Fed Up, Author at The Fed-Up-With-This Papers

Dropshipping Booty Leggings for Big Profits

You’ve likely seen them on Tik Tok, the booty leggings taking the internet by storm. A cross between yoga pants and a thong, these pants go by a number of different names, I’ve even seen them called “cellulite eliminating pants”. Call them whatever you want, the fact is these pants are the latest hot commodity, so the question is, how can you capitalize on them?

Is There a Market for Dropshipping Booty Leggings?

Just take a look at the screen shot above. This single listing on Amazon has over 5,800 ratings you can see it HERE. Those aren’t orders, those are people who left reviews about the pants! You think that’s amazing?

This listing has over 28,000 ratings!!!

Checkout this listing on Aliexpress, they’re the same pants for $10! You can find these pants on Amazon, eBay, I’ve even seen them on Etsy! The more important point is that they are selling. Everyone wants an easy way to get a Kardashian looking booty.

Where to Find Booty Leggings for Dropshipping?

Perhaps you’ve heard of Aliexpress, if you have not, it’s not unlike an Amazon for Chinese goods. You don’t need a business, or an LLC, you also don’t need to place large orders. You simply find someone selling the booty leggings you think will sell best, copy their posting information, paste it on Amazon or eBay and you’re off!

The photo above is a screenshot from Aliexpress for a listing of these “Fitness Leggings” they’re identical to the ones listed on Amazon for $35.00! They ship for free and they offer a number of different options. You can see this listing on Aliexpress by CLICKING HERE.

Is it Safe to Order on Aliexpress? How Long Does it Take?

I have ordered a number of things from Aliexpress over the years from a number of different manufacturers and I have literally NEVER had a problem at all. The communication is also surprisingly easy. Checkout is really no different than ordering from any ecommerce website and tracking your order is a piece of cake!

With that said, I decided to place an order for a pair of these pants on Aliexpress. As you can see at the time of my purchase the pants were just $9.86. The order was placed on January 6th 2021.

The only real downside to dropshipping on Amazon is a lot of buyers are looking for 1-2 day shipping, not all, but a lot. So I was curious how long it would take for a pair of booty leggings form China to arrive here in the states. To my surprise it only took 13 days. Considering it was a single package on the other side of the world that had to clear customs and connect with USPS this was pretty amazing.

The quality of the product was also better than expected. I thought it might be very thin material which cheap uneven stitching. It wasn’t at all, the material is a quality thickness. The fit is great and looks well made overall.

Is There Faster Shipping?

One of the nice things about Aliexpress is you can actually search for suppliers in the USA. Instead of 13 days shipping it may only be 3-4 which is a much easier pill for an Amazon shopper to swallow. You will be paying a premium for this, maybe the pants are $14.50 instead of $10.00. This is a small price to pay if it means you’re actually going to get orders.

Here’s a vendor selling leggings and shipping them from the USA

Here’s the other option. Order a few and ship them to your home. Buy 20 pairs and list them, when an order comes through ship them yourself. They ship to you for free so the only additional cost is shipping to the customer but they’re so small and light the cost is minimal. Once you sell 10 order another 20 so you know you always have some in stock ready to go.

How much money can I make Dropshipping Booty Leggings?

Obviously that’ll depend on a number of factors so lets break it down per pair. The only real costs associated are going to be the cost of the leggings themselves and your listing fees for whatever platform you’re selling on. In most cases these fees are around 15%. You’ll want to undercut the market to try and drive more sales so lets say you put a sale price of $29.99.

Sale price – $29.99

Minus 15% listing fee – $25.49 total after fees

Minus the cost of leggings – $10.50

Total profit per pair sold = $14.99!

So when all broken down you could be making a profit of $14.99 for every pair of leggings you sell. Then you simply sign into Aliexpress, place your order, and change the shipping address to your customer’s address. I’ve done this before on a small scale and never had any issues.

Imagine selling just 1 pair of these leggings a day, after just 30 days you’d have $450 extra coming in, and all you had to do was take 3 minutes to place the order on Aliexpress. What if you could do 2 or 3 orders a day, that could be an extra $1,000 a month!

Imagine buying yourself a new 2020 Mercedes that cost $700 a month and when your friends ask you how you can afford it you tell them “I dropship booty leggings online and make an extra $1,000 a month for 45 minutes worth of work”.

10 Reason Why I Love Long Term Real Estate Investing

I love long term real estate investing, it’s really all I think about. The funny thing is, I currently own only 1 rental property and it has already changed my life. I have other investments, 401k, roth IRA, my wife has a pension, and I have a brokerage account, but real estate is just the by far the best investment vehicle in my opinion. Here’s a few reason why.

1) I’m making a ridiculous return on investment.

How would you like to make a 30% return on your money? Well that’s my cashflow return on my single investment property! We purchased the home for $100,000 with about $20,000 down and around another $5,000 out of pocket for some minor updating. The all in monthly payment comes out to about $1,000 a month and rents for $1,700!

This property is self managed. I only rent to military tenants so I don’t have to worry about damages, and most of the appliances in the home are newer. So I only save $100 a month for capital expenditures and surprises. Vacancies are also a non-issue as I typically have 10 applications in the first week of listing the home. This leaves a $600 profit each month, or $7,200 a year which is just about $30% of my original $25,000 investment.

2) Appreciation

The bonus factor. Most real estate investors will tell you that you shouldn’t purchase a home banking on appreciation, instead treat it like a bonus. The reality is homes appreciate, sure the housing crash happened, but home prices came back up. Two years after purchasing the home, it appraised for $160,000! Not a bad bonus.

3) Getting my money back

If you’re not familiar with BRRRR it stands for (Buy, Renovate, Rent, Refinance, Repeat). Not too long after the property was rented I decided to do a refinance, and the property appraised high enough that I was able to pull the original $20,000 down payment out of the home equity. I’ll be using those funds to purchase my second rental property, hopefully sooner rather than later.

