Key Factors RealEstateAF

Living Like a Teacher, Working Like a Realtor | Home Affordability in Texas

• Mark A Jones - Founder of ReviewMyMortgage.com

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How can a dedicated fourth-grade teacher end up living in his car despite earning $53,000 a year? Discover the heartbreaking story of Bill Atkinson, whose financial struggles exemplify the broader crisis of low teacher salaries in Texas. With insights from Ovidia Molina, president of the Texas State Teachers Association, and experts like Martin Tirado and Leah Arndt, we explore the systemic issues that have pushed educators like Bill to the brink and the urgent need for increased wages and greater support.

Financial responsibility can be a minefield, especially for middle-class individuals and educators burdened with debt. We share personal anecdotes and practical advice on navigating the complex landscape of homeownership, maintaining good credit, and overcoming common financial misconceptions. Our conversation sheds light on the unique challenges teachers face, especially as single parents, and the limited opportunities available to them to build wealth through real estate.

Empowering the next generation with financial literacy is crucial, and we dive into innovative solutions that can make a tangible difference. From the PadSplit concept to teaching children the value of saving and responsible spending, our guests provide actionable insights that listeners can implement in their own lives. Celebrate with us as we reach 10,000 subscribers, and thank you for being part of this journey. Your engagement fuels our mission to bring you valuable and thought-provoking content.

Key Factors Podcast is Powered by ReviewMyMortgage.com
Host: Mark Jones | Sr. Loan Officer | NMLS# 513437
If you would like to work with Mark on your next home purchase or as a partner visit iThink Mortgage.

Speaker 1:

New tonight. It's no secret teachers across Texas have been calling for better pay. One local teacher started an online fundraiser to help him afford some place to live. He tells KVU's Derenisha Heron he's been sleeping in his car for weeks.

Speaker 2:

This is about five hours I can go. I just kick my feet on the side of the pedals.

Speaker 3:

This is how Bill Atkinson has been sleeping almost every night since early July In his car with laundry, no AC and the rest of his belongings.

Speaker 2:

Luckily, though, there is this for privacy, and then I do park at my school. I park in a position where I don't get a lot of parents parking by my car, so they're not as prevalent. I don't get a lot of parents parking around my car, so they're not as prevalent.

Speaker 3:

Prevalent to the fact that a fourth grade teacher is sleeping in his car because of student loan debt and other bills, making it impossible to find a home even with working odd jobs on the side.

Speaker 2:

And with apartment complexes now taking credit to get approved, I can't even get approved at places I can afford and I make technically too much for like income-based housing.

Speaker 3:

To qualify for Section 8 housing, hud requires 75 percent of all new households admitted to be at or below 30 percent of the area median income In Austin. For a single person that's an annual income of $26,500 to qualify. Atkinson says his teacher's salary is about $53,000 a year. The average rent in Austin right now is just over $1,400, according to Zillow.

Speaker 3:

I can tell you that many of our educators are living paycheck to paycheck. Ovidia Molina is the president of Texas State Teachers Association. She says teachers are leaving the field due to low wages and the state needs to step up. Atkinson agrees he's also calling for the state to increase wage limits for affordable housing.

Speaker 2:

Especially for those who are in that middle between OK, you're a little bit above the poverty line, but not really. And then also, too, teachers need to be able to unionize.

Speaker 3:

Atkinson says teaching is his calling and wants to stick around. So he started a GoFundMe to raise about $14,000 to clear his debt in hopes of moving out of his car and into an actual home In Austin, daronisha Herron.

Speaker 1:

KVU News in hopes of moving out of his car and into an actual home In Austin, daronisha Herron, kvu News. Thanks so much, daronisha. And so far Bill Atkinson's GoFundMe has raised nearly $900. Now some local school districts will have pay raises for teachers this school year. This includes Del Valle, lockhart, san Marcos and Dripping Springs ISDs.

Speaker 4:

And welcome back to another episode of Key Factors Podcast Real Estate AF, where the AF stands for and finance, and I'm your host, mark Jones, and today we've got a good discussion. I was scrolling along social media, found a pretty cool article that I figured would get some feathers ruffled and I brought along two guests that I want to get their perspectives on, hopefully come up with any kind of solutions, get different perspectives, for sure. But without further ado, let me introduce my first guest, martin Tirado, who's been here several times before.

Speaker 5:

Oh yeah, third time. Yeah, thanks for having me.

Speaker 4:

Absolutely Love having you on here. Love having your perspective on matters like this, for sure. My next guest is Leah Arndt. How are you?

Speaker 6:

I'm good, thank you. How are you?

Speaker 4:

I'm doing very well. So if you guys could, we'll start with Martin. Just tell us briefly who you are, martin, even though it's your third time on here, just in case somebody doesn't know, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 5:

Yeah, so my name is Martin Tirado. I run a real estate team here in San Antonio, texas, and the one big reason I wanted to jump on is because I feel, from a real estate standpoint, we also educate a lot of our clients and we work with a lot of different walks of life. So like if we could find a solution to help him not have to sleep in his car like I want to address it because there might be other people that are listening in that could benefit from it. So that's why I want to jump on.

Speaker 4:

I love it, love it. And how about you, ma'am Leah? First time on this podcast is the first time on a podcast. Second, okay, very cool. Okay, was the other one as cool as this? Just lie to me.

Speaker 6:

You are so much cooler.

Speaker 4:

Leah, tell us about yourself, Start, since you've never introduced yourself on this podcast before. If you could kind of tell us how you've gotten into real estate, what you did before real estate and what you're currently doing, while doing real estate, as a badass realtor?

