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Trust me, I understand all that, that"s why something like the airline industry sucks, because they have such variability in fuel costs, and their margins are extremely thin, like 1-2%. Things turn on a dime for them very quickly. Same with big box stores like Best Buy, or the big 3 auto...

I don"t know the breakdown, but I do know I get far better ROI on my paid clicks than my organic listing. I pay a company $4000 a month to handle all my SEO stuff, including organic listing, Facebook, Twitter, web integration, etc. I don"t know much about the organic listing stuff, but they...

Blazin - are you a contractor by yourself, or do you have your own company/firm? I was trying to see ways you might save yourself on taxes. Of course, as already mentioned, paying everything off is noble but doesn"t make the most sense tax-wise. Corndog - Good luck with everything. I can"t...

Corndog, being scared is normal, I would question you if you weren"t at all =) Honestly, if you aren"t scared, that means you haven"t done your due diligence, I think once you realize how much things cost, it can be very daunting. It"s the people that go into business without a though into how...

Corndog - what type of business are you planning on opening? and Blazin, what type of business are you in? Brutal, I know jack shit about the cattle business, but is it true that almost all the beef we eat comes from like 2 or 3 companies, like Cargill? So it makes it hard for smaller...

Oh and Brutal, what Lyrical said is spot on as far as having a company taking losses. It"s part of the "synergy" I was talking about, and his gives examples. As a mental exercise, say your company has net revenues of $100,000 you would pay taxes on. Now say you opened a second company, called...

Yes, I know. OneonOne quoted theEXACT same thing, and I answered him and I clarified what I meant, but then you go and quote the same thing again? It"s like you didn"t even bother reading my response to him. Sorry to sound frustrated, but it"s feels like beating my head against the wall where I...

I honestly don"t know why you and OneonOne keep getting the idea that I advocate buying stuff just to lower your tax burden. I"ve never said or supported that. If anything, I keep saying do so only if it makes sense to expand your business. Maybe I should do it in all caps: TRY TO LOWER YOUR...

Thanks for the answers, and I feel most business people behave as you do, as in they only expand their business when they feel it"s right, and they don"t really pay much attention to their tax or interest rates. I know I"m probably more of an outlier as far as being so anal about reducing my tax...

I see now, I guess my wording is poor and I"m not getting my point across. What you have to understand is I would spend money on my business in any case. I would spend "Y" dollars for example if I didn"t know where I stood with my revenue, etc. So my CPA calculates it every quarter, and...

I"m not sure where you got from my post that I said to spend money just for the sake of lowering your tax bill. Maybe I should clarify. I am saying spend money wherever reasonably possible to invest in your business. Like I said, my CPA says I should spend "X" dollars on my business, I find...

You are correct, it"s not always better. But it"s also not always better to be debt free. In your previous post, you mentioned clients buying things they didn"t need. Well, of course then that"s a waste of money. However, given a choice of paying Uncle Sam more of your money for taxes, so it...

What Cad said. I"m not sure why you are in a rush to pay off your debt. That will only increase your overall tax liability. Again, I"m not sure your your specifics Lyrical, so maybe talk to you accountant about it. I know mine personally always wants me to carry debt. As an example, the cars...

My advice is to find a real estate agent you can trust. I used to check MLS listings and have agents email me foreclosures to peruse over, but I don"t have time for that. Basically if you can find an agent you like to work with, just tell him/her what you are looking for (home to turn into a...

A few helpful hints. First, see what bank or institution holds the title to the home, and see what their history is as far as selling foreclosures. Usually the smaller banks have more leeway. Second, see what foreclosuresonlyare going for in your area, because that is what the bank/title...

I"m not sure why you find this surprising Lyrical. As a fellow business owner, I would say that 90% of the people I hire either 1) suck or 2) can easily be replaced by someone else without skipping a beat. And I"m in an industry where my most important positions all require college degrees. In...

First, like Usha said, the reality is that the quality of products isn"t cheap just because it"s made in China, it"s the labor that is cheap. Look at Apple....would you say an iPad or an iPhone is poorly constructed? Yet they are made in China. Second, even the crap made in China that is...

Actually you don"t, although it is always wise to get one. For example, when you tithe at church, you don"t necessarily get a receipt for that. What you should do, however, is always, always, always do your charitable donations with a check, so it can be tracked if you get audited. If you...

First things first. A loan officer is looking after the bank"s best interest, not yours, so always be wary. Why does he want you to go the ARM route? Probably because the bank will stand to make more money from you in the long run. Also, I"m not sure why he"s not offering you the traditional...

If that works for you I think that"s great. Obviously the ideal situation is to have a spouse that shares the same philosophy regarding money as yourself. I was mainly responding to Tarrant"s situation where you and your significant other don"t share the same philosophy. In that case, it"s...

