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New Name

July 6, 2018

Most people will NOT have noticed, but I have a new name. Well not me, but the website and blog. The new name is Frugal Real Estate Guy. Of course if you go to PozosReport you will still get there. I thought this new name was more descriptive of my personality and what I write about.

Lets face it guys, I am pretty frugal. I have never and will never purchase a car with less than 25,000 miles on it. In fact, I just see too much money lost at that first year or two due to depreciation.

Why would you like to purchase stuff that loses money? I like to purchase items that will  go up in value or things that will pay me along the way. Mortgages or Notes pay some nice dividends. And even more when you can purchase them at a discount. More on that next week.

What does being frugal have to do with real estate investing? Nothing really. I have to tell you that I am VERY LAZY. If I spend on crazy stuff like new cars all the time or a huge fancy house that costs 400k, that means that I have to work more.

I dont want to HAVE to work anymore. I want to be 100% retired on my real estate investments. Gloria and I are only about 75% there right now July, 2018. So that means we still HAVE to work a little to keep the bills paid.

You see the more that you spend on junk like fancy new cars that go down in value immediately, the more you have to work. If I buy a fairly new car with 30k or 40k miles and take care of it, it will last up to 150k miles.

That means if I buy with a 4 year loan, I will probably have about 4 or 5 years without a payment. That makes me NOT have to work for a car payment.

The same holds for that huge mortgage that I see people getting right now. They are going to have to work for the next 30 years to be able to afford that house payment.

We are working on our house right now, but we have a 15 year mortgage. What is crazy is that we bought it for 105k. We are putting about 85k into our house to remodel. We are putting new plumbing, electrical, insulation, cabinets, fixtures, and a whole bunch more. Over 50k of the rehab is from our own pocket.

We could not have 50k to put into a house if we did not live a little frugal. So when you see me driving the same Honda CR-V for a few more years, its ok. I dont mind one bit. Keeping the lifestyle payments low is what keeps me from having to get a “real job”.

I try not to give in to the consumer lifestyle of make a bunch of money so you can spend a bunch of money. I would rather work a lot less and invest what I make so that our retirement is covered.

My wife and I still take vacations, mini vacations, go out to eat some, buy newer cars, but not with the same extravagence that some Americans tend to take it. We like to say that we “stay well within our means.”

When you stay within your means, you always have more money to take advantage of “DEALS” that come along. Sometimes a friend or family member will sell a diamond ring super cheap because they NEED the money. They probably never should have bought a diamond engagement ring that cost 2 months salary to begin with.

All that marketing that says 2 month salary is bullshit. So if you are making a modest salary of 36k per year, you should buy your fiance a $6,000 diamond ring?? Or if you make 100k per year the love of your life should have a $16,000 diamond ring just because DeBeers say so??

I have always been in between those two numbers, but my wife was super happy with the $1,000 ring that she picked out. We ended up buying another one that was 50% bigger and half the price of the first one from someone who was mad at her cheating husband. Now that was a deal!!!

You can jump in there to help them out. Or maybe someone needs to sell a car “quick” which always means cheap. This is how I buy real estate. 

People get divorced and need to sell stuff. They sometimes need to sell real estate. People get behind on property taxes or IRS taxes and need to liquidate quick. You can be there to help them out of their situation if you have cash available. You always have cash available when you are frugal.

So if you see the new name Frugal Real Estate Guy or Pozos Report it is the same thing. My hope is that I have given you and continue to give you all a little bit of help, inspiration or motivation in your life. Maybe you can make some changes that will propel you to be able to purchase your first of many homes to live in, flip or keep as rentals.

I would appreciate it if you shared the posts that I write on facebook or twitter or wherever you share things these days. This helps me get the word out to more people. My target is to have 500 subscribers to this blog by the end of the year 2018. I am a long way off at having 56 at the time of this writing. Help me to help others. Share away.

Thank you all