real estate Archives - Page 2 of 2

February 21, 2022February 20, 2022

EP 23: Erik Jenson: Real Estate Investing with Training Wheels

Today on episode 23 I’m happy to welcome climber, dentist, and real estate investor, Erik Jenson. In addition to paying down hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loan debt, Erik is now living rent- and mortgage-free through the process of house hacking. This form of real estate investing involves renting out rooms in the home where he lives, allowing him to build equity and repeat the process with additional properties. Referring to this process as “real estate investing with training wheels,” Erik is generating an outsized return compared to the single-family home so many of us consider “investments.”

February 7, 2022February 6, 2022

EP 22: Your Questions Answered: Volume 4

This week we are returning to the digital mailbag to answer your questions!

In this Q&A episode, we take the plunge on inflation fears, cryptocurrency, real estate investing, the debate between loans and all-cash offers, mid-week climbing partners, the Roth 401(k), autoimmune conditions, and some more intimate details about where and how we hold our money in various accounts. Finally, I reveal some notable changes to Mrs. CC’s schedule, among a variety of other topics.

October 4, 2021October 4, 2021

EP 8: Becky Switzer: This is Real Life

I want to welcome back to Clipping Chains Becky Switzer, a Bozeman, Montana-based climber who delivered a great written interview about a year ago. When I first met Becky in summer of 2020, I was living out of a tiny A-frame camper with my wife and dog. We were passing through Bozeman, and I remembered someone I sort of knew from Instagram who might help me with some local beta: Becky Switzer. I asked if she’d be willing to meet for coffee, and much to my surprise, she was. This was the first pre-interview discussion where I wished I was recording. It was during this conversation that I resolved to eventually start a podcast, and over a year later, here we are.

July 26, 2021July 26, 2021

Housing Affordability: This Isn’t Normal

I want to check back in on a topic near and dear to many: housing affordability. We’ve witnessed soaring real estate prices nationwide, with many cities exceeding a 20% year-over-year growth in sales prices of homes. Is income growth keeping up? For those looking to get into the housing market for the first time, can you expect better future prices or less competition?

Well, let’s see…

March 29, 2021March 29, 2021

Your Questions Answered: Volume 2

This week we’re taking another look at your specific questions. Today we examine the thorny subject of income and how much is needed to pursue financial independence, how we fund our lives without a job, the best option for medium-term saving goals, some discussion of real estate investing, and a requested expansion on last week’s post about emotional fragility, plus plenty more.

Here’s what you wanted to know…

December 14, 2020December 19, 2020

And We’re Back to Home Ownership! But Why Now?

After years of planning, overanalyzing, and thinking too much, in July we listed our house in Denver for sale and hit the road. Our goal was to spend up to a year traveling in search of our next home base. Five months later and we are back to the game of home ownership again.

In this post we examine the unexpected location of our new home, the current home buying environment, and a hard look at whether current mortgage interest rates are the final incentive to jump into home ownership. Should you consider home ownership right now?

In our minds, we always assumed we’d end up back in Flagstaff, Arizona, where we both lived a decade ago while I attended graduate school.

Well, it didn’t turn out that way. So, where are you going to come visit us?

August 31, 2020July 11, 2023

This Just In: The Real Cost of Home Ownership

In August, we closed on our home of seven years in Denver, Colorado. And against all odds, with a raging pandemic, unprecedented unemployment, and a very uncertain future, we sealed the deal on an offer far better than we anticipated.

In this post I run the final numbers on the economics of our seven years of home ownership. Despite the often-touted rule-of-thumb that home ownership is a great investment….well…was it for us?

This is part 3 in a series. To see other posts on the subject, check out Part 1 and Part 2.

October 7, 2019October 7, 2019

Choose FI Book Review: A Blueprint Indeed

Alright, alright, I get it: not a product review! Gross! Folks, I’m with you. Any website I see that reviews almost anything, I close the page. So when I was offered an advance copy of the brand new book from the creators of the Choose FI podcast and author Chris Mamula (Can I Retire Yet website), I was…well…a little hesitant.

September 9, 2019August 31, 2020

Should I Buy a Home? Part 2: Opportunity Cost

Howdy! Last week on Should I Buy a Home (Part 1), we established that home ownership isn’t really a good “investment.” Make sure you go back and take a gander at that post first. But, when compared to the cost of renting all along, is home ownership still a better long-term financial decision, especially for early retirement? Or did we pay the biggest expense of all…opportunity cost?

Stick with me here. This sort of stuff was never my forte years ago, but I’ve grown to love this like Mrs. CC grew to love sushi. We can all learn to love raw fish, seaweed, rice, and investment return analysis.

September 2, 2019October 20, 2019

Should I Buy a Home? Part 1

In the personal finance world, the decision to own a home or rent is a particularly frothy debate. Traditionally, the long-held belief goes something like this: a home is an investment and a path to building wealth. I’m here to put a gentle and understanding hand on your shoulder, but deliver the hard news that your home is no longer an investment or an even remotely efficient wealth-building machine (was it ever?). But can it still be a better long-term financial alternative to rent?

This will be the first in an on-again-off-again series as we consider selling our home over the next year. We plan to document all incurred costs of homeownership, and compare to what we likely would have spent if renting all along.

But as current homeowners, was it a mistake for us buy in the first place? What should you do if you are weighing home ownership? Quick, math!