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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!

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.

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…

12 Tips To Stay Positive in the First Month of Blogging

The first month of blogging kinda sucks, I’m not going to lie. There is a ton of work with pretty much zero reward in your first month of blogging unless you call $0.51 from AdSense a reward.

Here’s a few tips I’ve learned firsthand to get you through that first month, and hopefully into months 3-6 when you finally get out of the Google Sandbox hell.

Don’t focus too much on your site’s aesthetics

Everyone wants a great looking website, but what good is a beautiful website if nobody ever sees it? A rookie mistake is spending most of your time on the website looks when you should just be writing A LOT. Build content and try to get some backlinks. Then you can make some tweaks to the appearance along the way.
Consider keeping a blogging journal

This has worked very well to keep me motivated. At times if feels like you’re just spinning tires and wasting time. But if you keep a little journal or log of your progress it can help keep you going. Write down what you’ve accomplished, and set some goals for yourself.
Stop trying to be perfect

Not every post needs to be life changing. You are just trying to build content at this point, the more the better. If you have an idea run with it, plug in a keyword and build your post. You’ll want to be able to add some type of value to your niche, but don’t die with a post. Make your points, proof read it, then move on to the next one.
Don’t expect much in the first month

We’ve all seen the “How I made $3,500 my first month blogging!”… I’m telling you that’s like hitting the lottery. Don’t be discouraged when you don’t make money month one if that’s your goal. Celebrate small victories like your 25^th post, your first organic traffic, your first AdSense click.
Get on Social Media out the gate

Pick maybe 2 social platforms that work best for your niche and hammer them hard. For this blog I’ve decided to focus on Twitter and Instagram. If your blog is more visual, like how to build gift baskets you’d likely do better on Pinterest. These are easy to get on, hash tag and build followers.
Write down blog ideas

Your first 2-3 weeks you’ll prob have tons of ideas for blog posts and you’ll be able to blog every day. Eventually those ideas will run out and you’ll need fresh topics. I like to keep a running list on my phone. Whenever an idea for a topic pops in my head I write it down. Writers block is very real.
Join HARO (Help A Reporter Out)

HARO is typically used for generating back links. Reporters looking for people they can quote in their stories and build top quality back links if you are selected. Even if you are never selected HARO is still worth joining as it helps get the creative juices flowing. HARO sends emails 3 times a day of dozens of reporters looking for content. This is a fantastic way to come up with great topics to blog about that might fit your niche.
Practice good SEO

Content is nothing if you’re not focusing on SEO. I use WordPress and have downloaded Yoast for my SEO and find it extremely easy to use. You’ll need to do Keyword research as well as random keyword phrases are of no benefit. Semrush is a little pricey when starting out, so a good trick is simply going to Google and start typing a keyword phrase, if it pre-populates see how many pages come up in the search. The lower the search results, typically the lower the competition, so go for it.
Make sure you’re using a top-quality host

I’ve used a few different hosts in the past. HostGator has amazing customer but my sites always seemed to run too slow with them. I switched over to Siteground and haven’t looked back. The site is very fast, I can host multiple sites off 1 package for cheap, and their backend interface is super user friendly.

CLICK HERE TO CHECKOUT WHAT SITEGROUND HAS TO OFFER!
Join some affiliates

If your goal is to monetize your website you should really have some affiliate connections early on. Traffic alone isn’t going to be significant enough to drive any real earnings, probably not for the first year. So you need affiliates to try to convert the traffic you do get into sales and $. The reality is you wont be approved for much in your first month of blogging. You can try CJ.com but expect a lot of rejection with a new site. Still, you can usually become an Amazon Associate, or an affiliate for a hosting platform like I have above. Your affiliates should be a win-win-win, generating you income, helping your reader, and giving your affiliate a sale.
Don’t compare yourself to other blogs

There are over 2 billion articles on Google about how to make money blogging. Don’t fall into this trap and doubt yourself. Just because someone says they made $500 in their first month of blogging it doesn’t mean anything. They could have 3 other blogs they’ve been working on for 10 years and linked to their new blog to generate those sales and traffic. Don’t allow this to be a demotivator, if anything use it as motivation to keep going!
Never forget why you’re blogging

You started your blog for a reason, never forget that reason. Perhaps you dream of quitting your job. Maybe you want the freedom to travel and blog anywhere. You could have a strong passion for the topic and don’t care about money. Maybe you’re trying to change the world. Whatever your reason never forget it.

