What’s better: condo vs townhouse? Let’s dissect the positives and negatives of both across a variety of factors including Cost per Square Foot, Privacy, Outdoor Space and Maintenance.
RFG is the place to find practical, real world information on personal finance, real estate, investing, stock options and more.
What’s better: condo vs townhouse? Let’s dissect the positives and negatives of both across a variety of factors including Cost per Square Foot, Privacy, Outdoor Space and Maintenance.
I’ve repeatedly seen two narratives told over and over again. First of all, debt is bad. Second, although debt is bad, having a mortgage is alright because it acts like a forced savings plan, slowly enabling borrowers to build wealth. But can't the “forced savings plan” idea can be extended beyond simply mortgage debt, if executed intelligently with low interest, short term debt?
The more that I learn, the more I think about investing and how I can be more effective with my portfolio. As the stock market has begun to falter, this has come to the forefront of my mind. Every day I find myself wondering how I can be more diversified and therefore more insulated from the everyday ups and downs of each market.
Good morning everyone. Today is a BIG day for me, and a big day for my investing strategies going forward. I'm exercising around 1/4 of the options I've been awarded in the startup I am working for. Although this won't have a huge impact for me in the near term, over the course of the next 3-4 years I am hoping this single decision will save me thousands of dollars (or if I am really lucky, tens of thousands) in taxes.
It seems like everyone I talk to about real estate believes that condos are the most egregious rip-off in real estate. In my experience, it’s exactly the opposite. So… are condos worth it, after all?
Life is expensive, and that can make it really hard to save. With rent, cell phones, cars, healthcare, food, childcare, vacations and thousands of other little costs, it’s not unusual for someone to have 80-90% of their income disappear into the ether. Lately, I’ve been thinking about ways I can try to turn at least some of those recurring payments into recurring investments, or at least mitigate them so I don’t lose so much of my income to recurring expenses each month.
How much does it cost to remodel a small kitchen? My ~150 sq. ft. kitchen cost around $20-$25k. A very small kitchen could be done for around $10k… and larger or fancier kitchens can cost $100k+.
HELOCs and refinancing aren't the only options for accessing the equity in a home. This week, I take a close look at a third option.
Just this week, Dropbox joined the relatively short list of billion dollar "unicorn" startups that are going public. Only 26 venture backed companies of any size went public last year, and there are more than 100 US companies valued at $1b or more still sitting on the sidelines waiting to IPO. The ultimate question for the people who work at those companies is: should I exercise my stock options, and if so, when?
Private mortgage insurance (PMI) is one of the biggest ripoffs in real estate. Many people that have it don’t need it, and could remove it. Use this calculator to see if you qualify.
We may not know when the next recession will come, but one thing's for certain: it's easier to plan for it BEFORE it begins, when times are still good. Here's my plan.
Congrats! You are entering the insane world of being a landlord. The only rub? How much to charge. It's a very important question, and one that is a little more complicated to answer than it may seem at first.
A couple weeks ago I told the story of my own stock option sale, and the lessons I learned from it. This week I wanted to dive into the plan I laid out at the very end of the post, the "25%" plan, and go into some more detail.
I've been learning a lot about my own financial "standpoint" as I've been writing over the past couple months, and it's been an interesting process. One of the things that I have been thinking about over and over is the amount of money that I'm saving in comparison to my total earnings. How much is enough for me to retire in my early 50's?
The best part about personal financial is that everyone has a personal take on it. As I've been writing over the past three months, I've also been reading a considerable amount of material from other personal finance blogs. One of the things that's interested me the most is the #FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement. Since this is my personal, personal finance blog, I'll come right out and say that I'm not #FIRE-ing. Here's why:
A couple years ago I developed my own investment guidelines and principles with the eventual goal of building my own portfolio.
The hardest part about being an owner in anything is knowing when -or if- you don't want to be an owner anymore. For anyone who has ISO or RSU stock options, you know what I'm talking about. If you sell your stock and it skyrockets afterwards, you locked in a lower price (and massive FOMO). If you DON'T sell, and it tanks afterwards, you are stuck with a bunch of nearly worthless stock.
How much do I need to retire? I made this easy calculator to find out.
Portfolio Visualizer is a comprehensive suite of investment analysis tools that you used to have to pay thousands of dollars for, but thanks to the interwebs, is now free. Here’s what you can do with it.