All Forum Posts by: Fradel Schaechter

@Star-Kayla Lewis Good for you for starting out at your age :)

I am interested in multi-family and working on connecting with syndicators who do the really big deals. You can meet them at meetings or through BP. One suggestion I've gotten is to let them know you are available to help (make cold-calls to owners, tour properties for them, etc.)

Good luck!

Staying active on these forums and listening to podcasts can help you as well :)

@John Woosley what a great start you've got! Keep it up :)

@Hina Williams- thanks for your detailed post!

@Elliot Vann and @Kate J. good for you: 100% savings can help you reach your goals sooner.

@Alan Pederson It can be super frustrating to watch others financial mistakes when you know better, and the strange part is that I don't even try to teach this stuff to the people in my life that need it most because they are simply not in a frame of mind where they can implement it. 

I try my best to focus on my finances and to move them ahead. Perhaps when they see what I have achieved they might be tempted to mimic the discipline I used to achieve my goals. 

@Tenzin Wangchuk 35% is pretty good (lots of folks saving 0% out there...)

One nice method I once heard of getting other people on board with an idea is to look at their top priorities (for example, being able to buy good food, nice clothing, splurge on things here and there and the security of having extra money to spend, etc. ) and try to show them the benefit of the concept to their priority. For example, in your case, you can find out why your wife doesn't feel comfortable budgeting, let's pretend it is because she enjoys having extra 'spending money' or doesn't like to feel like money is tight when the paycheck is not. If that is the case, you can point out the benefits of saving now so that the assets will be able to give her these things. Once the assets are cash flowing, that gives her even more 'spending money' and it will give her more time to enjoy the things money can buy (less dependent on a job). As a woman myself, I can relate to the challenges of running a household on a budget, and I also enjoy feeling like I can buy the foods I like, but I have found a way to have 'both' by spending on the things I enjoy and eliminating waste to cover the extras.

Also, there was a great podcast recently about being frugal, but still having what you want, it was 'the Money Show #10'

hope this helps :)

One more thing for @Devante Boll- regarding the 'savings rate calculator' I have detailed spreadsheets in which I calculate the different categories I save for (mentioned briefly in the first post of this thread) You can message me if you want these templates. the percentages we use were based on the two books I recommended above and have evolved over time, as we learn more. Good luck to you!

One more benefit of saving is that there is a security in knowing that if something crazy happens to us and we can't work/ get fired/ have a huge unexpected expense: we can survive it without going into debt. 

@Devante Boll Have you read any books about saving? The two I recommend is 'Secrets of the Millionaire Mind' by T. Harv Eker (he talks about other fascinating topics as well) and 'How to make a hell of a profit and still get to heaven' by Dr. John Demartini. Both these books convinced us to start saving off the top of the paycheck that comes in (not after paying our monthly expenses, if anything is left...)

Hope this helps!

On another note, we were one of those people living 'paycheck to paycheck' until we started saving. We read many books on this topic, and they all encouraged saving since we would likely continue 'paycheck to paycheck' with the saving, but then we would have some money in the bank as a backup/ for emergencies. 

Another thing that changes, is that we have redefined 'emergencies' to mean the REAL ones (like a desperately wanted vacation doesn't qualify as an 'emergency': if we wanted that we would sooner find a cheap/ free alternative to get the benefits of vacation, etc. )

I strongly encourage anyone that does not yet save on a consistent basis to start with 10% (or another percentage amount) and see what happens. That money is being put in a savings account, and if things don't work out, it will still be there to bail you out. Try not touching it and being creative with how you come up with the money for the deficit and you just might watch your savings grow!

Our total amounts in savings is now at ten times what it was when we weren't saving every month!

@Thomas S. Thanks for your response here, and while it might seem strange not to put the 10% of charity towards our own future, we actually made that decision based on religions reasons. Since we are only 25 years old, we feel that we would like to see how our finances evolve over the next two years and then decide how to proceed. In the meantime, I am 'investing' a lot of time and energy connecting with investors, learning what I can to get in the position to do a deal. Not sure if it makes a difference, but we just feel that at our age we can afford to make a 'mistake' and correct within a year or two. 

@Steven Bonfante Thanks for this information. I wrote down the date of the the one in Belmar, on April 26. I will really try to make it there... Perhaps we can make up to meet there along with the rest of the local people on this thread :)

@Tom Saccente, @Christopher Finn, @Travis Cheney,  @Dan Kosko, and @Michelle Honauer: what do all of you think?

@Dan Kosko, @Travis Cheney@Tom Saccente, and @Christopher Finn- Thanks all for the interest! I had kind of given up on this and decided to just attend other meetups in the meantime. I am away for until the 9th- we can all be in touch when I get back :)

I am excited to work on this next week!