Q&A: Fannie Mae's New Mortgage, House Repairs, and Retiring Early
00:00Amazon presents Laura versus Fruitflies.Swarming your fruit and terrorizing your kitchen.These little freaks multiply at a rate that would make a rabbit say, yo.Chill.But Laura shopped on Amazon and saved on cleaning spray, countertop wipes, and fly traps.Hey, fruit flies, your baby boom ends here.Save the Everyday with Amazon.Hey everyone and welcome back to the rich Habits podcast, a top five business podcast on Spotify,
00:36question and answer edition. It's Thursday, which means the week is almost over and the holidayseason's here. We're really excited to move into 2024 with all of you. And oh my gosh, I am so excitedabout the positive feedback we received on Monday's episode about bonds. It's kind of funny becausewhen you think about bonds, you kind of yawn and like, what the heck is a bond? I don't care aboutthis fixed income retirement stuff.But the way that Robert, Troy, and myself were able to explain things and break things downabout the bond trade and the bond idea for 2024, kept you all on the edge of your seats.So really excited about that positive feedback.
01:16If you've not yet listened to that episode, go give it a listen.And as always, if you have a question for the podcast, feel free to shoot us to DM at Rich Habitspodcast on Instagram.We are 400 followers away from 10,000 followers on Instagram.Instagram, which is really exciting. You can also send us an email at rich habits podcast at gmail.com. Or ifyou're friends with Robert and I shoot us a text, who knows? Yes, very excited going into 2024.We are almost ready to launch the rich habits podcast website, which is so, so exciting. Finally,I know, I know, I know. And also the rich habits newsletter, which is going to be very, very good,
01:55is coming out real soon as well. So lots of holiday presents in the future.for each and every one of you that follows along.With that being said, let's jump into the first question here from Todd D.Todd says, hi, Austin and Robert.I have a car loan for the amount of $10,866.I pay $250 a month for it at a 5.7% interest rate.So about $51 per payment is going to interest every month.Now, my gut tells me to pay this off.
02:25In general, I don't like debt and I don't like making these payments.I have about $52,000 in savings and $10,000 in a certificate of deposit.Do I pay the car off or invest my parked money elsewhere?A little more about me.I have a high-income job in software making $130,000 per year.And I have no other debt other than having rent at about $2,200 per month.P.S, I just dropped $5,000 in a QQQQ.Super excited for you, Todd.
02:53We love it when you invest in the index funds.Okay.Good question.Lots of details.Robert, you want to take a first stab at this?Todd, I think it's a great question.Congrats on all of your success.But here's my takeaway.
03:05If you look at QQQ for the year, you just alluded that you invested in QQQQ.It's up, I think, around 40% for the year in 2023.VO, another one of our favorites, you know, the S&P 500 is up around 20% for the year.So even at 6% interest, I think that's low enough that you keep paying on the car.you keep the minimum payments paid on time, keep your credit high, but invest the rest of that moneyand continue to invest your money in these markets like the S&P and the NASDAQ, but also you couldstart touching some more on cryptocurrency. I think there's a big run-up coming in crypto as wellgoing into 2024. So for me, I know you don't like debt. You've alluded to that, but I would keep
03:49paying the minimum payments and I would put the rest towards these other investments we're discussing.And something else I want to call it too, Todd. Obviously, it's your money. If you don't like debt in the payments, do whatever you want. We're just two guys on the internet. But something you mentioned is that you have rent. You pay $2,000 a month in rent. You make $130,000 a year and you're sitting on what seems to be a cumulative of $62,000 in savings. If I were you, I'd begin to really consider what it might look like to buy a house. Right. Maybe you're at that point in your financial wealth building journey where you're ready to buy some sort of property. Obviously,Robert and I think that the duplex, triplex or quadplex is the way to go.Robert talks a lot about the 5% Fannie Mae mortgage.That's around the corner here.So there's a bunch of ways to think about buying your first property in a way that's veryresponsible, especially for someone making $130,000 a year.Love it.
