All Forum Posts by: Krysty Underwood

We're in the same boat right now. ACA doesn't work for us because of the premium and deductible. Right now, we could go to the doctor (all three of us) every month and pay cash and it would be less than the cost of our premium. So frustrated by this. I wish there was just a basic coverage plan, just doctor visits every six months, that could be covered for $20 or so. That would be fine for us, barring any major illnesses or injuries. and honestly even if there was a major illness/injury we could probably negotiate a better rate than any insurance company.

@Lucero, great ideas. I've had my daughter take pics so far when we look at properties and walk the neighborhood with me. As her readiness to learn more shows, I'll continue giving her more detailed information and teach her more of the analysis, negotiation, management, and sales side. Today we went grocery shopping, and a store employee knocked over the stacks of potatoes in the aisle. My daughter helped her pick them up, and the lady told her that in a few years she should come back and get a job there. My daughter smiled and walked away, but then said to me once we were out of earshot, "Mommy, if I keep investing, I might own this store one day."

@Pat, I am hopeful that my daughter will never be that bride! But she does know to make sure that the person she marries should be someone who shares similar financial goals and can at least be taught how to be smart with their money. And she knows to have conversations about personal liabilities and assets before walling down the aisle! :)

So my daughter has shown some interest recently in the investments I'm working on, and we had a discussion today about what is an asset and what is a liability. I told her why i was working so hard now at investment and explained how this hard work now will make me money forever, and her if she wants it to. Shes 13 and wants to open a cat cafe, and I started asking her realistic questions, such as how she would fund it and keep it going, how to train people so she could open more in other cities, etc. We discussed how right now she needed to learn and save and make small investments as she found opportunities. I gave her some of my transcription work to proof for five cents a minutes (after she read and signed a contract, filled out a w9, and signed an NDA of course) and she made 45 cents for about 15 minutes of work. I thought she would get frustrated and try to quit. She smiled and handed back 32 cents (she put the other 13cents back for taxes) and said, "I'd like to invest in Elite REI," my company, "put this towards your next deal." Yep, I think I've got a pretty smart kiddo. :)

I know I'm jumping in late, but just wanted to make you aware of something I just discovered today. Two years ago on a teacher's salary my family and I were living in poverty, but we had free healthcare and qualified for food stamps. We didn't want handouts anymore and began ways to raise our capital. I was already disillusioned by the public school anyway, as I wasn't helping kids succeed their own personal best as I was teaching them to make neat little circles in ABCD boxes on stated-mandated tests, so I quit teaching and began homeschooling my daughter (the way a kid naturally learns) and started a transcription business. My husband took a job working 60+ hours a week, and we began selling on eBay, hiring subcontractors for the transcription business, and really growing our income. When we increased our income by about $100, we lost the $300 in food stamps that was helping us get by until we were able to fully support ourselves. At the same time, my sister moved in with us to go to college. She has a learning disability and would not be able to work and go to school full time or she would be overwhelmed. So by living with us, we were trying to help her reduce her expenses so she could attend college on her grants and scholarships alone. We were told by DHS that she doesn't qualify for government assistance because she was going to college but not working. We asked them what she needed to do to qualify. Their exact words were, "drop out of college or get pregnant or be addicted to drugs". Needless to say, none of those were good options for her long-term future. 

So we continued working and saving and working more. This year, we no longer qualify for free Obamacare, which we were huge fans of back when we were ignorant about money. Now we are expected to pay $500 a month for it or pay a fine. And that's the cheapest one. Its cheaper through my husband's work, but just barely. 

So we successfully doubled our net income in two years. However because we are in a higher tax bracket literally every penny of that money is going to taxes and increased medical costs. The government does not want to use these programs to get you out of poverty, but try to convince you its the only option for you.

They are lying. If I had these last two years to do over again, I would have done my best to reduce my expenses instead of increase my income right now. And I would have taken every cent I saved and invested it in ways the government can't touch. I could have spent more time looking for ways to increase my wealth, not my income, so that when I fully moved out of poverty, it would be in a more sustainable way where my husband and I didn't have to work 60-70 hours a week on odd schedules. My advice comes straight from Rich Dad Poor Dad. Build your wealth, not your income. Income will follow. 

Welcome to BP Tarik! I'm in Durant. There's meetups in Tulsa and OKC, and we're trying to get a group going here in Durant too. Glad to have you in the OK REI world!

Hi Mike! What part of Oklahoma are you from? I'm in Durant. A few of us here are talking about starting a BP or REIA meetup. If you're not in this area, I think there's 2 more BP groups, one in OKC and one in Tulsa. Smart move on becoming the investor! That's where your long-term wealth building is, IMO. Contracting is a great business, but REI brings you residual income forever!

Welcome to BP!

Welcome Scott! I'm also in OK in Durant. 

Ive never heard of needing a license to flip houses but having a real estate license can certainly help you find and sell houses.

Tiny houses have been around for as long as han civilization. The majority of the world:s populationlives tiny already and always has. Its our western idea of excess tthat's the fad, and the younger post baby boomer generations are learning that. In all of american history, only the baby boomers and portions of the earliest gen x'ers believed that having this much excess space was "required" for normal living. More and more millennials and gen z'ers are seeing big living as a fad. Look at the older, pre-1940s homes for the middle class and you can trsttest this theory yourself. Small closets, small rooms, small sometimes detached kitchen, moreso the further back you go. Tiny homes are not a fad. They are the only way our planet is going to support a continuously growing population. 50 years from now you will see this as an absolute fact in the metro areas and spreading out. In places like China and Japan, it already is. In virtually every 3rd world country, same thing for their median income workers and lower. Doesn't mean America is turning 3rd world (in some ways it is with our poor health care, increasing morbidity and infant mortality rate but that's another discussion). It means that we're getting smarter and learning to fix some overcrowding problems thru better use of limited space. I don't think this is an example of american ingenuity as we did not "invent" tiny houses, although we will clam to have 50 years from now like the steam engine and light bulb. It is a great example of Americans utilizing fixes already out there to solve our own problems.

If you're looking at tiny houses with a family, even a larger one, it is still possible. Tiny houses aren't just about size. They are about size per person. Most people use250sf rule. If you are one person family, 250 sf is max. If 5 in your family, 1000 sf and so on. So even a large family can live tiny. For our daughter, who is a teenager, we will build a separate tiny house to connect with ours when she turns 16. We're still in the early stages of building our <300 sf tiny home tho.