Blogging takes time to see results, there is simply no way around this. Do a search for “Google Sandbox” and you’ll see that getting traffic in your first 3-6 months is borderline impossible.

You need to have a long-term outlook and just stick with it. If the goal is to monetize your blog just imagine how different your life would be if you eventually got to the point where just 1 blog post a week was generating $500 a month, or maybe $1,000, or $2,500…

Every successful blog started at zero. Keep going, even the stupidest niches generate thousands every month, so long as you believe in your topics, keep posting, do SEO and don’t stop you’ll get there!

15 Tips to Get Started Investing in Real Estate

Two years ago my wife and I purchased our first investment property, and it’s been the best financial decision of our lives! With just $18,000 down we now have a property that brings in an extra $700 every month!

There are many advantages to owning real estate as a long-term investment vehicle. For one, it can provide additional cash flow every month which could lead to an early retirement much faster and easier than traditional investments. Your tenants will pay down your mortgage, you’ll get TONS of tax advantages, and real estate almost always appreciates in value making it a great hedge against inflation.

Our rental property costs us about $1,000 every month here in NJ where property taxes are very high, but it rents for $1,700 to wonderful military tenants. Our rental is also right next to a little stream, so we have flood insurance of $700 a year, but that stream makes the property that much more desirable.

If you’re just starting out and wondering were to begin here are some tips I wish I could've told my younger self. Just follow these tips to get started investing in real estate.

