Should spouse get full time job or work full time on REI?

Question

Hello all, my wife and I are graduating from college in April. I plan to work full time as an engineer in Texas and will be making right around $100k. My wife would be happy to either get a full time job where she could make about $50k a year or focus full time on real estate investing. We plan to live on about $25k a year and invest the rest. Ultimately our goal is to be financially independent within 10 years to spend more time doing the things we love.

What are your thoughts and insights of what will get us to our goals fastest. Thanks in advance!

Bruce Woodruff · Answer

She should get a job first. You won't have enough to keep her busy all day....even if you had 5 properties.

Becoming a Realtor for starters is not a bad idea....IF she has the proper skills, personality and mindset. It is not an easy job at all....

Bruce Woodruff · Answer

Wait a minute..... How do you make it on $2000 a month? Mortgage or rent alone will take most of that.....

You might want to redo your budget......

Conner Olsen · Answer

If you're just getting started, I would recommend she gets a job to maximize your DTI so you can qualify to buy as many properties as possible. You get tax benefits by having someone being a real estate professional, but that doesn't really matter if you don't have any properties. Max out your DTI with quality cash flowing properties then transition to tax strategies when you start making the big bucks.

Adam Martin · Answer

I have 6 properties that I self manage. With proper systems in place it really doesn't take a lot of time so what would she be doing all day, personally I would be bored. What if she does both and gets a job working for a property management company learning on someone else's dime. She will be well versed in the law and get good at screening plus be able to create a network of contacts you may need later. With a large company she will see more in a few years than I most likely will in a lifetime and learn how to handle challenges. 10 years is aggressive so to increase your odds of being successful you need to focus on making as much as possible and scale quickly. Also seems like kinda a waste of a lot of money to get a degree and not even use it, that's a lot of time and money down the drain.

Drew Sygit · Answer

@Parker Stott if you both get jobs and can qualify for FNMA mortgages SEPARATELY, then you can each get 10 mortgages.

Try to NEVER be on a mortgage or loan together.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

I'm with the others. You both get full-time jobs and maximize savings to invest with. You can do the investing work in the evenings and weekends and should be able to get 5-10 rentals in a couple years (depends on market and prices and aggressiveness) and then she can decide whether she wants to get her license and work on investing full-time.

Mike Dymski · Answer

Most of us have families, jobs, and real estate portfolios. So, do both.

Andy Webb · Answer

I agree with most of the thoughts presented so far - put her to work! Above all, if you are planning to buy rental properties, keep in mind that you do not both have to be on the note. You can maximize the "cheaper" money, the Fannie Mae backed loans, by doing your loans separately. And you can each then do up to 10 loans that way. But she will need an income to pursue those FNMA loans...

Andy

Theresa Harris · Answer

If you want to buy properties, having both of you working will get you further ahead faster especially if you want to stop working in 10 years. What did she get her degree in? After 4 years of college, why not put that degree to work for her?

Should spouse get full time job or work full time on REI?

Should spouse get full time job or work full time on REI?

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