Laying out Full Picture

[Lisa Annitti]

Ok all, here's my situation:

50, single, work a FT pension job at a school district in a BOE office. Own a 1 bedroom condo. 30 year fix at 4.25%. I screwed my payment up in that last post. Im only paying $1001.75 a month which includes my taxes. HOA is 375.00 with NO amenities. Im in NJ near Wayne. I do not have capital to start investing unless I pull money out of my condo. I bought my condo in 2017 for $138,000. My mortgage loan was $110,800.00. The unit downstairs from me just sold in December for $235,000. The balance on my mortgage is $90,000. Obviously some nice equity here. I have a rollover 401k/roth, a 403b, and a stock account. My liquid savings/emergency fund is only at about 1.5 months. Im trying to go by Andrew Giancola's 1,3,6 rule so im trying to get up to 3 months next. My plan is save more and get my first property in 3-5 years. Podcasts say you dont have to wait. I cannot go out and buy something else right now and rent out my condo especially in NJ. Real estate prices and taxes are insane. Pension cant be collected until Im 65. I feel stuck. Im paycheck to paycheck. I picked up a seasonal job making minimum wage a month ago. Id like to connect with Northern NJ individuals to possibly get ideas from, learn and get input. I just spoke to a FA (free consultation) and he suggested building up the savings first. Based on all this info above, what is everyone's thoughts? Thank you!

[Shawn Mcenteer]

Best decision I ever made was selling my single family home and moving into a duplex.  One of the worst feelings I ever experienced was making my first mortgage payment on a single family house knowing the only way the mortgage would be covered is if I worked 40 hours each week to pay for it.  I felt like a slave to my home and slave to my job.  

What alternative did I have?  That's where I found biggerpockets and became hooked on real estate investing.  I realized everything has a price tag, cost of a down payment or cost of time.  If I kept the single family home it would always cost me 25% down payment if I was unwilling to owner occupy, If I called 100 new people everyday looking for the seller financed deal it would cost me my time. Selling the single family I lived in worked best for me becuase I could then use the equity I had and put down under 5% and own an investment property that my tenants paid the majority of the mortgage on.