Do Your Research
There are a ton of wonderful websites out there to learn about real estate investing. I highly recommend Biggerpockets.com, a wonderful online investment community focused on real estate. It’s important to learn as much as you can because investing in real estate is not as simple as buying a home off Zillow and renting it every month.
Don't Suffer From Analysis Paralysis
If there’s anything I’m guilty of it’s analysis paralysis. I researched long term real estate investing for probably 2 years before we finally pulled the trigger. You will get to the point where you know everything you need to get started. I would keep reviewing the same things over and over and over. I ran hypothetical numbers hundreds of times. In the end I suppose it all worked out, but at some point you need to get off the internet and start making things happen.
The 1% Rule (buy right and never lose)
The 1% rule is very simple, but a great way to judge an opportunity at a glance. Essentially it just says that you need to get 1% of the purchase price in rent each month in order to make the purchase worth considering. Now this will depend on your location, as property tax will play a huge roll in this. For example here in NJ you should really shoot for 1.15%. So if you're looking at a $150,000 house you should be able to get $1,500 a month in rent, or $1,725 here in NJ.
Know Your True Expenses (Cap ex, property manager, vacancies, damages)
This comes with doing your research, but there’s more costs to owning an investment property then just the mortgage, taxes and insurance. You’ll have to put money aside for vacancies, damages, property management and capital expenditures. This will vary depending on your location, the property, and your skill level. For example, we self manage the property so we don’t need to worry about 10% for a property manager. We have military tenants who are very respectful so damages are minimal and vacancies are typically short. And for capital expenditures the property has newer HVAC, roof, oven and Dryer, so we’re limited on what major items will need to be replaced. These are all things you’ll need to consider depending on the property and your skill level.
Reach Out To The Township and Ask Questions
There are plenty of things I didn’t know when I started, but I learned along the way. If you call the township housing division and let them know you plan on buying a rental property and just want to know what forms or inspections you need to do they’ll let you know. We needed a fire inspection, a landlord form, a sale inspection, and HVAC inspection. It sounds like a lot but it really wasn’t bad and we just took care of everything along the way.
Let Everyone Know You’re In The Market (look for off market deals)
Our first property ended up being an off market purchase from a friend of the family. I let everyone know I wanted to buy an investment property. This person caught word and let me know they were getting ready to retire and move out of state. The home was in great shape but just needed some little updates. Because it’s off market the seller saves on realtor fees and doesn’t need to worry about trying to sell. The home appraised for $140,000 but because we were willing to work around the sellers schedule, buy as-is and save them on real estate agent fees we got it for $97,500.
Avoid a Fixer Upper at First
Fixer uppers are high risk high reward. They can open a whole new can of worms that you might not be ready for. They can be very tempting but until you really learn the ropes it’s best to avoid them at first or it might end up being your first and last real estate investment.
Know How To Turn a Wrench
Real estate investing is not for everyone. For those of us that know how to turn a wrench and do a little DIY work it’s almost a no brainier. In 2 years I’ve had to replace 1 toilet flapper, unclog 1 drain, and clean 1 dryer vent. Before we rented the place out I also refinished the hardwood floors on the top floor, painted everything, fixed a whole in the wall, and power washed the patio. This was a little sweat equity that could have cost a pretty penny if I had to hire someone.
Treat it Like a Business and Build a Team
Find a plumber, and electrician, a handy man, a mortgage broker, an accountant. Save this info, have these people on file and treat them almost like employees. You need a go to team you can trust.
A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned
We removed carpet on the third floor and refinished the hardwood, this left a noticeable gap between the trim and the floor. Instead of going to the hardware store for all new trim we went to a local habit for humanity and were lucky enough to score trim for pennies on the dollar. Every penny you save is a penny you earn. Look for auctions in the area, jump on sales, use coupons. Fun Fact, you can buy coupons for Lowes Home Improvement off email and get them delivered via email in seconds. You spend $2 for the coupon but could save $100 on your purchase!
Don’t Fall In Love With the Property
This is tricky, you want to love the property but not be IN LOVE with the property. You need to remember it’s an investment. If you’re going to put money into it you need to be getting money out of it. Don’t do something because you love the home and think it’ll be nice. If it’s not going to add value you shouldn’t do it.
Put As Little Down As Possible (Maximize your ROI)
The trick with long term real estate investing is leverage. The less you can put down the greater your return on investment to your initial down payment. Most lenders are going to want 20-25% down but you can find some that’ll give you 15% with a slightly higher rate (don’t worry you’re going to get rid of that higher rate anyway).
Buy a Place With Equity, Refinance and Repeat
There is a strategy called BRRRR which stands for Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refi, Repeat. You should look for a place that isn’t a fixer upper, but maybe needs some little touch-ups. You want to get it for less then market value, and low enough that when you fix it up a little you’ve added enough value that you can hopefully do a cash out refi that will eliminate PMI if you put down less then 20%. This will also give you back your down payment to roll into the next property, and let you get the lowest interest rate possible.
Get a Good Accountant
My real estate accountant cost me $1,000 this year, but he saved me probably $3,500 worth of taxes. Did you know that your investment property can be depreciated over 27 years, but everything inside of it can be depreciated in the first 5 years (oven, fridge, sink, toilets, etc.) yea neither did I… hence the good accountant.
GO FOR IT!
I often read online the hardest part is just getting the courage to go for it. You’d be amazed how true this is. If you’ve done your research, looked at all the numbers and it makes sense, you’ll just need to go for it at some point. Was I scared? You bet! Was it stressful at times? Not as much as you’d think. Would I do it again? I plan on buying 1 every year for the next 10 years and retiring in my mid 40's. You could too if you follow these tips to get started investing in real estate
Bonus: Military tenants are the BEST!Not everyone lives near a military base, but if you do, consider targeting these renters. The pros outweigh the cons by a huge margin. They have good jobs that you don't have to worry about them losing. They are respectful of the property. You can get their CO's information and if they don't pay or are being disrespectful, you let the CO know and they'll handle it (never an issue). They get a housing stipend to pay rent. And there's always military personal looking for off base housing. The only real con is that they can get orders and leave with very little notice. This is hardly an issue as there's likely a new military family ready to take their place in your home ASAP. Consider partly furnishing your home for the military tenants, it gives you a leg up so they don't have to worry about buying a big couch or dining table