04:41Yeah.And also we didn't touch on the fact that I didn't hear Roth IRA mentioned anywhere in thisoverview.And I think with the Roth being raised to $7,000 for 2024, it'd be a great place toget that started and maxed out every year, considering you're a high earner. So that's one moretentacle I would add to this strategy. Really great question, Todd. Thank you. Our next questioncomes from Anisa R. She says, hi, Austin and Robert. My name's Anisa, and I love listening toyour podcast. Thank you so much, Anisa. We love creating these episodes. I have a couple of
05:14questions, and I know you might not be able to answer all of them, but the first one is most important.My husband and I are in our early 30s, and we make about $250,000 per year. We're currently aimingon maxing out our Roth IRAs. We have investments in Fundrise and SPYI. We're investing towarda 401Ks and everything in between. We are wondering how else we can continue to allocate our investments.Separately, we also want to start investing into a 529 account for our one-year-old, but we're a bitconcerned about too much exposure to the S&P 500. Do you have any perspective here? Okay, so my brainimmediately goes to, wow, you all are making $250,000 per year. You have a one-year-old. I'msure if anyone's staying home to take care of the one year old or not so that income gets cut in
05:59half in the future. But let's say it doesn't. Let's say you all are some rock stars making a quartermillion a year and you've got $50, $60,000 per year to invest. Immediately what happens in mybrand is how the heck can I allocate this money in a way to help me retire early? Now, retiring earlymeans a lot of different things for a lot of people, but very simply it's just a math equation.If your investments are producing cash flow for you that is the same or more than the monthlyexpenses that you allocate to living, then you're sort of retired, right? You are financiallyfree, as some people call it. Financially independent retire early is a fire acronymmovement that people like to talk about. But that's where my head goes. So maybe for you, it's like,
06:44okay, let's make sure that we have the retirement figured out, if that's the Roth IRA, the401k, the SPYI, the fundraise, all that fun stuff. But,maybe you still have $50, $60,000 a year hanging around. Does that mean maybe you can now go outand buy your first rental property and start making some cash flow that way? Perhaps that might be anAirbnb. That might be some sort of triplex or duplex. Or maybe you even allocate more money toSPY inside of a normal taxable brokerage account so you can withdraw the dividend income, the distributionson a monthly basis to your checking account without having those retirement penalties because it mightbe in a retirement account. So I just want you guys to be thinking about it like that. You are
07:21definitely making enough money where early retirement is on the table. It just comes down to how do youwant to be thinking about investing with retirements and early retirement in mind. It's kind of agood balance there. But Robert, I'd love to hear your perspective here as well. So that was really,really good. And I'll just add a few points to it. In my opinion, you're right. High earners.in a good spot already. I'm hearing middle 30s. So I would look at it this way. I would probablyadd in some bond exposure going into 2024. We've been talking about that. So maybe some BNDDI.That is a NEOS fund that we really love. For anyone listening, you can look it up at neosfunds.com.I would also look at maybe doing some venture investing into startups because at your rate,
08:11you can start to take some higher risk investments.So I would look at REITs and venture investing.And then I would also fully optimize a crypto portfolioas part of my overall strategybecause I believe that crypto is going to be the most profitableand best sector to be investing in over the next two to three years.So that would be what I would add to what you're already doing.You guys are doing a great job.
08:36But those are the items that I would considerto get you fully flushed outto make sure that you're fully diversified throughout your portfolios.So that way you can withstand any ups and downs in the markets.And as someone who earns take home pay in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per year myself,what Robert has described is largely what I'm doing, as well as what I described, right?I've got my own sort of early retirement path that I'm working on.But, I mean, I invested about $200, $220,000 this year into the markets.
