Investing too young?
San Diego, CA · Member since 2018 · 46 posts · 23 votes
Hey @Stevie Delacruz, welcome!
Good on you for thinking, studying and reading about REI so young, nice work!
I don't think age is ever a factor, but knowledge and self control will dictate everything. If I were in your shoes, I'd save up as much as I can until I have around 3.5% of whatever it is I'm looking to buy (I'd suggest a duplex, or a house you can rent to a bunch of buddies and you live in one room). In my area, I could get a starter 3 Bed home for $235k and rent out each room for $750. My mortgage (Principal & Interest) + Taxes & Insurance (Read "PITI") would be about $1500 with 3.5% down, so I'd be living rent free. Roughly the same numbers for a duplex, one side pays roughly the PITI and the other side you live in for super cheap or free, maybe even get paid to live there!
Keep on reading and studying. Save money. Stay Curious.
Hey Stevie, I'm a senior in college studying electrical engineering. If I were you I would not buy a property while you are in college. Since you are in computer science, you are more than likely going to be a high income earner and will be able to quickly save enough for a down payment when you graduate.
Focus on school right now. I'm assuming you are a freshmen. Strive to get at least a 3.0 GPA. If you're ambitious and smart try to get a 3.5+. I have a 3.75 right now and can tell you from first hand experience that a high GPA won't automatically get you a job. What it will get you is a TON of interviews with good companies. You will be a hot commodity and everyone will want to interview you. Once again, I'm speaking from experience. Last week I just accepted a full time position for next May when I graduate and it's my dream job.
Since you are a freshman, focus on getting an internship for next summer. At my school, most freshmen don't even look for internships. Don't fall into this category. I found an internship after my freshman year. Be proactive. Find an internship.
If you have money sitting around to invest then do yourself a favor and stick it in a roth ira. Buy some index funds. You don't want to own a cheap college home. I have maxed my roth ira the last 3 years and also have a taxable brokerage account. I have about 60k combined, zero debt and am still in college. I got most of my money from doing 4 internships that payed pretty well. If you buy index funds you will get similar returns compared to a cheap college home. To top it off it will require significantly less work. Save RE for after college.
Stevie, welcome, and congrats on having interest in the real estate journey so young.
I started very young as well, and with no money/credit/experience, and it was very difficult. What I opted for instead was to work with more advanced investors basically working for free.
With them I went through and pitched the group hundreds of deals, and they passed on ALL deals early on. But EACH pass, I learned a ton, my property reports got better, and I honed in on what does and does not make a good deal.
Fast forward and I've raised a significant amount of money with this group, bought multiple successful deals, and have been given the opportunity to work on deals that were far bigger than I would have been able to touch otherwise. I've gotten to repay them with deals, and they've repaid me for the deals by making me a partner in what I've brought.
My advice would be simple: Work for the biggest fish you can for free. Show your positivity and interest in what they're working on. Be genuine that you want to learn everything you can and you will repay them in the future with a long career of bringing them deals to partner on. You will learn more from them than you could imagine.
At a wedding for one of these guys' kids, he told me I was as much as a son to him as any of his blood children. I will never forget that.
@Stevie Delacruz there is no such thing as too young to invest. I actually learned investments and business skills when I was 15 yrs old. Started paper trading (basically simulation using real time stock market prices) at 16 yrs old. Really got into it at 18yrs old.
How? I joined the military. At first it was cause I didn't want to listen to my parents and I wanted to serve so I turned down full ride scholarships, but all the benefits including taxes are pretty awesome. Lost a **** ton in my first year and a half. Broke even on the second year, but by the time I was 20 yrs old, I was making almost as much as my military pay (roughly $5k total per month). Of course that was thru stock market, but real estate is the same way. There are different path to make money, you just have to be creative.
Now I just turned 24 driving a $65k truck, have credit cards that normal people dreamed of, got my private pilot license (paid for the schooling myself), got military to pay for my associate and bachelor's degree and about to buy my first investment home which will be my primary residence for the time being (2200 sq ft home, 1.5 acres of land, and will be putting in $110k worth of renovation). I also project to buy a rental property using the equity on my primary residence in about 8 months.
Of course I am still in and plan to be in the military for the full 20 years (14 more to go), so by 37 I will be retired collecting retirement check from Uncle Sam for the rest of my life as soon as I get out, investments I still have in stock market, and investment properties will be my income. I also am putting in ROTH IRA, but I am not counting on that since I can't start drawing until 59 if I want to take full advantage of it.
There were a couple of years even time to time currently that I would only get 4-5 hours a sleep a day. Sometimes less, but you have to have the mindset that if you want something, you will try all legal avenues to get it. Starting young will give you a leg up in the market. If you mess up, you still have time to recover from it.
I didn’t mean for you to go into military. I just wanted to show you my example and as you have gotten from other people, there are many other ways to make money legally. Just go for it and be creative. You’re going to fail at some point or have horrible deals, but just keep at it and learn from mistakes.