I always recommend starting with a single family home. They are easy to rent, easiest to get loans for, and easiest to work on. Get your feet wet, treat it as a business and grow. Before you know it you could be buying a small 12 unit apartment building, quitting your job, hiring a property manager, retiring and traveling the world living of your real estate investments.

Early Retirement is Easier Than You Think

I’m going to do my best to not make this another FIRE blog post. But the reality is, in most cases, early retirement is easier than you think. You don’t need to come up with 1 giant success to retire early, just come up with 3-4 ways that are each semi-successful that you enjoy.

Here are the avenues I’m using to retire within 10 years, in my mid-40s.

Long term real estate investing
Side hustle through auction buying and online selling with a little drop shipping mixed in
Blogging so I have something I can continue to grow
Finding a part time gig I genuinely enjoy

Just because it’s easier than you think doesn’t mean it won’t involve risk, and a little bit of work.

If you think you can just work your safe 9-5 job putting 15% of your pay away and have enough to retire early, keep dreaming. Even if you’re 30 years old and want to retire at 50, and you’re making $100k a year. After 20 years of putting $15,000 away, you’d still have only $900,000. Hardly enough for an early retirement.

I currently work full time in finance sales, there are worse things you can do for a living and it pays well enough, but the thought of doing it for the next 30 years makes me want to cry… hard… like a hard ugly cry. So it’s time to make some moves and do what all the other early retirees are doing.

Long Term Real Estate Investing

This is going to be my number 1 earner for early retirement. I’ve only just jumped into the world of real estate but so far so good. I was able to purchase a nice little single-family home for $100,000 with $20,000 down. I put another $10,000 into it doing a lot of the work myself. It costs me about $1,000 all in every month, but rents for $1,700! Now I put money aside for things like vacancies, damages, capital expenditures, but still its cash flowing a solid $500 a month even after that.

My first rental was a real home run, I don’t expect the next ones to be like that. I figure if I can buy 1 property a year for the next 10 years and cashflow even $350 a month from each one I’ll still have an income of $4,000 just from my rentals.

One property a year really isn’t hard, there’s risk and you have to be smart, but I promise it’s easier than you think. The other bonus is real estate income pays almost nothing in taxes, the tenants are paying down your mortgage and the house is appreciating, so your net worth grows every month.

If you’re new to real estate investing, I suggest doing research over at biggerpockets.com that’s where I learned pretty much everything I needed to know and ran into very few surprises when I finally pulled the trigger.

Side Hustles

I have a side hustle that I LOVE, I go to auctions, win random stuff and I sell it online. Because I love it so much, I’m not using it just to come up with a large lump some to live off in retirement, but this is something I can do during my early retirement.

If I’m able to make $1,000 a month now working maybe 10 hours a month on this side hustle, imagine what I could make without a full-time job putting in 10 hours a week.

I’ve also recently started doing a little eBay drop shipping. I just take a listing from Aliexpress, copy and paste all the info into eBay and that’s it.

When an item sells, I place the order on Aliexpress and have it shipped directly to the buyer from eBay. I just sold a children’s desk for $195 that I get off Aliexpress for $115. There are some fees, but I should profit about $50. Took me maybe 5 mins and did not cost a dime up front. This is another avenue that is also expandable, but as it stands now should be worth an extra $250-$500 a moth with very little effort.

