For as long as I’ve been in Real Estate, I've resisted becoming a Real Estate Agent.
My reasoning was:
I bought out of state (well... except 2014, 2019, 2020 -- this year I could have gotten a 13K reimbursement if I had been licensed.)
I didn't like the hours (oh, but Airbnb property management is just as on call, possibly worse)
So many people do Real Estate in a cheesy way and I didn't want to feel like one of the herd (ok that one is valid).
Why do I share these?
I share in an effort to show transparency on Real Estate & Airbnb Investments. I often see investors brag about all that can be made, which is substantial even in less desired locations like some of my homes are in, and yet they leave out the high expenses required to run such a business.
What I appreciate is that these 6 properties (3 with partial ownership), allow me to be Financially Independent, which I define as earning more from my assets than I spend to live. Of course, this is partially because I live frugally. In 2019, I personally earned $40,956 in profits from the homes, up $4,000 from the previous year.
Read Morehope this message finds you well. At least cozy at home, safe, and fed. I know personally that the time in Quarantine has been a mixed bag. With a lot more space to learn, reflect and try new things, all while balancing some boredom, sameness and depressed or melancholic moments.
I am incredibly grateful to have homes that will continue to pay for my frugal lifestyle, even rented on a less profitable month to month basis. With my work tasks grinding to nearly a complete halt, I am realizing more and more how much of a responsibility it is to go inside to find (or create!) my own happiness, fulfillment, inspiration and drive. I will admit that I have varying degrees of success at this.
Read MoreIn his email he said, “To the best of my knowledge, it's the first book of its kind, a novel that gives its readers a solid grounding in financial literacy. The Cash Machine teaches hundreds of financial lessons, all taught through a love story.” How could I say no to that? I’m a finance geek and a hopeless romantic, bring it on!
I loved it so much that I wanted to share it all with you. I decided to ask David and Chana if they could share a bit more about the creation of this novel with us today.
Read MoreHi Everyone,
My apologies that it has been awhile. My aim is to publish every two weeks but, unfortunately my Niece passed away in early Feb and I have been giving myself more space away from work to grieve. It has been challenging and my energy levels have been unpredictable. I have a lot of love and support in my community which has helped, I just thought I should let you know where I am at.
Thank you for understanding. In the meantime I have had some help from a friend to bring these resources below to you. I am hopeful that I will be on my normal schedule soon enough.
Read MoreHello Friends,
Welcome to my Quarter-ish report. I think if I was truly official I might have tallied things up Dec 31st, but who is working during the holidays? Not me!
As you may have noticed, things are a little informal around here, thanks for giving me the space to share in the best way that I can.
Read MoreIn November, I was feeling inspired and newly invigorated to optimize my finances after beta reading the Choose FI book before it’s launch. That FIRE’d up energy led to me posting the above post on my Facebook wall.
That post snowballed into sharing resources, then at the recommendation of some friends, putting together an “Optimizing Your Day to Day” event, then creating an on-going educational meetup group called Finances & Friends and finally, testing out a new one on one FI Fitness call with clients and friends. Now I want to bring that special offering to you!
Read MoreI’m excited to share this post with you today because it comes with some valuable freebies! I e-met Julie from Millennial Boss, a popular personal finance blog, when she and Gwen from Fiery Millennials, interviewed me for their joint podcast: Fire Drill.
*One thing I learned about myself in writing this paragraph is that I don’t know how to spell Millennial #thankgodforspellcheck
Be sure to read all the way to the end so that you can sign up for her free e-books. I definitely plan on reading the one on monetizing a blog…and maybe encouraging my team to do so as well. What I know for sure is that learning never stops and even one simple idea learned in passing, can pay in dividends!
Read MoreAs you may have noticed, I recently added Tracking Your Net Worth as part of my “Take Action” suggestions at the bottom of each blog and I imagine some of you might be thinking, “Why is this important?”.
Well in addition to being an Entrepreneur and Real Estate Investor, I wear the important badge of FIRE enthusiast. This means, that I have “money goals baby!” and I want to know how close I am to achieving them. Plus, I believe what you focus on grows, so why don’t we all put a little more attention on those sexy bank accounts?
Two days ago I was listening to a Podcast interview with Bea Johnson who wrote Zero Waste Home and travels all over the world teaching about the Zero Waste movement. In the episode, she said that when her family decided to switch over to a Zero Waste lifestyle, they were surprised to find that their expenses dropped by 40%. That’s when the lightbulb went off in my head and I knew I had to share it with you all.
Read MoreMay has been podcast month! I have been recording 2 or so a week, including some fun big name ones that should be coming out in the next few months.
I do not usually post here when a new podcast comes out, but since 2 episodes came out within a few days of each other, I thought it would be a good time to remind you of the media section where you can find a list of all the podcasts that I have been on: https://www.zeonamcintyre.com/media
Read MoreFor as long as I can remember, a strong value in my life has been around Freedom. I felt a deep need for it and the main vehicle I saw for getting it was money.
I watched my parents struggle and suffer. My dad was a fast-talking dreamer who could sell ice to an eskimo and wanted to “Get Rich Quick” and my mother was a soft spoken, kind soul with low self worth, who believed that you had to “work hard” for money. Neither were very good with money or had anything saved. They were living paycheck to paycheck and I assume, just putting off thinking about the future.
Read MoreLast Saturday, I was fortunate enough to get snuck in to the Premiere Screening of Documentary Playing With FIRE, after the tickets sold out in just a few hours. My kind friends Pete & Carl, co-owners of the MMM Headquarters in Longmont, were hosting the event. Although I had a feeling it would packed like most of their meetups are, I had no idea that so many of the big name bloggers who were in the film, the entire cast and much of the crew would also be there. It was a truly a treat.
Read MoreWhile I was at GuestyVal, I made many valuable connections, one of them was to the brothers behind DesignedVR.com. Their front is as a management company but I am here to blow open their invite-only secret, that they are also providing fully Turn-Key, Vacation Rentals Investments! Shahar Goldboim is a local Broker in the Ft. Lauderdale area so he can assist eager investors through the process from searching to close, then they have relationships with wholesalers to get under market discounts on furniture that they plan, design, and install for you. Lastly, they will manage the home completely from start to finish. The bonus (as if you need more convincing) is that their background is in analytics, so they have designed a ease to use, fully transparent website that allows you to see all the breakdowns of how your investment is performing. Truly a hands off experience.
Read MoreThose of you who follow me on Instagram or Facebook, may have seen glimpses of my sister’s off the grid Tiny Home in Maui, Hawaii. Zeena, her husband, and his father poured almost 2 years of nights and weekends into building the little dreamboat. Last year they introduced a baby into the mix and the results are just adorable. She recently started a blog to tell the story of the Build and how the 3 of them Live and Thrive in the small space.
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