Soooo ready at 31!!

[grlcndream]

HAAAA! That was great! Thanks for the support and making me smile :-)

[comixfan]

Quote:

I wish I had one to share right now! *:-) Thanks for your response to my post. A follow up: I just found out that I am getting laid off with a nice severance package. *April 15th is my last day. *I have decided to get my real estate license and start selling. *Boy am I scared. *This will be the first time since college that I haven't had a steady paycheck. *But it's also so exciting. *I will be doing something I love for the first time as well. *And will feel that although I will be working hard, I will have some freedom to come and go. *If I am successful at it, this could be something I will do until I retire. *EARLY OF COURSE :-) *Wish me luck!

grlcndream - In the back of my mind, I wish they would lay me off, so I could implement my plans of ER, but as it stands right now, this paycheck is allowing me to put away so much money, it wouldn't make any sense to work less hours or find a job I like better. I'm 29, and I've been thinking about being FIREd since I graduated college. My job has burned me out as well, but I hope I can hold out for 5 or 6 more years since I only have about 110K in investments currently.

If I did change jobs, I would probably move into a commission based environment, then at least I could see immediate results for the effort that I was putting in. Anyways, BEST OF LUCK!!!

[grlcndream]

comixfan - That is how I felt for a long time. I was making good money, investing, buying houses, etc. BUT, I finally reached a point to where I was so burned out, it was negatively affecting my life. I was miserable. I am lucky in that I am receiving a severance package, but I would have left eventually anyway. Life is too short to be miserable at work! If you reach that point, it's just not worth it. I hope you are not there yet, but if you are...seriously consider leaving! Good luck to you too!

[LovesLife]

grlcndream,

My former place of employment was flat-out toxic. It was the best move I ever made when I left there. I have been retired for almosts 3 months now and all the stress of the workplace is gone. I even lost a few pounds to boot.

LovesLife

[comixfan]

Quote:

comixfan - That is how I felt for a long time. *I was making good money, investing, buying houses, etc. *BUT, I finally reached a point to where I was so burned out, it was negatively affecting my life. *I was miserable. *I am lucky in that I am receiving a severance package, but I would have left eventually anyway. *Life is too short to be miserable at work! *If you reach that point, it's just not worth it. *I hope you are not there yet, but if you are...seriously consider leaving! *Good luck to you too!

True! Life is too short, but it's also too short to live it poor. lol Always a tradeoff!!

I've bought and sold some real estate as well, but never could take the plunge into full time. One of these years!

[ER@40]

Joining this post late, but want to wish you a speedy good luck. Work is a passion killer, you're not alone! 8)

Q: How much do you think your minimum net worth will need to be for ER?

There's some wide variations in postings 300k-1M+ seems common. In Europe, less than ~$1m doesn't seem realistic at the moment with property skyrocketing and the weak dollar (even for a single person).

Q: Regarding real estate, How much gearing minimum do you think you'll need for where you live? Is the rental market boyant? What are your reasons in getting the RE license? P/T work?, self-education for going it alone?

[grlcndream]

ER@40 - thanks for your support!

I am 32 - and have a ways to go before I ER. I want to have at least $1 million before I do. It really all depends on when I retire though. I will need to run the stats at that time and make sure I have enough. When I have enough - I'm outta there baby!

I am getting into real estate for several reasons. I truly enjoy the home buying/selling process, as I have done it three times now. I am the type who goes to open houses for fun on weekends, and love to fix up houses. I watch shows on houses, I like to talk about houses, I am constantly thinking of strategic ways to make money buying and selling houses. On and on. I have been in a very structured working environment for the last 9 years since college, and I look forward to setting my own schedule for once. Not to say I won't be working hard, nights...weekends...but it's doing something I love! Something I would be dealing with at night and on weekends anyway! Why not try to get paid for it! I truly believe that if you believe in something - a product - it's so much easier to sell. It's the seller's enthusiasm that sells the product.

As far as the stats in my particular area, I cannot provide specifics. All I know is that I have a successful rental property and have many friends that do as well. They are single family homes, not multi-dwelling units. Most are older homes that we/they lived in, fixed up, then rented out before buying another home and doing the same thing.

Not exactly sure what you mean about gearing minimum? Can you explain please?

[ER@40]

Wow, you do have the house bug, showing all the signs - the passion is obvious. Its a good sign, you're definitely doing the right thing. To quote Donald Trump, give me anyone I don’t care how rich or how smart they are, if they don’t love what they do they'll never be successful!

Reading many of the other posts on rental income & real estate its clear that for many its a PITA and they got out, but for some its practically relaxation after rigid corporate America. If you're lucky and you have good intuition on deals and tenants you'll go far.

Buying multi-units and fixups is real work. But there's still money out there with simple arbitrage in property markets between states, i.e. some are appreciating at well over 20% while other are stagnating, so there's definitely money to be made. See (www.ofheo.gov/media/pdf/4q04hpi.pdf). As Mark Twain said, buy land now there not making any more of it.

On gearing minimum, I was asking for the areas you're looking at, how high are property prices versus expected rental income vs cost of servicing mortgage as rates go up, versus how much money down?

For instance in Europe (UK&Ireland) buy to let or even fly to let has become a craze here. Mainly because of cheap global interest rates, little money down, and rapidly appreciating property prices. However some people are getting burned in a hurry by not having enough flexibility on fine tuning their debt to equity and cash flows. Rates for instance in the UK are climbing fast, while property appreciation has stalled. Less experienced investors are finding they've over geared or over leveraged, and now can't rent or sell high or rent fast enough to stop their entire portfolio crashing down like a house of cards . . .