Blogging

At this phase in my blog this is the Hail Mary. I’ve owned blogs before, had some traffic made a little money, but the same thing always happens. I lose interest. My last blog was all about my adventures while auctioning. But it was too mater of fact. I couldn’t blog about my opinions, or idea’s, it seemed it only made sense to blog about the auctions I’ve been to and the stuff I sold. It made it too hard to keep up, and I lost interest in the blog.

This blog is only a few weeks old but I have high hopes. I’m pretty good with SEO, I’m passionate about my blog topics, I’ve broken it down into “Self-help” like this post, “Long posts” that are involved opinion pieces with lots of SEO, and “short rants” that are just me hitting quick little hot topics for extra content.

I’m blogging 3 times a week no problem, with short and long term goals.

I don’t expect that this blog will start making $10k a month in it’s first year. But I do have a goal of seeing $1,000 a month by year 1, and even if I only reach half of that, I’m cool with it.

Eventually, so long as I stick with it, this blog will be an outlet for my opinions that will also give me some extra spending cash.

If you’re interested in starting your own blog I HIGHLY recommend going with SiteGround.com. I’ve used Hostgator for hosting but it was soooo slow. SiteGround has been awesome. CLICK HERE to get started with Siteground.

Part-time Gig I love

We’ve all sat in our car or on the train fantasizing about how we’d tell off our boss if we hit the lottery. Or daydreamed about what our perfect job would be if money wasn’t a factor.

When I “retire” I’m not going to travel the world, if I retire at 45 and have nothing to really do I’m going to get bored real quick. So I’m going to find something to keep me busy, something I love, that doesn’t get in the way of my other activities.

I like to fish, so maybe I’ll work at a trout hatchery part-time or a kayak shop. Or I could work as security at a state park because I love being outside. I once heard of a guy who goes out at night shooting muskrat with a bb gun for the township because they block up storm drains. When money is no longer an issue you can do whatever the hell you want.

If I can get a part-time job that pays even $2,000 a month, that’s $2,000 less I don’t need to make via real estate, or pray that this blog actually takes off. I’ll enjoy what I do, and will do it part-time so it wont get in the way of my life.

Forget the old school way of thinking

It used to just be “You need X in the bank to be able to retire with Y”, that sucks. Really take a step back and think about it, retirement is easier than you think and doesn’t have to be a large end number.

If you make $10,000 a month, do you really need to replace $10,000? After taxes what are you really bringing home? $7,0000?

So how do we replace a take home of $7,000 a month.

Well for one, you’re no longer putting 15% into an IRA so now we only need to get to $5,950. Do you have student loans or credit card bills you can pay off that are costing you $950 a month? Now we’re down to $5,000 every month.

So you get a few rental properties cash flowing $3,000 a month maybe that takes 7 years.

You get a little side hustle and make $1,000 a month.

You start a blog and stick with it an earn $750 a month

You get a part time job you love that pays $2,000 a month.

Your taxes a very low thanks to the massive real estate write offs you get, so when the dust settles, you’re now making $6,000 a month. You have $1,000 more in disposable income then if you just kept following the status quo.

It only took you 7 years to get there.

If you really wanted to, you can take that extra money and continue to buy rental property to increase your income even more. Your net worth is only growing, and you’ve ensured that you’ll never run out of money.

Decide what retiring means to you

Retirement has always been considered not working any more. To me that’s not retirement. To me retirement is having the financial freedom to do whatever makes you happy. Isn’t that really the point of retirement, “no longer working” so you can be happy.

Get a few side hustles, find a way to earn passive income while you sleep, then doing something part-time or even full time that you love. Allow yourself to take that pay cut to follow your dream. If your boss ever gives you a hard time you can tell them all the things you’ve already dreamed about saying to past bosses, then just move on to your next part time adventure.

Time to start thinking outside the box and you’ll realize Retirement is easier than you think.

