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in Financial Independence | Retire Early · July 17, 2020

Can You “Retire” Early? How We Plan to Become Financially Free in Our 30s

Have you ever considered that early retirement is within your reach? I didn’t. However, financial independence and early retirement might be closer than you think

On July 3rd, 2020 while driving to Six Flags in Georgia, Ryan and I were listening to the BiggerPockets Money Podcast. In this episode, they interviewed a couple who managed to retired early after 12 years of working hard. They paid off their mortgage, saved a ton of money, created multiple income streams and acquired two investment properties. While we had previously thrown the idea of retiring early, it seemed so far away that it was not even worth getting excited about.

Part of our plan was to build a real estate empire and then eventually in about 15 years quit our jobs. That would still be early retirement. However, this podcast just lit a fire in us and made us questioned whether we could actually retire earlier.

In our ride home, we began seriously consider the idea. We were already taking the steps to improve our financial position. We had just substantially decreased our living expenses and increased our savings rate by moving to Georgia. We already owned 4 investment properties with one more in our way.

If we stuck to our budget (which is hard) and lived well below our means, we could be putting $5,000 into debt repayment and investments.

When we got home that day, I calculated the impact that making this additional debt payments would have and it was then when I realized that we could reach financial independence in 7 years.

What I did was use my current budget and simulate what it would like if we paid off all our debt. This is what they call the freedom number which in our case is $3,500. This means that we need our investments to generate this amount monthly to allow us to quit our job.

Next, I estimated what the monthly cash inflow from my investments in 7 years.

Here is what we concluded and our action items within the next 7 years:

Save $15k to cover for emergencies
Pay off the personal debt we had.
Sofi Personal Loan $75k
WF Personal Loan $12k
Amex Credit Card$5.5k
Student Loans $48k
Total Personal Debt $141k

All of our bonuses, income from our accounting business, coaching and real estate would go towards debt repayment.

We would also sell our worst performing property and use that cash towards buying an additional 4 units to increase our monthly cash inflow.

Once the personal debt was paid, we would begin paying down our mortgage and the mortgage of one of our properties with the lowest debt.

Our primary home mortgage $175k
(1) investment property mortgage $82k
Total Mortgage Repayment $257k

In total we had to pay off $398k which would be 56k/ year for 7 years. This means we would need about $5k month towards debt repayment. Boom!

In the sake of full transparency, Ryan and I are lucky to have high paying jobs and I am fully aware that not everyone is able to have $5,000 extra a month. However, keep in mind that we are starting with a significant amount of debt. There are also ways that you can decrease your housing expenses with strategies like House Hacking and increase your monthly income by leveraging real estate or other investment vehicles which I will discuss at some point in this blog.

Even though we are accounting nerds, we didn’t actually realize how possible it was for us to retire in less than 15 years because we were thinking in terms of how can I make enough money to cover my expenses rather than, what happens if I were to decrease my expenses to get there faster.

Yes, in order to accomplish this we will have to live a frugal life. It is a sacrifice we that we are willing to make. While we won’t need to work full time, we’d still have to supplement our income in a part-time basis while investment portfolio continues to grow.

The beauty of this is that we can work on anything. We can choose something that makes us happy and that we are passionate about rather than having a job that makes us miserable for the sake of paying our bills.

Financial Independence does not come easy. It also does not always mean not working at all, sometimes it’s just about being able to have a choice.


This post may contain affiliate links. I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this blog.

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New Blog Post 🚨 In this week’s blog post I am New Blog Post 🚨 In this week’s blog post I am going over why we bought a short-term rental, our experience so far. Plus what we did prior, during and after purchasing our first short-term rental in March 2022, a Cabin in Blue Ridge, GA.

Check it out at www.beyondjustnumbers.com or link in bio @beyondjustnumbers
I can’t stress this enough. Some investors are l I can’t stress this enough. Some investors are looking to make money from day one, but that’s not always the case. It wasn’t for us and I’ve talked to a lot of rookie investors who have told me “Thank God I have my personal finance situation together.” 

This is just my opinion. Do you agree? Let me know in the comments!