Speaker 6:

I am a mother, I'm a wife, I am a broker associate with BK Real Estate and I'm in my 17th year of teaching with Northside Independent School District. I am a product of Northside. I graduated from Health Careers High School.

Speaker 4:

Okay.

Speaker 6:

So teacher and broker associate.

Speaker 4:

Very good, and I've heard you do quite a bit of production for being a teacher and I don't mean to say for being a teacher, but having another profession, full-time still kicking ass, huh.

Speaker 6:

Yes, this year was my fifth year being, I guess, honored as one of the top 100 Hispanic realtors in San Antonio.

Speaker 4:

Very good. That's an accomplishment, for sure, and it's also a testament as to why the folks out there should at least take your perspective, what we discuss here, as the gospel, in my opinion. Thank you, of course. So as we get into our discussion, I'm going to pull up the actual post and the article that came, and it is this one here, and it says a teacher said he makes too much to qualify for affordable housing, but his credit is too low after falling behind on rent and school-related debt. So we heard the video just a bit ago. Now I want to kind of go through this article that they wrote about him. Let's see if we can close this ad here. Okay, so Texas teacher sleeps in car hoping to raise money for home. A teacher said that he makes too much to qualify for affordable housing, but his credit is too low after falling behind on his rent and school-related debt. He lives in Austin, texas. Austin Texas teacher started a GoFundMe to help him afford somewhere, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 4:

In my opinion has many different aspects and perspective that could be shed on this. My first thoughts when seeing this was okay, are you really not afforded the ability to qualify for certain down payment, assistance programs, things of that nature? Or is it really you messed up your credit and now you're in a situation where you need to fix that first before you move forward with affordable housing, et cetera, et cetera. For me, I know that teachers don't get paid what they should. I know that there are also, in my opinion, plenty of teachers out there that make too much for what they actually do. I'm sure you're not one of them, especially because you're a top producing agent. It kind of goes in with the territory. You pretty much the way you do one thing is the way you do all things, as they say, um, so I want to get you guys' perspective on this. Who wants to start?

Speaker 6:

And and we'll, we'll we'll, we'll dissect it, uh all, we'll go down the rabbit holes. I definitely see myself in his situation because I grew up middle-class. I grew up with all the tools of being able to be financially responsible and a lot of the choices I made in my 20s were not financially responsible.

Speaker 4:

Same here.

Speaker 6:

So I can understand his. You're trying to keep up with what you have and with the salary that we make. It's really hard to have anything extra, and so it's hard when you don't know what's out there and when you have a very demanding job that's not eight to five, it's not a 40 hour a week job. I know that he seems like the type of person to constantly be thinking about his classroom, as we all do so when you're thinking of things other than yourself and you don't know who to ask, I can see that he may not know all the resources.

Speaker 6:

Sure, so, going through this process myself, I didn't buy my first home until I was 35. Okay, and I thought I knew what I was supposed to do, but I didn't ask. So it took me a lot longer, and when I became a homeowner, I vowed I need to help people that are exactly like myself. Then I decided let's go into real estate, and I think a lot of my success is how I approach helping my clients who are in the same situation I was in, absolutely, and connecting them with the right people who have a servant's heart to give to those that deserve everything that they can afford to them.

Speaker 4:

I like that. I mean that is a pretty solid perspective. I have to agree. I like that. I mean that is a pretty solid perspective. I have to agree with all of it. But I do want to add something that is just pertaining to this gentleman's situation on the credit side of things, because in my opinion, this is media being media, saying, well, the system's broken, there's not enough affordable housing opportunities for teachers, when in my opinion, as a lender for 13 years, I believe that there's plenty of opportunities out there, plenty of programs, including program, because he says, oh, I make too much for this, but not enough for this. Well, there's more than two. Absolutely. I mean we internally and I think mortgage, we've got programs and plenty of them have it to where income is a non-issue.

Speaker 4:

But you do have to be responsible with your credit, correct? There's an acronym that I heard a while back, it's CIA Credit Income Assets. Correct, you've got the assets and the income. Well, you've got to take care of your credit. That is just showing a lack of responsibility, lack of care for what you're doing. Now, the idea behind the student loans I get it. Every credit report that I pull has student loans in abundance and you look at their job and you go. Why did you go to school? I'm honest, like you got $70,000 in student loans that are in deferment. You've been out of school for 10 years and you haven't made a payment yet. Like what were you thinking there? You know what are your thoughts on this.

Speaker 5:

So a lot of that actually had a lot of like everything you just covered right now. I already had like a rebuttal. Okay, this is something I would have advised one of my clients or friends because I feel like there is a lot of variances, starting them off with his salary. You know we could have what would be the $55,000, $62,000 salary, but then when you factor in the withheld tax, the retirement fund, your Medicare and social security, you're talking about 22% at that point. So now you're starting to look at all the averages and then that debt it's going to slowly climb. So I read an article where the average American is 7% in debt every single year from their income. So that debt constantly increases, not including the mortgage. So most families it just in general in America are more in debt now than they were, you know, 50 years ago.

Speaker 5:

Or even three and a half years ago, or three and a half years ago Exactly.

Speaker 4:

I'll throw that out there the idea behind what you're talking about here. It rings home to many. It really does, because we're seeing again on the media that the economy is doing fine, everybody's making more money, but what they leave out is the inflation piece, the interest that keeps compiling, the additional debt that we take on just to live. We are at the highest we've ever been in regards to credit card debt as a nation. We are at the highest we've ever been in regards to credit card debt as a nation. We are at the highest we've ever been in regards to total debt in the US economy. Those are pieces that we don't get to see on the news because there's always some type of ulterior motive when our motive is just education based on being able to qualify for a home.