4) Mortgage paydown

This is like a savings account that someone else puts money in for you. I don’t even factor this into my return on investment, but in just 2 years my tenants have paid down about $3,000 of the loan’s principal. That’s not much to write home about, but it’s still pretty awesome knowing that one day this house will be paid off and I won’t have put a dime into making it happen.

5) Not everyone does it

My wife and I are the only ones in our entire family who own an investment property. We’re the only ones out of all our friends who own investment property. There’s something very cool about that, we took the path less traveled. Friends and family often ask us how it’s going, they’re always amazed when we tell them about it. “how are your tenants?”…. good I guess we haven’t heard from them in 6 months.

6) Tax advantages

We have a Rockstar of an accountant, I recommend you get one as well. The first year we owned the rental we collected $8,400 of cash flow minus a $600 oven we decided to replace. My accountant found $18,000 worth of losses! Now my wife and I both work and make enough from our W2 that we can’t apply that $18,000 to our W2 income, but it means the $8,400 we made from the rental was 100% tax free. You know when you get a bonus or a commission check at work, it feels like taxes are double? Well that’s because that bonus falls into the highest end of your tax bracket, normally that $8,400 would as well, that’s why it’s so amazing. You’d have to probably make $14,000 on the books to have the same net take home.

7) It’s pretty darn passive

Now it’s not 100% passive, there are a couple times a year I get a call from my tenants, usually for little things I can handle myself. I rent to young military couples who just haven’t learned how to do basic repairs like a leaking toilet bowl flap, or a loose hand rail on the steps. These are quick easy fixes for me. The property is 9 minutes door to door which also makes it easier.

Listing the property and meeting with interested tenants also takes a little work, along with filling out the needed documents for the county. Reality is, I probably spend an average of 10 hours a year on the property. Considering the amount of wealth its generating I could spend 100 hours on it and it would still be worth it.

8) I have control of my real estate

The thing I hate most about the stock market, is even if you’re right the market can still decide you’re wrong. You can do all the due diligence in the world, but if herd mentality takes over you could find yourself in big trouble. There’s also nothing you can do to a stock to improve it’s value. With real estate I can decide what areas I want to focus on, I can put extra work and money into it to make it more valuable. I just feel like it’s mine to control.

9) It’s extremely rewarding

My father in law is very successful and I respect the hell out of him. When I told him my plan with the property he had his doubts, normally I listen to him but I knew I was right. I ran all the numbers, and knew when it came to real estate I knew more than him. I can still remember when I was finished renovating the place brining my in laws over to show them and how impressed they were. Then when our first military tenants signed the lease for exactly what I was hoping to get in rent, my father in law thought I’d never be able to get my asking price. After the first year when everything went right, my father in law admitted he didn’t think it would work and that he was extremely impressed. You’re not going to get that kind of rewarding feeling by maxing out your 401k and it's just another reason why I love long term real estate investing.

10) Early retirement

About 4 years ago I realized my new goal in life needed to be early retirement. People work so hard to move up the corporate ladder which is great, but honestly what is the point? I think every human on this planet should be spending every day trying to come up with a way to retire early. Real estate is proven to be one of the best, most tried and true ways of making that happen.

Think about it, let’s say you’re 35 years old. You decide you want to retire in your mid 40s and you need $10,000 a month to live comfortably. Well, going off “the 4% rule” you’ll need $3 million dollars so you can live off 4% a year. The other option would be to simply purchase 1-2 rental properties a year for the next 10-11 years. So lets say after 11 years you own 14 properties and each one cashflows $500 a month, that’s $7,000 a month. Remember what I said above though, you are not going to be paying taxes on that $7,000 where the $10,000 you will be. Also, as the homes appreciate you could refinance them and pull out large lump sums of cash if you really wanted to. Or pay them off faster and receive a larger monthly payment without a mortgage. Buying 1 property a year isn’t terribly difficult, especially once you hit your 7^th or 8^th year, now your real estate income is essentially buying the next property for you anyway.

At the moment we’re going through the Covid-19 crazy housing boom. I’m confident the housing market will start to cool, until then finding a property is proving to be a challenge in my area. The ironic part, I was putting an offer in on a home in early March, then the president came on TV and admitted the virus was way worse then they thought, so I backed off from putting in an offer… man was that a mistake. The little $140,000 fixer upper I was looking at is probably worth $280,000 right now.

I can’t wait to get another property, I’d like to have a minimum of 5 within the next 3 years. I’m so envious of the people I see on Instagram who add like 14 properties to their portfolio a year. I’ll get there one day!

The 4-Hour Work Week

"The 4-Hour Work Week" is an eye opening book. It reminds me of taking Philosophy my freshman year of college. It's meant to expand your mind, rewire your thinking and make you realize there is more out there than what you've always believed. This isn't meant for someone who can't think outside the box, this is a side hustle box, it's for people who understand you can make a living outside an office.

<br />

If you look on Amazon you'll see an overall positive rating, but the negative reviews all seem to have the same thing in common, they just don't get it. The people writing the bad reviews want more out of life, but can't seem to wrap their heads around the possibility that they could be in control of their own destiny. That isn't me, that isn't you. We've read the "Lifestyle Blogs" from stay at home Mom's who are now making 5x what they made when they were working. We know there are success stories out there and The 4-Hour Work Week outlines how you can have the same thing.

I also like that this book isn't just filled with "You Can Do It!" fluff. It actually lists links and companies you can work with to help outsource and delegate busy work. The author Tim Ferriss gives real world examples and explains how he got rich from side hustles before the term "side hustle" even existed.

To be clear, this isn't a blue print of how to start a blog. This is more of a guide to help you break away from what's considered "normal". Maybe you want to start an online drop shipping store, or a blog, or an Amazon FBA. Whatever your goal I believe this book can help open your eyes and push you toward your goal.

Any of the links on this post will connect you to my Amazon Associate's page where you can purchase "The 4-Hour Work Week". If you've already read the book comment below and let me know what you think.

