Marine Officer šŗšø BBA Real Estate | USD ā25 Investing, analyzing deals & learning RE & CRE Husband ā¢ Father ā¢ Sharing the journey
San Diego, CA
Joined March 2009
- Tweets2K
- Following567
- Followers275
- Likes12.5K
Pinned Tweet
Welcome.
Iām William Baumann.
ā¢ Marine Officer
ā¢ University of San Diego Real Estate Graduate
ā¢ Husband & Father
ā¢ Future rental property investor
Iām using this account to document the journey toward financial independence.
Iāll share:
Real estate deal analysis
Investing decisions
Lessons learned
Mistakes made
Wins earned
No gurus.
No fake lifestyles.
Just the process.
Follow along and letās see where this goes.
William Baumann retweeted
It was a beautiful and deeply somber tribute this morning as the cities of Reno and Sparks came together to mark 25 years since the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Thank you to everyone who joined us to pause, reflect and remember.
Watch the stream here: youtube.com/watch?v=peWjWlPoā¦
Ran a few miles around Sparks Marina this morning and ended at the Nevada Veterans Memorial Plaza.
On 9/11, Iām reminded that service and sacrifice take many forms. We remember those murdered that day, the first responders who ran toward danger, and the men and women who later gave their lives in service to our country.
āAll gave some. Some gave all.ā
Never forget.
One of the best parts of building financial stability is realizing the reward doesnāt always have to be something big.
Sometimes itās taking my wife and kids out for a donut date at Beachwalk in Southern California, ordering whatever sounds good, and not thinking twice about the bill.
I used to think financial progress was mostly about the number in the account. Now I think a better measure is how often money lets you say yes to small moments with the people you love.
Thatās the kind of wealth I want my kids to remember. ā at Encinitas, CA
The modern version of living at the library is wild: Iāll use places like Annaās Archive to discover books and find public-domain/open-access material, then use a lawful copy of anything still under copyright and bring it into AI as a study tool.
Instead of just āreading it for me,ā I have AI walk me through the book chapter by chapter, summarize the important ideas aloud, explain anything I donāt understand, and quiz me before moving forward. Copyright still matters: the goal is to learn from material I have legitimate access to, not have AI reproduce or redistribute someone elseās book.
The real advantage is personalization. AI already knows what Iām studying, what concepts Iāve struggled with, and what Iāve learned before, so each chapter can be explained in a way that connects directly to my own progress.
The information was always available. Now the tutor can adapt to the student.
Anyone can go from $0->wealth like I did.Ā
I spent so much time at the library as a teen reading about finance.
So much. No courses. I didnt go to college for finance.
I just read about money like it was a sport.
I researched the classified ads for houses for rent and for sale.Ā
Just memorizing market value and how it all worked.
I read about how stocks work.
I read about how to value them. (turns out it isn't complicated at all....just pay attention to cash flow from operations, and whether its sustainable)
As a teen!
Anyone can go from $0->wealth like I did. The knowledge is all there.
I share it for free. So can the library.
You dont need to pay for courses.
You just need to close social media, get some knowledge, and do something with that knowledge......
People who want to get rich should stop wasting time reading about fantasy sports, celebrities, and social media strangers and start learning about wasting less and investing smart.Ā
Then do something with that knowledge
William Baumann retweeted
On this day 23 years ago, blink-182 played a show at the U.S. Navy base in Bahrain! š§š
The dangerous part isnāt 6ā7% fixed debt.
Itās āas much as you can.ā
Inflation can make long-term fixed debt cheaper in real terms, but it doesnāt guarantee rents, property values, or NOI will rise fast enough to protect an overleveraged owner.
Good leverage increases returns. Too much leverage turns an otherwise good asset into a liquidity problem.
I think AI makes business degrees more dependent on judgment, not less.
The analyst work may get faster, but someone still has to understand the fundamentals well enough to catch mistakes, challenge assumptions, and explain the result to a real person making a real financial decision.
Accounting, finance, and real estate all eventually leave the spreadsheet and enter a room with clients, investors, executives, or counterparties.
AI can process the numbers. Humans still create the trust between the numbers and the person acting on them.
William Baumann retweeted
Overheard at the airport: āMy daughter is changing her major to accounting. Thatās so exciting bc we have a long line of them in our family.ā
Do people really not realize AI will replace this type of degree before she even finishes school?