Speaker 4:

Me personally, I believe that once you become a homeowner, your life changes, not only now you have a place to live, et cetera, but we're talking as a financial vehicle. Yeah, responsibility, absolutely. I built my wealth with real estate. Do I make good money? Well, I used to. But the idea is we had nest eggs in these homes. We were flipping homes, we were moving our primary property equity over to the next, over to the next untaxed, open the doors to being able to make different moves, take risks that we could not have taken otherwise, and for our teachers not to be able to experience that. It's a bummer. It really is, and there are. It's almost it kind of pisses me off that they use this as an example versus somebody that is truly going through it. Let's talk about single moms, single parents, mom or dad that are teachers that have to cover the child's expenses. They have to additionally cover some of the kids' supplies that are in their classroom. You can relate yes, work long hours. Mind you, there is another side that one would argue is they get summers off most cases, so that allows them to get another job. They also made this choice to go down this road and become the teacher.

Speaker 4:

There was a podcast that I did on a different podcast, discussing why don't they teach financial literacy in school. Why don't they teach financial literacy in school, and one of the topics was well, do we really want our teachers being the ones that are teaching that because they're not certified or experienced in that? It's kind of like I'm going to go to the doctor to get some financial advice. You would never do that right, but if they made it into some type of simple game for the kids to wear each semester or each month, they pick a profession out of a hat and they get a paycheck that is literally in line with what that profession makes. They get a budget, they get to spend and that way, by the end of their fifth grade something along those lines young, they go.

Speaker 4:

You know what? I don't want to be a teacher, right? Why? Well, they don't make enough. Okay, you know that Most teachers do it because they love to do it, not because of the money, in my opinion, exactly. So I've been talking too much. You guys, help me out with this. What are your thoughts on that part?

Speaker 6:

No, and that's why I haven't left the classroom.

Speaker 4:

Because you love to do it right.

Speaker 6:

I love to do it.

Speaker 5:

I asked her the same question. I thought you were crushing it out here. Why are you still a teacher?

Speaker 4:

It's like she's paying all the tabs, everything I get asked every day why am I still here?

Speaker 6:

But working in real estate has afforded me the ability to fall back in love with teaching. I'm able to pay for the things that I want in my classroom. I'm able to spoil staff members you know across districts in San Antonio where my friends work, because I know how hard they work. Yeah, my wife is a school social worker, so I love being able to do it. What's her heart? My goodness.

Speaker 4:

You guys truly are servant leaders. Wow, we try, yeah. No, trying is one thing You're doing. Yeah, she's doing it.

Speaker 6:

No, it's the person who brought me into real estate. His name is Vince Arnold, okay, and we were co-teachers together, special education classroom, and he told me I would be really good in real estate. And I didn't see it until like year two, okay, and when he passed away right before his 43rd birthday, that rocked my world. To be so young and have a family, yeah, and have a family, yeah. That's when I figured money is not the end, all be all, it's. What can we do to help the people in our community? Right, and I feel like this gentleman's story is so many of our stories here, especially in San Antonio, a lot of my friends still rent.

Speaker 4:

Right.

Speaker 6:

And helping them navigate credit repair, helping them navigate debt consolidation you know anything that they need to do and then finally coming out on the other side, where their homeowners is just Rewarding, so rewarding, very rewarding, yeah, absolutely, especially on the finance side.

Speaker 4:

We go through the same thing when we're looking at their finances, helping them piece that together or giving them the advice on the credit side of things. Now you mentioned something that I want to hone in on. You said this guy's story is a lot like everybody else's in this teacher profession. Is there a growing trend of teachers having poor credit and things of that nature? And the reason why I ask is, if there is a trend of it, then that means that there's a root cause of it, and the root cause can't be the income, because the income hasn't changed. That's the one thing. That is not variable. So therefore, the person doing the variable things in their life, do they not realize that they're teachers on the income and they want to live like others initially?

Speaker 6:

Yes, Okay, that makes sense. I appreciate the honesty. It's society and I can say definitely a part of that. We want to put our kids in every opportunity you know, with the sports extracurriculars. We want to take the vacations our friends are taking.

Speaker 1:

Sure.

Speaker 6:

You know, going from a double household income to single household income affects a lot of um friends and family, myself included, cause I remarried. Um, I think a lot of it, though, is we didn't have that financial background growing up. Um, well, I'll stop you there I will say 98.

Speaker 4:

I don't even know the real stat of people. Don't have the financial literacy piece. Why? Because it's not taught in homes. Also.

Speaker 6:

Right, it was just done, it was. You know, you pay your bills. Right, you live within your means. And then nothing was ever taught. Well, what happens when you go outside your means? How do you bring yourself back? And what happens when you don't bring yourself back fast enough?

Speaker 4:

And I think that our generation is the generation that is not I'm not going to say fixing it, but we're bringing to the forefront, because I can tell you my parents' generation, our parents' generation. Now, my parents were a little different. They were very transparent. When it was time to apply for college and I had to do the FAFSA, my dad's like here's the tax returns, fill it out.

Speaker 6:

No, I was opposite.

Speaker 4:

Right, most people, like my wife, her parents never talked about financial anything. Everybody thought everything was okay, always. So it's like when a financial hardship comes into play, what do you do? You don't want to go to your parents because you're thinking they've never gone through this when realistically they probably have Everybody does yes.