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

9 Creative Ways to Pay Off Credit Card Debt

Credit card debt can be absolutely debilitating. I know two people who have had to declare bankruptcy as a direct result of being young and foolish with credit cards. Both found themselves in positions where their interest payments alone were more than they could afford each month.

As a result, they declared bankruptcy at a young age and have been trying to dig themselves out for seven years. Both wish they had come up with creative ways to pay off credit card debt rather than bankruptcy. They can’t buy houses, or get loans, one couldn’t even finish school as he couldn’t get a student loan.

I can speak from experience; at my peak I believe I had somewhere around $8,000 in credit card debt with about $200 a month just covering interest. I made some changes and have been credit card debt free for over 6 years.

1. Get Rid of Credit Card Interest

The first thing you should do, if possible, is ditch the interest. That $200 a month in interest alone I was paying, didn’t even touch the principal, it was just profit for the bank. What you want to do is a “Balance Transfer”. You’re just going to take your current credit card balance and apply it to a new credit card. There are plenty of 0% interest cards out there, find one with the longest term, this might be 12, 15 or even 18 months at 0% interest. I called the credit card company to help open the card and process the balance transfer. Then you simply take the total amount you owe, divide it by the 0% interest term and set up auto pay.

So for example:

$10,000 in debt

15 months at 0% interest

$10,000 divided by 15 = $667

By paying $667 a month you will be completely credit card debt free after 15 months and will have paid $0 in interest during that time.

Trying to pay off the debt without a balance transfer may require payments of $867 a month for 15 months, which is why this is such an important step if you can pull it off.

2. Sell Anything You Don't Really Need

Take a walk around your home, ask yourself if you really need all the stuff surrounding you. Realize that you’re pretty much paying interest on everything you own while you have credit card debt.

Do you have old video games that you never play? Would you buy them at 18% interest? Of course not, so why hold onto them? Sell them, take the money from the sale, and apply it to the credit card debt.

How about old clothes that you never wear anymore, you could take those to a consignment shop or sell them online. Then sell all the clothes hangers. Do you really need that end table or that wall décor? Sell everything and put that money toward the credit card debt.

3. Go to Garage Sales and Flip

This can really be summed up as “find a side hustle” but garage sales are one of my favorites. Even if all you can put together is the loose change under your couch cushions and bum $5 from a friend, you can still go to a garage sale and make money this weekend.

For those who don’t know, people at garage sales are typically looking to get rid of stuff, not make money. “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is most true at garage sales. It’s very easy to buy a few things for just a dollar or two and sell them online for $20+.

My buddy once bought a weird guitar made from an armadillo shell for $5 at a garage sale, it sold on eBay for almost $200!

My go to selling platform is always Facebook Marketplace, but you can also try eBay and Craigslist, or any of the new ones popping up.

4. Shop for New Car Insurance

This is one of my favorite creative ways to pay off credit card debt, as few people ever seem to mention it.

Do you have a car? If so you have car insurance. Now, when did you buy your car? If It’s been over 12 months chances are you’re over paying on your car insurance.

The reason being, vehicles depreciate rapidly. If you purchased a car 3 years ago for $25,000 it might only be worth $12,500 today. But you’re not paying insurance for a $12,500 car, you’re paying insurance for a $25,000 car. Call a competitor car insurance company and get a quote, if you’re happy with your current insurance let them know you got a quote but would like to stay with them if they can match it.

The first time I did this was for mine and my wife’s car, both were about 3 years old and I saved myself over $125 a month with that phone call.

5. Be Open and Honest About Your Credit Card Debt

Credit card debt can be embarrassing, even though just about everyone has had to deal with it. Let your family and friends know you are working your way out of debt and it’s a major goal this year.

Instead of birthday or holiday gifts ask for cash to help pay down the debt.

Your friends might stop pressuring you about going out to the bar after work, or if they do force you to come out they might pay for your drinks. Yes, it is charity. But let the people who care about you help you, once you bang this debt out you can return the favor.

6. Make Daily Payments Toward Your Credit Card Debt

You may be wondering “how can I make daily payments when I don’t get paid every day”. Well this is really about lifestyle changes. If you are serious about getting out of credit card debt you’re going to have to make some lifestyle changes and curb your spending habits.

There is a trick I used for my student loan debt, but it works just as well with paying down credit card debt. If you made a conscious decision NOT to spend money on something, take 30 seconds, go on your phone, and make a payment on your credit card in the amount you DIDN’T spend.

So for example, lets say I’m walking through the mall and I see a shirt that I LOVE. Normally I’d buy the shirt without thinking twice as it’s on sale for only $28. However, I’m trying to get out of debt, so I say to myself “NO! I don’t need it, so I’m not going to spend that $28”. Take out your phone and make a $28 payment on your credit card right on the spot.

This does a couple things.:

First, it helps keep you motivated as you see the credit card balance drop every day.
Second, it limits how much interest you pay each month.
Third, it prevents you from losing site of your goal if you see extra cash in your bank account and start getting cocky.

Even if you don’t put the full $28, toward the debt at least put something. Maybe put $14 toward the debt and reward yourself with the other $14. The trick here is to stay motivated.

7. Freeze Your Student Loan Debt

If you have student loan payments consider putting them in forbearance while you focus on paying the credit card debt. The reason for this is because all debt is not created equal.

In most cases, student loan debt is usually in the 4-6% range, sometimes even lower. Whereas credit card debt could be over 20% interest. By freezing the student loans and applying those payments to the credit card debt you’re actually saving yourself overall interest each month.

You’ll need to check on your particular situation, but if you find your student loans are under 6% and your credit cards are over 18%, you’re probably better off focusing all your monthly debt payments to the credit card.

Once your credit cards are paid off you can start making payments on your student loans again, plus you can add the amount you were paying toward the credit cards to pay them off even faster.

(Note: If you did a balance transfer and have 0% interest on your credit card you can skip this step, unless of course you need the student loan payments in order to pay off the credit card before the 0% interest period expires.)

8. Remember Dimes Make Dollars

In other words, you don’t have to make a huge sacrifice, instead find a couple small ones that you wont even notice, it’ll add up.

