Income: $11,427.46
Expenses: $5,1107.07
Savings: $6,316.49
Updates to our income report
From last month’s May Income Report to this month, a lot has happened! We just finished a 2-week vacation in Cuenca Ecuador, and went to a real estate meetup with Brandon Turner and Brian Murray.
A big focus might be on how we made $11,000 in June. It’s mainly due to a deal I closed back in May which the commission was over $12,000. We split the payments in two so the client could then afford to pay the installments. So that commission check came in, our Airbnb paid us around $1,200, and my wife made a good bit as well. Collectively we were fortunate to bring in $11,000+ gross. Now a large part of that went to various accounts and we’re not holding hardly any of it in one place. Our focus is to build up our rental portfolio as much as we can, as soon as we can so we will be able to house hack again shortly. More on that later.
As far as our income is concerned, we took a pretty big hit as I was let go out of nowhere so that will be a tough situation for us to bounce back from.
While these types of moments are tough, this is a drop in a bucket compared to what others endure on a daily basis. We still have running water, a roof over our heads, money in the bank, there’s not much we can complain about. For that we are thankful that it was a job. There are millions of other opportunities out there, just need to keep looking.
Updates to our expenses
Our biggest expense in June wasn’t even our trip to Cuenca Ecuador, it was our home mortgage payment. Imagine that, we spent two entire weeks in another country, ate out at least one or two times a day, and stayed under $1,300 all in.
The most expensive thing we bought was a private tour for a half day around the Cajas National park for $130 for my wife, daughter and I. Apart from that, we ate at some incredible places for $80 or $65, got massages for $30 per hour, and so much more. The fact that we lived like royalty and stayed well under the cost of just a home payment is mind boggling.
You better believe we’re going back when I find another job, or just make enough from our blogs, and other businesses.
The main thing now is to keep plugging away, keep tracking our expenses, and make sure we don’t get ahead of ourselves in any certain expense.
Changes in mindset
Now that we’ve actually spent time in Ecuador and lived among the locals, we are more motivated than ever to get back there and just travel the world in general. Our goal is to be financially free by 30. While this sounds like a long shot to most, we think it’s possible. For starters, our NFT portfolio is holding strong.
We know we’re still early there but there’s plenty of ways for us to position ourselves to be first in a certain market. We’re confident a handful of our purchases will pay off in a big way soon. With that in mind, by us house hacking, we can reduce or even get paid to live in our next home. Then we can guarantee a fast path to financial freedom. Especially if we repeat the process one or two more times. Let’s say we are making an extra $1,000 in our home, we end up saving up even faster for our next property.
By the time we get the next one, we’re going to assume an additional $1,000 there. Let’s assume we’re rockstars and can get one more property in a year that hits that same mark, we’re now in a great position. Ecuador only costs $2,000-$2,500/Month to live very comfortably. Our route is to house hack the very next property, then start buying investment properties.
The goal would be to get paid from the house we live in, and scale quickly using other people’s money. That way, instead of us having to save up $40,000-$80,000 we just partner with someone who already has that, fix up the property, refinance, pull the money out, pay back the investor and repeat.
It’s a great way to scale fast especially when you’re limited on money. In our situation, the most profitable thing we can do is house hack, and sell one of our cars to lower the insurance, and function with one vehicle.
The car is fully paid off but we pay $230 for insurance each month which clearly doesn’t feel great since I barely drive around anymore. Another route we can go is for me to lock in another remote job, house hack, pay nothing every month on housing (dream scenario) then live in Ecuador for 3 months or longer.
The goal would be to save as much as humanely possible while living a great life. In the meantime, we can save up another $2,000-$3,000 a month on top of what we would already be getting from all other incomes. Just the simple switch of Geo Arbitrage would put money in our pockets while also allowing us to live better, more fulfilling lives.
That’s something I’d like to ask all of you reading this, what are you doing in order to save money on things you don’t like so you can spend extravagantly on the things you love?
Ever since Ecuador, 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 already 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.
Whatever the situation and investment method, 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 most health insurance plans that can easily exceed $300 or even $600 per person, 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. While we have a strong grip on what goes in and out every month from our bank accounts, it’s still more than it needs to be. 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?
We’re planning to buy a home in Cincinnati using our HELOC. From the equity we’ve gained from our own home, this should be a relatively easy transaction.
From there, we plan to buy another investment wether it’s a quadplex, storage, or mobile home park etc. options are open but we’re definitely dialed in on scaling our blogs, NFT portfolio, and real estate holdings.
All in all, we’re excited about the future of what’s to come and what comes from the network we’re slowly building!
Until next time,
- Eric