Speaker 4:

You know yes, I don't even know if there was a question there, but the idea behind why you think the teachers seem to be one that, like I said, it's a trend. It's not something that it wouldn't be that big of a topic if it wasn't a thing we're not seeing. Firemen can't afford you know what I'm saying. Police officers can't afford affordable housing, even though police officers, firefighters and teachers make about the same kind of money.

Speaker 6:

I think we're a very proud profession.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 6:

And we put ourselves last, and so with them living in an apartment. They have a place to live For me. I can say personally, I wasn't thinking long term I could live in an apartment forever. I'd have a safe place for my kids. I'd have a safe place for my kids. I'd have a safe place for, you know, my wife Sure. But I wasn't thinking long term, that every year if I'm spending $24,000, you know, a year on rent and it's not going anywhere for me. But I was just living.

Speaker 4:

Stugging along.

Speaker 6:

Yes, moment to moment. But my kids need this in the classroom and I have this, you know. You know, whatever I need, that I need to buy for someone else. We put ourselves last. No, that makes good sense. Go for it.

Speaker 5:

No, and I love that and to the way me and Leah got connected was we were helping a fellow teacher out of a bad situation and to like servants heart, you know, when we were originally talking like it was, hey, whatever we could do to help, like that's what we want we it's not about the money, is making sure the family's taken care of and we have multiple calls and we're super like, transparent and everything. So that that was one of the things I knew. Leah was different.

Speaker 5:

And you know, in our industry, when you find somebody different, it is something that you want to preserve and make sure that you know they carry on and continue to becoming successful, because the more family she's helped, then the better it is for the people on the other side. So I really love that part and I really wanted to dive into it because I saw your post and I wanted to jump in because I had just interviewed a teacher that wants to become a real estate agent.

Speaker 4:

And I was. I'm getting ready to ask you that softball.

Speaker 5:

So, so, so and to like I hadn't even seen this article. This was a week after and she was doing absolutely everything for her daughter to go to a dance class, right, and her budget just didn't allow it. And to you know, she's a part of a combined family household. Your money's my money or your money's your money, your money's my money, my money's my money kind of thing. So she didn't, she don't want to ask for that and hopefully she doesn't see it because she knows I'm putting it out there. But the concept of it is that she was doing different things in order to help and take care of her household expenses, and very prideful too. So, like, they're not going to ask for any handouts, they're not going to ask for that.

Speaker 5:

So even just seeing that he's asking for some help, I'm pretty sure he's gotten to the point where he had no other resort as far as the article that we're talking about. But I also see because, like she was telling me exactly what she needs to make extra per year to feel comfortable, not even to exceed or to excel or take a trip for herself, because she doesn't take anything. But it was more of the lines of I want to do this for my daughters and that's what's most important to me. So I started like going in. I was like, all right, cool, if you become a real estate agent like I can help you make X amount of dollars. And she's like, no, you know, I just want to make an extra $30,000 a year and I have breathing room.

Speaker 5:

And just to hear, she was my teacher, you know. So 14 years, 15 years later and she, she gangsta too, just so you know. I remember one time, like true story, I was skipping and one of the other teachers brought me back and then he's like hey, did you give him permission? I was like she's like, yeah, no, he finished his work and I told him he was free to go, but I ran out of. She made you wash her car.

Speaker 5:

No, she was just awesome. She was just like one of the real ones that hey, you know, I'm not going to snitch. And then I didn't even know this until just like two weeks ago or three weeks ago, and we actually grew up on the same street, but it was just different timing. So when I started seeing it all come together, I was like man, she has a servant's heart. She's not going to do anything to uncompromise, like her core beliefs. She's not going to ask for a handout. She's looking to get other professions in order to make that extra difference. And two like you know most teachers, they're serving hearts. It's not about the money, it's more about just being able to give back. And then two look at this we're able to reconnect 14 years later, after I graduated, and now I'm able to help her the same way she helped me, sure, so I love seeing that.

Speaker 4:

Well, I'm going to play devil's advocate just because of the scenario allows for it. I don't believe this or anything like that, but it makes it a little fun. Do you think the fact that she was the cool teacher may be caught up to her because of the way that she went about things and allowing you to do what you do? Most kids aren't like you. They would have seen that and taken advantage and done it again and taken advantage. And for the teacher, if that's how she is with one aspect of that, is she not possibly? I'm not saying she is just like that with other things. I for one and I know you believe the same thing. We grow through what we go through. So if you would have gotten your ass whooped for doing that, it probably would have learned a little bit more and it would have changed the course of your life. Everything's history, we don't know, but I for one think that kind of like the cool parent yeah, you're the cool parent and then all of a sudden you can't control your kid.

Speaker 5:

Yeah. So to answer that question, I you know honestly and I feel that it's not spoken about Like today. I was just talking about opportunities of just people I've met throughout my real estate career. Same thing for teachers. Teachers meet a ton of people, but they don't use as many relationships to advance. Agree, and I feel like if they did, they can advance a whole lot more. And that's just. That's just me. It's all a relationship business.

Speaker 4:

Which now leads us to the question of Leo why and how did you find the time or the tenacity drive to jump into another industry while staying a teacher? Does that make sense? Yes, okay, because I got a follow-up to it, but go ahead.

Speaker 6:

I was probably a five-year-old teacher when I started real estate, so I wasn't new. No, I had a wonderful support system at school between my co-teachers, the paraprofessionals, the admin, so that aspect was running smoothly and I think, because I love helping people, it wasn't a job.

Speaker 4:

Right.

