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how to stay fastlane in your thinking?

rcardin

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How does everyone stay on track?
I am in the process of working through the plan. I am selling off a lot of toys and misc stuff. I finally got all of my RC airplanes out of the attic and have about 10 emails from a craigslist listing on them. Should be able to make 1500-3000 off of them. Also have 3 jetskis that are going this weekend also. Conservative estimate of 3-4k income from all of this. Sent in my paperwork to cash out a 403b worth about 4k and with income tax and saving the rent checks we should be able to scrape up almost 10k in the next month.

Sure would like to have a bass boat.

We are looking to buy 2 properties this year. Our goal is 10 houses in 5 years cash flowing 150-200 a month.

Sure would like to have a boat though.

How do you keep on track and not go back to the old way of thinking. When I get a large sum of cash it is hard to keep from spending it. We have a saying about that but it is not very politically correct:nono: I know if I can just stay on track for 5 years the houses will pay for the toys. But getting past that urge to have fun now is difficult.

My wife is completely on board and told me if I buy a boat she doesn't want to ever hear about buying a other house again. Gotta love her!
 
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kimberland

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We try to get even our toys to pay for themselves.
Are you going to use the boat every day?
Could you rent it out?

About the extra cash,
I tend to move it to an extra account,
one I don't look at often.
The out of sight, out of mind technique.

When we buy assets,
we don't think of it as an extra $200 a month,
we think of it as an extra couple days in the south of France.
Money, on its own, has no meaning.

You're not building a real estate portfolio cash flowing $2,000 a month,
you're building one to buy you a new boat every year or so.
 

mtnman

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Focus. Just like in sports, where the head goes, the body follows. The mind works in the same manner. A well defined plan will give your mind specific goals.

Take these goals and create mental pictures of them or something that represents you accomplishing your goal.

Twice daily, sit in a comfortable place and meditate, envision, (enter what suits you here), your goals for a few minutes to clearly define what you want.

One thing in all self help and motivational books that's the same, is the delay in gratification. It's what I call DDP. Discipline, dedication, and perseverance.

These are the qualities, that when practiced daily, will allow you to move forward with working toward your goals and not buy the boat. The boat will not be your main focus, merely an afterthought or a reward for accomplishment.
 

GettingThere

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I try to look at the big picture...

$10k is:

A) not going to get a very nice boat (relative)
B) not going to allow you to AFFORD the boat (service, maint., PITA repairs, insurance, storage, etc.)
C) a nice place to start investing in RE or anything
D) going to be difficult to re-coop since you sold all your 'stuff'
E) money you obtained by changing your perception of spending...don't let that slip away for some shiny fiberglass that pisses you off because it doesn't run or because you have no time to use it since you are having to work harder at your JOB to replace the money you spent on it.

Getting rid of toys to get more toys makes no sense...you are presumably a sensible person due to the fact that you are posting on this forum, so let's be sensible and envision something greater than a $10k boat.

Be persistent in the achievement of your ultimate goal...the faster you get there, the sooner you can have your pick of boats.

Try to treat the desire to buy the boat as a block in the road and do NOT let it stop you from moving forward.

my 2 cents...

-John
 
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Runum

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My thinking gets off track all the time. Then I think "My investments made this money for me, if I spend it the profits then the growth is over. If I reinvest the money then it will continue to grow." I know that when I want to quit playing the game I just spend the money and game over.​
 

nomadjanet

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My husband likes classic cars. He started a new business which allows him to buy & sell classic cars. He buys one, tinkers for a few months & drives it and sells it and buys another. All the expenses are a write off last one we took a loss of $500.00 after expenses. Next one we will be making a few thousand. No big bucks but it is his passion and he gets to do it while writting off the expenses. Could you boat be a similar deal? Are you at the point where play money is not real? If not you just have to play cut & paste & put them up and talk about them & fill your head with the focus. I also agree with the statement that money is nothing in & of itself it is what you can and will do with it that counts.
Janet
 

rcardin

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Are you at the point where play money is not real? If not you just have to play cut & paste & put them up and talk about them & fill your head with the focus.

You lost me there Janet.

Question on your husbands hobby/business. I also own a DJ business doing weddings and such. From what I understand the IRS will allow you to run in the negative for 3 years then it becomes a hobby. So I have to be sure to show some kind of profit each year to keep my write offs.

It is soooo easy to lose track of the final goal.
 
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kimberland

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From what I understand the IRS will allow you to run in the negative for 3 years then it becomes a hobby. So I have to be sure to show some kind of profit each year to keep my write offs.