A great way to get there, is by making small positive changes every day, by improving just 1%. Read more about how you can make small changes and build great habits HERE.

Improve by 1 Percent for Huge Changes in Your Life

The first step to solving a problem is recognizing there is one. The next step is figuring out what the hell to do about it. The change required to improve can seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Instead, try to just improve by 1 percent everyday.

We could be talking about trying to drop a few pounds, or finally start saving for retirement. You don’t need to make a major change that impacts 10% of your life, instead, you can make 10 small changes that each impact 1% of your life that you’ll never even really notice.

There is a fantastic book called Atomic Habits that talks about making small changes, for massive results. It gives great examples and really lets a lightbulb go off to realize positive change does not need to be difficult.

How do small changes lead to huge results?

Everyone wishes they could be in better shape so let’s start there. Now you could join a gym and go 4 days a week every week, but you would have to find the time and really put in the effort. I am not saying that is in any way a bad idea, but that might take 10% effort. So instead, let’s see if we can make 10 small 1% changes.

You could park in the back of parking lots, forcing you to walk a little more.
You could skip elevators and escalators if you are only going up 4 stories or less, use the stairs.
Make lunch your “healthy” meal of the day.
Do not eat anything after 8pm.
Always leave 1 or 2 bites on your plate.
Get a FitBit to help keep you motivated.
Eliminate soda and sugary drinks from your diet.
Get a stimulant free fat burner like Nobi Nutrition Night Time Fat Burner.
Use an under desk pedal exerciser like the Vaunn Medical Folding Pedal Exerciser.
Make a point to get up from your desk 2-3 times a day and just walk around your house, the office, yard for a bit.

Once you do these small changes and start seeing results you can step it up with a gym membership or a strict diet, but you could build those little habits into your day to day routine and really never notice a change.

How to save for retirement with 1%

The best part about this concept is it can be applied to just about everything in your life. So lets try with money, which is probably the next thing people would like to see change the most in their lives.

You could download the Acorns app which automatically invests your spare change when using a debit card. Click this link to sign up and get $5!
Shop through Rakuten, were you get money back when you make purchases you would have made anyway, from the stores you always buy from.
You could open a 0% interest credit card and do a balance transfer to eliminate any credit card debt you may have.
Consolidate and refinance your student loans, SoFi is one of the more popular options.
Eliminate cable and get a FireStick and Disney Plus
867-5309… did you know if you go to a store with a “buyer’s club” you can just use your local area code and 8675309 from the hit 80’s song “Jenny”. 99% of the time it’ll work.
Boost your credit score with Experian BOOST.
Shop for insurance, car, home, renters. If you haven’t changed your car insurance in 5 years you’re absolutely over paying for your car which is now 5 years older and worth less money then it was 5 years ago when you opened the new insurance.
Ask for a raise, here’s a helpful book that can teach you how to negotiate
Download the Robinhood app so you can easily invest all the money you’ve saved, use this ROBINHOOD LINK to sign up and get a free stock!

Lets just put together a ballpark figure of what the above might save you and what it might mean for your retirement.

$1 a day contributed
$30 a month is cash back
$40 in interest savings
$50 a month in interest savings
$125 a month savings
$10 a month savings
Depends if you’re making a large purchase where you’d need a loan so we’ll skip this
$40 a month savings
$150 a month increase which is basically the same as a savings
$0 just a vehicle to invest

So in total, you’ve saved/made $475 a MONTH! Now, take that $475 a month and invest it. An aggressive investment strategy could earn you 12% a year, but just for argument sake, let’s say you average a 9% return every year on your investment of $475 a month for the next 35 years.

After 35 years, investing the $475 a month that you basically will not even notice, and earning just a 9% return, you would have a total of just over $1,450,000. No, that is not a mistake. $1,450,000!!! From money that you did not even notice was leaving your bank account.

