Income: $8,879.98
Expenses: $4,750.89
Savings: $4,129.09
Updates to our income report
From last month’s March Income Report to this month, a lot has happened! We got a new guest in our Airbnb and are now booked all the way until July! Really crazy how adding a few things to our unit have made the rent jump from sub $1,000 to $1300+!
On top of that, a new NFT project with Gary Vee is under way. He made his next project, Veefriends 2 live. The average cost of these are sub 1 ETH and they are hovering right around that amount for the past week.
The cool thing is through owning a Veefriends 1, you get grandfathered into owning VF2. So we own a few of those and are hoping to be able to sell just 1 of them in order to fund our home renovation project. If we can sell it for 5 ETH or more, that would be more than enough for us to begin the project.
That would then allow us to take out a HELOC on our home, use that to buy another property and recycle that money again and again. Basically an infinite money glitch.
Altogether, the plan is to sell as little NFT’s as possible in order to keep them long term and in the meantime, we’ve got the cash to get our project underway.
Updates to our expenses
We had to have a contractor come out and finish what the first guys couldn’t do. So after completing that, we are now looking forward to getting the big project underway once we sell one of these NFT’s for 5 ETH or more.
Apart from that, I booked a flight to Veecon later in May. That includes a stay at an Airbnb and the flight. Thanks to our reward points, we were able to knock off $350 in total on the flights.
With the flights, renovations and other daily expenses, there’s nothing else that stands out as a larger than normal purchase. One thing I noticed is how much money can be saved going to Costco for almost all things like pharmacy, Vision, and select grocery items. Reason being is it’s 25% of the cost going to get your glasses there than at a major retailer. All in, I got glasses and prescription sunglasses for $166 at Costco. Compared to Lenscrafters where I would get glasses alone for $400, it’s a no brainer.
Lastly, since gas prices have gone up, our transportation costs like gas and oil have increased by $100 or more
Changes in mindsets
We’re way more open to travelling often since we’re now optimizing our credit cards to get as much out of them as possible. We have the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Freedom Unlimited, and the Chase Freedom Flex cards to maximize our points. Throughout the year, when we travel, our trips will be almost completely covered or heavily discounted.
Since life is so short, we have decided it’s time to get out and live life. Money comes and goes but our youth is a blink in the eye. We’re almost 26 and almost can’t believe how quickly 25% of our lives has come and gone. We don’t know when our time is here so while we can, we’re going to live each day as if it is our last.
Thanks to Rami Sethi and his book “I Will Teach You To Be Rich.”
We now really pay attention to my money dial and buy things that make us really feel joyous. We only get one life so don’t be afraid to live a little.
Ecuador is still a big focus for us. The only challenge is being able to be there permanently or at least for a few years at a time without fully committing is a bit scary for now. One thing we’re definitely considering is investing $25,000 into a CD to get 6-8% return which is a big enough investment to get a permanent residency there. That way, we can get a safe, consistent, low maintenance return and can rent an apartment for $300-$500/m and don’t have to worry about furniture or anything else that comes with owning a home.
The way we see it, we invest $25,000 with a 6% return and have that income consistently, and get permanent access to the country. Compared to buying a home for cash for $120K or more which covers the down payment/closing costs but then you have to consider furniture, consistent mortgage etc. The Cash on Cash ROI of a CD is much more immediate than buying a property all cash.
Whatever the situation, we’re still extremely interested in moving to Ecuador. The reason being is;
#1 Healthcare costs. It’s less than $200/m for a family plan with an extremely low deductible and amazing low-cost coverage in Ecuador. Compared to my employer-covered insurance of $600/m for a family plan with a $1,500 deductible and still really good coverage, Ecuador wins by a mile.
#2 being quality of life. Everything there is non-GMO, organically sourced, with very little to no additives that can be harmful. Also, everything is within walking distance of what we’d need. It seems like America is known for having extremely far apart locations so it takes you 30 minutes by car to see different things. While this might not be the same for you, that’s what we’ve noticed. After looking into Ecuador, the weather, mixed with the outdoor lifestyle it brings and the convenience of locations, it is the best of all worlds.
#3 biggest reason for us is the cost of living. Again, we spend on average $4,500 to $5,000 a month in expenses for what I would consider pretty solid. That does include the mortgage but even then, we’re spending around $3,100/month just to live here and we’re fairly frugal. We cook at home 95% of the month, no cable, cars are paid off, I’ve asked for the lowest cost car insurance we can get, there’s not much cutting of expenses left to do.
Now compare that to Ecuador, you can absolutely live an amazing life for $2,500 or less with $2,000+ being on the high side. That’s if we wanted an upscale place to live for $1,000/m, private fitness, maid services, etc. Even then, it’s fair to say your dollar goes 2X as far there. Also, what’s nice is our mortgage will be covered because we plan to rent out our home in America.
Worst case scenario we make $300/M or more by renting the whole home out. Best case, we rent out the Garage Apartment for $1,050-$1,250, and our home pulls in an additional $300 in cash flow after all bills are paid. Our home would be expected to pull in $1,500 on the higher end of the spectrum. Time will tell with this one though.
What lies ahead?
I will soon be offering coaching for one of my businesses that will be a monthly recurring fee. That way the clients get a private coach, and it removes resistance since a lot of it is automated so far. The goal is to replace my current income with coaching and that way I can consider growing/scaling the business even more. The goal would be to live below our means, save as much as possible, and invest it either into the business or the income-producing assets so we can free up our day/schedule.
All things considered, the amount that we put away for savings has increased. Things like our investments going from 20% to 30%, changing the baby fund from $150 to $200, our dog’s expenses, and a few other things. Our savings rate looks to be around 50% or more now. With that we put away 30% of our paycheck immediately to our investments and the rest of our income goes to 401K and HSA’s etc. That way we train ourselves to live off of 50% of our money.
Exciting stuff and we’re looking forward to what May brings us! Stay tuned and reach out if you have any questions!
Until next time,
- Eric