All Forum Posts by: Zachary Blomberg

If you are trying to trim down expenses combine shopping, discretionary, fast food, restaurants, and entertainment. These items are all discretionary and account for 18% of your budget. It looks like you are barely spending any money that's not necessary, but if you start to see the $900+ number those categories add up to it might help motivate you to trim down a bit. Doing great though, have me beat by quite a bit.

Hi Todd! I think I will add a metric for sum cost of those five categories you mentioned; it could be insightful in the future. Thanks for the tip!

1 Vote

Phoenix, Arizona

Quote from @Allie Pfannenstiel:

Quote from @Zachary Blomberg:

Hello! I have been struggling to understand why I can't meet my budget goals each month with a more than reasonable budget of $5000. I live in Phoenix and am married with two little girls, ages 2 and 4 months. We do not live an extravagant lifestyle and in fact feel like we're living a very frugal one, but we still end up going over most months. I was wondering if you could spot check my budget and let me know if there are areas where I can cut down on spending. Thanks!

House Payment	$ 1,787.00
Charity (I'm not really looking to change this one)	$ 550.00
Phone	$ 60.00
Utilities (Electric, Water)	$ 270.00
Auto - Insurance	$ 124.00
Life Insurance	$ 75.00
Internet	$ 50.00
Subscriptions (Spotify/Netflix/YTTV/Google Storage)	$ 35.00
Gym	$ 10.00
Groceries	$ 550.00
Shopping	$ 300.00
Discretionary	$ 350.00
Home Services (Maintenance, Home Security, Pest Control, etc.)	$ 175.00
Gas	$ 175.00
Home Supplies	$ 150.00
Fast Food	$ 112.00
Restaurants & Bars	$ 100.00
Amusement/Entertainment	$ 50.00
Car Maintainance/Carwash	$ 50.00

Hi Zachary!

Setting budget is great but tracking it daily on an app like mint or every dollar to help you see where you are going over is going to be best. You can also print off your bank statements and card statements and add it all up yourself to see where is eating up your budget.

$550/mo for a family of 4 for groceries sounds low to me unless you are eating meatless spaghetti and pb&j sandwiches for every meal. Diapers, laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, etc can take a huge portion right out of the gate.

Gas may be more expensive if it is budgeting for 2 people driving, depending on how often you drive.

Thanks for the insight Allie! I LOVE Mint and use it obsessively for tracking and net worth monitoring. We are typically going a little bit over on several of our budgets, which adds up. The worst one is home maintenance due to some repairs that we needed to have done.

$550 for groceries is pretty close to our average for actuals on the year. The littlest one is breastfed so thankfully no groceries needed for her. And I lump diapers, laundry detergent, etc. into the home supplies category.

My wife is a SAHM, and I mostly work from home, which is why our gas budget is smaller than usual. of course with the increase in gas, we're still cutting it pretty close.

0 Votes

Phoenix, Arizona

Quote from @Paul Vail:

Without knowing where you are going over, it's impossible to tell you what is appropriate or not. Everyone's wealth journey is different. That charity payment -- what does it go toward or better yet, could you not donate your time/sweat instead of the money. Surely your family's time is worth $10/hr/person -- so if the four of you spent 12.5hr/month contributing to your community or some other form of good works, you could justify not spending that cash and balancing/offsetting the dollar outlay. Why do I include the kids -- not like they will absorb what mom&dad are doing while they tag along at such young ages? Well, because the example habits you set now will take you into the future when they are kids that can contribute. And doing things as a family is a lost art in much of our culture. Walking the walk, even before they can walk, isn't detrimental. (OK, so it's silly on a few levels, but then again...)

Sure, there's plenty of fat on those bones any one of us *could* carve off. Where and what is individual, and what cost of quality of life comes with such choices? I would say there is a glaring omission to your budget. Where is your savings? Where is your investing for the future and your emergency fund funding? Where is your kids college fund line-item?

And we don't see the inputs -- what is the takehome pay contributions from each of you?

Thanks for the response! While I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiment of giving your time and setting an example for the little ones, the allocated charity donations is perhaps the last thing I would change. As far as savings and investments, I left that part out. Our true takehome pay amounts to roughly $5,550, which leaves $550 for savings or investing each month. And we have a good amount saved in our emergency fund as well.

