All Forum Posts by: Randy Bloch

You will be able scale much faster with a house hack as Bruce mentioned you get the benefit of lower down payment and lower interest rate and you can you use the income to qualify for future REI. I realized personal limitation, but you can house hack in some nicer neighborhoods as well.

Daniel Kim is 100% correct. It would be easier if u do the house hack first and then if y Decide that does not work for personal reasons and then turn it to REI and buy personal residence. You would likely be able to use the rent on the house hack as income in this scenario, maybe loan officer can chime in?

It depends on how often your units turnover to figure that out. It doesn't really matter whether it SFR, duplex or 4plex, you have more rent depending on the # of units. How do u afford it? Find properties to purchase at the right price....not saying that is easy, but that is the answer.

One month rent for tenant placement and 8-10% monthly maintenance is pretty standard for LT property mgmt.

Since you are already an executive assistant I would look into executive assistant roles with a brokerage team. It seems many of these roles are more than assistants and can take on more of a COO role if you prove you are capable. Also, the brokerage lead would love for you to have your license and might pay for it.

i dont think the FIRE community retires solely off of 401k.  They invest in 401k to receive the max employer contribution, but that is only one leg of their retirement stool.  They also are investing in other passive income streams like real estate, and financial notes and many have side hustles like blogging or AirBnB. This combined with relative low monthly expense can get them to FIRE.  Once you have a passive income that exceeds your monthly expense rate you have reached FIRE.  

There is also the Rule of 72 (google it) you will see how you can withdraw from retirement account before 59.5.  I would not personally recommend this approach, but it is an option.   My approach is to bridge my FIRE date (age 46) using passive income and investment to get to 59.5.  I will keep 401k invested in equities during this time and then that will be enough for me to completely retire and SS will kick in a little extra at some point.

Your monthly expense rate is probably the biggest component to reaching FIRE....if your lifestyle requires 10k,15k, 20K per month to be happy then you will require a big net worth to reach FIRE.  If the simple things in life can make you happy and freedom is more important than keeping up with the Jones...then FIRE is definitely much more achievable. 

Guys, everyone keep trashing advisors as lining their own pockets.  The OP has pointed out several times that in this case he is agreed to pay the advisor a flat fee retainer and non of his recommendation are going to benefit the advisor.  I get Everyone on BP is drunk on real estate kool aid but that does not make all advisors are crooks. 

I would not be that worried about car or student loan debt with ~4% rates.  Save for the downpayment and make sure u have adequate reserves and then I would invest in your 2nd property and just pay down your debt monthly.  If it was credit card or personal loan then I would pay it down.

Agree with @Joel Johnson.  Understand the reasons for his recommendations and then make a decision for yourself.  I have been looking for CFP to do the same...give me 2nd opinion, but have not found one that I am comfortable with yet.

@Mark S.

I agree with Mark, don't let the HOA fee scare you...just do your due diligence on the HOA association financial. If you can get 1300 rent for a 100k condo with an HOa of 178 sounds like good CF. If you have friend there you probably already have an idea of the type of renters you can attract.

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