I’d really like to do something similar to you but am unsure how to raise a deposit for multiple investment properties and also am unsure where or how to find poistive cash flow properties

I hope you can help

Transportation: I walk everywhere I can, have an 8 year old Honda that I will keep forever and paid for with cash when I got it new at a great deal. I can’t bring my dog on a bike ride, so I haven’t gone that route. Also, three of my four siblings had serious bike accidents.

Housing: I own an old house in a city, about 1350 square feet, and have a tiny cabin in a rural area about 100 miles away. It’s about 650 sq. feet. I paid cash for the cabin and paid off my mortgage on the city house in 5 years. I expect to keep both until I am about 80 years old.

Food: I grow most of the vegetables I eat. I get the rest from a farmer’s market. I love bananas, which are not local, and it’s one of the few things I buy at a grocery store. I don’t eat a lot, so the challenge is to use everything up.

My interest right now is reducing my use of power sources. I unplugged my refrigerator in both my house and cabin, and I don’t heat the cabin. I installed a programmable thermostat in the city house and some days I lower it to 45 degrees and wear a hat!

My total annual expenses are about $14,000 without health insurance or maintenance. I set up a separate account for maintenance. I haven’t found the right health insurance, which I wouldn’t use anyway unless it was an emergency.

The housing category is in the process of moving from an F grade to an A. Our mortgage payment will drop from $3500 (adjustable to a max of $4000) to a fixed $750 a month. Can you say Woohoo? Six adults will live in the house initially, dropping off as four of them move to different parts of the US to finish education. That will leave two adults and, by that time, the principal will have been paid down to the point that the monthly payment will be around $500.

Next up: whittling the paid-for car fleet down from 5 to maybe 2. Not ready to give up my car yet but I can part with some of them.

I do pretty good in all the other categories.

Cell phone is covered by a family plan. Haven’t bought any clothes since this challenge started. No insurance, no budget, no connecting with neighbors. The costs of my hobbies (cycling, philosophy, and writing) are neglible.

Still worth about -15K, mostly in student loans.

So you tell me.

Maybe it is just me, but I am getting the following error message when trying to click the links in this article…

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_ENDIF in /home/earlyret/public_html/wp-content/themes/redie-30/404.php on line 9

Thought you might want to know.

Best wishes,
Imani

Virtual grade so far is a solid C due to familial pressures to keep car. Could find places to live for cheap (good neighborhoods even!), letting go of clutter is tough but possible, and most of the rest is already our lifestyle.

In real life, we’re getting a D. Our quite elderly parents live nearby, so we committed towards having the American-dream home and are thus paying that price. No, it’s not a McMansion, but it is spacious for two people with a large workshop and we’re gardening an acre. At the right moment, we might swap it for a cheaper equal-size home in a more rural location and live off the pocketed chunk.

I am focusing on buying 3 properties per year that yield at least $150/ mo in cash flow. If I do this for two years my passive income will double and my savings rate for investment will be 50%.

We have no mortgage except the 8 on our investment properties that others pay. I was on the other side of that deal my whole life until we had kids and I decided I liked collecting the rent checks instead of writing them out.

I am focusing on buying 3 properties per year that yield at least $150/ mo in cash flow. If I do this for two years my passive income will double and my savings rate for investment will be 50%.

Another problem we have is it seems like we spend $50 a week at Target for household/personal items. I have no idea how it’s this much every time but it is. My wife is usually the one doing the shopping and I get the receipts and it’s not like she’s buying outrageous stuff. There is also the diaper factor for our little guy (although we use cloth most of the time). Now, this does also contain other things like clothes, gifts, etc. but it still seems like we spend a ton of money there. Jacob, how do you handle stuff like that – TP, paper towels, shampoo, etc.? Or do I just suck it up and live with it?

I look forward to your investing part 2.