09:07And that was across cryptocurrency.That was across, you know, my solo 401k retirement.retirement accounts. I also, to your point, opened up the 529 Anisa, and I'm doing that for my nieces andnephews. I'm doing about $150, $200 per month there on Vanguard. I've got it in a 80% S&P, 20% VUG, which is agrowth fund that Vanguard has kind of waiting there. There's a bunch of ways to allocate. Oh, I also didsome venture investing to Robert's point. And if you're looking about different ways to execute upon this,the only advice that I could give you is to try and keep it as simple as possible. You know, there'sa thousand cryptocurrencies out there. Just grab your favorite two, Bitcoin, Ethereum, maybe an
09:44XRP or a chain link, or, you know, something else you might read online that you're passionateabout. And then from a venture investing perspective, there's AngelList, there's, I think,start engine, there's republic.com, as a bunch of these other little things like that. And if thatis even sort of confusing, then maybe it's a better idea to take that money and go buy realestate and start your own company, quote unquote, as a real estate investor. There's just a bunchof ways to think about this. But if you can keep it as simple as possible,then I think you're going to be just fine. And the last piece of advice kind of reflecting upon myself hereis tax optimization. Work with a tax professional. You all now are making enough money where taxes matter,
10:21right? I had to pay $120,000 in 2023 to taxes. And I hate that. And there's definitely ways I could haveoptimized and I didn't. So I'm definitely going to be optimizing in 2024 for that. And so as highincome earners yourselves, tax optimization is very important. Love it, love it, love it. All right. Let's go to the nextquestion. Our next question comes from David C. David says, I love what you guys are doing and sharingthis great information with everyone. Thanks, David. We appreciate that. David says, I'm duea fairly sizable retention bonus in Q1 of 2024. It should be about $40,000. My filing status ismarried and my wife and I filed jointly. She does not work. From a taxes perspective, is it wise tocontribute 25% or more of this bonus to my employer-sponsored 401K, which subsequently would allow him to
11:09write that off of his taxable income, or eat the taxes and contribute toward a Roth IRA and abrokerage account that provides more autonomy on how my money is invested. Robert, do you want to take afirst step at this? I would love to. So, David, assuming looking at the email address and you've gotthe number 87 in there, so if we extrapolate that out and we assume you're 36 years old, in your mid-30s,in my opinion, I would take the tax hit now because at the end of the day, I'd rather pay the taxis now on a little bit, then pay them later on a lot. So the way to look at it is take the taxhit now, get it into that Roth IRA, and then enjoy the tax benefits for the rest of yourcareer and the rest of your life until you start taking it out. So that's what I would do. I love
11:54the fact that you understand the autonomy. You're going to have a higher performance rate of justbetter returns overall normally in a Roth IRA than a 401k. So that would be my opinion to get youthe most bang for your buck in the long run. I'm right there with you,Robert. Couldn't have said it better myself. Really good question, David. And congrats on the $40,000bonus, man. That's awesome. Our next question comes from George from New York. George says,firstly, thank you for doing the podcast and providing all this information. It is incredible.George, thanks for listening, man. We appreciate it. So George says, I have a home with a mortgage,and I'm anticipating and moving in about three to five years. There are some repairs or upgrades
12:33to my current home that can be done, which is mainly fixing the front stoop and driveway with high-qualitypavers as the original contractor did not do the job correctly. Adding pavers in the backyard as wellwould be cool because I'd have a spot to hang out and cook. However, the front yard is much moreimportant, not only for curb appeal, but because the current stoop is caving in and might not lastmuch longer. The question is, does it make sense to spend $20,000 to $25,000 to do both the front yardand the backyard? I have this money in cash. Or should I spend a lot less, just worry about thefront yard and forget about the backyard and sell it as is. Robert, I don't really know. So you got areal estate mind. I'd love to hear how you're thinking about this. George, this is a great question,
13:18and I'm going to take a stab at it to really help you think it through. So the way I would look at it isyou're going to put $25,000 in for this beautification, fix it up, make the curb appeal great,give yourself a little bit more outdoor living space for the back. So if you want to look at it, the $25,000,And let's say you end up living there for the maximum of five years.So that's $5,000 a year for five years.You have to ask yourself, is the quality of living increase worth it for you over those five years?And then also do those repairs and those added bonuses that you're putting in,does that increase the house's value $25,000 over a five year span or $5,000 a year?
