As some of you might have already noticed the site was slow or briefly down, I must apologize. And thank you for your patience.
2016 goals was all great goals, as far as financial go in meeting passive income, and giveaways. So this year number one goal is:
1. Give away 100% of the post-expense earning on the rental property in the Midwest to my nieces and nephews who are in college. I currently have 6 nieces and nephew in pre-med, med school, engineer, and trade school. $700 isn’t much per kid, it might help them buy a new computer or books. I wouldn’t want to ask them what they going to use the money for, I just hope they put it to good use.
The reason I do this not because my siblings can’t afford their kid’s college tuition, but I just want to show my gratitude toward my family. Everything they did for me while I was struggling. I was and still am very much appreciate their help. I am forever be grateful to what have given me. I hope one day they will do the same.
We will continue to give back to our universities, hospital, church, temple and to our parents. That will not change.
2. Moving wellroundedinvestor.com to a self host that is fast and reliable.
My domain mapping at WordPress was expiring so I took the opportunity to move my site into self-host. I’m still testing out this new hosting service. But one thing for sure, I’ve lost all the graphics on my website. So, changing to self hosting sooner rather than later probably a good thing.
After 2 years of blogging, my website traffic has doubled. This blogging business probably never going to pick up, but I’d like to continued share my journey post financial independence. So, maybe the number of posts might be reduced as I’m aiming for better content.
I’ve just moved it. But so far I’m not too impressed with customer service with webhostinghub.com
3. Do my book every week or at least once a month. Since, I now have 4 rental properties or 11 units. I must dedicated a lot of time maintaining the book or else. I’m trying to convince Mr.W to do this as he’s an accountant, but he hasn’t practiced accounting for so long. Plus he doesn’t like this kind of stuff. Who does? Hihi but I need to do it.
4. Talk to my boss about going part-time. I know I failed do do it last year, but it wouldn’t hurt to put this back on the list.
5. The goal by the year end to generate $5,000/month in rental income from the mixed used property and the property in the Midwest. Right now I have the Midwest property rented, and the restaurant spaces rented. I’m still looking for tenant for the 2 upstairs apartment. (the triplex and the 4-plex I also own, I’ll leave these income in private).
**Notice this change from $6000/year last year goal to $60,000/year… after I switched my investment around and probably commit more hours to rental property.
I cashed out $77k and $300k to buy the 2 properties from my taxable account. Had I leave all of my money in the stock market, it’s probably valued at $450k.
But after I bought the 2 properties, and make improvements, the $77k is worth $130k and the mixed use are worth $650k ám the property nearby are going for $700k. I’m waiting for the transaction to go through to get the comps. But it doesn’t matter. What matters is the cash flows.
My $377k investments have the potential to earn $5,000/month or $60,000 per year. I’d have $1.2M in the taxable account generating at 4% dividend to produce that $5k income.
that is the reason why I put this out there to see. Especially, after cashing out like this.
6. $50K in emergency fund. Right now, I’m living paycheck to paycheck. I don’t like that feeling. So building a good core is the priority.
7. Take 2 trips outside of the US and 2 trips in the US . We have one trip to St. John planned, but I’m not sure where we are going next just yet. I read the airfare from Boston to Ireland is $70, maybe we’ll get to snipe the deal.
There is so much to see in the US, I’d like to go and explore Florida and Grand Canyon someday.
8. Improve my medical skill. It’s time for me to shut the door and study again. I’ll see how this one is going to go as I’m getting ready to retire. But I put it out there, that way when I revisit my goal, it’s one of the thing I need to focus on.
What are your goals for the year?
That is a nice set of goals. I like the fact that you own rental property also. Especially since you are diversified into residential and commercial. One day I intend to add some rental properties to my portfolio as well. Overall I like your goals and look forward to reading about your journey as you achieve them. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for your kind comments. I didn’t realized I was diversifying my rental property investments until you said it. So, thank you!
My readers are smart. I guess I learned new things today.
I think owning some rental properties is an achievable goal. I started out with a triplex. That was my primary residence, I guess, I was destined to be a landlord right off the bat. (I knew I couldn’t afford a $250K mortgage by myself, so having roommates was keeping my homeownership dream alive.) LOL 🙂
That is a great list of goals. It is always nice to be generous when you can be. Good luck with your properties.
Thank you. That’s the idea, when you have more money, you’d just give more. After all, when all of the basic needs (food, water, shelter, clothes) are taken care of, we need to focus on spiritual. Things that’d make us happy. Happiness also come from generosity. We are trying to do the best we can without feeling deprived.
15% return sounds pretty good. How leveraged are you on all that real estate?
I have 2 paid off properties and 2 with mortgage. I guess the ones with mortgages is has better roi, because I leverage. Using other people money when I didn’t have the money. Then the profit gave me more capital to buy more properties, in this case I just choose to pay the subsequent properties in cash.
It’s a personal choice, as I’ve reach financial independence, I don’t want to take on more debts. And just in case the housing market collapse again, I don’t want to get caught in multiple mortgages and can’t make payments. If my properties are paid of, I could always decrease rent just enough to cover taxes, insurance, and the upkeep.
I hope to never run into that situation, as I buy properties near university, close to my hospital university and close to downtown where the jobs and school are. So there will be young people would want to rent. I can’t predict a recession, but the last one, it didn’t seem to hit the university crowd as hard.
Rental properties are a great way to build wealth, I have a 2-family in the Northeast and looking to buy another one soon, the problem is market is way too hot.
Do you tend to buy properties close to each other or in different locations based on the situation of that market?
Congrats on the duplex, the Northeast especially Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, etc. They are quite expensive. The key to “beat” the “hot” boiling real estate market is patience. You’d still have to hunt for the foreclosures, the short seller, and lots of time investing for the “right” one in good location.
I’d prefer my properties are near each other, within 10 miles radius. All of my siblings buy close to 30 properties within the 10 miles radius in the midwest also. It’s in the city, the school system is 1 out of 10. But the city have great school system either way, AP classes are plentiful. So you can’t just judge a neighborhood based on school system. I grew up in the same neighborhood. I graduated with plenty of college credits.
Property investment is like any investment, it’s my money, so I’d like to go see “my money” LOL 🙂 I’d like to see if my money need to be fix up so it won’t crumbling down. Nothing like a personal touch. I’m lazy, so I don’t want to spend 30 minutes or more traveling to see the properties. 😛
My goal is to save as much money as I can and actually be able to keep it that way for the rest of the year! Been very difficult to save lately.
Nice goals. That is very admirable to give a lot to your family. Always nice to give back if you are able. Would love to get into real estate myself but never took the plunge yet. So it is interesting to follow people like you who have already and have been successful. Good luck in 2020!
S.M.A.R.T goals! I too try to save as much as I can. Unfortunately for someone who works alone with 4 mouths to feed, well you can imagine how it goes. But yes, I will keep on trying. Good luck for this year.
Thank you! I also wish you the best this year and many years to come!
I visited your blog, you’re a frugalist yourself.
I remember telling my co-workers that I don’t ever buy trash bags. And they looked at me as if I was coming from the sky. hehehe I just use walmart shopping bag or other store shopping bag to put my trash. The rest, I have a compose pile in my yard.
A single bread winner household is definitely a challenge. My mom has 10 children, when my family went through a rough patch, my mom was working 14-16 hour/day, I hardly ever see her. I was too little to help, but I wanted to do well academically to make her proud. Maybe you’d inspire you children/sibblings that way!
Cheers!