Hi Everyone!
A few years ago I started buying rental properties as an alternative source of income. The military offers great retirement packages. However, I wanted to expand my income further and sooner than twenty years down the road.
Have you ever seen contractors come into your office saying they’re retired? They usually have some story about how they could not completely retire and sustain their standard of living. They probably talk about how you will likely turn contractor or civilian as well and will eventually need to augment your income. What if there was a better way?
This website will be a compilation of my ideas and concepts to give you ideas for a better financial future. Are these ideas perfect? No. Are they full proof? Absolutely not. You need to take these ideas and learn about your investments in a way that enables you to make better financial decisions.
I have a mix of investments; from TSP, Rental Properties, Vanguard, and even Cryptocurrency. What I’ll present to you is what I’ve done and what I’ve learned. And hopefully, you can use these ideas to help build up your financial future so you have options in 4, 6, 10, 15, or 20 years.
So, what’s my background? I joined the Air Force in 2011. I hold a B.S. in Computer Engineering and have been fortunate to be able to maintain my skill set doing everything from testing, software development, and program management. I worked with several folks that owned one, two or five rental properties. I watched as the real estate market rebounded after the events of 2008 and the housing collapse. I heard tons of horror stories from co-workers that either had bad tenants, were unable to find tenants or couldn’t afford their mortgage with their rent rates.
I spent an entire year researching real estate before ever buying anything. During that year, I learned tons of information about maintenance costs, good areas of town, calculators, PMI, VA loans, rental rates, LLCs, interest rates, loan companies, etc… All that information was useful for my first property. I started with a VA loan on a place at my first assignment, followed by another VA loan at my second assignment. After that I bought my first investment property and directly rented it out. I’m up to three total properties now and have increased my original investments by nearly 700%. I’ve done that by watching, making good decisions, and going it. At the moment, my properties give me around $700 in cash a month and my principal in the properties is over $150k above my original investment. You’ll find out shortly that one of my properties under performs and I’ll be selling it soon.
I have come to believe that real estate is an amazing investment. The military gives us a lot of pay to live well and if we use it right can transform it into an amazing life post-retirement. I hope you enjoy the journey with me and the information I share is useful!
-Will