14:02And only you would know that based on the comps of the,comparable properties in your area and what the capital appreciation is in that area. So if you were toassume, and again, we have limited information, but if we were to assume this is a $300,000, $500,000 home,and you have a, let's say, a 5% capital appreciation per year, then it would more than outweigh thebenefits by doing these projects in the future for future value increase of the home. That would be mytake away, but also don't forget to think about it from a quality of life perspective. If thedriveway's kind of torn up, that's no fun. The front stoop is dangerous. That's embarrassing. So you have tolook at it of more than just the money and the expenditure, but also what it does for you as far as
14:51quality of life for you, your family and your friends that visit over the next three to five years.I'm going to largely agree. I am a big proponent. As someone who bought a house recently and I've beenand investing thousands to fix it up and the quality of life.I've probably spent $10,000 to $12,000 on this new place over the last 12 months or soacross furniture, paint, a new pantry, just like stuff like that.I have the propensity to do those things because I'm a big believer in quality of life,being happy, being productive and efficient and just really loving where I live.And so if George has the same mentality and he's going to be there for another five years,
15:30I agree.I feel like if you do fix up the driveway and the stoop and the backyard and you're feeling really good about it,you will probably see not only a $20,000 to $25,000 increase in value to your home, but that increasewill probably compound on itself over the next three to five years, especially if there's other comparables there that canjustify it. So I'm with Robert on this one, George. If you feel good about it and the numbers make sense,you said you have this all in cash, so you wouldn't be going in debt for that, which is a good idea.This is great. I'm here for it. Because you know, you mentioned here in your question that do Ido this or do I put the money in investments? This is an investment, right? You will make money on this.
16:06This is kind of an investment. So I want you to think about that as well. Yeah. And one of the things that Ialways look at for a question like this is, and we've all been there, where you go to a friend's house,they live in a subdivision. They just bought a home, you know, that's within a year or two or threeold. And you go there for a party and you go out back. And they literally have this little five by eightcement slab in the back. And that's it.They don't have anything else.So you're all sitting in these little chairs trying to have a good time.So when you add that outdoor space, it really enhances the value of the property because just like with an Airbnb, the Airbnbs that win are the ones where they thought ahead.
16:46They have a hot tub.They have a cool fire pit.And I don't mean a fire pit that you bought at Home Depot for $129.I mean a cool fire pit that eight people can sit around.So then they add some hammocks out in the little wooded area.All of those little enhancements really, really bring value to a property.So I think you're on the right track, understanding that maybe adding that back patio area with some good seating or a cool fire pit will greatly enhance the value of the property, but also your quality of life in the meantime.Really good question, George.
17:19Thanks for asking this.This was really thought-provoking.So our next question comes from Adam C.Adam says, hey, guys, I've been love with the podcast.Thank you for all the invaluable information.Adam, we love that you listen to the podcast. Thank you so much. My girlfriend and I are planning to get married in the next two years, and we are both interested in Robert's idea of both buying multifamily properties with FHA loans and living in them until we get married. Can you go more in depth on how to go about doing that without overextending ourselves financially? Robert, what do you think?I love this strategy. More and more people should do it. And I would say the first step in this is understanding each of your financial situation.as they stand currently, and that's by doing a budget and figuring out your debt-to-income ratio.
18:03See what you qualify for so you know you're not buying too much property to where it doesoverextend you, and then just really work within the confines of the budget and the debt-to-incomeratio so you know where you're at. That would be step one.Step two would be figuring out how you're going to achieve this and what program you're going touse. You're going to want to look at the FHA program, but also the new Fannie Mae 5% down program.For anyone that's listening, this is a great program.You can buy up to $1.3 million of property.I'm not saying you should max it out.
18:35You can buy up to four doors and the requirements are much lower than even the FHA loan.And this is great because you only are required to put 5% down.So that's where I would look first or the FHA.So that's number two.Then number three in this strategy is figuring out where you want to have these properties.I'm sure you have an area in mind where it has good long-term growth and you see the capitalappreciation and the gentrification happening. So that would be step number three and figuring it outbecause you have to look at it this way. When you buy that duplex, triplex or quadplex,
19:12you're going to be currently lowering down your monthly overhead drastically for each of youbecause if you live in the one unit for the required one year prior to your marriage,the tenants are going to be paying your mortgage for the most part, if not fully.So this is a great strategy for both of you to do.And it really just comes down to identifying how much you can afford and where you're atbased on the numbers of the properties you're looking at.And then understanding what the numbers will be once it's purchased and you have the tenantsinvolved.
