All Forum Posts by: Jewel B.

I would prefer to have the half bath as a tenant and do the laundry in the basement. Would there be a benefit to adding a second washer/dryer set down there?

With only 1 year of work history, are you sure you're financially ready to purchase a multi-unit property, down payment, closing costs, property reserves, personal emergency fund?

 Have you checked rental comps to see if it's under market rents?

Starting out, you'll be looking at getting a secured credit card. For that, I recommend Capital One Platinum Secured. After 6 months of responsible usage, you should be able to obtain an unsecured card. There are many great options for that depending on your credit score and goals at the time. For example, cards with cash back or cards with 0% intro APR.

Never miss a payment. Always pay on time. Set up AutoPay for the minimum payments (if there's an option, schedule payments a few days early, so if there's an issue with the withdrawal, you can still catch it and pay on time). When you're starting out, your credit limits will be low, making it easy to end up with a high utilization rate and lower credit score. However, utilization has no memory - as soon as you pay the balance down (and the credit card reports to the bureaus), your score will pop right back up, so don't overstress about utilization unless you're about to apply for new credit / loan within 6 weeks. You generally want utilization under 30%, but under 10% is even better. Use your card for a recurring expense such as Spotify, Netflix, your phone bill. Use your credit card like a debit card (there are rare exceptions where you might strategically use a 0% intro APR card for some large purchases you'll pay off over time etc). Be patient - a big factor in your credit score is simply time. However, using your first secured card responsibly for 6 months should give you a solid good score from which to work.

Credit unions often offer competitive rates and terms because they're member owned and keep loans in-house, meaning they're more flexible. Small banks also are more likely to keep loans in house and be more flexible and "human". Shop around though! You can either do it yourself or with a broker.

I'm not familiar with pledge loans.

 You're welcome - you got this!

Learn financial literacy and personal finance principles (one great book is I Will Teach You to Be Rich), educate and invest in yourself (BP has tons of great books to read, I also recommend listening to all of the Real Estate Rookie podcasts for the past year, if you have other career aspirations w/ real estate on the side, be sure to do well in school, apply to community college, and do your gen eds, or go to trade school, whatever the case may be), get a job and income (you might look into something real estate / construction related to network), open a secured credit card when you hit 18 to start building personal credit, go to local meetups / networking events for real estate, learn to analyze markets and deals, learn about creative financing and partnerships, and then, strike!

Some other great books include The 4-Hour Workweek, Atomic Habits, and Rich Dad, Poor Dad. If you're not a big physical book reader, try audiobooks or ebooks.

Are you planning on investing in India? The US? Elsewhere?

Potentially...Rich Dad Poor Dad, Atomic Habits, Short-Term Rental Long-Term Wealth, 30-Day Stay, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

 What did you end up doing?