0 Votes

Phoenix, Arizona

House Payment	$ 1,787.00
Charity (I'm not really looking to change this one)	$ 550.00
Phone	$ 60.00
Utilities (Electric, Water)	$ 270.00
Auto - Insurance	$ 124.00
Life Insurance	$ 75.00
Internet	$ 50.00
Subscriptions (Spotify/Netflix/YTTV/Google Storage)	$ 35.00
Gym	$ 10.00
Groceries	$ 550.00
Shopping	$ 300.00
Discretionary	$ 350.00
Home Services (Maintenance, Home Security, Pest Control, etc.)	$ 175.00
Gas	$ 175.00
Home Supplies	$ 150.00
Fast Food	$ 112.00
Restaurants & Bars	$ 100.00
Amusement/Entertainment	$ 50.00
Car Maintainance/Carwash	$ 50.00

1 Vote

Phoenix, Arizona

Hi All,

I'm looking for podcasts (other than BP) that teach financial literacy (investments primarily). I love listening to the BP Money podcast, but after awhile it can be repetitive and I don't learn much new from them anymore. I have all the basics down (savings, budgeting, tracking, 401k, etc.) so I'm not looking for an introductory money podcast. But if you have any recommendations for intermediate to advanced finance/investing podcasts, I'd love to hear them!

Thanks!

0 Votes

Phoenix, Arizona

Quote from @Lindsie Akers:

Hey Zach, Tardus is "investment agnostic." They don't recommend/aren't affiliated with a specific investment. You remain in control of your own money and do all of your own investing. Tardus is a coaching and education company that works with you to teach you to make smart investment decisions on your own, using the Income Snowball. The Income Snowball is just a method or strategy for investing.

There is a specific criteria required of the investments to make them work with the snowball, but they are investments that have been around for decades. The returns sound so high because one of the requirements is that the returns be principal and interest, not just interest.

Theres a number of different types of investments that fit the criteria, but we like to use peer to peer lending as an easy example;

Peer to Peer lending (on Prosper) - Invested $10,000 initially - receive $320/month for 3 years. $320 x 12 months = $3,849/$10,000 initial investment = 38% CoC Return

There's another thread on here where a lot of Tardus clients are giving their input as well; https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

(disclaimer, I work for Tardus in marketing, but I am not a coach)

Thank you for responding to this. I meant to come back and edit the post to clear things up. When I wrote my original post, I misunderstood the strategy for investing, thinking that 38% return was all interest/dividend, when in fact it’s principle+interest/dividend received for a short term amortized investment.

I do believe the Tardus strategy is smart and I intend to implement it in the near future.

Thanks!

2 Votes

Quote from @Steve Vaughan:

Quote from @Zachary Blomberg:

Hello! I am interested in opening a HELOC to tap into the equity of my house without changing my current interest rate on my mortgage. I have been shopping lenders for a few days and they offer varying numbers for max allowable credit and interest rate. I can't decide which is more important between the two. For example (these are hypothetical), one lender will give me a credit line of $100,000 at a 6.5% interest rate, but another lender will give me $150,000 at an 8% interest rate. I don't have a particular investment in mind yet, but just want to get the credit line open. What do you think? Thanks!

For BRRR I'd take the $150. Access to the capital is often more important than a couple % on the rate.

Chances are though, the higher rate loan also has higher closing costs and maintenance fees.

Tell us about origination costs (like full appraisal vs desktop) and maintenance fees for each.

Ok good to know. Each option has no closing costs as long as I don’t close the line within 3 years. No appraisal fee either. They each have an annual fee that is insignificant ($50 vs $75 annually).

1 Vote

Phoenix, Arizona

0 Votes

Phoenix, Arizona

Hi! I am considering working Tardus Wealth Strategies to help build passive income, but I’m a bit skeptical about their supposed return rate. I had my initial consultation with them and they said that my first investment would be $2500 to make $77 a month passive income. But that ends up being a 37% return annually, which seems incredibly high. Their income snowball video mentions an example of investing $10,000 to make $340 per month, which again is a 41% rate of return. Has anyone here worked with Tardus, and if so can you vouch for these numbers? Thanks!

1 Vote

Hi all! I am trying to get into real estate investing but lack the capital to do so. I am considering using a HELOC to free up some equity from my home in order to cover the down payment of the new property. I currently owe $350k on my mortgage, and the home is valued at over $675k, so it seems more than feasible. I'm wondering if any of you have done something similar and/or have any advice to pass along. Thanks!

1 Vote

Tempe, Arizona

All Forum Posts by: Zachary Blomberg

Zachary Blomberg has started 7 posts and replied 15 times.

Post: Seeking Advice on Current Budget

Post: Seeking Advice on Current Budget

Post: Seeking Advice on Current Budget

Post: Seeking Advice on Current Budget

Post: Favorite Podcasts for Financial Literacy

Post: Tardus Rate of Return Question

Post: Question about HELOCs

Post: Question about HELOCs

Post: Tardus Rate of Return Question

Post: Buying a Duplex/Triplex using a HELOC