19:45Because not only are you going to have the cash flow, hopefully, but it's the reduced overheadthat you will have living in it because essentially these tenants are going to be paying themortgage, but then also you have the capital appreciation and the tax right off because you'regoing to be having that depreciation. So there are more than just the strategy in itself thatbrings this to life and makes it a great way to start off your marriage. Because look at it this way.Let's say you do this this year. You live in it for 2024. Then you get married. Then you fill each of thoseunits, you're starting off the marriage as one entity with four doors, six doors, or eightdoors of revenue every single month, which is just going to be incredible when you start
20:30off your financial journeys together, having that amount of income and capital appreciationevery single year.Square knows that in hospitality, efficiency is everything.That's why their system lets you take payments.Track sales, handle inventory, manage staff, send invoices, and keep up with finances all in one place.Fly through orders with zero mistakes.Get the data you need and keep everything working together.So you're ready for whatever's next.
20:59Learn more about their customizable plans at sclerup.com.AI is moving fast across the enterprise.But without visibility, it's just chaos.Different tools, different models, different teams using AI in completely different ways.Service now turns that chaos into control.With the AI control tower, you see all your A.AI across the business in one place.What it's doing, what it's done, and what it's about to do.
21:27So you stay in control.To put AI to work for people, visit servicenav.com.Yeah, that was a really good answer.To speak probably more tactically, I think what you should probably do, Adam, is, you know,what are rents going for right now in your area?Is it 1,800, 2,000, 2, 2,400, right?What is like the average rent in your area?For example, in my neighborhood, I think rent right now is around like the $2,200 a month range.
21:56So let's assume you borrow $400,000 for this.That is a monthly payment of about $3,500, right?So make sure when you do this and you're thinking about this, it's like, okay, I got to pay $3,500 a month out to the lender.And I'm renting this out for call it $2,000 or $2,200, which means I still am on the hook for $1,000, assuming everything goes right.We all know everything doesn't always go right all the time.So you want to make sure you maybe set aside a little bit more money for repairs or, you know,escrow or, you know, for example, house insurance for me was increased by 40% between 2022 and2023.
22:31So there's a lot of like little things like that that are just going to kind of jump in your way here.So make sure whenever you're doing this, both you and your soon-to-be wife, you all have allof the numbers flushed out.Every single detail is figured out because the last thing you want to do is, to your point,get overextended financially.you have a duplex, she has a duplex, and your mortgage is $35,000, $4,000 a month,but you're not bringing in as much rental income as you thought.And then even after you guys eventually move in together, both of your duplexes aren't cash
23:00flowing, right?There's a lot of things that could go wrong here.But it will not happen if you flush your numbers out and make sure that you have everysingle thing figured out.I love it.Great question, Adam.So our next question comes from Faith S.Faith says, I've opened my Roth IRA and we're in the process of opening one for my husband.
