Hi fellow BP members. I'm helping Bigger Pockets work on a project about using real estate investing to retire early (aka achieve financial independence). Would you mind taking a brief survey (mostly multiple choice & took me less than 2 minutes to answer): • Real Estate Early Retirement Survey This survey will help us learn more about how you use (or have already used) real estate investing in your wealth building and retirement/financial independence plans. Thank you for your help! Feel free to reply and leave comments to let me know what you think.

@Chad Carson I'm not going to use real estate to retire early. I will use real estate to build wealth and income. I have no intention of retiring.

I can smell and hear Pacific Ocean inside my house. My vehicles are all paid for. I "work" a few hours a day.. sometimes. Mostly not. But I still do some work. I don't believe retirement is a thing anymore. That was something my grandparents did after working the same crappy jobs for decades. One day they stopped going to those jobs and instead they stayed home and those companies kept sending them checks. Will I keep buying houses? Maybe. It's quite fun. I love hunting deals. I think transition is a better word to describe when I left corporate 'Merica and got into being self employed in real estate. Collecting rent is easy enough. Did I retire from the corporate life? No. I f'ing quit cuz I found it detestable. I did like my job, just not who I did it for/with. Probably would have stayed there if it wasn't for that. I don't even know what I would do with myself if I officially retired. What would that even look like? Do I wake up one day and just sit in a lawn chair staring at people walking by? Do I declare, "Today I will not make an offer!"? Most likely I'd probably just die of boredom - a feeling I honestly haven't felt in so many years even the word seems foreign. Travel? Already do that. Not work? Already do that. Take extended vacations? No sense in living if you're not living your life like you're already on an extended vacation. One thing that has always fascinated me is people who "go away" on vacation. Don't they know all those people already at their destination actually live there? Or do they think they are all employees or actors? Kind of like the Truman Show. I want to tell them they could live there too. I like that line in Fight Club, "The stuff you own ends up owning you." The house next to me is a $550/night AirBnB. I scratch my head thinking that they come to my town, spend $1,000+ to enjoy just a few days where I already live. It makes no sense to me. Why not just get rid of all the crap in their lives and move? I really liked being in Thailand at one time so I stayed there 6 months. I only left because I was overstaying my visa and they charge by the day for that. Not a pretty site at immigration when you're actually trying to leave the country and they make you go into a small private room, pay a big fine and they put a full page sized ugly stamp in your passport with the amount of the fine written on it. Funny thing though, when I went back a few months later the immigration officer didn't even flinch. Random late night thoughts...

"Retired" at 27. Now I run a RE investing business and will never retire from Real Estate

@Anthony Gayden my wife says I will never retire, and she is probably right. The goal; however, is to keep adding more 1 week vacation to our year and get to a point we can leave for a month and the business runs fine.

Yeah, I prefer the word "financial independence" over early retirement for that reason. I have met few people with the ambition to retire early who just sit around. Most of us have projects, businesses, or other activities that fulfill us and keep us busy. For example, I do a lot more writing now. I think the main difference is you can work completely on your terms. Money may be part of your equation still, but after FI you can make much different decisions because you don't need the money.

Part of a balanced retirement plan for me. Steady inflation-adjusted income comes from real estate rentals (annuities are crap!), safety net of cash comes from stock market investments.

Retire off a $3M net worth? What is this, 1985?

To me, the simple part of getting to financial independence is this: 1. Make as much money as possible 2. Save as much as possible (big savings rate - like 50-75%) 3. Invest your savings safely and profitably Real estate investing can help, mainly with #3. You can also flip houses or do short-term holds where you resell for a profit to help with #1. But I agree real estate isn't as simple as say - investing in an index fund. Real estate, at least up front, IS a business. If you have another business with a lot of chances to grow your income, nothing wrong with doing that. At some point, though, you'll have to decide which vehicle is going to produce the most income, most passively. I have found few businesses (or investments) who have that combination as well as real estate. It's worth learning for that reason. Best of luck!

Updated almost 8 years ago on 11/17/2017. Most recent reply

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Chad CarsonPoster

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Clemson, SC

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How will you use real estate to retire early?

Chad CarsonPoster

Investor
Clemson, SC

Posted November 09, 2017 14:26

Hi fellow BP members. I'm helping Bigger Pockets work on a project about using real estate investing to retire early (aka achieve financial independence).

Would you mind taking a brief survey (mostly multiple choice & took me less than 2 minutes to answer):

Real Estate Early Retirement Survey

This survey will help us learn more about how you use (or have already used) real estate investing in your wealth building and retirement/financial independence plans.

Thank you for your help! Feel free to reply and leave comments to let me know what you think.

How will you use real estate to retire early?

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