Do you need cable right now? Can you cancel your gym membership and just run instead? Are you paying $3 a month for some little subscription you don’t use?

Years ago I dove into my spending to find I was paying $15 a month for Docusign, $20 a month for a PDF editor, another $3 for a small subscription and $20 for a gym membership I wasn’t really using. Each one alone doesn’t seem like much, but all together that was almost $60 a month I really didn’t’ need anymore.

9. Make a Band-Aid Sacrifice

What I mean by this is do something grand to try and pay off the debt asap, rip it off like a Band-Aid.

If you are renting an apartment consider subletting it and move back in with your parents for a couple months. Apply every dollar of your rent payment to the debt then start over clean slate.

Do you have a nice car? Consider renting it out on Turo.com and either take public transportation or buy yourself the cheapest vehicle you can find while your nice car makes you money. Once the credit card debt is paid off, sell the cheap car and drive your nice car again.

Did you have a big vacation planned this year? Cancel it, put the $2,500 you were going to spend toward the debt and go on an even nicer vacation next year debt free.

Credit card debt sucks, but that’s why it feels so awesome to pay it off. Do everything you can to avoid the bankruptcy route, it can really be a penny wise but a dollar foolish. Both people I know who went this route wouldn’t do it again knowing what they know now. They would have made major sacrifices and just paid it off, they’re so much further behind now then they were with the debt.

Ultimately you’ll have to look at your own situation. There are people who make $20,000 a year with credit card debt and people making $200,000 a year with credit card debt. Who you are, what you make and what you can sacrifice will all determine what creative ways to pay off credit card debt will work best for you.

Toro Workman Auction Flip, $1,400 profit!

The title should be “I accomplished the ugliest Toro Workman auction flip on the planet”, but that’s how you get the good deals. It’s amazing how far a can of spray paint can go. The uglier the item, the cheaper it sells for, and in this case it sold cheap! The best part, I won this online so the time I put into it was just to go pick it up, trailer it home, fix a few things and paint it. All in, I’d say I maybe put a total of 5 hours into this purchase and sale.

I didn’t bother going to the auction preview, so this was won completely sight unseen. This didn’t really matter, because with that low of a price even if I got there and it had no engine I could have still sold the shell for $700 give or take. This was being sold by one of the local school districts. I pulled up with my trailer and winch ready to load up only to be welcomed by 3 of the nicest maintenance crew guys with the Toro Workman on the forks of their forklift. We chatted for a bit, and they told me they were pretty sure the item ran it just needed a new battery and maybe a little work, but other than the worn seats and ugly paint it was a great unit.

PUTTING IN THE WORK

After getting it home I connected a battery and crossed my fingers that it would start…. Nothing. So now it was time to try and figure out what was going on. I sprayed a little starting fluid in the carb, and used a wrench to jump the starter relay… started right up. So I went to the local auto parts store and bought an $11 starter relay, install and that fixed it. The unit ran and drove like a champ!

The next thing that had to go were the seats, after looking online I found a new set for only $180. Money well spent, I put new seats on just about everything I win, few things add more resale value than a new seat.

If you're not mechanically inclined don't worry. Sure you make more money if you know how to fix these things up, but you don't have to. Just checkout my blog post "Flipping a Broken $300 Golf Cart for $700" this was a similar auction where I just purchased a broken golf cart at auction and flipped it with nothing fixed at all.

NEW PAINT JOB

Part of the issue with the old paint job was it was peeling and uneven, I knew I’d never be able to make it look flat and even, so I decided to go with a camo style paint job. This was surprisingly easy to do. I purchased 3 cans of camo paint colors at Lowes. I started with an olive base color, then using some sticks and pieces of tall grass I sprayed over them like stencils all over the body with flat black and sand colors. I was SHOCKED with how nice it came out. I’ll be sure to do this again.

PRICING IT ALL UP

TORO with buyer premium - $603
Spray Paint - $14
Seats - $180
Starter relay - $11
Battery - $35

All together my total cost for the TORO Workman auction flip was $843 for a total profit of $1,357. The sale was also very easy, I list just about everything on Facebook Marketplace. A gentleman came from about 45 mins away with a trailer. He drove the cart around a bit, we negotiated and drove it right onto his trailer. I only owned the old Toro Workman for maybe 10 days, during this time I used to do some work around my property then sold it for a healthy profit. Not a bad auction flip at all.

1990 Bass Tracker Pro Deep V 16 Bass Boat

Winning a Bass Tracker Pro Deep V 16 at auction for $1,200

The best days of a boat owner’s life are the days they buy their boat and the day they sell it. I can attest to this statement having owned quite a few boats. With that said, I’ve been looking for a boat just like this Bass Tracker Pro Deep V 16. Light and easy to tow, V hull so I can take it in the upper part of the Delaware river, and super cheap!

BUYING A BOAT AT A TOW TRUCK AUCTION

Bass Tracker Pro Deep V 16 — Interior of the Bass Tracker Deep V 16 at the auction

That’s right, I won this boat at an auction that was liquidating a tow service. I went in thinking I’d have to pay a lot more if I wanted to win this boat. The reality is the Bass Tracker Pro Deep V 16 is a great boat, and perfect for this area due to the lack of large lakes with most fishing happening in the Delaware. To my surprise, not many people bid. The opening bid was $600, two people went at it and I bid on top of the leading bidder at $1,200 and that was the end. After inspecting the boat I decided that $1,200 was going to be right around my limit. The boat’s interior was in great shape, the motor looked like new with good compression, and the trailer could easily sell for $600. So at $1,200 there’s no way I can lose money on the boat. It also helps that both the boat and trailer have titles. You don’t always get titles on trailers when they end up at auction.

NOT MY BEST INSPECTION

As I mentioned the boats interior is great, and the engine and trailer are super clean. The problem… the transom is very rotted. Luckily, this isn’t too difficult of a fix on this aluminum boat and should only cost about $100. It will however take a fair amount of time, I’m guessing a solid 8-12 hours all in.

