I am 37 years old and I think I am already starting way too late to prepare for retirement. I guess the good news is I am starting to think about it now. But I am doing more than thinking about it, its actually consumed a lot of my thinking lately.
I recently lost my father to cancer and it was a very difficult situation for my family and I. One of the things that really hit me hard was when my father passed away he had a total of $156.00 dollars to his name. Even though he lived to be 66 years old and worked most all of his life, he left with nothing to show for it financially speaking. I don’t blame him nor do I think any less of my father because of this. I think the problem could have been he didn’t think about his retirement years early enough. I also believe he never thought he would get cancer and be given 6 months to live in his 60’s…The thing is we all feel like we have “enough” time to think and plan for retirement…until time catches up and we don’t. Time is never on our side folks.
This was absolutely frightening for me to think about. I am a father to two young boys and a beautiful wife I could not even fathom to leave them with nothing after I am gone from this earth. If the good Lord decides to take me unexpectedly how could I leave them in financial distress? The days seem to go by faster and faster as I get older and I can already see my 30’s zooming bye and my 40’s coming very quickly. I know, I know I have many years of working ahead of me and perhaps the “prime” of my earning potential won’t even come until I am in my 50’s…but what if I get sick? What if I get injured? What if I just one day lose my motivation to go out and work hard every day? Do I really want to be put in a situation to start to scramble and worry once father time catches up and I haven’t planned correctly? Nope. I refuse to put my family and myself in that situation.
Why would any of us want to go backwards in lifestyle? Can you imagine having to downsize because you can’t pay your mortgage? Stop eating out at your favorite restaurant? Choose the items that are only on sale? Stop doing fun activities or stop traveling because the budget doesn’t allow for it? All of these circumstances are reality if we don’t plan ahead and start considering that the money we make by our efforts and labor today may not be there when our efforts and labor decline as we get older…this is all DOOM AND GLOOM!
But hold on, I think there could be a way out, a plan that could not only secure our future but perhaps even make it brighter but you have to start now! It doesn’t matter how old you are or where you are at in life, the time is now to start thinking of our future and retirement and then taking action to put it into play. Below is a great synopsis and exercise that got me started on planning my future and I suggest you take the time and start thinking and taking action as soon as you can.
I can not take credit for the info below, that goes to my friend and mentor Mark Evans DM http://markevansdm.com/blog/ but I wanted to share it because it is really great about taking the idea of investing in passive income real estate and boiling it down to a very easy to understand approach. In fact, I believe in this so much that I have already started to put my money where my “blog” is and began to acquire rental property for my retirement. Here is a picture of a triplex I recently purchase to add to my portfolio it generates an extra $12,000 per year and once its paid off it will generate between $20,000-$24,000 per year, plus with inflation and rent increases over the years that number will only increase over time:
Making Money While I Sleep zzzzzzzzzzz
I encourage any of you out there who want to get going on preparing for their future to start looking into real estate investments. In fact, acquiring “turn-key” rentals that are professionally managed will even eliminate the task of managing tenants and toilets if you are not keen on doing those types of things. It is totally possible to just open up the mailbox every month or log into your bank account to receive the rent income from your property management company — that is truly turn key! As always feel free to leave a comment below or reach out to me if you would like to learn more about the awesome real estate deals I have going on every month. I am always excited to talk people who want to build for their future.
To Many Years of Health, Wealth, Enjoyment and Success-God Bless
— Matt
How Many Turnkey Investment Properties Would You Need To Be FREE?
There are many ways that you can get free and rich in your life – from starting a business to investing in real estate.
I like turnkey real estate because it’s a hands-off investment that provides consistent, predictable cash flow. (Even with a business you’ll probably have to put in daily effort to find customers but with turnkey real estate, you get an asset that is cash flowing right from day one.)
And the best part is, if you have an IRA or 401k then you can even use that money to invest in turnkey properties so you may already have the money you need to become financially free today!
So let’s look at how turnkey investing can help you.
Here’s a simple exercise you can do to find out your “Freedom Number” – the price you need to become truly free.
(Print this, fill it out, and post it on your wall so you can look at it daily).
- How much money do you need each month to live comfortably? (Some people start with the wage they’re making; others add a bit because they want to earn more; others still don’t require as much as they make right now.)
- Assuming your turnkey properties can earn an average of $500/month (it varies but that’s a good average to start with) then how many properties would need to have to invest in to pay for your free lifestyle?
My Freedom income number per month is: ___________
I’ll break down the numbers in an example: Let’s say that you currently earn the national average of $50,000/year and you’d like to try and get close to that without having to go into work.
Well, you can invest in approximately 8 turnkey investment properties, each earning around a $500/month net. That’s $4,000/month or $48,000 a year… WITHOUT going to work.
Now, you might be wondering how achievable that is. (After all, you might not have thought before about buying 8 properties.)
Well, if you have the national average of $119,000 in your IRA or 401(k) then you can probably acquire 3-6 properties right now, which will get you pretty close to your freedom number. And you could use the cash flow from those properties plus working (or even some other creative strategies) to fund the purchase of the remaining 2-5 properties.
When you started reading this post, did you think that it was possible to potentially retire right now by the time you finished reading this post? Probably not… but when you switch from focusing only on rich and instead focus on getting free (and rich) then it changes the possibilities and you’ll discover that a financially free lifestyle is far more achievable, faster.
So, stop trying to get rich. It’s an elusive challenge that most people fail at. Instead, figure out how you can get free. THAT is a more fulfilling, worthwhile, and ACHIEVABLE goal to work toward.
Written by: Matt Garabedian
