Why I Chose Real Estate to Achieve Financial Independence

Why did I choose real estate to achieve financial independence? It gives me more control over cash flow and ROI than I get from index funds.

My path toward financial independence is at odds with the majority of the financial independence/retire early (FIRE) movement. Many FIRE advocates stress investing their savings in the stock market – specifically index funds like VTSAX. Save until you have 25 times your annual spend stashed away, then withdraw 4% of the dividends annually. There are finer points like rebalancing your portfolio, but that’s it in a nutshell. It’s easy, effective, and once achieved, takes very little time from your day, leaving you with the opportunity to retire early and enjoy life. But this crowd typically would not use real estate to achieve financial independence.

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Real Estate Investing and Corporate Nonsense

Real estate investment gave me the freedom to leave a toxic corporate boss.

I had almost no idea what I was doing during my first real estate investing experiment.

Worse, I didn’t know how little I knew at the time. If I did, I may not have dived in as quickly as I did. And for that, I’m grateful.

After some cosmetic renovations, I moved into my unit in an owner-occupied triplex. Immediately some maintenance requests came up. And questions about paying rent. Oh, and one unit’s lease was coming to an end in a couple of months… how would I find a lease!?

I thought the hard part of real estate investing was behind me. Turns out, managing a rental property is a whole other skill set. And I had barely scratched the surface.

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