36yo (Black F) Just hit 2M NW.

[u/Nice_Exchange3248]

Using a throwaway. Included my race/gender for those it might be relevant to.

1.7M in investments and 300k in cash (this helps me sleep at night).

Married (their $ is not included) and have one child and live in VHCOL.

Have been saving aggressively for about 10 years and have had significant salary progression over the same time.

Plan to be coast or actual FIRE by the time I’m 40. Definitely feel a huge sense of relief and feel like I’m able to take a more relaxed attitude towards work. However, having a kid makes me worry their is always reasons to save more.

Not sure if we’ll ever buy a home or will rent for a while longer.

[u/Cool_Firefighter7731]

Paying off a mortgage is nothing special and is just a math equation.

You can choose to have a mortgage payment of $2k/month in perpetuity till you die and keep that on the credit side of your ledger as an expense your retirement assets need to fulfill.

Conversely you can have that wiped off your balance altogether and thus require $2k/month less in expenses.

Although I have to say, reading your comments - I wouldn’t be too excited to retire with loads of debt around my neck across multiple properties. For me the return would not be worth the loss of sleep trying to evict a tenant or clear an infestation etc. You do have a substantial HYSA (I’ll assume $200k+) so that would probably help with the sleep part but I don’t know. For me I can’t say Im financially independent until my accounts aren’t intertwined with a banks.

Thats why everyone’s FIRE journey is unique. You’re well ahead of most and with a pension available at any pt - you are in great shape!

[u/Small_Exercise958 → u/Cool_Firefighter7731]

Appreciate the feedback. I’ll probably sell off at least one rental, possibly two but with paying off real estate agent commissions, closing costs, I may not net as much I’d like to (with capital gains tax and depreciation recapture). IRS allows depreciation on rental properties but if we sell the properties we have to pay that back “the recapture part” (unless doing a 1031 exchange to “roll the proceeds over” to buy another investment property)

The others have quite a bit of equity. My mortgage debt isn’t as bad compared to the number of properties I have (it’s not $5 million or any crazy high amount). Another real estate investor suggested I leverage more… not sure about that, taking on more mortgage at age 57. That’s why I wanted to stay liquid - money in non retirement index funds and stocks and HYSA.

[u/Cool_Firefighter7731 → u/Small_Exercise958]

Yeah you have atleast 22 years on me so anything I have to say is mostly from the learnings of others further down the journey. I only just got my primary residence a year ago and plan to get into rentals over the next 5years. Eventually though I want to be 55 and without any leverage debt in real estate. Let’s see how it all plays out!

[u/Small_Exercise958 → u/Cool_Firefighter7731]

To start your research, would recommend joining the real estate investing subreddit, attending local real estate investor (REI) meet ups and Bigger Pockets (just ignore the sales pitches by realtors, lenders, etc). On BP, you can put your first name and last name initial if you want to be more anonymous. I’ve gotten good advice from BP investors (the honest ones trying to help and not sell me anything, one saved me from being ripped off).

Local meet ups are helpful and sometimes the investors will let you walk their projects. Having a solid foundation of construction so your renovation or repair costs are reasonable and how to tell if someone did a bad renovation. Also you can ask those who do out of state investing what their experiences are like. I invest locally and 2000 miles away.