Are you ready to buy your first home? 

The answer to this question depends on a couple of different things!

1: Are you ready for the commitment that comes with a 15-30 year mortgage

2: Have you figured out Why you want to buy a home? 

3: Have you calculated how much home you can actually afford?

4: Have you saved up money for a down payment on you home?

5: Are you ready to take full ownership it keeping up with the maintenance and taxes that come along with buying your first home?

Based on the answers to these questions you may well be on your way to buying your first home!

In this 4 part series I'll take you through the steps of buying your home starting with are you ready to take on the commitment and ending with closing on your home

This video specifically talks about the first three steps in buying a home which is:

1: To decide if you're truly ready to buy a home

2: Figure out how much home you can afford

and

3: Save for Down Payment, Closing Costs, and Repairs

Part 2 of this series will talk exclusively on talking with a lender and getting pre-approved for your home!

Part 3 We will visit my friend Britney the real estate agent to talk about hunting for your home making offers and doing the inspections

and finally in Part 4 I'll tie everything together and give you some personal tips and tricks that I used to buy my first home with almost $0 down!

What I Use for Investing:

https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/en/home.php

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypotheticals

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley  (FB)

@InvestwithWesley  (IG)

The Theory Of Decreasing Responsibility is pretty easy to understand! When your younger you have a lot of responsibilities, You have student loans, car loans, mortgage, kids and other debt.

 You also have low income and savings. 

Because of this inverse between savings and responsibility means the need for life insurance is high, but as you get older the need for life insurance goes down, because your investments and savings should be increasing while your liabilities go down!

The Theory Of Decreasing Responsibility Does have some pitfalls however,

and creating a plan that can avoid these pitfalls is crucial!

Part of this plan should be to create a team of Insurance Brokers, Investment Advisors, and Tax Professionals to help you along your goals! Please remember I'm here for you as a free resource so if you would like me to set up a free plan or review a plan you currently have id be more than happy to do so!

This Video Talks About How To Partner With Your IRA, specifically how to partner with your ira for the purchasing of Real Estate! 

A Self Directed IRA can partner with any other IRA or business even if belongs to your spouse, family member of a friend. 

Hiring a professional can help smooth out the kinks when forming a Partnership LLC owned by you and your spouses IRAs.

You can even leverage your IRAs money and use it to buy even more properties! 

But be warned that  any leveraged assets will accrue a UDFI Tax even if the IRA has a ROTH designation!

What I Use for Investing:

https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/en/home.php

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypotheticals

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley  (FB)

@InvestwithWesley  (IG)

What is an SDIRA? A Self Directed Individual Retirement Arrangement is a type of IRA or Retirement account that gives you 100% control with your money.

That key word arrangement in IRA makes a huge difference because you are in a since arranging with the IRS how you would like to be taxed upon your assets in retirement. 

If done properly an SDIRA is an amazing vehicle that can be used for limitless tax free income. 

Sure you can treat it like an investment account and load up on stocks, bonds, etfs, and so on; but if your a savvy investor like my self you could also use your SDIRA to own property such as rental homes,  gold, oil, or even crypto! Then all the rent you receive over the years is tax advantaged as well as the profits of selling the property in the future! 

Using a SDIRA this way can be crucial for a well planned retirement strategy that can generate limitless tax free income, but be warned because owning a Self Directed Individual Retirement Arrangement can also open yourself up to giant tax liabilities and penalties! 

As an example you are not allowed to conduct business with yourself or disqualified individuals, the list of disqualified individuals in a Self Directed Individual Retirement Arrangement is as follows:

YOU

SPOUCE

PARENTS

GRAND PARENTS

CHILDREN (Blood or Adopted)

GRANDCHILDREN (Blood or Adopted)

Entities that one of the above owns 50% control or more of

Entities that YOU are an officer, director, controller, or own 10% control or more in

Note: Only linear family is disqualified, meaning  Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and Stepsiblings are NOT Disqualified Individuals!

What I Use for Investing:

https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/en/home.php

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypotheticals

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley  (FB)

@InvestwithWesley  (IG)

What is an IRA? Most people think an IRA stands for Individual Retirement Account, but those people are wrong!

An IRA is actually a individual retirement arrangement.

That key word arrangement makes a huge different because you are in a since arranging with the IRS how you would like to be taxed upon your assets in retirement. 

If done properly an IRA is an amazing vehicle that can be used for limitless tax free income. Sure you can treat it like an investment account and load up on stocks bonds etfs and so on, but if your a savvy investor like my self you could also use your IRA to own property such as rental homes, then all the rent you receive over the years is tax free as well as the profits of selling the property in the future! 

Using a ROTH IRA this way can be crucial for a well planned retirement strategy that can generate limitless tax free income.

Black Friday is the single most marketed day to consumers throughout the year, and not that marketing or advertising is bad, because it is essential for business.

What makes black Friday so bad is that the doorbusters and other deals marketed to you are done so with a strategy in mind to manipulate you in to spending even more money then you originally thought!

To counter this people have learned to go in for the deal that actually makes sense and then leave to avoid falling pray to the traps of old outdated shelf items that no one wants anyway! 

In this video i really hope you pay attention to the third and final scam, this is the only scam that you do to yourself! 

