13 February 2025
TBT: Ask Marco – How Do I Start Investing With a LOW Salary?
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Hello my friends. Welcome back to Passive Real Estate Investing where we dive into the world of real estate investing among other related topics. To help you with your real estate investing journey, today we’re doing something a little different. We’re going to take a trip down memory lane and showcase an important episode from the past on what we call our throwback Thursday episode. Now, whether you’ve been with us since the beginning, which goes back to 2015, or you’re tuning in for the first time, this episode is a must listen, we are revisiting one of our more popular episodes from the past, and believe me, what we discussed back then, whether it’s six months ago or six years ago, is just as relevant today. So sit back, relax, and let’s rewind the clock for this great episode. Enjoy.
Hello my friends and welcome to another episode of Ask Marco where I answer your investing related questions.
Today's question comes from Max. He says, hi, my name is Max and I was wondering what kind of strategy you would use given my financial position. I am turning 25 and finally moved out of my parents' home from New Jersey to beautiful and cheap Memphis, Tennessee. I make $35,000 per year before taxes and my rent and utilities are about 900 a month. I also have about $25,000 saved up in my bank account. I budget every cent that comes in and out of my pocket and saves as much as I can after taxes, food, and rent. I'm only able to save about $400 a month. I'm thinking about buying my first property now but I am a little hesitant given where the housing market may be headed. What would you do if you were me, please? Thank you - Max.
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Throwback Thursday Episode (The episode originally took place in the year 2020)
Get your FREE copy of The Ultimate Guide to Passive Real Estate Investing.
If you missed our last episode, be sure to listen to 2025 Housing Market Predictions for Real Estate Investors
Give us a Rating & Review
Okay. I think you have two comments or questions in here that need addressing. Overall what you're asking is how do I start investing with a low salary? So first and foremost, given what you're saving, that's great. You know, if you're saving $4,800 a year, it's gonna take you a little while to get up to 18,20 $22,000 to make up enough for a down payment on a good quality rental property and probably a B class neighborhood. Um, because that's what it's going to take. Somewhere around 18 to $25,000 is what you're looking at on a per property basis. And typically we're talking about middle of the road, middle-class bread, and butter housing, three-bedroom, one and a half, two baths. Now first and foremost, the thing I want to say is that if you've got $25,000 saved up, that's great before you deploy those funds into an investment and leave yourself with nothing in savings or on the side and cash.
The first thing I would do is make sure you have some reserves for yourself for emergencies in case you lose your job or you have to move or you get transferred or you have an unexpected expense come up, be it. You know with your car, a medical emergency, you know you always want to have reserves for yourself personally before you spend every last cent you have in savings for an investment. You just got to put yourself first. Your income is okay, it's just on the low end. Of course of the spectrum that you are on and you could do better. So how do you do that? Well, it's going to be challenging to cut your expenses, especially if there's not much to cut. What you want to do is increase your income. You want to focus on the top, not so much the expenses.
Focus on income. So how do you increase your income so you have more to save and you can save faster? Well, there's really two basic ways to do that. The first would be to change your employment. In other words, get a new job or a promotion where you are earning more.
Hello my friends and welcome to another episode of Ask Marco where I answer your investing related questions.
Today's question comes from Max. He says, hi, my name is Max and I was wondering what kind of strategy you would use given my financial position. I am turning 25 and finally moved out of my parents' home from New Jersey to beautiful and cheap Memphis, Tennessee. I make $35,000 per year before taxes and my rent and utilities are about 900 a month. I also have about $25,000 saved up in my bank account. I budget every cent that comes in and out of my pocket and saves as much as I can after taxes, food, and rent. I'm only able to save about $400 a month. I'm thinking about buying my first property now but I am a little hesitant given where the housing market may be headed. What would you do if you were me, please? Thank you - Max.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Throwback Thursday Episode (The episode originally took place in the year 2020)
Get your FREE copy of The Ultimate Guide to Passive Real Estate Investing.
If you missed our last episode, be sure to listen to 2025 Housing Market Predictions for Real Estate Investors
Give us a Rating & Review
Okay. I think you have two comments or questions in here that need addressing. Overall what you're asking is how do I start investing with a low salary? So first and foremost, given what you're saving, that's great. You know, if you're saving $4,800 a year, it's gonna take you a little while to get up to 18,20 $22,000 to make up enough for a down payment on a good quality rental property and probably a B class neighborhood. Um, because that's what it's going to take. Somewhere around 18 to $25,000 is what you're looking at on a per property basis. And typically we're talking about middle of the road, middle-class bread, and butter housing, three-bedroom, one and a half, two baths. Now first and foremost, the thing I want to say is that if you've got $25,000 saved up, that's great before you deploy those funds into an investment and leave yourself with nothing in savings or on the side and cash.
The first thing I would do is make sure you have some reserves for yourself for emergencies in case you lose your job or you have to move or you get transferred or you have an unexpected expense come up, be it. You know with your car, a medical emergency, you know you always want to have reserves for yourself personally before you spend every last cent you have in savings for an investment. You just got to put yourself first. Your income is okay, it's just on the low end. Of course of the spectrum that you are on and you could do better. So how do you do that? Well, it's going to be challenging to cut your expenses, especially if there's not much to cut. What you want to do is increase your income. You want to focus on the top, not so much the expenses.
Focus on income. So how do you increase your income so you have more to save and you can save faster? Well, there's really two basic ways to do that. The first would be to change your employment. In other words, get a new job or a promotion where you are earning more.