I started buying rentals because I hated my "golden handcuffs" of a job and
needed an exit plan. I wanted "Out of the rate race!"
So I bought 5 rentals in about 5 years . . . but I was still in "the rat race"!
Or so I thought!
It was a few years later, when, I had my big A-ha!
I was having dinner with some friends, and having a great time, that is - until a dark storm cloud entered the room. The tone suddenly got serious. Little did I know that I was about to have an lightbulb-moment so big, it would literally shift the financial futures of thousands of people outside my personal orbit.
The thing is, somehow we got to talking about retirement, a topic that should have been exciting! But the sense of anxiety and dread in the room was palpable. My friends (professional & employed, by the way) ended up sharing with me that they were terrified of having to end up having to choose between two life-endings:
1. work for all their living days, or
2. retire with the risk and ever-present fear of running out of money . . . and slipping into poverty.
As I listened to my friends, two sets of feelings stirred inside me. The first was a feeling of deep, but almost guilty, knowing that my wife and I will indeed retire and that we will retire in comfort and with complete financial self-sufficiency once the mortgages from our 5 rental properties are paid off (in less than 15 years) and the cash flow is unharnessed!
I realized in that moment, that our properties were like magical chickens, laying eggs for us every day - versus the approach of saving up a "nest egg" and then wishing, hoping, and praying it's enough to last once we stop working . . . but never really knowing for sure.
This is when it struck me that financial advisors almost NEVER talk about real estate as an essential component of an authentically diversified retirement picture! It got me to wondering why this was the case....
And at the same time, it hit me that 99.9% of the real estate books, programs, classes, and courses out there had it all wrong! Not just wrong, but they were actually selling a lie - a lie that I'd bought into - which was that I could, and should, be buying (or flipping) so many properties that I could quit my job within a couple years, or perhaps even months! But in my experience, and in talking with MANY real estate investors over the years, in the real world, this is simply not realistic, and even if it was, it can be downright dangerous.
So, as I listened to my friends, the second feeling was a growing sense of urgency and responsibility to my friends, and to society at large, to share what I've learned, and encourage and empower others to take charge and take the steps needed to protect their late-life financial prospects and retirement dreams, as well.
At the time, I thought writing a book would be the best way to get the word out. So I decided to write a very unusual book!
My book is NOT about getting rich in real estate and it's NOT about getting out of the rat race... overnight, (even though real estate certainly can and often does serve those purposes, over time).
My book - and my whole mission - is to show people why we need to think beyond the "nest egg" . . . and get a "chicken" (my metaphor for cash-flowing rental property!). And how to do it.
We need to create monthly cash flow for our retirement years, so we don't have to rely on our limited, finite, depletable savings & retirement accounts, which by definition will NOT last forever.
Why? Because there is simply and absolutely no way of knowing how much we'll be able to save (or how much is enough!), how much we'll end up needing, and how much will get shaved off of our savings by an almost unlimited array of factors that are out of our control (more on this in the book!).
Fear is my motivation. And hope too. You see, I am terrified of a future in which the very rich keep getting richer and everyone else ends up living in desperate poverty when they are older.
And the way I see it, unless you take a action NOW, this unfortunate outcome is within the realm of possibility.
And this is where the hope comes in.
I developed the Rental Property Mastery Masterclass Training (which I'm offering at a modest cost) to help you get off the hamster wheel, learn a ton, and take action!
So, with ten easy steps, which I break down for you in the course, (and further broken down into every single micro-step in the Strategic Plan) . . .
You can replace this doom-and-gloom scenario with a bright retirement future of financial safety, comfort, and even complete financial self-sufficiency. Whatever your retirement dreams are, they are still possible with a little extra creativity, courage, and most of all, action.
BUT THE TIME IS NOW. LITERALLY RIGHT NOW. Not in an hour and not tomorrow (you know this as well as I do) . . .
because tomorrow turns into next week, and next week turns into next year... and, just like that, you've added another year to your working life.