Under no circumstances are you to use debt to pay for random items you find on black Friday! Yes it may mean not as many gifts or stocking stuffers for the holidays however falling into the debt trap of high intertest credit cards can ruin more holiday seasons than just one! 

But if your thinking to yourself that you want to save a few bucks on an item you intend to purchase no matter what, then by all means, shop for that item on black Friday and save yourself that much more money to invest!

What I Use for Investing:

https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/en/home.php

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypothetical

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley  (FB)

@InvestwithWesley  (IG)

If you have been following my series you should have created a budget by now.

Now here are some Things To Watch Out For When On A Budget these are things like Coffee, Dining Out, and Clothes.

On Average Millennials spend around $1950 a year on clothes

and this number will only go up as inflation and cost of goods go up.

As for going out to eat, Millennials spend $175 a month or $2100 a year eating out

and because restaurants charge bare minimum 3x the price of each serving your over paying on each meal by about 3x

When it comes to coffee, Millennials spend anywhere from $2100-$2500 per year on coffee. 

That averages out to about $5.5 dollars a day! 

As mentioned in this episode, enjoying life and spending money isn't a bad thing, what's bad is the lack of discipline in knowing that all the miniscule spending starts to add up throughout the month. 

and because 41% of millennials say the spend more on coffee then they do on their retirement savings, this is a BIG DEAL!

The Links to all the photos and research can be found below!

https://www.inc.com/chris-matyszczyk/the-10-starbucks-coffee-is-here-will-millennials-pay.html

https://www.thesimpledollar.com/save-money/millions-of-millennials-spend-more-on-coffee-and-other-things-than-retirement/

https://www.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/news/2015/06/millennials-eat-out-more-and-spend-more-when-they-do-than-non-millennials

https://capitalcounselor.com/millennial-spending-statistics/#:~:text=How%20much%20do%20millennials%20spend%20on%20clothing%3F&text=As%20of%20February%202018%2C%20millennials,as%20many%20annual%20apparel%20purchases.

https://dqydj.com/stock-return-calculator/

What I Use for Investing:

https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/en/home.php

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypotheticals

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley  (FB)

@InvestwithWesley  (IG)

The reason why social security is so bad really comes down to economic policy and  the practice of robbing Peter to pay Paul. But even if SSI was run in an honest way, the numbers of socialized retirement just don't make sense. As more and more people go on to the platform, less and less people are contributing to it! 

The scary part is that the Social Security board of trusties even acknowledges this and is warning people that the Social Security Program is on track to go bankrupt by 2035!

When a government program goes belly up the government is sure to step in and bail out this program, bail outs always come in either HIGHER Taxes or Printing of more Money (INFLATION)

in reality we will probably see both happen as social security deals with peoples livelihood!

Its my opinion that we should not tax employees or businesses but encourage tax breaks as an incentive to Invest and have the businesses "Match" more money. 

in the end of my video i give an example about what this could look like for future retirement values. 

SPOILER 

almost 5x the amount of income SSI would give.

What I Use for Investing:

https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/en/home.php

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypotheticals

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley  (FB)

@InvestwithWesley  (IG)

When it comes to Mutual Funds and ETFs there can be a lot of confusion!

This video gives a details comparison between the similarities and differences of Mutual Funds VS ETFs.

ETFs and Mutual Funds both share the same goal in providing a place for investors to pool their assets so a professional investment manager can use those pooled resources to invest. 

On the ETF side of things the investment manager typically manages the investment passively by linking to some sort of index, in this video I give the ETFs example of SPY an ETF designed to mirror the S&P 500.

On the Mutual Funds side of things the investment manager typically manages the investment actively in an attempt to beat market returns, in this video I give the Mutual Funds example of FKAIX a Mutual Fund that is also designed to mirror the S&P 500.

Mutual Funds are way more complex than ETFs are and typically have higher fees, but these fees can be worth it to some people depending on if the Mutual Fund is successfully beating the market and if the new investor would prefer to rely on the larger network of Investors that Mutual Funds have over ETFs. 

Regardless of what type of investment you decide to place your money in, these pooled asset classes are a great way for new investors to experience a fantastic return while not having to know very much about the underlying assets in each of the funds.

What I Use for Investing:

https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/en/home.php

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypotheticals

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley  (FB)

@InvestwithWesley  (IG)

In early 2020 the United States experienced multiple historic events chief of them being The 2020 Recession where the stock market dropped nearly 32%

To put this in perspective, the market sank 26% during the Great Depression in the 1920s

The sudden and deep dive was caused by the government mandated shutdown in response of COVID-19.

Due to the lowering of interest rates and Quantitative Easing, (which is the printing of money to inject into the stock market) the US markets experienced a massive recovery with the same ferocity as we saw in the dip.

Although many investors cheer at this, I'm filled with skepticism, many people are still unemployed, and the economy its self has still not fully recovered.

I'm fearful that this recovery looks like a beautiful desert oasis, but is really just a mirage hiding a much uglier second dip just beyond the horizon. 

Because no one can predict these things, only time will tell if this is the haven we have been waiting on, or if it is just a charade waiting to trick us!

What I Use for Investing:

https://join.robinhood.com/wesleyc434

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypotheticals

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.mint.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley  (FB)

@WesleyCaruso        (IG)