23:17Thank you so much for your guidance. You all are amazing. Here's my question this morning.At what age do you recommend someone should start transitioning their portfolio from more aggressiveoptions to a little bit more conservative and safer options? And what safer options would yourecommend? Faith, I 100% recommend that you scroll back like four or five episodes to ourconversation with Rachel Aguirre. She is the head of investment product at Ishares. Now,iShares has introduced and launched a new suite of target date fund ETFs that are much moreintuitive and very smart compared to the traditional target date funds. These are ETFs thatrebalance on a quarterly basis and they're going to make sure that they're moving you away from
24:02ultra aggressive to more conservative as you approach retirement. So just find the year you want to retireand pair it up with one of their ETFs. They've got like 10 or 12 that are in there that you canchoose from and look at the holdings and kind of better understand their own mix of aggressive versusconservative. So you are, you know, very comfortable with that. But, you know, the risk-adjustedreturn is what they really like to harp on there. And I think that's what you're asking.But Robert, do you have any additional perspective? Yeah, I think a lot of people really strugglewith this question. And it's a great question of faith. And we appreciate it. I would say you don'thave to dial back the aggression as early as you might think. Because if you're really well-balanced,
24:43and diversified, then you're going to want to have a portion of the various different items that youhold within your portfolios in aggressive, more aggressive items. But overall, as long as youhave that diversification, I don't think you have to worry about it as much. And this is the issuethat Austin and I, and I'll speak for myself in this instance, have had with Target Date funds,because I feel a lot of them, not the I shares ones that Austin alluded to, but a lot oftarget date funds really dial the aggression back far too early for people. And I think you justleave too much money on the table. So to answer the question, to me, I don't think you have to changethe aggression at all, even at 45 or 50 years old. Because you're well diversified, it's just
25:28going to put you in a position where you're prepared for any pullbacks in the market. You've gotyourself covered with those bonds, those treasury bills, you've got some crypto over here. But then you'vegot your basket, hopefully in your Roth IRA, of those tried and true index funds like we speak of,VOOQQQ, VTI, and some of those. So I think it all starts with diversification and figuring outyour risk tolerance so you can make sure to optimize your earnings and your gains over timeto the best amount you can based on your risk tolerance. Really good question, Faith. Thank you somuch. So our last question comes from D. Nelly G. D. Nellie G. asks, I just had a baby, and I'm stillwaiting on her social security number to come in so I can start opening her accounts. Congratulations on the
26:18baby, praying for a happy, healthy baby. We've had a lot of listeners have babies recently. Lastepisode, we had another baby announcement. So congratulations. Now, the question is, am I able to open upan IRA for her with no earned income? Is it smart to open up both a 529 and an IRA? So no, you cannot open andcontribute toward a Roth IRA with a baby that doesn't earn any money, right? Now, if this was a 15 or 16year old that might have been a lifeguard or is like working fast food or like, you know, has a job and isable to earn money, then yeah, you can take up to the amount of money they earn that year andinvest it assuming you don't max it out just yet that year. And that could be a strategy. But for a baby,unless you have a baby model and we got like the Gerber baby and we just don't know it over here,
27:00then I don't think that that is going to be a solution. But you can do the 529. So what I've doneis I've gone to Vanguard. They had a $3,000 minimum contribution. I did $3,000. I had an 80-20 split betweenthe S&P and VUG, which is a growth fund that Vanguard offers. And I'm rocking and rolling at $150,$200 a month toward that for my nieces and nephews. That's going to be tens of thousands of dollarsin the next call it 15 to 18 years for them. So I'm excited for that. But Robert, do you have anyperspective on this? Yeah, I think you're on the right track. And one way to look at it is if you own a company,then the child could have earned income, as Austin alluded to, as a model,sweeping the floors a few years down the road, helping out with social media,
27:44et cetera, et cetera.But in the meantime, I would just keep it simple.Open that custodial account, get a brokerage account open up,and you can just start putting money into that, whatever you can afford each month.That would be a good strategy to get this newborn on the right track.And then as they age, look at putting them on everything.earned income, switching that over to a custodial Roth IRA and get the advantages then. But right now,keep it simple. Get that custodial account opened up and I think you'd be great. You can do that on
28:15public.com, Schwab, whatever your platform of choices, we use all of them, but that's what I would do.Couldn't agree more, Robert. Everyone, thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the RichHabits podcast question and answer edition. If you have a question to ask us, don't forgetRich Habits Podcast at Gmail, which is actually where we got all of these questions. These wereemail questions. But don't forget, you can also hit us up on Instagram at Rich Habits Podcast.And don't forget to check out the show notes below. Robert, we've got the budgeting guide.We've got the awesome course that we have. We've got our own social media links. We've gottons of supporting information down there. So go check that out if you haven't already.
28:52And also don't forget, we're so excited coming up for the holidays. We are finally going to havethe Rich Habits podcast website. Very excited about that. And we are going to be dropping a newslettervery, very soon. Again, thank all of you for following along on this incredible journey with usto financial freedom and great rich habits. Thank you all so much. And we will see you soon.Oh, Robert, I forgot. Monday, we are announcing the next five Amazon gift card winners. So next fiveAmazon gift card winners, you might win. Tune in Monday. We'll see you there. Until then, have a great rest ofyour week.
There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click any sentence in the transcript to leave one.