Speaker 6:

And it's not a job. It's me using my connections to help people and it's me helping them find the right house. And because I'm not helping them process their loan paperwork, there's that headache that somebody else takes care of, because I definitely do not want to do anything with numbers. So I don't know, it just came naturally, it's just I'm helping.

Speaker 4:

So two follow-up questions to that Number one do you believe that had you attempted another profession outside of real estate to help add to the income situation, do you think you would have excelled in that? Because if you asked me, I would say yes, no matter what you the person sitting in front of me decided to do, you were going to be good at it.

Speaker 6:

Well, I did so in 2016,. That's the year that I got my real estate license. Well, when you're a first time realtor, you don't make money on day one.

Speaker 4:

What Wait a minute? Can you say that one more time.

Speaker 6:

JC, zoom in on her, please. You do not make money on day one or day two or month four. And that was July of 2016. And in July of 2016, I started a mobile tutoring company Cool, and because my daughter was in second grade at the time and she said I didn't know what I was doing when I was helping her with her homework.

Speaker 4:

Were they doing that funky math?

Speaker 6:

No, it was reading. It was like this is literally my job. I was like I have notes that professionals say I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, but I wasn't doing it like her teacher, and so I said fine, I'm sure there's other kids out there who think that their parents have no clue. And so when I asked around, they were like yes. And then, of course, a lot of my friends needed extra income, so I became the middleman between finding you were kind of like the pimp of the tutors.

Speaker 4:

That's what I say. I love pimping my friends, yes, Bravo, bravo.

Speaker 4:

So, just like I had expected, no matter what you were going to excel at, what you decided to do, yes, all while continuing to be a teacher. So to that. I wonder why are more teachers not utilizing their time to leverage in making their life better, even if it is for a five-year stint, doing something extra to better their situation? Because they know most have student loans. Let's get another job to knock out these student loans, then I'll just go back to teaching once I'm done paying them off. But instead it's more of a how do I find a way to get them forgiven or how do I find a way to keep them in deferment?

Speaker 6:

All the while, interest is still compiling, compiling, compiling. Well, I could definitely say that I can't say that I'm doing this all by myself. My wife is an incredible partner and she helps with picking up the kids, dropping off the kids, making dinner, doing the laundry, helping out with the household. So that part knowing that that's being taken care of has helped me be able to go out and help people in real estate. So I know a lot of my friends, especially if they're single family. They don't have a dual partner who's going to watch their kids, and so the extra jobs that are available may want them for more hours than they're available to give, or nighttime hours or super early, like it doesn't conform to a traditional family lifestyle. Sure, and that's what's hard, is that you're going to be away from your kids?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, and man and I would. I would. I actually want to ask ChatGPT you don't have to throw this up, jc, chatgpt, let's see if I've got it open here. Yes, I do what percentage of teachers are without children? And I'm curious to find this out. Let's see. Is it going to tell me? The percentage of children without children isn't typically tracked. However, some studies or surveys might touch on related topics, like overall fertility rates. Well, shoot, never mind.

Speaker 4:

I figured because I had a hunch and you said may end up connecting with and perceive there to be more teachers with children. Because you have children, you guys end up talking with more. Those are the people you relate to. But what I'm seeing in Bernie schools, the schools that my kids go to most of these teachers are right out of college and single and kidless and have their whole life ahead of them. And then fast forward 10 years later. You now may have had kids, you may now have et cetera, et cetera, but you haven't changed anything with your financial situation to be able to start making the moves that you want to make. And then it's all of a sudden. Woe is me.

Speaker 6:

And it's very hard in education because there's only so many admin positions, there's only so many coaching positions so the room for advancement to make more money is a very small percentage now is that an unknown for teachers. No, you go in knowing there's only one principal at every campus, only so many additional.

Speaker 4:

It's not like it's a surprise, Correct? So I guess my idea, my, my, my point or concept that I'm trying to paint is you as a teacher. When it was time to go get your teacher certification, you kind of knew what to expect. At a certain point you were like, okay, I'm not going to make a hundred grand, I'm not going to have a lot of time off during the school year. During the week, Chances are I'm going to be working a little late in many cases, but I'm going to have the whole summer off if I don't choose to teach summer school.

Speaker 6:

In my mind I wasn't thinking about that because I was working multiple other jobs to.

Speaker 4:

You're a different breed, I love it.

Speaker 6:

Yes, so I wasn't. It was. The teaching salary was going to be way more money than I was making with the little odd jobs that I had. I was married. It took me nine years to finish my degree, so, honest to goodness, I would have signed any contract.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome.

Speaker 6:

To have a steady, you know, like an eight to five. I didn't have to work weekends, Joke's on me, but the lifestyle was going to be better. That's what I was looking at. But the lifestyle was going to be better. That's what I was looking at. Right Was the time needed from me was going to be during the day, monday through Friday.

Speaker 4:

Right, and I guess it bothers me a bit, because you've got on one hand the media that paints teachers as a victim always. They really do. I don't mean to say that in a negative context, but they do. It's woe is me always for the teachers, but yet nothing ever changes. Nobody does anything about it.

Speaker 6:

There's no one saying here are financial advisors we can set you up with. But I can say that our school district is really good about having these professionals come into the school at the beginning of the year, throughout the middle of the year, to try and set us up with 403B plans. And that's the other thing too. As teachers, we are only able to put our money in certain retirement.

Speaker 3:

Correct.

Speaker 6:

And, like you were talking about Social Security, I can't pay into social security because my school district doesn't do that.

