The following is a guest post by Millionaire Mob, a blog focused on ways to better your financial future through passive income, dividend investing and travel hacking. As many of you know, I am a big fan of side hustles and have also talked a bit about dividend investing (including offering specifics on it from a friend of mine.) Personally, I don't think it's a … [Read more...]
Deciding the “Pay Down Mortgage or Invest” Debate
Today we have a guest post from Your Money Blueprint. There's been a bit of discussion recently on whether paying off your mortgage or investing was better -- both here at ESI Money (see Which is Better: Paying Off a Mortgage or Investing More?) as well as on Rockstar Finance (see Money Match-Up: Pay Off Debt Versus Invest and here Money Match-Up: Pay Off Mortgage Versus … [Read more...]
10 Steps to Making Money in Mobile Home Investing
I love featuring authors and bloggers who have a special expertise I think ESI Money readers would be interested hearing about. As you know, I'm an investor in real estate but my places are more traditional -- homes and small apartment buildings. Today's guest poster is an expert in mobile home investing, something I find fascinating and might have investigated a bit more … [Read more...]
Which is Better: Paying Off a Mortgage or Investing More?
Here's a topic that's likely to cause a good bit of debate. I love these sorts of questions. :) Recently I have been receiving a lot of emails around the subject of whether it's better to pay off a mortgage or keep the mortgage and invest instead. For example, here's one I recently received from a reader: One question my husband and I always wrestle with a bit is the … [Read more...]
Recent Expensive Real Estate Costs
If you've read this blog for more than five seconds, you know I'm a big fan of real estate investing. Because of my real estate investments, I have been able to retire early (though I was financially independent before I had my properties). My 14 units provide the majority of the income that allows me to spend almost $100k annually without dipping into my assets. And … [Read more...]
The Most Important Lessons We Learned from Flipping a House
Most of you know that I am a real estate investor and that the income from my properties is a large part of my retirement budget. All of my properties are buy-and-hold rentals, but I've always wanted to try my hand at flipping homes. Well today we have a guest post from a friend of mine who did just that and shares all her ups and downs along the way. Amanda is … [Read more...]
Help a Reader: Pension Options
Here's another post where a reader is asking for your suggestions on how to handle a financial issue. Please read his summary and give your thoughts below... The question I have is about pension options. I have a corporate (Fortune 50 company) pension fully funded. I need to decide how I want to take payment once I do retire. Cash out upfront is $1M, payment for … [Read more...]
All About Precious Metals Investing
As you know by now, I'm a bit of a precious metal investor/collector. I list both "investor" and "collector" as I'm not really sure what I'd call myself. I buy a few coins here and there, but don't have a large part of my net worth in metals. At this point I buy mostly for my own enjoyment as well as for gifts (coins make fun and unique gifts, especially for kids, for … [Read more...]
An Investment Gone Bad
This site often seems like a brag-fest to me. Many of the posts are about how I did this well or did that well. Of course, I have had my successes and they are worth learning from. But as we've seen now and then, I've also made a lot of mistakes. Fortunately these have been limited in number and not that large. But they do happen and are just as worthwhile to learn … [Read more...]
All about Coin Collecting: Is It an Investment or a Hobby?
One of the great joys of blogging is the friends I've made over the years. I have a few who I communicate with on a regular basis and have been for many years (from when I started my former blog). Some have even written guest posts for me. One of those friends is a coin collector of sorts. I don't think he's really into it like some, but he does buy coins now and then and … [Read more...]