All Forum Posts by: John Culotta

Hi Lacey,

You and your husband are really thinking through the details which is a huge step with any investment - Great Job! 

From our experience and what I've heard from many investors (especially from the podcasts here on BiggerPockets), you should always have an "Exit Strategy". If your short and long term goals are figured out, then you'll know exactly when to "exit" the investment (real estate, stocks, etc.) even after holding for 20 or 30 years. 

Regarding real estate investing, you just can't beat the advantages over other types of investments. If the laws don't change anytime soon, RE investing is probably the best tax benefit there is for keeping more that you earn. My wife and I have chosen RE investing because of:

1. The Cash Flow Factor 
2. Tax Benefits (to help keep more of our hard earned money) 
3. Wealth Creation / Net Worth 
4. Security (well, more then most other investments anyway - because everyone needs shelter)

If you notice, wealthy people always have real estate in their holdings (including politicians who want to impose higher taxes on the rich - funny how that works). Every wealthy family member and friend we know, have real estate investments.

Regarding hard money lenders, the sooner you exit the loan and replace it with a conventional low rate loan, you'll be in a safer zone so to speak (didn't mean to sound like a poet with that comment).

Regarding stocks, dividend paying stocks are a great way to diversify any portfolio. You get paid a dividend no matter what the market does (considering the company is not going under) and with compounding of interest and reinvesting the dividends you'll see significant returns. World dominators are the way to go when choosing a company to invest in due to long track records. I'm sharing from experience and understanding not as an advisor :)

Glad you mentioned partnerships because that's one area that we are interested in as well. Look forward to seeing what others have to say about it!

I'm sure you already know this, but the considerations you mentioned have different elements of risk, of which you'll have to decide how much risk you're willing to take on. But, then again, creating wealth will always have risk. 

Hope this helps and have a great day :)

Great Job Jenna. A Venture Upwards!!