You can buy just about anything at auction, I like things with motors as they can give very big returns, but it’s important you know how to turn a wrench if you go that route. I’m actually happy I didn’t notice the rotted transom, I may not have bid. I hooked up a battery and sprayed a little starting fluid into the engine and it started right up so this is a strong running boat. The outboard, a 40 hp Evinrude, is probably worth the $1,200 I paid for the whole boat.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE ARE NO KEYS?

I’m not talking about keys for the boat, I’m talking about keys for the giant hitch lock that was on the trailer. This is another important lesson, never assume anything at an auction. Items are sold as-is with no guarantees. That includes assuming a boat, car, or anything else for that matter comes with keys.

Keys are honestly not really an issue, I purchased a replacement starter switch with keys for $20 and had it swapped out in about 5 minutes and it worked like a charm. The issue here was not having a key for that trailer lock. You need to be ready to get creative in the world of auctioning.

What I did was run over to the local Harbor Freight and purchased a battery-operated disk grinder and 10 disks, I think I maybe spent $30. This thing worked like a charm and I was able to cut through the large lock on location in about 30 seconds.

This isn’t the first time Harbor Freight has come to the Rescue. I’ve driven an hour to pickup a trailer only to realize I forgot I had removed my ball hitch like an idiot. Another trailer I won didn’t have any lights, a quick visit to the local Harbor Freight saved the day with a $25 light kit. Call it the law of havoc, but eventually auctions will throw you a curve ball and you’ll need to be a problem solver.

TO SELL OR KEEP THE BOAT

Replacing the transom on a bass tracker deep v — The gas tank and battery removed, getting ready to replace the rotted transom

My hope is to get this boat water worthy in time for the spring striper run up the Delaware. The timing isn’t ideal as it’s now just too cold to work on. If we get a random weekend of 50+ degree weather I’ll get out there, otherwise it’ll just have to wait for early spring. I think I’ll hang onto it for one season, plus I always feel more comfortable selling boats if I can say I’ve tested it and it’s great. The only similar model I see listed online apparently sold for $4,950 recently. I honestly don’t expect to get that much, maybe $3,750. With that said, it will have a new transom and I plan on installing an electric CMC tilt trim for $600. So I’ll likely list it for the $4,950 and see what happens. I’ll update once I can get back out there. Maybe I’ll even do a blog post about the repair.

Flipping a Broken $300 Golf Cart for $700

One of my favorite things about auction flipping is it’s almost impossible to lose money if you buy right. This broken $300 golf cart is the perfect example as it was in bad shape. All four tires were flat with the 2 rear tires completely off the rims. Also, it was missing a bed and had no keys. Still, the seats were in good shape and it had an engine, that’s really all you need.

READ THE FINE PRINT

Even after all these years of auction flipping I still make mistakes. In this case, my mistake was not realizing the only payment options were in person at the auction office or via wire transfer which comes with a $60 fee. This was extremely frustrating as the office was about 30 mins away from where I had to pickup the golf cart and I wasn’t about to blow $60 on a $300 item. I guess it worked out for the best, but it was an annoying surprise.

PICKING UP THE GOLF CART

This auction was kind of a mess from start to finish. I went in thinking I’d win 10 golf carts at this auction and ended up only winning one. Since the auction was almost an hour away I was annoyed I’d have to drive all that way for just a single cart. The next issue, this was a municipal auction and I went to pickup the cart on a state holiday, the lot was closed! This was infuriating since I called the auction office to confirm I could come and pay in person. I drove over an hour to pay my invoice towing my trailer only to find out the lot was closed and I couldn’t pickup today.

Luckily, after a few phone calls, I was connected with the gentleman who worked the lot and said he had to stop by the lot anyway. After 30 mins of waiting I was let into the lot.

If you’re going to get into flipping golf carts, tractors, or anything similar you’ll need a winch. Trying to push a golf cart onto a trailer with flat tires is pretty much impossible. A winch makes easy work of loading in minutes. I recommend one with a remote control rather than a wire controller, it makes life much easier as you walk around to make sure nothing is getting snagged and that the cable is spooling evenly. Please be careful, a winch cable can snap and be very dangerous, putting a weighted blanket or heavy jacket over the cable will help stop it from snapping back if it were to break. Just be mindful of what you're doing, don't use a 2,000lb winch to pull a forklift. I use a 5,000lb winch on my 7,500lb trailer.

FLIPPING THE CART

My hope, as with all non-running items I win, is that I’ll hook up a battery and it’ll just work. After purchasing a $5 replacement key and hooking up a battery I found that I was out of luck. The large electric starter motor was shot. I did take 20 mins to remove it, open and clean the brushes and put it all back together. This was enough to get the motor to turn and the engine to run on a little starter fluid, but it wasn’t a running machine.

The good news, as I stated at the beginning, it’s almost impossible to lose money. So I listed the cart as-is and had a buyer the very next day. The gentleman works on golf carts and had the parts needed to get it up and running. Because I do a lot of these types of flips I had a set of good golf cart tires sitting around, I put those on the cart and we pushed it right up and onto his trailer. Another $400 profit for doing pretty much nothing. Had the cart been running I probably would have built a little wooden flat bed for it and asked about $1,500. Still, being paid $400 to drive 2 hours and winch a broken $300 golf cart onto a trailer isn’t bad money.

Here's a nice winch setup on Amazon for less then $100

Emergency Fund Guide, How Much Do You Really Need?

Emergency funds, like most things are not “one size fits all”. Hopefully my emergency fund guide can help you decide just how much cash you should keep on hand. It can be argued “the bigger the emergency fund the better” but this simply isn’t true. Cash value deteriorates over time (thanks inflation) as a result $1,000 today may only have the
spending power of $700 in 10 years. It’s much better to put away what you need for your situation, no more, no less.

#1. FIRST YOU NEED A BUDGET

Step 1 to figuring out how much you’ll need to save if figuring out what your monthly expenses are. There are a number of budget templates available online. For me I prefer a good old excel spreadsheet. I simply list all my outgoing expenses and group them based on “Mandatory expenses” and “Flexible Expenses”.