Speaker 4:

But they do have a TRS or some type of 203B or 403B that's untaxed as well. Same concept. But if you don't know about those things, you don't start it until later in life. But let's say you didn't know about those things. You still have the ability to work more. I mean we are, we were born to work, if that makes sense Us humans, we were born to work. And the idea of I don't know, I mean I know I have plenty of friends that are teachers and I don't really want to bring them into the conversation, but most of them are doing pretty good, financially responsible. They don't live outside of their means. Hey, we're not keeping up with the Joneses. Totally get it, it's on me concept.

Speaker 4:

And then you see the other side of the track where it's like okay, guys, there was something that was broken. For example, this gentleman's situation that we're referencing here there was. You don't wake up and become in this situation that you're in. You don't wake up and all of a sudden, there's no affordable houses, no Life choices led you here and you're now leaning on the media to help you. Go fund me. To me, I'm like you got to be kidding me. $890 of dumbasses that contributed to this one dumbass why Guess what he's going to go. Mess his credit up again, guys.

Speaker 5:

So, and when you talk about affordable housing, I felt like there was other options that could have been available for him, sure, but I also don't understand. I don't know the background of like. Maybe he lost out some of those opportunities for like. I sent you the link for Pat Split.

Speaker 5:

I can pull that up and that's kind of one of the cool things. So I actually do have a teacher and he bought a four-bedroom house. He lives in one bedroom and he rents out the other three. One bedroom and he rents out the other three. He makes a plus $400 profit on his property every month just for him splitting up his property and most times he's rented out for $700, $800 per room and then he kind of services the rest of the home. He takes care of utilities, the internet and all that other stuff. So he's making a positive. And I started seeing that there's quite a few more people that are driving into the pad split concept, where you buy a house, you rent a house and you just sublet the other, the other rooms, and then it just becomes so, so much more affordable. So when we talk about affordable housing, I started seeing this Okay, we JC, will you throw that reference?

Speaker 4:

up on the screen real quick.

Speaker 5:

Yeah. So if you're not able to actually one of my clients brought this up to me so this is huge in Atlanta, this is huge in Houston, it's working its way to San Antonio or Texas in a sense. Sure, but yeah, it's not, look. So it's not that expensive. So you see $159 a week. Yeah, so it's not that expensive. So you see $159 a week. If you see the extended stays, they're like $225. So you could rent one room and then it's a little bit more affordable.

Speaker 5:

So when you start talking about affordable housing, yeah, you could literally get to the point where you can help someone in a bad situation. Let's say, for example, I've had multiple people, especially realtors. Right now the market's down, they can't keep up with their payments. I said, well, you know, if you swallow your pride and you ran out a couple of rooms, you're able to take care of almost half of the mortgage and that's going to help you free up some other funds. So that way you can maneuver it. And I think it all just comes back to one are you able to, you know, swallow your pride in some sense? And then are you able to be okay with someone that you don't know, or maybe?

Speaker 4:

somebody you do know coming and staying with you while you're here. I'm going to say something that may piss a couple of people off, but I'm going to say it anyway. Jc, you got the reference up All right. So this gentleman here is out on his luck down on his luck, as they say. He's been late on things, his credit's not good, can't find affordable housing, et cetera but he's got money to paint his nails. So, as silly as that sounds, somebody in a financial hardship, in my opinion, should be responsible enough to go. You know what? I don't have any extra because I'm trying to get myself in the right financial situation. If I and I'll put it this way and again, people may hate me for this, but I'm going to say it anyway If you are let's say I was somebody that my sole job is to help people down on their luck, get their finances in order, etc. And this gentleman walks in my office with his nails painted, the first thing I'm going to say is where'd you get the money to paint your nails?

Speaker 5:

I think you're coming more from a point of just financing, because I thought the same thing I didn't know if you were going to bring it up.

Speaker 4:

It always boils down to financing, and that's the one thing that they don't teach in school, correct?

Speaker 6:

The little choices that we make every day. That $10, $12. Absolutely yes.

Speaker 4:

And then they add up and all of a sudden you're behind on everything. Well, why was I behind on everything? On everything? Well, why was I behind on everything? Well, that little $10 here, $10 there, added up to $300 in a month and that was your extra payment for your student loans, for your this.

Speaker 5:

So from a financial sense I get exactly where you're coming from, cause I I'm like a strong believer is like, oh well, you have money to go do that. But you know, from a psychological concept maybe he's going through such a hardship. He wanted something that kind of bring him joy.

Speaker 4:

Sure.

Speaker 5:

Maybe Something like that. He probably got that, maybe two bucks, I don't know what that.

Speaker 4:

I've got a daughter and it's way more than that. It's way more than that. I don't know. Just those little bottles From that picture.

Speaker 6:

We can't tell that if they are professionally.

Speaker 5:

Yeah, they're not.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, true, that Just using it as an example of the waste that is not even seen as waste at the moment. It may make you feel good, but guess what when you can't find? How how are you going to feel Exactly? Does that make sense? I mean, I don't know. I don't know if that comes off as, like God, what an asshole. But at the end of the day, I look at. I don't look at color of people, I don't look at at orientation of people, but I do look at the choices that they make.

Speaker 5:

Yeah, of course it's kind of like one that lends you the money. Yeah, I lend you money, but then you're over there like spending it in different stuff but you haven't paid me back. And then I'm the asshole for asking for my 45 bucks back, correct.

