Jane_Doe
Recycles dryer sheets
Hi, all!
I go by “Jane Doe” and actually found this forum back around 2005 and had to quit in 2008 or so due to almost financial ruin from being stupid enough to open a pub in the summer of 2007 right before the economy tanked. **
So, when we lost all our life savings, it was just too depressing to be on here, as I am sure others as well as my husband and I have dealt with. It’s a really long story and it’s been a long haul but thanks to me going to work for a local company with great bennies and good pay, thanks partially to two properties sold, my husband’s great juggling and budget skills, we paid off our debts slowly and dug out of a big hole. Ended up okay.
So, happily I am back on the forum and wish to get advice from the wonderful sage members of this forum. I think many of the old crew are no longer active, but I fondly remember reading advice from Uncle Mick (probably my favorite), Nords, Mikey, REwahoo, Ted and many that I can't recall names plus a grumpy old John Holt -
some may have changed handles, so hello to new and old friends!
Starting with background:
Happily married 40 years. We have two wonderful grown, married daughters who live too far away for our wishes, so our life must include travel for visits… we are east coast and one dd is in nw Pennsylvania and one is south Louisiana. So this puts a bit of a cramp in our style haha.
We also enjoy traveling and like Caribbean Costa Rica and Florida*
Some stats/info:
Husband, 67 semi-retired - collecting Soc Sec since age 62
We had a construction company for about 28 years worked together. He retired from that, but still is doing property management on a small strip center type commercial
property we developed, built and have owned for 30 years - this keeps him busier than we’d like, as he is very handy and tries to do as much as makes sense financially as well as physically. We want to sell when value makes sense/markets go up and people start buying in commercial market. Until then we are married to this property and it limits our mobility to travel and visit family. Don’t want to pay a management company unless becomes absolutely necessary as we age.
Best case scenario is we sell it within a year or two. Would love to see 0 capital gains tax that would be fantastic. Hoping to net 800k - 1.2m but can’t count on this as markets have been flat and now this corona mess….. blah! We have a really decent cash flow and almost always fully rented and great tenants and great location, can live off this income fairly well.
**We have had four other side businesses over the years as well (including the Pub/bar/restaurant which I don’t recommend! - long story). We are a savvy business
couple with the exception of the pub which timing caused as much as inexperience in the field.
We have also bought and sold a couple single family rentals and land that we have always had good profits on throughout the years. Again, hands on. Real Estate has been very good to us.
*(Florida upper east coast poss future winter hiatus spot for 2 or 3 months rental or possibly do fixer-upper and resell at some point when older)
I, myself, just got permanent layoff from my office job so collecting unemployment.
As to the retirement, need to sell property in order to fully retire for both of us. Hope to be able to live off our portfolio, figuring 4-5% draws. Due to self employment and lack of faith in the SS system we both paid in minimal SS and both qualify for Medicare. DH Soc Sec is about 1100 per month and mine will probably be
About $500 when I hit 62 three years from now. So there’s not a ton there to supplement. Luckily for us both of our kids married very good men and all four of them are making quite decent money and are financially comfortably settled.
Trying to do a small portfolio now and see how it does, then follow similar if/when we cash out on our commercial property.
I will post the portfolio plan in a thread in the FIRE and Money section
Since I am unemployed I hope to be more active on here this time around.
Best regards to all, "Jane"
I go by “Jane Doe” and actually found this forum back around 2005 and had to quit in 2008 or so due to almost financial ruin from being stupid enough to open a pub in the summer of 2007 right before the economy tanked. **
So, when we lost all our life savings, it was just too depressing to be on here, as I am sure others as well as my husband and I have dealt with. It’s a really long story and it’s been a long haul but thanks to me going to work for a local company with great bennies and good pay, thanks partially to two properties sold, my husband’s great juggling and budget skills, we paid off our debts slowly and dug out of a big hole. Ended up okay.
So, happily I am back on the forum and wish to get advice from the wonderful sage members of this forum. I think many of the old crew are no longer active, but I fondly remember reading advice from Uncle Mick (probably my favorite), Nords, Mikey, REwahoo, Ted and many that I can't recall names plus a grumpy old John Holt -
some may have changed handles, so hello to new and old friends!
Starting with background:
Happily married 40 years. We have two wonderful grown, married daughters who live too far away for our wishes, so our life must include travel for visits… we are east coast and one dd is in nw Pennsylvania and one is south Louisiana. So this puts a bit of a cramp in our style haha.
We also enjoy traveling and like Caribbean Costa Rica and Florida*
Some stats/info:
Husband, 67 semi-retired - collecting Soc Sec since age 62
We had a construction company for about 28 years worked together. He retired from that, but still is doing property management on a small strip center type commercial
property we developed, built and have owned for 30 years - this keeps him busier than we’d like, as he is very handy and tries to do as much as makes sense financially as well as physically. We want to sell when value makes sense/markets go up and people start buying in commercial market. Until then we are married to this property and it limits our mobility to travel and visit family. Don’t want to pay a management company unless becomes absolutely necessary as we age.
Best case scenario is we sell it within a year or two. Would love to see 0 capital gains tax that would be fantastic. Hoping to net 800k - 1.2m but can’t count on this as markets have been flat and now this corona mess….. blah! We have a really decent cash flow and almost always fully rented and great tenants and great location, can live off this income fairly well.
**We have had four other side businesses over the years as well (including the Pub/bar/restaurant which I don’t recommend! - long story). We are a savvy business
couple with the exception of the pub which timing caused as much as inexperience in the field.
We have also bought and sold a couple single family rentals and land that we have always had good profits on throughout the years. Again, hands on. Real Estate has been very good to us.
*(Florida upper east coast poss future winter hiatus spot for 2 or 3 months rental or possibly do fixer-upper and resell at some point when older)
I, myself, just got permanent layoff from my office job so collecting unemployment.
As to the retirement, need to sell property in order to fully retire for both of us. Hope to be able to live off our portfolio, figuring 4-5% draws. Due to self employment and lack of faith in the SS system we both paid in minimal SS and both qualify for Medicare. DH Soc Sec is about 1100 per month and mine will probably be
About $500 when I hit 62 three years from now. So there’s not a ton there to supplement. Luckily for us both of our kids married very good men and all four of them are making quite decent money and are financially comfortably settled.
Trying to do a small portfolio now and see how it does, then follow similar if/when we cash out on our commercial property.
I will post the portfolio plan in a thread in the FIRE and Money section
Since I am unemployed I hope to be more active on here this time around.
Best regards to all, "Jane"
Uncle Mick still stops by, as do Nords and Mikey. Not sure about Ted and John Holt. As for that REWahoo guy, well, we can’t get rid of him. 
