All Forum Posts by: Paul Allen

Thanks @Sean Rooks, but I am not a CPA.  

I much prefer your Noob question to this one:

"Can you fix what I did?"

I get that one all the time from DIYers.  

Best of Luck With Your Real Estate Investing!  

Yes.

Goals drive the plan. The plan drives the portfolio. 

That said, the most important thing would be to get started. (Meaning... the content of your portfolio is significantly less important than starting your portfolio.)

You may want to do some reading over at Bogleheads:
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/index.php

Best of Luck!

https://www.jcs.mil/Portals/36/Documents/Doctrine/pubs/jp5_0_20171606.pdf

Goals (objectives) drive the plan. What are your goals?

https://www.meetup.com/The-Real-Estate-Investher-Meetup-Virginia-Beach/events/267118635/

Thanks Sean, but to be accurate, I am a CFP® and an Enrolled Agent, not a CPA.

To expand on @Natalie Kolodij's point, the credential is just a reference point. CPA's have more education and a harder test than Enrolled Agents (although NOBODY with zero experience is passing the EA exam after a month of study). If you hire a CPA, you tend to pay for that extra schooling and testing. You may need it, but you might not. If you're an investor with a couple of properties you probably don't. If you've got a larger enterprise like @Patti Robertson, you need a CPA. 

That said, I have amended more than a handful of tax returns prepared by CPAs because they were wrong. I am currently working with some folks whose CPA cost them more than $50K in additional taxes over the past 3 years. 

The dirty little secret in the tax professional world is that nobody is good at every kind of tax return. It's like the law. Johnny Cochran - brilliant criminal defense attorney. I wouldn't have hired him for a patent dispute. Yet, most tax professionals don't advertise their specialty, their niche. Nor do they turn away clients they should turn away. I find this professionally irresponsible, and a poor business practice. I specialize in military families who are landlords. I had a gentleman call me earlier this year who had RSUs and ESOs (restricted stock units and employee stock options), which get special tax treatment (calling for special strategies). I am not familiar with them, so I told him I couldn't prepare his tax return. Not only was this (IMO) professionally responsible, but in the time it would take me to research his situation to do a credible job for him I could be helping 3 or 4 military families who are squarely in my wheelhouse. That's more revenue for me.

My $0.02

Best of Luck with Your Real Estate Investing!

Well, a couple of things...

1. Congratulations!  You are a financial planner! I'm only being a little facetious here. The title "financial planner" is not regulated. There are no requirements to use it, so anyone can claim to be one. 

2. Certified Financial Planner (TM) and CFP® Professional are trademarked as a credential by the CFP Board of Standards.  You have to meet their certification requirements to use them as your professional designation. They are widely considered THE credential in financial advice. The problem for you is that the CFP Board of Standards education program is based on 72 knowledge areas, and ZERO of them mention real estate. So, not only CAN you become a highly respectable and credible CFP® Professional and still not know anything about real estate investing, it's pretty much the norm. (I am trying to weasel....errrrrmmm network...my way onto the committee that formulates those 72 knowledge areas to get real estate added, but that's a years-long project.)

3. To be fair to the CFP Board and the uneducated-in-real-estate CFP® Professionals of the world, Real Estate Investors are generally a p.i.t.a. as financial planning clients. There are a variety of reasons for this, but suffice it to say there are easier clients to work with than the type of DIY person who is working feverishly to find inefficiencies in the real estate market.

4. If you get job satisfaction out of helping others, then being a CFP® Professional is a great career. You can pick up real estate knowledge on the side, and it can be helpful.

5. If I could go back to being 19 and 'do it all over again', I'd be an orthodontist. As far as I can tell it is a license to print million dollar bills. 

Best of Luck with Whatever You Decide to Do!

Congratulations on reaching FIRE! That's awesome!

To contribute to a Roth IRA:

You (or your spouse) must have  

You MAGI must be under the contribution limit

Best of Luck with Your Real Estate Investing!

Hi @Raquel Blue!

I also recommend the following:
https://www.meetup.com/TRIGofVA/events/fpjpwqyzpbzb/

https://www.meetup.com/HRLandlordAssoc/events/265402189/

Both top notch groups in Virginia Beach.

Best of Luck with Your Real Estate Investing!