Now here is the really amazing thing, if you make wise investments and early a 12% return (which is absolutely doable, considering TSLA is up almost 1,000% in just 5 years) your total profit would be over $3 MILLION DOLLARS!!!

This is why I get so frustrated when people say they “can’t save for retirement”.. Did you even call a competitive insurance company to see if you could lower your home, car, or renter’s insurance? Did you take out a 0% interest credit card to get rid of your high interest credit card debt? Did you ditch cable for better alternatives??? Even if all you could save was $200 a month for 35 years at a 11% return that is still over $1 million! Enough with the excuses. It’s time to change your future with little microscopic 1% moves.

What’s stopping you?

Try it for yourself, figure out where you would like to improve. Perhaps it’s in your relationship, or maybe your work performance. Figure out where you want to be better and improve by 1 percent each and after 10 days you’ll be 10% better.

I highly recommend Atomic Habits, build better habits with small changes and be a better person effortlessly!

Student Loan Forgiveness is Unfair – A Moral Argument Against It

As someone who has been paying student loans for nearly a decade there are few things I’d like more then to have them eradicated on my behalf. With that said, I understand that these loans would have to be paid with tax dollars, essentially paid by others, and there is simply no reason or justifiable argument for someone else to pay my debts from a moral standpoint. In short, student loan forgiveness is unfair, not just for the tax payers but for future generations who wont have their loans forgiven and past generations who have already paid them.

Do not use the word “Fair”…

If we did our absolute best to make student loan forgiveness fair what would that look like? I find it difficult to continue writing with out asking additional questions as that’s all this promotes, more and more questions. Simply wiping all debts clean would be astronomically more unfair then simply having those who took out the loans, of their own accord, pay them back. Why should the decisions and debts of a generation fall on the shoulders of other tax payers who may have already paid back student loans of their own?

REFINANCE YOUR STUDENT LOANS THROUGH COMMONBOND AND SAVE, CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE!

Doctors vs ditch diggers

The first issue I see with loan forgiveness is the value of the education itself. A doctor may walk out of school with $300,000 worth of student loans, but in just a few years, they could be making over $400,000 a year. This is not a person who is struggling financially, it is part of becoming a doctor. Those who understand economics understand that the medical school debt is just part of doing business and a small hurdle in the grand scheme of things.

Is it fair to forgive $300,000 of medical school debt for the person making $400,000 a year while a ditch digger gets nothing because they lacked the confidence to even attempt higher education in fear of the debt that may be associated with it? Or perhaps the ditch digger did go to school to be the best ditch digger they could be, but their student loan debt is a mere $3,000. Why should the doctor be given $297,000 more in debt forgiveness then the ditch digger? Perhaps instead of education the ditch digger took on debt to start their own business, learning not from books but from experience. If we’re willing to pay off the doctors debt shouldn’t we be willing to pay the ditch digger’s business loans in the interest of being fair?

Savers vs spenders

Just because someone does not have student loans does not make them or their family, rich. To the contrary just because someone has student loans does not mean they are not rich and could not have simply paid them off. This comes down to priorities and choices, savers vs spenders.

For example, a mechanic could be contributing 10% of his pay every year to a 529 plan for his child’s education. As a result, he is forced to drive a beat-up old car and cannot afford a vacation, he makes the sacrifices knowing his child will get an education. Now, assume his brother is a hedge fund manager who does not even bother with a 529 plan, he drives a new BMW and goes on lavish vacations. The mechanic’s child goes to a cheap school to save money, the hedge fund manager’s child goes to a top school as they have never really been taught the meaning of a dollar. The mechanic’s child has no student loans because of the sacrifices of the father. The hedge fund manager’s child does have student loans which they could have paid in full 10x over, the hedge fund father just pays them each month for the child. Suddenly congress approves student loan forgiveness and the hedge fund manager’s child’s debt is wiped clean. The mechanic gets nothing for his years of sacrifice, his child is worse off because they do not have as “good an education” as their cousin because they were being responsible.

