Take Risks - Get out of the Rat Race Young

[heather]

People have to take Risks if they want to succeed and get out of the rat race. I do not want to spend the rest of my life making money for someone else. Work for my employer/Work fr the Government(Taxes)/Work for Banks (loans) - There's got to be a smarter way! I want my assets to pay for my expenses. I continue on with my day job to make income, bring down my expenses, purchase assets with leftover dough, have that money start to make me money - to the point where I can quit my job and grow my own business fulltime. You have to take risks and have confidence. Most of our parents raisedus saying"get a good education, good grades, a good job with a secure company" - UNTIL you get laid off, realize how much your boss makes off of you, realize how much taxes the gov takes from you, how hard you work to put money into someone elses retirement plan... My goal is to start to build up my assets as soon as possible... Real Estate is my plan... Any suggestions?

[Unregistered]

Heather-I would definitely advise you to look into real estate. My husband and I were in a position to buy our first house a few years ago and after looking around at prices and such, we decided to buy a duplex. The rent from the other half covers almost half of our mortgage payment, and what's left for us to pay is several hundred dollars less than a comparable single-family house would have been. It kind of sucks money now, as we need to do some improvements to it, but we are hoping within 5 years to be able to buy another house while hanging onto this place. It will only generate a few hundred dollars a month income stream at first, but if we sell it, that equity will have come out of someone else's pocket, not ours, also, if we keep it until after the mortgage is paid off, it will then generate several thousand dollars a month. We're looking at it as kind of a retirement investment. Luckily we have excellent tenants, though. That is the only thing I would caution you about-screen, screen, and then screen some more! We got thirty-four applications for our apartment and only accepted one.

Several of our friends purchased single-family houses around the same time and we are watching them struggle, needing to maintain a dual income, complaining, endlessly having no money, whereas I was able to quit my job to become a stay-at-home mom for a few years. We're tight, but at least we don't need a dual income. Had we not bought the duplex, there's no way I could have done this. Good luck!

[manicmonkie]

I would keep trying to make money through assets, and then go backpacking through Europe. It would be soooo much fun. Then come back and do the real estate thing.

[justpaidenough]

Some advise on getting into real estate:

It's a good investment if you plan to stay where you are for a few years. I bought a condo in CA right out of college in and sold it in two years. Without it, I would not have been able to pay off my college loans, travel for 2 months in China and living very well in Beijing right now without much of an income.

Here are the con's: it tied me down to a job I didn't really enjoy for two years. I had to have a steady income to pay the mortgage and renting would have helped, but living with other people is such a pain. I also had to reject a promising job in Shanghai because of the mortage. You can't manage renting out a place when you are across the world and paying a company to manage it for you just increases the costs. I still think about where the job in Shanghai could have taken me right now.

Also, I didn't make as much money out of selling the condo as promised b/c the real estate market crashed.

If you are ready to be"tied-down" and are willing to stick it out in a crappy job for as long as it take to pay off a mortage or sell it when the market is hot, then invest in a home. Otherwise, it will limite you in many ways that you may not realize as of yet.