“Mandatory Expenses” are things like food, housing, utilities, car payments, etc. These are the necessities and I can’t eliminate. “Flexible Expenses” are things I could eliminate inside of 24 hours. Eating out, cable, clothing, vacation, even child care and student loans could fall into this category as they can be frozen.

Your emergency fund should be based upon your Mandatory Expenses. If your normal outgoing expenses are $5,000 a month and you suddenly lost your job, you could cancel your cable, stop saving toward that vacation, no more eating out, put your student loans in forbearance. Suddenly your $5,000 outgoing expenses are down to $3,200. You’re spinning tires, but that’s okay, we just need to get through these times.

#2. FIGURING OUT WHERE YOU FALL

As I first mentioned, emergency funds aren’t created equal. Should the guy trying to start his own business have the same emergency fund and the nurse down the road? Probably not. Nursing is a very in demand job with less risk of losing income vs starting a new business.

You also need to understand there are emergencies outside of just losing your job. Are you young and in good health? Great, you may need a slightly smaller emergency fund then someone who’s older and in not the greatest health but has the same career as you.

#3. $1,000 EMERGENCY FUND

This is the bare bones. We’re talking fresh out of college, living on your own, trying to make ends meet, living on Ramen noodles. If your worst-case scenario situation is you have to move back home with Mom and Dad, you might be able to get away with $1,000. This is more a mistake fund then an emergency fund. You accidently run a stop sign and get a big ticket. You drunkenly spill wine all over your laptop. You’re young and have very little to lose, so you can sneak by with a small fund.

#4. 3-4 MONTH EMERGENCY FUND

This emergency fund is for a married team who typically live below their means, both work, and at least one person has an extremely stable job.

My wife and I fall into this category as she is a union government employee earning six figures. We can live on her salary alone. Short of her murdering someone, it’s almost impossible she would ever lose her job. I am in finance sales, my job is no more or less secure than any other job so long as I preform.

We’re still young, healthy and have no children. We can get by with a 3 month emergency fund as it would be less about loss income and more about covering a true emergency like needing to replace the roof our the house. Again, this isn't a rule, just an emergency fund guide. If you're in a similar situation and uncomfortable with just 3-4 months, by all means add more!

#5. 5-6 MONTH EMERGENCY FUND

I imagine most people would fall into this area. If both people in the household work full time you can usually get away with a 5-6 month emergency fund. If only one person in the house works but it’s a very stable job like a nurse, government employee, tenured teacher, etc. Or even if only one person works but they have a very in demand job, you would likely fit in this emergency fund.

Nine times out of ten you’re going to be in good shape if you can put together a six month emergency fund.

#6. 9-12 MONTH EMERGENCY FUND

If you are single and your job isn’t very secure I suggest trying to save up 9-12 months worth of expenses for your emergency fund. It always seems that when it rains it pours and sometimes finding a new job isn’t easy. If you find yourself out of work, and suddenly your refrigerator breaks what would you do? Chances are you’d have to put the fridge on a credit card, and that’s the last thing you want to do.

I also recommend this for a couple with kids where only one person is working and the other person is stay at home. I’ve personally gone through a job loss that took 10 months before I could find work. Luckily the first few months came with unemployment and my wife’s salary could cover the rest, but what if you didn’t qualify for unemployment and had no secondary income.

#7. 12+ MONTH EMERGENCY FUND

This is really for those self-employed people. You’re taking on a lot of risk for hopefully a very large reward, but you need to be realistic that it may not work out. Self-employed do not quality for unemployment in most cases, having a failed business also doesn’t look very good on a resume. Finding a job after trying to start a business can be extremely difficult. Without unemployment to help out, you have to consider the possibility that you could be without an income for an extended period.

#8. ADD A MONTH

I also recommend adding a month if you have certain situations. If you have children you should probably add at least 1 month. If you aren’t in the greatest health, add 1 month. If you just purchased an old home, add a month. If you’re over 55, add 1 month.

You’ll have to look at your exact situation and decide if you should be adding a little time to your emergency fund. Again, this is just an emergency fund guide, it’s not one size fits all and it’s just to help paint a picture on what you should realistically be saving.

If you’re married, 32 with no children, and in good health then you may just want 4 months. If you’re married, 55 with 3 children and high blood pressure, you may want 6-7 months.

#9. DON’T INVEST YOUR EMERGENCY FUND

This probably goes without saying but it’s worth mentioning. In 2008 during the great recession people lost their jobs, their homes and their investments damn near overnight. If you lose your job and your home value suddenly plummets and you’re upside down on your mortgage, all you’ll have is your emergency fund. If that is in a plummeting stock market you’re going to be in very bad shape.

Yes, inflation will chip away at the security deposit and that sucks, but just look at it as insurance. We pay insurance on our homes, cars, health, etc. This is money that just vanishes and hopefully we never have to utilize that insurance, but we pay it without a second thought. I look at inflation chipping away at my security deposit as insurance. It’s the insurance to know I can handle things when shit hits the fan, and it’s why I sleep good at night.

Do you agree with this emergency fund guide? Do you think people should save more? Should they save less? Comment below...

Buying a Home vs Renting a Home, By The Numbers

I’d like to start by saying owning a home is not for everyone, and some homeowners get very unlucky leaving a bad taste in their mouth. With that said, if you’re considering buying a home vs renting a home, buying beats renting every time in the long run.

To prove this, I’ve decided to look at hypothetical numbers that show cost of ownership for a homeowner vs renting going all the way into retirement years. I’ve also figured opportunity costs and how that could impact long term gains if invested.

For the renter, I’m starting with $1,200 a month in rent. Rents increase over time, so every 3 years we’ll increase the rent by $100 per month.

For the home owner, I’m assuming a purchase price of $200,000 with taxes and insurance equal to $1,200 a month and a $40,000 down payment. We’ll also need to consider the fact that property taxes only go up.