Shouldn’t the mechanic be entitled to those educational costs back? The hedge fund manager could have easily saved, but simply chose not to. The result, the rich hedge fund manager is rewarded for being irresponsible, their child has learned nothing and has a great education. The mechanic was punished, his taxes in part paid for the hedge fund manager’s child’s loan forgiveness. This is why student loan forgiveness is unfair, in what world does this make sense?

Today’s forgiven and tomorrows forgotten

How would you feel if today, congress decided to forgive all student loans, but you were not graduating until next year? What happens to the graduating classes of 2021, 2022, 2023? Did they just miss the cutoff? This creates a paradox and a never ending cycle of “forgiveness”. You can’t forgive this years graduating class and not next years. You would then end up with “free college” which nothing is free. Someone is going to have to pay for the facilities, the utilities, the insurance, the upkeep, teacher salaries, etc.

Simply not charging tuition is not possible, so this would have to be funded by tax payers, I’ll tell you right now there aren’t enough tax payers alive to fund every college education and please don’t think the rich are the answer, the numbers don’t add up. $1.5 trillion, the number of outstanding student loan debt, is a number you cannot even begin to wrap your head around, but I digress this is supposed to be a moral argument.

What have you learned

College is supposed to educate. If loans are forgiven it teaches a horrible lesson in terms of responsibility. There was no one forcing a student to go to a particular school. There is nothing wrong with a community college for 2 years and transferring to a state school. We must be realistic here, who’s fault is it if you have $100,000 in debt for an art major? Why should the poor choice of a student fall on anyone but the student? If you are in a hole you cannot get out of it’s time to stop digging and look for a ladder. Change your career, work extra, sacrifice, and figure it out. This is YOUR debt. The irony here is that college graduates with worthless degrees are demanding that student loans are unfair. What about paying back a loan that you took out on your own accord is unfair? Student loan forgiveness is unfair, not paying back YOUR loan.

Instead of marching around holding up signs why don't you use that time to build a blog, get a certification to advance your career, or simply go to an auction to flip some items for large profits and actually pay off the student loan. You can learn how to do auction flipping and other ways to earn extra cash without getting a part-time job HERE.

There are better options

A clean slate of forgiveness across the board is a pipe dream, it is not realistic and will never happen. So, what are some other options to help the debt burdened get out of student loan debt and on with their lives?

Lower the interest rate. Interest rates are associated with risk. There is almost no risk when it comes to student loans so why are they 6% when mortgages are 3%? During the Covid-19 pandemic all student loans were lowered to 0%. I propose they never go back above 1%. There is no risk to justify a higher rate. It is the educated who will ensure our country continues to be prosperous. Reward them with inexpensive loans.
Allow all payments toward student loans to be tax deductible instead of forgiving. Currently, only paid interest is tax deductible and it is capped. Reward those who actually pay off the loan, let the full payment be a tax write off. If you are on income-based repayment and only pay back $2,000 this year you only get a $2,000 tax write-off. If you had a great year and a big bonus and decide to pay down $20,000 you’ll get a great big tax write off. It motivates people to not only pay down their debt but to get out of this income-based repayment plan.
Cap the total amount repaid. No one should pay $60,000 on a $20,000 student loan because they fell into the “income based” repayment plan. There should be a maximum cap in what you pay for your education. If you need a $20,000 student loan and 15 years from now you’ve paid $35,000 in monthly payments you should be done, regardless of your balance.

At 18 years of age you are old enough to make the decision to enlist in the armed forces, willing to fight and potentially die for your country. If you are old enough to make a decision like that you are old enough to make the decision to take on student loan debt and be held to that debt.

Student loan forgiveness is a fairy-tale politicians tell to try to earn trust and ultimately votes. In the interest of being fair, student loan forgiveness is about as unfair as it comes.