Joe Granitto
Helping Creators Turn Passion into Profit—Authentically Grow, Monetize, and Build a Sustainable Brand.
How I Bought Two Houses in just 4 Years02/07/2025Hey Reader, Today my wife and I are closing on our second house, just 4 years and 13 days after we closed on our first house. By the time you're reading this, I've signed my life away... again. And as a Millennial I see others struggle with being able to purchase their own. So in this weeks newsletter I'm going to share with you some of the basics that helped my wife and I get two houses within 4 years. By the way, we still own the other house and am turning it into a rental, which was the plan all along. At 31 years old I now have two mortgages, something not many other 31 year olds can say. So, if you're interested in the finances / real estate side of things, continue reading. Tracking Your MoneyWhether you still a checkbook, spreadsheet or even a program like Monarch to track your expenses, you need to know where your money is going. You also want to know how much is coming in. #1 issue I've seen with people is they have no idea how much they spend on necessities like gas, groceries, insurance, etc. The free way is to use something like Google Sheets where you can create a budget. There are plenty of budget templates out there in the wild, if you want one from me, feel free to reply to the email and let me know. I love building spreadsheets. The paid way, and the more automated way for busy people like myself, is using a program like Monarch. I used to use Mint, which was free, but when they went away Monarch was the next best option in terms of functionality and user experience, but it costs $99 a year. To me, to pay $99 a year to track my money is worth the time savings I get. This is not sponsored, by the way, but if you want to get a total of 60 days (30 standard days plus 30 bonus days through my link) click here to get the offer. You get 60 days to test it out before ever paying for it. I personally think in that 60 days you can make a lot of headwind on tracking your money. And just to show you what the user interface looks like, this is a report I ran for my cashflow last year: Context: We paid off our $40,000 garage loan last year, which was a 6 year loan and we got it paid off in 1.5 years. If we hadn't done that, we wouldn't be in the red 😅. The user experience on it is amazing and it's very easy to organize everything. Plus, they have a mobile app that's easy to use. Emergency FundFinances are much more fun once you start to how to make it work in your favor, or gamification. I love video games so when I started thinking of money this way, it became more fun. Seems silly, but trust me if you can find a way to motivate you to be better with your money, I'll take it. Back in 2020 before I got laid off my first corporate job I saw the writing on the wall, and I didn't have a safety net in place. So, I built one. I saved up 6 months of expenses, which the general recommendation is 3-6 months of expenses in case of emergencies. More than half of Americans cannot cover a $1,000 emergency expense. Which is a sad statistic. Dave Ramsey is a financial personality that focuses on what he calls "baby steps" and getting $1,000 saved up is the first one. From there, it gets easier. The 3 - 6 months of savings takes time, however, and that's why you need to know where your money is going... Our 3 - 6 months is $15,000 - $30,000 or $5,000 / month. So it's important to know how much you normally spend. Usually tracking it for 3 - 6 months is what you want to do as a baseline. Living Below Your MeansThis is a hot topic for anyone and it's one I will gladly cause a stir with. Making six figures no longer matters anymore because so many people who do make six figures live paycheck to paycheck. What you do with your money is more important than how much of it you have. If you make $50,000 and drive a BMW, please don't. If you make $100,000+ and drive a 2010 Toyota Corolla that's paid off, you're doing it right. The flashy cars, the expensive clothes, the expensive trips you go on monthly do nothing but flex on people on Instagram. There is a difference between being "rich" and wealthy. Those who are rich know how to spend, those who are wealthy are those who know how to save. Despite our cashflow last year, we still managed to save over 15% of our gross income, which is lower than normal. Usually, we save anywhere from 20-25% of our income (north of $40,000 a year). This is between things like:
Ideally there is a even split between these, for most are locked down until retirement or a special expense (medical). But we are at the point now where if we didn't contribute anymore to our retirement, we'd retire millionaires... And the fastest way to achieve something like this is to spend less than what you earn, and save the difference. For our new house, we were approved for a $500,000 loan to buy a house because our debt to income ratio is high (if you don't know what that is, Google it). Did I buy a $500,000 house? No. I bought a $201,000 house. It's actually cheaper than my first house, which was $245,000. My mortgage has always been lower than what I paid for rent (which was $1,750 before I bought a house). We buy groceries at Aldi and use coupons. We don't eat out often. I buy $12 t-shirts and wear them for a number of years. I buy $25 pants and $20 shoes. I wear clothes from my socks to my shirts until there are visible holes before I replace them. Why? Because why would I spend $500 a month on clothes when I can put that away towards my future? My Apple Watch is 5 years old haha. Anyways, I digress. Multiple Income StreamsThe wealthiest people in America have multiple income streams, the average is around 7. If you're married and you both work, that's 2. If you have a side business, that's 1. If you have rentals, that's 1. Now that we've purchased another house and are converting our first to a rental, we now how 4 income streams. Sure, the side business isn't that great, but it's a start and it'll get better. And the rental will take time to ramp up but it will be paying off that mortgage for us, generating wealth. Final Thoughts - Additional ResourcesI can go on more, but I don't want to make this a super long read. There are two podcasts I highly recommend checking out:
I'm not a financial expert by any means but I love to talk about money, so if this was insightful for you, please take a moment to let me know below.
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Joe Granitto
Helping Creators Turn Passion into Profit—Authentically Grow, Monetize, and Build a Sustainable Brand.