Speaker 4:

He's all well, much to you. I saw a video of that. I sent it to somebody that owed me money and I was like come on, pay me back my money. So, guys, we're short on time and I want to wrap this up with potential solutions. You can go off, okay, cool. What type of solutions can we bring to this discussion other than work hard, make better choices because that's what the simple concept would be to somebody in any of these situations or change your career field? No, I love teaching, no problem, okay. So if that is the case, you know that your income is not going to change. So, therefore, your habits need to change, because the idea that paint, as far as you proved it, you proved it and I proved it. Them talking about affordability options in San Antonio, in Austin, anywhere in.

Speaker 4:

Texas is a bunch of BS in my opinion Now, especially for renting. Now, if it's buying, totally get it. We're low on inventory in that price range 200 below it at slim pickings. We need more. But as far as financial solutions to accomplishing that goal, there's bond programs left and right. There's grant programs left and right. There are off market products that don't require income limits that go down to 580. There's all of these things, but you've got to do your part, of course. What would be a few solutions to this that would ring home with teachers nationally, not just in Texas?

Speaker 6:

I would say find someone that you trust, that you think may be in a good financial situation, and ask them what did you do to get in a financial situation and have them lead you to a financial professional? Reach out to your mortgage professional that you know in your area. I know a lot of us belong to several different groups on Facebook, Instagram, Contact. There's what over 15,000 of us in the city.

Speaker 5:

But there's probably like 10 that are good, so pick the right one yes, yes, yes, definitely definitely but call talk to people, ask them get.

Speaker 4:

Someone has to know before in your in your sphere yeah, before it gets to that tipping point.

Speaker 6:

Yes, or even if it has, tomorrow is a new day. Do you want to start tomorrow off going in the right direction, because tomorrow is going to happen.

Speaker 1:

Of course.

Speaker 6:

So that's right, it's. Take that leap of faith, trust yourself. Or maybe not trust yourself because yourself thus far has gotten you in this situation, but trust yourself to now put yourself first instead of other people.

Speaker 4:

I think that's a big one. Put yourself first, even though it's not inherent in who you are typically, because you are a servant leader to the children, to the parents. You are a servant leader to the children, to the parents. You've got to sacrifice a little bit of that time for you time Because, like they say, you can't help somebody else until you help yourself first. It's a tough concept to grasp, but it really is the most humane thing that we have inherently, because we are here. Right, what do you do in the first thing? In the morning I wake up, I brush my teeth. Why? Because I want to make sure you know what I mean. Those basic things. Start adding financial literacy, financial reviews to the list, credit monitoring systems. Cut back on some of the things that you think you can afford because you can't. Your financial situation isn't going to miraculously change unless you put yourself in the position to win more.

Speaker 4:

Try new things in the summertime. Start a business. I know several buddies of mine that are coaches that own several businesses on the side contracting of mine that are coaches that own several businesses on the side contracting remodeling things of that nature. They do well, um, but it was just that first hesitation took one of my buddies several years to start his. He's been bad-ass at doing this and finally did it. And it's like man, once you get to that point you're not going to want to turn back. Uh, I'm not saying he's leaving coaching, teaching, things like that, but once you understand how this all works and that you're not just a rat in a wheel trying to chase yourself, you realize oh wow, I wasn't being held down, or I wasn't, I don't know. Let's get more of your thoughts.

Speaker 5:

Yeah. So when I was 18 years old, I stumbled across Robert Kiyosaki.

Speaker 3:

Yes, sir.

Speaker 5:

If you've read Rich Dad, poor Dad. His dad was a professor and he had. His best friend's dad was a developer and did all this extra stuff. So he got education from both sides and he was figuring out the way the money was working and then how, like logistically, how the world works. Right, you go to school, you get educated, you get a job, and I think one of the biggest factors in that book is you pay yourself first. For a lot of us, or just for a lot of people in general, we pay our bills first and we pay ourselves last, so we get the scraps while they get the cash right. So I ended up learning a long time ago and I teach a lot of my agents that you have to pay yourself first. If you do not want to like, hey, where's my next meal going to come from? You want to pay yourself into an account that you cannot touch. A lot of times people they spend it as fast as they get it, absolutely.

Speaker 4:

I'll see example, I'll see borrowers, and no offense to you guys out there, but if you're doing it, cut it out, it doesn't help. That will get their paycheck let's say their paycheck's three grand for the month, but they will have four different accounts and they'll divvy it up amongst their accounts and then by the end of the month all the accounts are done in a savings account and stick to that until you have another reason to have another account. Not, oh, this is my groceries account. This is no, no, no, no, no. You're complicating it and when you complicate it it becomes daunting daunting things we don't tend to do very often because it's not comfortable.

Speaker 5:

Exactly, Right, oh, you're right, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 4:

Leah, how about you?

Speaker 6:

I have another idea that I'd like to suggest.

Speaker 4:

We're going to close with this. Go for it.

Speaker 6:

Include your children or include family members. If you have nieces and nephews, brothers and sisters, do it together as a family and I feel like that will help keep you on that path. Like that will help keep you on that path, um, because if you truly love to teach, it's going to carry over, um, especially the next generation coming up.

Speaker 4:

Absolutely, and I think that was one of the biggest points of this entire discussion, simply because we're relying on the next generation, to be honest, and and, uh, uh, what is it? Uh, baby boomers relied on X, x relied on millennials, millennials, et cetera, et cetera, but they all shat on each other coming up. True, they're lazy, they don't know that they live on their couch. Well, guess what? Us millennials didn't turn out too bad. Um, the idea behind keeping the financial stuff a secret from your children is only going to hurt them in the long run. Realistically, and until they find a solution to be able to incorporate basic financial literacy, budgeting, an understanding of what different professions make, the idea of entrepreneurship in schools at a very young age, we are going to have to rely on the parents to continue to educate the kids.