Want to join a free community of like-minded individuals? Join our REI Coffee Chat Community where we talk real estate investing, personal finance and financial freedom, and much more! Link in bio @beyondjustnumbers

Want to learn more about investing in real estate? Read my blog www.beyondjustnumbers.com

#realestateinvesting #realestateinvestor #creativefinancing #investmentproperty #buyrealestate #firemovement #debtfreejourney #financialindependenceretireearly #rentalproperty #investinginproperty #personalfinanceblog #wealthbuilding #planforretirement #investorlife #livefree #airbnb #moneyisfreedom #enjoythejourney #reicommunity #realestateinvestments #shortermrentals #cashflow #realestate
I used to think that investing in real estate was I used to think that investing in real estate was for the rich. I became in love with real estate while working for a real estate investment company that owned hundreds of units. This was back in 2011 and I was 20 years old at the time. I had less than 5 years permanently living the US, so I had no idea about anything. I grew up in Colombia and the only talk of money we ever had was the lack of it. 

The investors I worked for were a wealthy family, so naturally, I thought… Real Estate requires wealth. I don’t have wealth. Therefore, I cannot invest. 

I figured… well shit, I need become wealthy so I can invest in real estate. Eventually, after educating myself I realized how wrong I had it. You can build wealth BY INVESTING in real estate.

Took me a couple of years to figure it all out. Hence, why I didn’t start investing until 2019. I wish I had figured out earlier, but it is what it is. In just 3 years of investing in real estate, I was able to accumulate more wealth than I ever thought possible. 

Just to give you an idea…Did you know you could invest in real estate with as little at 3.5% of the purchase price? For a $150,000, that’s only $5,750. Buy a duplex that needs a little bit of work, fix it up, rent one side and live in the other. This will reduce your monthly expenses significantly, save the money and do it all over again.*

Of course it’s not that simple, but it’s also not that difficult. There are some particular steps and considerations which is  why I recommend doing further reading on the subject. 

Book Recommendation:
✅“The House Hacking Strategy” by Craig Curelop and ✅“Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down” by Brandon Turner. 

#realestate #realestateinvesting
🚨 New Blog Post! Continuing the “Getting Star 🚨 New Blog Post! Continuing the “Getting Started in Real Estate Series” 

You’ve found a property either on your own or through a realtor, you’ve run your numbers, you’ve got a lender and now you are ready to make an offer. What’s next?

In this post I want to discuss a few items:

✅Key components of a real estate contract
✅How do you make a compelling offer to ensure you get the property you want
✅The main contract contingencies and how they work
✅Communicating with your realtor

I also provide real examples of what we have done personally. 

Check it out at www.beyondjustnumbers.com

Let me know what you think!
If I listed all of the hats, I’d never end 😂. If I listed all of the hats, I’d never end 😂. Anyone else? Show me the multiple hats you wear and tag me. Let’s have fun with some reels.

Trying to get good at the real game like @investinginyourwealth. How did I do?
The fact that you are not where you want to be doe The fact that you are not where you want to be doesn’t mean you won’t get there. Greatness takes time. Focus on what you control.

And remember, it’s okay to pivot.

#mindset #realestate #firemovement #realestateinvesting #realestateinvestor #rentalpropertyinvestor #rentalproperty #cashflow #motivation #financialfreedom #financialindependence #financialindependenceretireearly
We see a lot of advice around hiring a real estate We see a lot of advice around hiring a real estate friendly CPA. However, when you look up  CPAs that specialize in real estate, they can be pricey.  However, that doesn’t mean that other CPAs or tax professionals aren’t good. They might not be particularly aware of certain items, but they can research and collaborate with theirs peers. Perhaps it may require you to do a little of work to compensate. Things you can do:
✅ listen to The Real Estate CPA podcast or join the Facebook group
✅follow social media accounts of the pricey Real Estate CPA and take notes of what they are saying
✅attend free educational events 
✅read BiggerPocket book on Real Estate taxes 
✅if you know anyone working with a really good Real Estate CPA firm, ask them what they are doing

Then use that to go your CPA or tax professional and be like “Hey, is this something we can do for me?” They’ll probably say, “Let me look into it”. 

If they are good, they are going to research it and/or ask their CPA peer group. (CPAs and tax preparers also have Facebook groups where they collaborate with each other).

Here is a piece of advice, if they tell you “No, we can’t use this loophole or no, you don’t qualify to use this strategy” —> Ask WHY and “How can I qualify in the future?.” This way you confirm they did their homework and aren’t just being lazy. Don’t just take no for an answer. You can then get a second opinion by asking a question in a forum or to your peers.

So don’t panic if you don’t have a real estate CPA or tax professional. 

Next video I’ll be answering the question… “Can I skip the tax professional altogether and do my own taxes?”

#realestate
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