My military experience really opened my eyes a
lot. And I'm from a suburban town in Pennsylvania
where everyone is the same.
Being in the military, you meet people from all
different walks of life, you get to understand
different cultures and share different values
that you wouldn't normally share unless you live
in a big city.
I'm Garrett Ramela, I'm 24 years old, I make
$120,000 a year and I live in the Washington,
D.C. area. I work as an information systems and
financial consultant. I'm a defense contractor
for a company called TITANONEZERO.
In my junior year of high school, I found out
about a personal finance class and everything
just clicked. I'm like, you could go into a
profession that you can learn more about your
financial situation and also help other people?
And that was really what planted the seed.
And ever since then, I mean, I have been trying
to learn everything I can.
So whenever you go into the U.S.
armed forces, you receive the V.A.
home loan, which is a guaranteed program that
allows you to purchase a property as your primary
residence for zero money down.
You don't have to pay for private mortgage
insurance when there's not 20 percent equity in
the property. You don't have to have those
additional payments, which is a really nice
benefit. And you get a really good interest rate,
which is really competitive in terms of
conventional financing.
I did learn over the past year, I mean, I'm young
so I can have roommates.
I actually enjoy the company.
So this year, you know, I bought a two-bedroom
and the goal is to always have a roommate because
one, I'm never home.
And two, you know, if I could provide one of my
friends a place to stay at, you know, at a
cheaper price than what they're getting in D.C.,
then I'm going to do that and help them out.
And at the same time, it helps me out as well.
My plan is to not be here forever, but to
continue purchasing properties, pulling equity
out of other properties and using the tax laws to
really get a sizeable real estate portfolio that
I could have. Everyone always says like, "Hey,
you spend $1,500 to go out to eat all the time?"
And, you know, being a business major and like
kind of understanding economics, it's really an
opportunity cost. So, I will pay a premium to be
able to eat out for convenience and not have to
travel back home, especially in the D.C.
area where, you know, traffic could be, you know,
two hours.
So if I spend a little bit more money, I could
have a dinner with some friends and have some
social life instead of coming home to make a
grilled cheese sandwich.
I really get to spend more time doing things that
I love and not worrying about washing the dishes,
which is the worst chore ever.
Even with a dishwasher.
And just, you know, spending time going grocery
shopping and cooking and prepping.
I am the worst cook ever.
The point of having passive income is to be able
to have it rented and not have to worry about it.
That's the long-term goal.
And then you also have the debt repayment.
So when a tenant is in the property, they're
paying off your mortgage.
So over the course of 10 or 15 years, you're
building up all this equity in a property that
you could later take out and invest into other
properties and other properties and other
properties.
And we came together and decided that we were
going to turn it into a rental property.
So we spent a lot of time, a lot of money and we
eventually got it to where it was rented.
Essentially, you can move into the home and just
start making your mortgage payments.
And with both of the properties...
Yes, you know, after all the expenses are paid,
they make only a few dollars a month.
$300, when everything's added up.
But you have to take into account the
appreciation that goes into place.
So, for example, the Alexandria property, it's
actually located in North Old Town.
And if you have watched the news lately, Amazon
has come in to Crystal City.
And just over the past year, the property values
have gone up 20 percent.
So that was pretty good.
I joined the Marine Corps because I had graduated
high school and fell on my face.
I started college, I took online classes and
didn't understand the workload behind it.
I ended up working some odd jobs and just really
fell on my face, you know, in terms of becoming
an adult. So my my dad was in the Marine Corps.
I found out about the education benefits and
opportunities and the ability to travel.
And I also found out that I could do finance work
in the Marine Corps. So I ended up enlisting.
And I really never wanted to exercise.
So being in the Marine Corps, I mean, you know,
you're taught, you know, exercise is a lifestyle.
So I spent, you know...
It became a part of my life, which was pretty
good.
A lot of changes have happened in the last year
that has required me to buy furniture or purchase
renovation materials, and a lot of that was
financed but with short-term debt.
You know, credit cards.
Instead of putting more into a savings account or
into a retirement account.
My main focus now is to get the debt repaid as
quickly as possible.
And, you know, that's gonna be possible because
of the increased income that I have gotten over
the last few months. I don't want to put in money
to a retirement account that gets like 10 percent
interest, given the market returns, if I'm
paying 20 percent interest on a credit card.
That's just, you know, unwise.
So the biggest thing is just getting the debt
repaid. Most of it has been interest free, which
is great, but it is at that point now where I
kind of have to focus on the debt repayment.
A lot of the schools I was talking to, they said,
"Why are you doing this?" And I'm like, well, it
makes sense in my head.
You know, if I can go and I spend my weekends at
UVA and spend my weekdays at American University,
I'm learning much, much more quickly.
I want to be a CFO, and I think CFO s in the
future really have to know how to use I.T.
to create business value and be able to use IT to
talk finance and accounting.
The military programs are really good.
I am currently using the Post-9/11 G.I.
Bill, which is a Veterans Affairs sponsored
program that kind of pays the tuition.
There's a bunch of stipulations with it, but for
the most part, as of last year, I had $46,000 of
tuition paid for at American University and
during my time at school I received $ 2,436 every
month. That is a tax free entitlement for
housing. So I could use that for anything.
I mean normally most folks will go to school
full-time and not work full-time.
But in my case, where I could work and kind of go
to school, you know, I get to have that benefit
to use for other things.
So with my girlfriend and I do...
She lives in Seattle and I live in D.C..
You know, everyone is always like , "It's long
distance." But it's not too bad because we get to
see each other like once a month or once every
other month. I do want to get
to the point where I don't have to just live in
one area. I could just travel say to Seattle for
two weeks and then travel back to D.C.
or to say Austin, Texas or, you know, California
somewhere and just kind of spread myself out and
and to do that, you know, I have to focus on the
real estate and buying real estate in different
areas. I think I live nice.
I mean, much more than, you know, where I came
from. But I mean, I could be more frugal.
But the thing is, I enjoy the lifestyle that I
have. And, you know, at the end of the day, all
the stuff that I try to purchase, it's not like
I'm just, you know, traveling every day or on
experiences. You know, I try to buy things
that'll be around in 20 years or in 30 years.