@Dustin Ruff Thanks for starting the thread. Not sure I have the most exciting story to share, but here goes.
At 19 years of age (I'm now 51, so that was back in 1985) I entered the United States Air Force for two main reasons: 1. To get $10,000 from the GI bill so I can pay my own way through college and 2. To receive VA benefits when I exited the military, primarily the VA loan benefits to buy a home. I have two great parents, but I did not grow up wealthy, big fancy house, lots of money, exotic vacations, etc. We were a very simple family and both my parents are blue collar workers who live and think like most that are described in the book Cash Flow Quadrant (Get a job, pay off your ONE house you live in, save your money and collect a retirement pension). I never grew up learning about business or investing.
After exiting the military in 1989 with an honorable discharge, I started college and lived at home for a short time before living with my GF (future wife, but now ex-wife. It happens!) and another mutual friend. Wish I would have known about "house hacking" back then!
After one year of college, my roommate, who was a police officer, had me look into law enforcement as a career path. I did, and in 1990 I was hired full-time as a police officer for Newport Beach, CA. I worked as an officer from 1990 to 2003, but unfortunately received a medical retirement due to a few on duty injuries. During those 13 years I got married, had two beautiful daughters, finished my education by receiving my BA degree in Criminal Justice and purchased TWO primary homes. My first home was purchased in 1994 using my VA loan. I purchased the property for $154K (not happening today in CA) and was out of pocket a total of $1,450 to close the deal. I sold this property in 2001 for $240K and purchased a new primary home in an up and coming area (different county) for $247K (bigger home by 2X). Did not use my VA on this property, but instead used the old 80/10/10 loan. We lived in this home raising our family until 2010, when we got divorced, and sold it for $410,000 (It got as high as $625K during the crazy days of 2005-2006).
From 2003 until the present I’ve been working full-time in real estate on the retail side of things making a good six figure income from selling, managing an office(s) or both and I receive my police retirement of about $4,100/month tax free, so it’s not for a lack of income to invest. Back when I was married it was because of bad credit. I was going to invest in buy/hold rentals back in 2004-2005 in both California and Texas, but my credit was not great due to some poor financial decisions made by my wife at the time, which affected my credit because she was a stay at home mom and everything was in my name. I was unable to get a traditional loan, so I had to sit on the side lines while my friends invested in Texas and did very well. I was not educated on creative financing back then, so I sat and watched while working on getting my credit back in order, which is now over 800..YAY, and I no longer have a wife!
After getting divorced I rented for 2 years, got my financial life back in order and bought a primary home in 2012 using my VA once again. I purchased the home for $265K and $2,400 out of pocket, and just sold it in December of 2016 for $420K. I cleared over $175K TAX FREE thanks to Capital Gains!
So here I am now, 51 years old, sitting on plenty of cash to invest, I’m Semi-Retired because my police pension of $4,100/month covers all my monthly expenses (PASSIVE INCOME) and I also make good money actively running my retail real estate business. I’m involved with a wonderful woman, who I live with, and she is a VP for a large national medical device company, so financially we are good and ready to move into investing.
We have both been educating ourselves through reading books, listening to podcasts, reading forums on BP, etc. and it’s now time to take that step into PASSIVE INCOME. We have no less than $250K to start investing with, so there is NO EXCUSE at this point to make things happen.
We have decided, based on great insights from Cash Flow Quadrant to NOT purchase a primary residence and take on BIG DEBT at this time. We do believe that your primary home is a LIABILITY not an ASSET as outlined in Cash Flow Quadrant, so we are going to rent and invest our money in Buy/Hold Assets. We are looking at investing in out of state markets from SFR to 20 unit complexes using conventional loans and the BRRRR strategy. Our goal is a minimum of 10 units/doors per year over the next 12-13 years and have cash flow of no less than $20K/month by year 2030.
I’ve owned 3 homes during my adult life, and all were primary residences. I never lost money on any of these homes and although I wish I had been in a position to invest in rental properties much earlier in my life, it’s never too late to start and I still have some good years left in me. Not to mention we’ll be leaving something for our children to benefit from.
Like I said, it’s not the most exciting story, but it’s MINE and it’s REAL!