Some purchases are investments. Others are just reminders of what youāve loved for years.
Picked up this limited-edition Nixon x blink-182 watch and couldnāt pass it up. Growing up with their music and now living in San Diego, where the bandās story started, makes it feel a little more personal than just another watch.
Not every dollar has to compound financially.
Some get to compound memories.
A rising home value doesnāt automatically mean your carrying costs rise at the same pace.
In California, Prop 13 can keep the assessed value growing far more slowly than the market value, which means a long-term owner may be sitting on substantial appreciation without a matching jump in property taxes.
That equity can also become investable capital. A refinance or other borrowing against the home can unlock cash without a capital-gains sale, since youāre borrowing against the asset rather than selling it.
Thatās the part people miss: appreciation can improve your balance sheet and create dry powder for the next investment.
One of the biggest financial jokes is celebrating that your house went from $300K to $700K.
Congratulations.
Your property taxes doubled.
Your homeowners insurance doubled.
Contractors charge more.
Repairs cost more.
And the next house you want went from $500K to $1.1M.
You didnāt necessarily become richer.
The entire housing market just got more expensive.
Iāve talked about step-up in basis before because I think itās one of the most overlooked tools in generational wealth planning.
A family can spend 30 years building equity in a property, then unknowingly make one ownership decision that creates a completely different tax outcome for their children.
This is why I encourage friends with appreciating real estate, especially those helping aging parents, to understand basis, trusts, and inheritance before assets start changing hands.
Building wealth matters.
Knowing how to transfer it matters just as much.
If you buy a house for $300k and it's worth $1M in 20 years, when you pass away, your children generally get a "step-up in basis" to the current value.
If they sell it right away, they pay no capital gains tax.
But if you gift it to them before passing, they inherit your original $300k cost, and would owe tax on $700k in gains.
Tax planning matters.
This is Torrey Pines from the opposite direction of Brandonās view, and somehow it never gets old.
One of my favorite runs is 8ā10 miles through the state reserve, climbing the trails above the Pacific and continuing toward the Gliderport overlooking La Jolla.
Living in San Diego has taught me that some of the highest-value amenities in a market arenāt inside the property at all.
Sometimes theyāre the places right outside your door that make people never want to leave. ā at San Diego, CA
Military families are one reason I donāt think ānever buy unless youāll stay 7ā10 yearsā works as a universal rule.
A service member might only live somewhere for 3ā4 years, but a VA loan can make the entry economics very different. When orders eventually move you, the house doesnāt have to be sold. It can become a rental and keep working long after you leave.
Your occupancy horizon and your investment horizon are not always the same thing.
That distinction can completely change the buy-vs-rent decision.
If someone asked me where to start with investing, I probably wouldnāt hand them an investing book.
Iād hand them a used college finance textbook.
Learn present value, future value, compound interest, discount rates, risk, and opportunity cost first. Those concepts become the language behind stocks, bonds, real estate, retirement planning, and almost every major financial decision youāll make.
The best investing education may be learning how money works before learning where to put it.
One of the biggest signs of financial progress for me wasnāt a number on a statement.
It was realizing I could sit down at a restaurant, order what I actually wanted, treat someone else, and leave a generous tip without feeling guilty about the bill. My wife helped me loosen up on this because in my early 20s I was extremely stingy with money and thought every dollar spent was a dollar wasted.
Now I see some money differently: if it lets me create a memory, take care of someone, or show appreciation to the person serving us, thatās part of what Iāve been building toward.
I canāt wait until my boys are older and I can teach them that financial discipline isnāt about never spending. Itās about building enough freedom that you can spend generously on the things and people that matter.
Landed back home in Reno tonight and immediately noticed something I probably never appreciated enough growing up here.
The airport sells Northern Nevada: the natural beauty, UNR, local businesses, and the economy youāre stepping into before you even leave the terminal. Cities that invest in showcasing themselves understand that perception matters to attracting people and capital.
Reno has changed a lot since I grew up here. Definitely a market Iād invest in.
And apparently Joey Gilbert is still fighting for Nevada š
One thing real estate changed about how I view investing: I donāt want to sell the asset that produces the income just to spend the income.
Thatās why dividends make sense to me. The same principle exists in real estate: collect cash flow, preserve the underlying asset, and use tax strategies like 1031 exchanges to keep capital working.
The goal isnāt simply accumulating money.
Itās building assets that can fund your life without constantly having to sell them.
