Money Matters
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
What was your smartest money move?
What was your smartest money move?
Re: What was your smartest money move?
I'm sorry for not appearing welcoming, but given what I saw from your profile looked very similar to a lot of spam accounts that get banned around here and the rapid fire questions felt to me like someone doing research for an article or other purposes.
Sorry for my misinterpretation.....
For reference, this actually happened here not long ago. A new poster asked several opinion/discussion questions and then came back in a few weeks to show us how he'd compiled them into an article. I apologized in the other thread, and I stand by the apology, but put yourself in our shoes and see how it could seem that way. You are very welcome to stay and start new discussions. This is a friendly group and nobody yelled, I just asked and take your answer at your word.
Buying my home 5 years ago was by far and away my best money move ever. Though I've had a few other good ones related to the stock market.
I'm in New Orleans. The housing crisis hit us a little later than it hit the rest of the country because there was still rebuilding going on after Katrina. Fortunately for me, I bought my house at the absolute bottom of the NOLA real estate market. I didn't even plan it that way, it just happened to be when I was ready to buy. My agent at the time told me buyers were few and far between.
I bought a fixer-upper foreclosure for $81K. It appraised for $135K (at the time). Over the years, I've probably put another $35K-$40K into it. It was also a duplex and I rented out the other side for $850/month, which more than paid my mortgage/insurances.
About one year later, NOLA real estate became red hot. Especially for my area. And it has been a race to the top since. My other side now rents for $1100 and the comps for my house are around $300K. More than double what I've put into it.
To add another layer to the cake, that fast and substantial equity has allowed me to purchase more rental properties and gain more income.
Buying that house when I did was nothing short of life changing. And I am grateful every day to have been given that opportunity.
This is very friendly group. For all the years I've been on these boards (knot, nest, bump), newbies don't usually start posting several posts all of a sudden. Typically after lurking (to get a feel for the board), they start responding to posts and then gradually start their own posts. Also posters that ask a question, "What are you doing this weekend?" or "What percentage of your take home pay do you spend on rent/mortgage?" - typically post their answers as well.