I think we have something similar in Canada
(though having contracts in place, etc
will "prove" it is actually a business
- helpful in the book writing business).

The thing is...
after 3 years, if you're not making money,
you aren't allowed to take a loss on the business.
You're still able to pay zero tax.
 

MrPink

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Do you know that your plan needs 10k or could you start it with 6k?

I would avoid pulling out the 403b assuming that it triggers the10 percent penalty from the IRS.

Why pay for your money?

Just a thought.

Mr. Pink
 

rcardin

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10 % down on a 60-70k house plus closing and any rehab will get me pretty close to 10k.

Kinda stupid that I have to pay to get my own money back. I elected not to have anything withheld for the hope that I can make enough of the cash to offset the penalty.
 
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Runum

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I would avoid pulling out the 403b assuming that it triggers the10 percent penalty from the IRS.

I have been told that many times and to some extent I agree. However, in my case I was in a 401k rollover. Each month I was losing value. Trend was over 1-2 years was to losing value. My money managers were still getting their paychecks from my fees but I was still losing value. I began taking control by really looking at current losses and future projections. I then began running my numbers with using my a cash out for my RE investments. I made all of the penalties up in just one deal. I did have to my income taxes due to a higher income but even that was offset some by paper losses on my RE investments.

Investing is an individual sport. What may work for you may not work for me. It's all in the numbers.

RC if you can successfully get your 403b out while still employed as a teacher let me know. We can't seem to touch my wife's 403b unless she quits.:cheers:

Greg
 

PEERless

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Not to be corny, but everybody needs a motivational poster. Not the kind you buy in "Sky Mall," but one you made yourself with imagery and words that put you in motion. I hung mine over my TV, so every second I waste in front of the tube makes me feel guilty for not working to exit the slow lane.
 

Runum

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I like that idea for getting me off my rearend. I use the screen saver on all my computers to rotate random pictures that motivate me.
 
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Runum

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What about when you are idly surfing and wasting time?

Thanks for the rep. The answer to your question is I have multiple computers. However, they also have those digital picture frames that rotate pics. I bought my wife one and we loaded over 200 pics on it. It rotates 24/7.:cheers:
 

MrPink

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"My money managers were still getting their paychecks from my fees but I was still losing value."

Ditch the money managers and just do it yourself. Of course, if you have ideas that will make you a better return and you need the 4k to do them then that makes sense.

Mr. Pink

PS. I need to learn the quote thing, where the hell is that little paper clip when I need him?
 

taichijedi

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There are some great tidbits of advice here. I always look at the "toys" I want as an investment as well. For instance, you could buy a 10' bass boat for the 10k you have and struggle with fueling bills and all the other related expenses, or you could hold off and build your assets and comfortably afford a 30' bayliner sleeper and have weekend fishing trips where you don't even need to dock. It might take 10 more years, but you've waited this long and what's 10 years when you are growing your finances?

Your dreams should be quality over quantity, and when you use that money to invest and have it work for you are compounding not only your money, but also the quality of your dreams. One thing you may want to consider is going out and buying a Captain's Hat (or whatever is appropriate to you) and keep it in your office. Use it to keep you focused on your goals, much liek the imagery previously mentioned. Good luck, I hope you meet with great success.

Speed ++ For mentioning something many confront but seldom acknowledge.
 

nomadjanet

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Are you at the point where play money is not real? If not you just have to play cut & paste & put them up and talk about them & fill your head with the focus.

You lost me there Janet.

What I mean is that if you are at the point where 10K extra seems like a large amount of money to you, it is easy to be distracted by the thought. You need to use visual pictures (cut & paste) to make it real to you. If you haven't had extra money in the past you can become paralyzed by the idea of spending that much money or you can become extravagant and forget what the plan was. So visual pictures in addition to your written plan can help keep your focus.

BTW pardon for not being around I have been traveling and not paying attention to the board, there is a lot to read & catch up on.

Janet :smxG:
 
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yveskleinsky

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Glad you're back- I was starting to wonder what happened to ya!
 

fanocks2003

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As many people say on this thread. The best way is to see the assets you buy as something that buys you your toys. That is makes me tick.

Say I want a new house in Cannes, France and it will cost me $X every month to afford it (with mortgage). Then the first thing I will do is find a company to acquire and then use the gains from the company to pay for my new house in Cannes. It becomes a good cycle of getting richer the more you spend on toys.

This way of structuring things makes it possible to have almost all types of toys (even very expensive ones. Like a big yacht, a big flashy home, a big jumbo jet etc).
 

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