A LOOK A 30 YEARS OF RENTING

Renting $1200 for first 3 years ($43,000),

Goes up to $1300 for 3 years ($46,800)

Goes up to $1400 for 3 years ($50,400)

Goes up to $1500 for 3 years ($54,000)

Goes up to $1600 for 3 years ($57,600)

Goes up to $1700 for 3 years ($61,200)

Goes up to $1800 for 3 years ($64,800)

Goes up to $1900 for 3 years ($68,400)

Goes up to $2000 for 3 years ($72,000)

Goes up to $2100 for 3 years ($75,600)

This is now the 30 year mark. The Renter has paid $593,800 and we still have 12 years until retirement if we started at age 25.

At 30 years the homeowner’s house is now paid off. They only have taxes/insurance moving forward, yet the renter's rents are still only going up. The homeowner has paid an estimated $450,000 total when figuring in increasing property tax.

WHAT DO THE NEXT 12 YEARS LOOK LIKE?

With the homeowner’s house paid off, let’s take a look at how the numbers stack up.

Home owner is paying $500 a month for 5 years ($30,000)

Home owner is paying $550 a month for 5 years ($33,000)

Home owner is paying $600 a month for 2 years ($14,400)

Rent goes up to $2200 for 3 years ($79,200)

Rent goes up to $2300 for 3 years ($82,800)

Rent goes up to $2400 for 3 years ($86,400)

Rent goes up to $2500 for 3 years ($90,000)

So all in, over a 42 year period the home owner paid $527,400 and his home is worth $460,000 having kept up with 2% inflation rate.

The renter after 42 years has paid $932,200 and has NOTHING to show for it.

But what if you invested the original $40,000 down payment at 7% over 42 years instead of buying a house??? That's $685,000!

Well first of all, that still means you’re $247,200 in the hole and have nothing to show, vs the homeowner who paid $527,000 over 42 years and has a $460,000 house to show and a housing payment 1/5^th of your rent. But we also need to figure what if the homeowner was investing the difference between their housing payments and the renter’s payments.

In year 3 the homeowner would have started investing $1,200 a year as that’s the difference between their payments and the renter’s payments.

Year 6 they’d be investing $2,400 a year.

Year 9 they’d be investing $3,600 a year.

Year 12 is $4,800 a year.

Year 15 is $6,000 a year.

Year 18 is $7,200 a year.

Year 21 is $8,400 a year.

year 24 is $9,600 a year.

Year 27 $10,800 a year.

Year 30 is $21,000 a year. (the year the mortgage is paid off)

Year 33 is $22,600 a year.

Year 36 is $23,800 a year.

Year 39 is $25,000 a year.

Year 42 is $26,200 a year.

I'm not going to even try to figure out how compounding interest works its magic on those numbers over time. I did start doing the calculations and it approaches $2,000,000. Even if we say it averaged $7,000 a year for 42 years that’s over $1,800,000 so I’m sure we’re in the right ballpark.

Where do we end up?

The home owner has paid $527,000. They own a $460,000 home and are paying $600 a month to live in their home moving forward. They also have around $2,000,000 in investments.

The renter has paid $932,200 over the past 42 years. They do not own their home and need to continue to pay $2,500 a month for their rental. They also only have $685,000 in investments from the investment of the original $40,000 they didn’t use for a down payment.

We also need to take into consideration no other costs were considered. Owning a home over 42 years is going to require at least 1 new roof, a hot water heater, HVAC replaced, an updated kitchen and a number of other costs. Even if this costs $100,000 the home owner is still miles ahead of the renter.

OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER

Nothing is going to be this cookie cutter. Every situation is different. If you have a job that may require you to move a lot, you could be better off renting. Realtor fees, moving and storage expenses can really chew into gains. Older homes can come with a lot of additional expenses that can add up over time.

Are you handy? If you don’t know how to turn a wrench home ownership can get very expensive. Easy fixes like changing out a sink faucet may only cost a DIY guy $30, if you call a plumber or handy man you could be looking at $200. Again, these things can really add up.

With all things considered, buying is still going to be the right financial choice 99% of the time.

Comment below and let me know your thoughts.

Getting Through Unemployment

I’m currently going through my second bout of unemployment, thanks Covid. This time around it’s no problem at all. The first time was HORRIBLE! This time around my wife is making $3,000 more each month. Our debts have dropped by over $1,000 a month. And we have an investment property that brings in $700 each month. We made major life changes the first time I lost my job and we’re honestly better off because of it. Still, getting through unemployment is not easy. If you’re doubting yourself, I promise if I can get through it you can too.

My Useless Education

I graduated with a 4-year degree in Nursing, passed my boards with ease and was part of the Nursing Honor Society. Just 1 problem. I realized in my 4^th year that I had zero desire to be a nurse. It wasn’t what I thought it would be, and I found that out the hard way.

I had been working full time while going to school for an ecommerce startup managing the warehouse. Turns out I really liked that job. We sold high end furniture and I was making amazing money for someone in college.

When I graduated, the owner of the company told me to forget nursing and stay with the company. He offered me a six-figure salary so I stayed.

My though was I could always go back to nursing. But a year turned into 2, then 3 and before I knew it 6 years had passed, and my nursing education was pretty much obsolete.

At the time I had no regrets because I figured my education worked as leverage to get me a six-figure salary right out of college. That was until things started to fall apart.

When Your Boss Moves Out of State

Promotions continued to roll in and eventually I was the big cheese. The owner decided to step away and I handled every aspect of the business operations.

The boss was so comfortable with me running everything that he even moved out of state. It wasn’t unusual for a month to go by without him showing up even once.

This was actually a dream come true as I didn’t care for the man at all. He seemed nice on the surface, but he was a self-centered narcissistic pig. He’d cheat on his wife, screw over vendors and customers without thinking twice. He never crossed me, so I stayed, but he was just a terrible person overall.

The Company Moves Too

One day I get a call from the owner of the company. He says the warehouse’s lease is coming to an end and he wants to purchase a warehouse right down the road from his new home and move the business closer to home.