Speaker 5:

Yeah. So it's funny, I don't mean to go over it. So my son, he sees all the stuff that we do and we do quite a bit and we got into trading cards and he said, hey, I can sell these, I can make money off of this. And then one day he made $78 at school at McAdams, and I get a call from the teacher. I said, hey, mr Tirado, I don't mean to bother you, but I just got to inform you that Jacob and some of his friends, they were trading and selling some cards. So you know, we just can't do that here. And I'm I'm thinking in the back of my mind. I was all like man, I'm so proud of him, just can't do that here and I'm I'm thinking in the back of my mind.

Speaker 4:

I was all like man. I'm so proud of him. My question would have been was were they selling anything illegal?

Speaker 5:

they were not their card, yeah, you're talking about here. But and, too, like I, I bring him along. So he, uh, we, we have a fourplex that we went to and my son, he was all like, daddy, which one do you own? I'm all like I own the whole thing. And he said, really, it was all like so, that one's yours, that like so, that one's yours, that one's yours, that one's yours, that one's yours.

Speaker 5:

And I said, yeah, we're about to clean all the trash in this one. He's all. Well, don't you have people to do that? I said, well, if you're going to own it one day, you're going to learn about it today. That's right. And he was there. He got his hands dirty. He did not like it because May it was around May, so it was starting to get a little hot but he enjoyed it while he was out there. But he understood that, all right, if I'm going to get it, I'm going to need to know what it's going to take to preserve it, because I said, getting it's easy, preserving it's going to be the hard part.

Speaker 4:

It's so, so big of a concept point right there and I applaud him for understanding what you're given in way of of that explanation. But I applaud him even more for having the cojones to ask that at a young age, and what it tells me is that you guys are pretty transparent, or pretty open with your kids about new concepts, about ideas, about the financial aspect of what you guys do. To be where you're at, or he wouldn't have asked that. There are plenty. And, a matter of fact, I had Blanca Abood on here recently.

Speaker 4:

She's a PEO badass PEO lady and she talked about how her son asks her all the time questions like that, but it started when he was younger because she wasn't scared to enlighten him on what she was doing. I've got a single mom. I have to pay these bills and this is how I make the money to pay these bills. And anytime they go and do something financially, he asks questions and he's okay with talking about it. I think that it is is is one of the biggest things that we can do as individuals is educate your children. Don't give them the fluff, because real life isn't fluffy, it's going to hit you in the face.

Speaker 4:

That's exactly right and I like the um with our kids. Same thing. We do a lot, we've got a lot at the end of the day, but I make sure to tell them that none of this shit is theirs. It's all me and your mom.

Speaker 5:

We're going to spend it before we die.

Speaker 4:

And the other thing is we live the life that we work for. We work our tails off to have what we have to do what we do, and for them to not understand that would be shame on me, because then they would grow up thinking that this is, this is just how it worked.

Speaker 5:

yeah food just magically shows up in front of me.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, nope but when we have hardships, we do let them know. Hey, it's time to knuckle up, time to buckle down, etc. Etc.

Speaker 5:

This is what's going on the market, shit yeah, you know, um, my son's every, almost every other morning, especially saturday, sunday. Hey, daddy're going to go to work again. I was like, yeah, you like your tablet, you like the internet, you like TV, you like where we live, you like your friends, you like your school. I was like, well, daddy needs to go out there and get it so that way you can have all that. Okay, daddy.

Speaker 5:

Okay, I remind him, like every other day. But he always asks and it's just true. But yeah, I think one of the biggest things we could do is just show them that we got to work for it and they got to work for it too.

Speaker 4:

Absolutely. That being the case, guys, is there anything else you'd?

Speaker 6:

like to add, before we close this off Nada Ask, ask questions. Okay, there are no doubt.

Speaker 4:

Leah, I want to thank you, from a parent to a teacher, for being the teacher that you are, because, in my opinion, you are the ones that other teachers can go to to see what a good teacher is like, and also the ones that we can use to determine which teachers need to be gone, and I mean that wholeheartedly. I love my teachers, but there are some teachers that should not be doing it, that are doing it because it was easy to get the certification and the nine to five concept but then, after the fact, aren't doing their part to help our kids. That being the case, guys, martin, anything you want to add- no, I want to just throw this in there.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, go for it.

Speaker 5:

So in my opinion, leah is not just a great teacher. I think she's just a great human being. So I just want to say thank you for everything that you do for everybody, because if you were to be in a day with Leah and I see everything, either via text messages calls Facebook, I see the, either via text messages calls Facebook I see the type of impact that she makes and I think if we had more people, not just teachers, but more people like Leah, I think the world will be a whole lot better place. So not just from being a teacher, but everything in general, I appreciate everything you do.

Speaker 4:

That's awesome. That's awesome. No-transcript, but I mean it with good intentions to educate all about education. I believe that that is the one tangible asset that doesn't cost you a damn thing. It's effort and the will to be hungry for more. Yes, life never stops teaching.

Speaker 5:

Yeah, and I love the whole fact of paying it forward, because that's exactly what you do every single day.

Speaker 4:

We are. This is episode number 104 or five, something along those lines. We just hit 10,000 subscribers, so thank you for continuing to like, subscribe and follow what we're doing here and again. This is not intended to sell you anything. We're here to shed light on different perspectives, topics from an expert's perspective and opinion. That being the case, guys, make sure to like, subscribe, comment in the comment section. I'll reply back to those, and I want to thank my guests for giving us some great, great feedback and perspectives on this. That being the case, guys, we will catch you on the next one. You

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