I think this is an important point. First, you need money to create wealth, and the only way you are going to get, at least early in your life, is to save it. I don"t know how old you are Cad, but I do find it interesting that Lyrical and I are roughly the same age, have the same philosophies...

Do you both work? If so, keep a joint account for bills, the kids, etc, and keep separate accounts for personal stuff. It might suck she spends so much money on food when you don"t, but if she"s making her own money, then it"s kinda hard to tell her what to do with it. On the other hand, if...

I don"t do any improvements on my rentals. Zero. Repairs? Yes. Additions? No. I think it"s more important to find a good rental property that does not need much in the way of fixing or improving. Two things about improvements. First, you rarely get out of it what you put in. This goes...

If it was me, yes, I would put more money down on the property, but I am fiscally conservative. Then again, I"ve had a very specific path in creating wealth that has worked well for me. I guess I would ask you.....if your duplex was $200k, and you could put down 20% (40k), or you could put...

The first thing you need to do is to assess the occupancy rate of rental properties in your area. You seem to already know the first rule of real estate which is location, location, location, so obviously spend a little more and buy in a nicer area. Once you"ve assessed the occupancy rate...

You have very little wiggle room on short sales and foreclosures. Literally you can offer 110k and get rejected. The reason is that a bank is going to make the final decision on the price, not a regular human being who may emotionally agree to a lower price because they are panicked and have to...

That"s not my beef with you. Of course there"s people gaming the system......RICH and POOR alike. My beef is you are so prejudiced against rich people that you think ALL of them are cheats. Here, I"ll highlight it for you: That"s just one example, I don"t want to go back and dig up more, but...

Yep, and I"ve seen the same, although in talking with some of the people leasing in my neighborhood, it"s nothing nefarious, some just want to see if they want to commit to the neighborhood, and one gentleman"s company pays his lease because he gets relocated every few years. Nice job perk...

Post-tax, sorry I wasn"t clear. Now that I"m reading my post, I used a double-negative also lol. Re-wording for clarity: Comfortably, your mortgage should be no more than 20-25% of yourtake-homeincome.

They don"t. Only idiots do that. The amount of money you save, if you truly are a millionaire, is negligible. Let"s say you put zero money down, and your entire loan was interest only. Let"s use Pasteton"s example. He would deduct $72,000 a year on interest from his income. WHOOPDIFUCKINGDO...

Comfortably, your mortgage shouldn"t be no more than 20-25% of your total income. Given your hypothetical, then you should be taking home about 40-50k a month, which means your income should be in the neighborhood of $800,000 to $1,000,000 pre-tax. Again, this is with knowing nothing else about...

Hmm.....I wonder if your dad and I are similar in ages, I have 3 (home) rentals myself also. I also have 2 commercial buildings I lease out to. Anyways, the key to rentals is 1) buying good homes and 2) getting good renters. The first you can have more control over. Obviously do your due...

Property taxes in Los Angeles works out to be about 1% of the value of the home. You are correct, you add in all your extra income, doesn"t matter what the source is, it could be dividend checks from stocks. Now, you aren"t required to do so, this is just if you want to maximize the size the...

Yeah, it"s looking good for you, everything but living on Long Island with 100k income. You"re young, debt free, good job, mobile.....ahhh, I envy you, those were the days =) Personally when I was in your situation, I tried to envision where I would be in 10 years. In my own situation, I...

Beautiful home. A steal at $633/sq foot for a historic home. The problem with these homes though is often they have conservation clauses in the contracts, and upkeep and maintenance on these are a bitch. I was looking into buying one of the Frank Lloyd Wright "Mayan" homes here in LA a decade...

How old are you? And when you say New York, do you mean NYC or the state? If the state, where in the state? I hope for your sake its state, because even $125,000 isn"t going to get you far in the city. Also, how likely are you to remain in your current community? How is your current...

Huh? I was just surmising with your $245k "mansion" that you obviously didn"t live in a big city like LA, San Diego, San Francisco, New York, Chicago....turned out I was right didn"t it? Don"t know why you feel like I was comparing anybody to living in LA, other than the fact I knew you couldn"t...

What foot? You"re the one making over $100,000 a year with barely any money in the bank to show for it, lamenting over a small mortgage on a $245,000 home. It boggles the mind why you even brought it up in this thread. Why are you worried about a re-finance on your home when you should be...

Fair enough, I guess I"m just jaded living in LA and paying $500/sq ft for a home. That being said, it"s still retarded to be making over $100,000 a year and being barely able to come up with a decent down payment on a house valued at only $245,000.

Well, something smells fishy. Either Cutlery is lying about the numbers, or he"s one of the dumbest motherfuckers out there, financially speaking. He"s buying a home in a nice neighborhood for 245k. Right then and there I know he lives in Shittown Smallville, USA. I live in Los Angeles, I...