Personal Finances In Order

[Logan McKay Zylstra]

In no way is this post intended to come down on people, but I'm just trying to bring attention to this issue I am seeing. 

With that being said, a lot of new investors want to jump into real estate investing before they have their personal finances in order. These people want to find "creative financing" deals. They want to get into real estate because they are seeing how much money people are making from it on social media and want those same financial rewards. However, as most of us know, the real estate game is a get wealthy slow play compared to a get rich quick scheme.

In my opinion, if these people were to put effort into getting their financial foundation in order, they would be much better off. Before investing hundreds of hours in real estate investing education, I would recommend first spending time to educate yourself on personal finance. Not only would deals be easier to find and secure, but you would also be taking less risk as you can weather different issues financially as they arise.

I would recommend learning about personal finance from the BP money podcast or Graham Stephan on Youtube.

[Chris Scurti]

I would agree with this for sure but I also don’t want to discourage first time investors because I’ve seen it happen before where a new investor gets discouraged from the beginning and then never actually start!

I believe in taking action and taking action can be getting your financial foundation set from the beginning like you mentioned or by actively searching for deals or creative financing options. 

I believe we will learn faster by taking action and failing then waiting for guaranteed success! 

[Steve Vaughan]

Good point. We can do both at the same time.

Investing for the future gives the why to budget and prioritize.  Nobody saves for fun. 

[Jim K.]

@Logan McKay Zylstra

I've been trying to tell people this for years: especially when you're starting out with very little money, work to get your own financial house in order first.

To be clear, I meet at least a person every week who learns what I do, says, "I've really got to look into buying some investment properties..." AND DOES NOTHING.

But out of the people who are willing to actually do something, at least 90% of them would rather start looking at duplexes than figure out how much they owe the credit card companies and write down what they spend on fast food for 30 days.

[Denver McClure]

Absolutely agree! I see the same comments from prospective and active investment clients. It's even more common when family/friends see your success in real estate and think they can easily replicate that. I have the "get your personal finances together" conversation several times a week these days. As @Logan McKay Zylstra said, listen to personal finance podcasts to get stated. It never hurts to talk to a few Investment Advisors and Financial Planners (who understand real estate investing) to get a second opinion.

[Nicole Heasley Beitenman]

Quote from @Logan McKay Zylstra:

 Before investing hundreds of hours in real estate investing education, I would recommend first spending time to educate yourself on personal finance.

I disagree. I would find resources geared toward folks who want to eventually invest in RE so they can build a foundation that caters to that goal. 

[John Acheson]

I agree and have been doing that for 12 yrs.

to prepare for my 1st primary home purch.

in my mid 50s hopefully all cash when

rates and reverse repos and quant. tightening

present headwinds after layoffs occur in the USA

It took a lot of hard work, a spreadsheet,

and daily bookeeping for a decade to go

from a post bankruptcy 530 to 800 at one point

along with a LLC that has six figures in credit, etc.

I haven't even gotten started and the first step

was a million dollars in credit and cash to start.

But kids that grow up on a smart phone

might not be able to pay dues LOL?