All Forum Posts by: D'Andre Byers

@Josh Bowser what’s up josh long time no see man!

@Geoffrey Barker

I’d have to agree with you on spending the down payment on the ring and the wedding. It seemed to be a good idea at the time.

Her reactions initially were that I don’t fully understand how much time, money and effort go into investing. Which aren’t completely unwarranted because I do tend to get very overzealous about things I’m interested in. I do understand that even though I haven’t done any sort of rehabbing or dealt with mortgages up to this point, that I am ignorant to the exact extent that things can go wrong. But I can confidently say I wouldn’t be going into any investing blindly.

Overall though, she feels that instead of us buying an investment property first, we should buy a house of our own. I’m not against it by any means but I just had hoped that maybe I could talk to her about buying a house that isn’t immaculate. That way we could both enjoy the built up equity that we could gain by fixing the place up.

Thanks for responding!

D’Andre

Or saving for a wedding. But to each their own.

This is not at all the case. My fiancé actually works 60+ hours a week at her job regularly. In two weeks she works more overtime than most people care to go to work. She actually works more than I do. But solely because of the fact that she just got the job a little over a year ago impedes her pay grade. 

Thanks for taking the time to reply!

D'Andre

@Brian Ellis

Thanks for replying Brian!

I’m not sure that I want to paint this choice to invest as an ultimatum for her. We’ve been through a lot and know each other very well. That being said if I were to put it that way for her, she would surely reject the idea of any type of investing not matter how lucrative.

I'm sure this isn't what you meant the focus of the post to be, I just wanted to throw that out there! I fully think that once she is able to see what REI can do then she will hop on board. I just want her to be my teammate in this so we can attack a goal/plan together.

Thank you for replying!

D’Andre

@Theresa Harris

I’m very on board with staying home with the kids. I love the idea of either of us staying home. As long as one of us would be able to be home with them that would make me immensely happy. I do understand that this isn’t always possible and that’s okay but I would prefer one of us being there for them.

She is a VERY independent woman and I love that about her. I don’t think she would ever be alright with not contributing to the household in a financial way.

That being said, as of now I make a significant amount more than her. But, without a doubt, She will one day pass me up at her job financially because of the raises she will get. And I’m alright with that! If this is what happens and we’re financially able to have one of us stay home then so be it.

Thank you for posting!

D’Andre

@Shaun Morgan

Shaun, finding a side hustle is something I've been working on for MONTHS now. Even before REI came into the picture. My only obstacle with this is that I work construction and my hours are constantly inconsistent. Some days I have an hour drive to and from work and others I may have a 2 hour drive. On top of that, I never know how long the days work is going to last. The best part about it too, is that getting weekends off is never a given. So I could be working 5-6 days a week with only Sunday's off. The WORST part is that I'm salary. So it doesn't matter if I work 20 hours or 75 hours a week. Still getting the same pay.

So, my options become severely limited due to the time constraints my work puts on me. I’d need a side hustle that I could do from home or from my work truck in my spare time.

My question to you is: do you know of any side hustle jobs that would allow me to work on MY time and from wherever? I realize this is a broad question and I’m not putting it on you to do my due diligence. I just haven’t seem to come across anything that allows me to do what I can and am wondering if maybe you’ve ever come across something like that.

Thank you for the recommendation!

D’Andre

@Jeffrey McKee

Wow there is a lot of great advice in this post!! Thank you for putting it this way for me. I feel like sometimes as a guy I can’t always put myself in her shoes like she might do mine. Maybe I’ve just been asking the questions wrong and can rephrase them into something that would show that I’m coming from a genuine place rather than just a business standpoint. I really appreciate your post! It’s definitely changed how I’m going to come at the conversations in the future, it’s given me a lot to think about.

Thank you so much again!

D’Andre

@Anthony Gayden

You are right! I can completely understand the concept that it’s still just an idea in my head. That would kind of turn me away as well if the roles were reversed. Actions always speak louder than words in these situations.

If the roles were reversed in your situation, what would it take for you to hop on board with REI? Curious to see if maybe there is something that I'm not thinking about.

We are both math people so if I can sort of coax her into looking into it with me based on that it could be a small win. But after that I’m sort of drawing blanks. I have gotten some other ideas from this thread but if there is anything else you haven’t seen yet, I’d be curious to know what they are!

Thank you for responding to the post!

D’Andre

@Chris Szepessy

Did your wife put up any fuss about RE when you first started talking about it? My fiancé is not completely against investing so to speak. She’s more concerned with how she’s going to spend her money once she gets a raise at work. Whereas I’m more concerned with saving the extra money we both will make once we get those raises. We both have very good jobs, she works for the government and I work in heavy highway construction (management) where we both can and will get raises. But my goal is to save more of the money that we both make and continue live like we are now which isn’t crazy and above our means.

And sometimes I feel that maybe she thinks I’m trying to take over her personal finances and do what I want instead of what’s good for us in the long term. Did you ever feel like that and if you did, how did you convince her of your actual intentions?

However, I want the first property that we buy to be thought of as an investment and not our “forever home.” Meaning, I don’t want the house to be newly fully renovated and pristine. Rather, I could picture a fixer-upper that could use some updating but nothing crazy. She’s on the other side of things.

What did the conversations look like when you started buying other rentals after you purchased your first home?

Thank you for the insight,

D’Andre