find the best deal, and how to make sure you're getting the most car for your money. How does the math work out? What's the best use of your money when looking for a vehicle? Is it more cost effective to lease and have a lower monthly payment, buy a new car that will last for many years, or look for something used to avoid the instant depreciation from driving a new car off the lot? I'll dig into each option below with some examples to help explain the best use of your money. Let's take a look at an example for a 2020 Ford Escape SE 4 wheel drive (4WD). My wife and I have been debating getting a larger vehicle so we can haul more stuff around so that's why I chose an SUV for the example, but the principle is the same across all vehicles. I'll assume a timeline of 6 years for the total cost. That will amount to 2 leases, 5 years of new car payments, and 3 years of used car payments with bot

Review of First Year as A Landlord

When managed correctly, owning a rental property can be a great source of secondary income. But there are tons of options when looking for areas to invest in, and owning property isn't completely passive, so I need to make sure that I'm actually getting a good return on my money. When looking at long-term investments, a year is really a short time period, but I have a good set of data, and a decent idea of the actual expenses for this property, so I can better project the income and expenses going forward. Through my first year as a landlord, I've lost both of my original tenants, found new tenants who were willing to pay $100 more each month in rent, fixed and replaced various appliances, and built a small cash reserve for future repairs and updates. In order to purchase my first rental property, a duplex, I needed just shy of $48,000. After 12 months, my total expenses are $19,226 and my total gross income is $24,659 which leaves me with a net profit of $5,433. Alone, t

Why is College so Expensive?

Why is college so expensive? This is a question I never thought I'd be asking myself. When I was graduating high school in 2008, college was expensive, but no one questioned the cost. Everyone understood that you tried to do as well as you could in high school, so you could get into the best college you can, and the rest will take care of itself. Our parents told us stories about their rich friends who all went to college and now have great jobs and a lake house. Things we could only dream of. So we, as young adults, knew that college was the best way to increase our income and wealth. So why are so many questioning it now? Why has college gotten so expensive? There's no denying that college graduates earn more on average than non-college graduates . In fact, according to a congressional research report from 2019, college graduates out earn non-college graduates by about 67%, or 11$ per hour. That's a huge difference, but it comes at a cost. The cost of attending college ha

The Three Ways to Repay Student Loans

Paying back student loans can seem extremely personal and overly complex. There are so many options when making student loan payments that it can be overbearing and confusing. I get mail constantly from some of the well-known debt consolidation companies promoting the current offers they have. But is consolidating student loan debt always a good decision? In this article, I'm going to work through what I consider the three main options for repaying student loans. When faced with student loan debt, as many young people are, it can seem daunting to try and understand what the best options are, and how to go about getting rid of a large amount of student loan debt. Hoping for a presidential candidate like Bernie Sanders to be elected and forgive all student debt is not a realistic strategy. Even if Sanders is elected president, he would be faced with a massive struggle in forgiving any student loan debt, and would likely need to compromise somewhere in order to make it happen.