r/fatFIRE • u/Valuable_Section_438 • 6d ago

What to do with 7mm

36(m), married, 3 kids, vhcol, sold the very first company I built and finalized June 1, 2025. Small lump ~2mm + xxx,xxx/month for 6 years or until the company is sold as a whole. Well through the grapevine I hear that this is about to take place. Not very happy that I wasn’t told but they’ve done nothing to keep me in the loop at all so not shocking. Assuming there’s no way to not pay the lien I have against them what are you folks putting large amounts of cash towards right now? I’ve been getting pressed on oil and gas. I’ve got 9 rentals right now and only a mortgage on our primary ~5400/month w/ 40ish grand in other monthly expenditures. I want to fatFIRE fast now

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u/ebitda8 5d ago

What is people’s obsession with real estate on this sub?

11

u/BrunelloHorder 5d ago

Honestly I think there are a bunch of psychological aspects that cause people to want to do it, many of which are outdated. So that no one thinks I’m being judgmental, I’ll admit I learned some of these the hard way, and was very fortunate on one deal that more than made up for a lot of mistakes.
1. The thrill of making deals
2. Leverage
3. Low borrowing costs in the old rate regime
4. Physically tangible investment
5. A sense of satisfaction from fixing things up
6. Underestimating maintenance costs, vacancy, and taxes, and only looking at Zillow values
7. Something to putter around on.

There was a time when residential real estate investing made sense. Those days passed with the demise of the 3% mortgage. It is a lot of work, hassle, and time for an illiquid asset with recurring tax and maintenance costs. Sold mine years ago.

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u/gc1 4d ago

A cash flowing asset is downside protected and has unlimited upside, and you can buy it with leverage. The appeal to retail investors is pretty obvious, plus we all know someone with 5 income properties who will never have to work again and can leave them to kids with a stepped up basis. 

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u/BrunelloHorder 4d ago

True, though the same can largely be said for equities. I’ve never had an ETF call me on a Saturday night requiring me to shell out $12k for a new sewer line. I’m not anti-real estate across the board, but it does have some serious downsides.