It was in that moment that I knew I was totally screwed. He lived 2 states away on the other side of NYC pretty much a good 4.5 hour drive. My wife has a fantastic job so moving with the company was out of the question.

We threw around the idea of getting a new lease at a larger location close to where the old place had been. We talked about key man insurance on me. Then he dropped a bomb…

The only way the company would stay in the area is if I were willing to start an LLC, sign the lease personally, and run the company that way.

I can’t even begin to explain how much this muddied the waters and the amount of stress this created trying to figure out what would be the best move for me.

The Inevitable

After looking at locations locally and strongly considering signing a lease to not lose my high paying job, it was too late. A warehouse by the owner opened up and he was putting in an offer.

The location of this place was TERRIBLE. The loading dock was terribly slanted and too small for an 18 wheeler. It was 25 minutes from any main highway and over an hour from New York (where most of our clients came from).

None of this mattered, he wasn’t doing it for a purpose other than he just wanted to do it.

Depression Sets In

I had my first panic attack. I saw the writing on the wall. For 3 months I had applied for jobs and nothing. Though I was excellent at what I did our company was overall small. All my networking was out of the Carolinas or Canada. I must have applied to 200 places with no interviews and this was 2017 during super low unemployment.

I went on medication. I continued to work for the company, responsible to oversee the move. It was the hardest I’ve ever worked in my life trying to run a company while also move it across multiple state lines.

We had over $2 million of high-end furniture inventory that had to move. Everything had to be packed and shipped. I worked 18-hour days thinking it might somehow save my job. Deep down I knew I was just spinning tires

Working Remote

Finally, the day came when the local warehouse was completely empty, and the lease over. The owner was so excited, and I was in the worst place I had ever been in.

“Luckily” because the owner had been out of the day to day for a solid 2 years, he still needed me. He was pretty much incompetent, how he was able to start such a successful company still escapes me. I guess hiring me helped, but he was doing $400k in sales a year before I came on, by the time it was in my hands I grew that number to over $2.5 million.

So he kept me on for a year. I’d work from home updating the website, working with designer clients, scheduling shipping, etc. I’d drive the 4.5 hour commute once or even twice a week to be there for the shipping pickups.

I kept a paycheck, but it was absolute torture.

Cannot Find a Job

During that year I continued to apply for jobs and for a year I found nothing. I interviewed for a few jobs, but they never worked out. I’d do follow up emails and calls. Linkedin messages, the works.

Nobody wanted a Registered Nurse with zero experience or a business operations manager without a business degree… I was completely stuck.

I decided my only option was to start my own company doing exactly what I had been doing. I started secretly building a website. Getting all the legal paperwork ready. Just waiting for the day I’d be inevitably fired.

And eventually that day came. I worked with that man for 10 years and helped make him a millionaire. He shook my hand, thanking me for everything and sent me on my way. No severance or anything. He even put in my unemployment information in the wrong state only making things worse. That was the very last time I spoke to him.

Being an Entrepreneur

My little business launched and didn’t take long to make money. I can still remember selling my first custom table for $5,000 with a $2,800 profit.

It was a dropship model, and I was listing as much product on the website as I could. eBay was great for selling little expensive soap dishes and book holders. It just was not enough, and I was running out of money.

I knew that before too long my savings would be gone unless the company really started to take off or I landed a job. Part of the problem was I had built a lifestyle around making $150,000 a year at the age of 25 into my 30s. So even though the business was doing well by most people’s standards, it wasn’t covering my expenses and bills.

Pounding the Pavement and Getting Lucky

At this point it had been 11 months since I lost my job.

I found a job listing online for a local company, small but publicly traded. A business development position selling finance options to the healthcare industry. I figured my education and experience might be a good fit.

I applied, put on my suit and just went to the location to bang on the door.

I entered the lobby only to find another set of doors that were locked. There was a directory so I started flipping through to see if I could find an HR person to call, maybe they would like my initiative.

Then I hear someone behind me say my name. It was a guy I went to high school with coming back from his lunch. I told him why I was there, he gave me 3 people to reach out to and gave a recommendation to them.

I got an interview…

Interviewing

I only had maybe 3-4 interviews in my life. I cannot even begin to tell you how nervous I was. I’m a confident person, but I was still suffering from the depression of losing that job that I loved so much. I had just zero self-confidence.

I ended up interviewing 5 times with a total of 12 people.

In the end I got the job, a big pay cut, but enough to cover expenses.

New Normal

I ended up closing my business. Though I still think it had potential I simply could not keep up with both. My anxiety was at an all time high and I was still taking medication to fight it.

My new job was infinitely less stressful than my old one. I was lucky because my wife was given a large promotion that offset my drop in income, so we felt no pinch.

Still, I had a lot to learn. I went from being the boss and managing 8-10 people to managing no one and having to answer to someone every day. Luckily, I was part of a great team and managed to get a foot in the door into an industry that pays it’s higher ups extremely well.

Don’t Lose Hope

Getting through unemployment could be one of the hardest things you ever do. I think I applied to over 500 jobs. I had a 4-year degree in Nursing graduating at the top of my class. I let all my experience go stale. I watched on LinkedIn as old Nursing classmates were being excepted to Anesthesiology programs just 2 years away from job security and $200k a year. Meanwhile I was jobless.

I lost a job that spoiled me with a great salary at a young age. I was thrown aside and unappreciated.

I was asked to sign a lease for my company taking on all the risk with the only reward being keeping my job.

I lost 20lbs due to stress. I could not sleep at night. I slipped into a depression and had to go on medication.

I was unemployed for 11 months… and I still found a good job.

It All Worked Out For The Best

Eventually, I found myself in a better situation then I had ever been in. I paid down debt more aggressively. I built a large nest egg and invested in cash flow positive real estate. The depression and anxiety went away, and I sleep better now than I ever did.

Never give up. Keep on going. Pound that pavement and hope a little luck comes your way.

You got this…

1 2