Regarding financial independence, what does that mean? I pay my own bills. Am I financially independent? Can I go on all of the vacations I want?
Vacations are irrelevant to me. I see my family regularly. Where else would I want to go and who else would I want to see?
Do I want to buy a new Civic? No, I just want to keep my cars in good shape. Where is that crankshaft pulley bolt?!
Do I, a forty year-old, enjoy living with my mother?
Enough, but I feel this is where I belong, helping my brother with autism, and our mother. At some point she will not be around anymore and I will really have problems.
If financial independence happens to you, you will probably mismanage it and lose it.
I have new clients, but doubt my current job will ever take me to twenty hours a week, which I need for various goals, and I have a new job, which is also inadequate for all of my needs, but together:
I get into grad school. I graduate grad school. I get a full-time job and can pay for the proper tools to properly maintain everything and to pay the professional when I shouldn't attempt something myself.
Is that financial independence?
I am sure that I would take regular vacations without incurring debt.
I want my family to enjoy things.
I mentioned winning publisher's clearinghouse. I hope that even if I received $5,000 a week I would keep working and trying to advance myself but if I apply this fall, get accepted for next fall, I would not graduate until 2023.
I am sure there are many paths to a comfortable living that are faster, like becoming a realtor and selling 23 houses a year.
Honestly, I do not know what else.
Kevin and Graham's answer to everything is real estate. They show that you can grow your wealth faster through real estate than through index funds.
I am sure a stock broker would disagree, but their plan, which I have been planning on sharing in a dedicated thread is:
- Save up 3.5% for a house
- Find a house that has been on the market for a while, that needs stuff like paint and landscaping. Let's say this house costs 10% less.
- Get an 30-year FHA mortgage with a home-improvement loan for $10,000. Paint. Fix the landscaping.
- Pay $1,249 in mortgage and put what you can in savings.
- Get out of mortgage insurance as soon as you are eligible.
- When you find the right second house, ideally a little bigger and nicer, put 3.5% down a 30-year mortgage, and rent out your first house.
I cannot find anything giving me a rough idea of how much of a profit margin you should be able to have, but as they say, every house is profitable at the right price.
Is 10% profit reasonable? Can you use this to purchase five houses in five years, with each slightly larger and nicer than the next?
I wrote out a scenario where you buy a $150,000 house, make 10% over expenses, use the rent money to pay the mortgage and save up for the down payment on a $165,000 house a few years later, an $181,500 house a couple years after that, etc., and after 11.5 years have a little over a million dollars in real estate bringing in $638.53.
That does not sound like much, but I did not calculate using any of your own money once you rent out the first house, so that would be over six hundred dollars a month based on an original investment of $5,250.
I just do not have any idea if that is high or low.
It is something I continue to investigate and if I were able to buy a house that required minimal maintenance, I would think a van would make more sense than my Accord.