Real Estate Investing Blog | Real Estate Financial Planner™

How to Delete a Rule

by Holly

This section covers how to delete a Rule. If you reach the maximum number of Rules allowed on your account and you want to add another one you will need to either delete a Rule or upgrade to Premium. Login First, log in to the Real Estate Financial Planner™ software. Go To The Rules Page Once you log in, navigate to the Rules page. Hover over or click “Calculator” on the menu across the top to expose the drop down menu. Click on Rules from the drop down menu. You can also use the menu on the right side of … Read more

Using Monte Carlo to Model Real Estate Portfolios

by James Orr

The Real Estate Financial Planner™ software allows you to model how a portfolio of Accounts and Properties perform over time. If you’re modeling your portfolio using static values for variables, you might not see any variation in the results if you rerun a Scenario. Obviously this is not a good model of reality over long periods of time for inputs such as: Appreciation rates on Property values and rents Interest rates as you buy Properties over time Rates of return on your stocks, bonds or other investments Maintenance and capital expenses costs Vacancy rates We’re likely to see variation in … Read more

How to Model Investing in Stocks

by James Orr

In this Basic Tutorial we will walk you through the steps required to model investing in stocks using the Real Estate Financial Planner™ software. You can copy this Scenario to your own Planner™ and modify it to do your own testing. 1. Create a New Scenario Use the steps outlined in How to Add a Scenario to create a Scenario. For this demo we are going call the Scenario: How to Model Investing in Stocks, but you can really name it whatever you’d like. 2. Add Account to Scenario We are going to model investing in stocks by creating an … Read more

How to Add a Scenario

by James Orr

Scenarios are groups of… Accounts Properties Rules and Goals …that you combine to see how a particular investment strategy performs for you based on the assumptions you enter. So, how do you add a new Scenario? Well, it is super easy. First, register for a free Real Estate Financial Planner™ software account. Next, log in to your Real Estate Financial Planner™. Then, click on the Scenarios page. Once on the Scenarios page, click on the Add New Scenario button. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you have more Scenarios than your account limit, you will need to delete one or more Scenarios before … Read more

American’s Top Fears of 2016

by James Orr

In a recent article on USA Today, it discusses a survey done that shows the top fears of Americans for this year. Here they are: Corruption of government officials (same top fear as 2015) — 60.6% Terrorist attacks — 41% Not having enough money for the future — 39.9% Being a victim of terror — 38.5% Government restrictions on firearms and ammunition — 38.5% People I love dying — 38.1% Economic or financial collapse — 37.5% Identity theft — 37.1% People I love becoming seriously ill — 35.9% The Affordable Health Care Act/”Obamacare” — 35.5% What I found most interesting … Read more

Most Americans Significantly Behind on Saving For Retirement

by James Orr

In a recent USA Today article, referencing a study done by the Employee Benefits Research Institute, said that: There’s a substantial gulf between the amount of money Americans have actually saved for retirement and what they might need to last throughout their golden years. Nearly three in five people surveyed in a recent study from the Employee Benefits Research Institute had saved $25,000 or less for their retirement, with more than a quarter having saved less than $1,000. Yet plenty of financial experts think you’ll need $1 million, $2 million, or even more in order to sustain the lifestyle you … Read more