All Forum Posts by: Mark S.

Carlos Castellanos , I believe that's correct.

Liam Goble , I also have the same interest rate only my personal home. I go back and forth and am trying to convince myself that it's okay to stretch it out. My "compromise" with myself is that I pay 1/2 of my mortgage payment every two weeks, resulting in 1 extra payment / year and shaving about 5 years off the loan.

Danielle Jenkins , I like your hybrid method. This is very interesting. I wouldn't have thought of this. I need to check KY laws. The only thing I remember reading about LY, was that there is no pre-determined amount of time to return a security deposit, unless there's a dispute of some kind and then it's between 30-60 days. Don't remember exactly where I read that, but I definitely need to brush up and double check.

@JoJo Diego, how are things progressing for you?  I've enjoyed reading your questions as well as the (awesome) advice others here have given you.  

I had about $15K in loans for my MBA and had a similar internal debate. The loans were subsidized Stafford loans at 6.8% interest. I was just getting into the analysis of REI at the time and was considering whether or not to pay them off, short myself on cash a little bit, and have peace of mind before starting my REI, or keeping them intact and getting my REI off the ground simultaneously.

Contrary to the advice you've received here, I just went ahead and wrote a check for the $15K and wiped them out. Obviously if it was $115K, that'd be a different story. For me, knowing that if REI went south and I'd (almost certainly) be stuck with these loans even in the event of bankruptcy, it was worth the ("only") $15K to knock them out of the way. Needless to say, that definitely affected my cash position and (mildly affected) the size of the deals I could consider, but it had an impact nonetheless.

If I had to go back and do it again would I change anything?  I honestly don't know.  Some days I think yes; others, I think no.  I had a weird run of employment/unemployment which helped me to qualify for the subsidized loans at the time, however, now since I "make too much" and can't deduct the student loan interest, the 6.8% was closer to a "true" interest rate.

The good news is that with my only outstanding debt being my home mortgage (at 3.375%, 30 year fixed - for which I only put 5% down, conventional loan!), I can continue to aggressively put funds aside for REI - buy-and-hold rentals.

Looking forward to hearing about your progress.  Much success!

@Joe Demonte, I like your breakdown.  I don't mean to hi-jack the thread, but I'm interested in hearing more about your experience with P2P.  Can you elaborate on this?

Online savings accounts are paying up to about 1%.  PM me for more info if that's of interest to you.  

It is not a required part of their certification.

@Justin Cooper, you're right.  Maybe I should have just stuck with my offer, but it really wasn't my "highest and best," so I did come up some.  It turns out there were 5 offers that first day, including mine, and they accepted another offer.  On to the next one!

@Kameron Patterson, sure.  I would say to go to the meeting if you want, but just be prepared.  I haven't been in a long time, so it may have changed.  

That group is very clicky if you ask me. Many people have gone through Fortune Builders and if you weren't one of the folks that went through it with them, you're barely acknowledged. Maybe it's changed, but I stopped attending primarily for that reason. Also, everyone there pretended to be a wholesaler, which was laughable, because many had absolutely no clue what they were doing. With all that said, I did meet some legitimate investors and good people there, but let's just say that the bad outweighed the good for me. To each their own.