Investing in Fourplexes 10 Years Apart
Personal Finance, Real Estate Buck by Buck Personal Finance, Real Estate Buck by Buck

Investing in Fourplexes 10 Years Apart

Back in 2017, I bought my first fourplex for $555K in Missouri. While it had a bumpy start getting units leased, it’s been a cash cow every year since. Fast forward nearly 10 years to today, where I’ve paid $1 million for a fourplex in Indiana, roughly twice the cost. While not an apples-to-apples comparison, today I’m going to pit the two against each other to illustrate just how much the real estate investing landscape has changed over the past decade. Let’s find out!

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Comparing Cash vs Leveraged Real Estate Investing
Personal Finance, Real Estate Buck by Buck Personal Finance, Real Estate Buck by Buck

Comparing Cash vs Leveraged Real Estate Investing

In my previous post, I promised to run through concrete numbers to see whether my current all-cash fourplex in Indiana is a better investment than 2 financed fourplexes. Right now, I have $1 million invested in the fourplex. If I refinance the property, I could take out half its equity ($500K) to buy a second one. Let’s run the numbers together to find out which method yields the best results!

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Investing in a Pre-Construction Fourplex
Personal Finance, Real Estate Buck by Buck Personal Finance, Real Estate Buck by Buck

Investing in a Pre-Construction Fourplex

For years, I’ve been interested in a unique real estate investment model in which investors buy turnkey fourplexes before they’re built. This allows investors to buy a property at a lower price than they would pay for a finished building. However, for the past 10 years, I have miraculously found an excuse not to pull the trigger. But finally, last year I took the plunge! In this post, I’ll share with you how the process works and what the numbers look like.

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My 2025 Spending Review
Personal Finance Buck by Buck Personal Finance Buck by Buck

My 2025 Spending Review

Hey everyone. Long time no see! Usually, my year-end reviews focus on how my investments performed, whether I plan to rebalance or reallocate them, and how my personal goals fared. However, today I’m simply going to focus on credit card spending, because it surprised even me once I looked at our annual credit card spending reports. Let’s take a look!

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Year in Review of My 2023 Investments

Year in Review of My 2023 Investments

About 3.5 years ago, I set a goal to reach $10 million by age 40. However, I set this goal when I lived in an expensive city in Silicon Valley, where median home prices exceeded $1 million. In the specific neighborhood I lived in within that city, homes were easily above the $2 million mark! Now that I live in a town with a lower cost of living in the Dallas metro, it would be tempting to lower that goal. However, I still believe reaching $10 million by 40 is attainable. To help accomplish this goal, I compare my investment performance to the S&P 500’s and Nasdaq’s at the end of every year. In this post, I will share my comparisons and see how my investments fared in 2023.

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Financial Resolutions with Little Effort but Big Rewards

Financial Resolutions with Little Effort but Big Rewards

Happy New Year! I hope your finances had as great a comeback in 2023 as mine did! Now that it’s the start of a new year, you’re probably setting some resolutions for yourself. So be sure to include some financial ones, too. Here are some practical ones that require little effort but reward you handsomely in the long run.

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Mid-Year Review of My 2021 Personal and Money Goals
Personal Finance Buck by Buck Personal Finance Buck by Buck

Mid-Year Review of My 2021 Personal and Money Goals

At the start of 2021, I set out to accomplish some business and personal finance goals for the year. Since we’re right at the middle of the year (6/30/21), it’s a good time to review how I’m progressing towards each of my goals and think about whether or not I need to make any adjustments to them. Also, while I didn’t share any of my non-money-related goals at the beginning of the year, I’ll do that today!

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2021 Business and Personal SMART Goals
Personal Finance Buck by Buck Personal Finance Buck by Buck

2021 Business and Personal SMART Goals

Happy New Year! To kick off every new year, I like to set goals for all aspects of my life, both personal and professional. To make sure that my goals are clear and reachable, I create Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (S.M.A.R.T) goals. By publicizing my goals, it helps me stay accountable for the things I set out to accomplish for the year. In this post, I’ll talk about my personal finance and business goals. Now, let’s dive in!

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How A Self-Made Millionaire Budgets

How A Self-Made Millionaire Budgets

Have you ever wondered how much a millionaire spends per year? Do they even have budgets? What do they spend their money on? Speaking from firsthand experience as a self-made millionaire, I definitely do have a budget, and I know exactly where my money is spent every month. It’s important to know where my money is spent no matter how high my net worth is. Tracking my expenses and comparing them against my budget is crucial to attaining financial independence some day. Becoming a self-made millionaire in my 20s didn’t happen by sheer luck; it was calculated. Budgeting helped me get to where I am today, and I assure you that it will continue to help me reach my goal to attain financial independence by 40.

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