The Road to Financial Independence (aka rising from the ashes)

[StealthParticipant 5335]

When I lost my life savings in my divorce and lost my job at the same time, I “got the opportunity” to start over again. That’s total s~~~. What really happened was that I panicked.

I began putting what I had left in what looked like smart investments, then proceeded to lose most of the amounts I invested. This reminded me I wasn’t that smart after all. I was aware I was grasping at half-baked notions of financial savviness floating around my head. Stocks? Real estate? Rolls of cash stored under my mattress? Gold, guns, and ammo? I had a little bit of knowledge of each, which was turning out to be a dangerous thing.

SO I decided to research for myself how people ACTUALLY attain financial independence. With a thick cloud of investment theories and slick, sponsored financial gurus around me, I determined that the only real way to find out HOW to do it was to ask someone who has ACTUALLY done it. Problem was, I didn’t know of anyone who had openly actually done it. So to the internet I turned.

I discovered F.I.R.E. blogs (Financial Independence / Early Retirement), where self-made millionaires & folks on their way openly talk about how they’ve made it. They all basically said the same thing: live frugally, work and put your money into total market index funds over a long period, and in a few decades (20-40 years), your money will have multiplied a few times over, and you will be wealthy.

The site I started at is rootofgood.com. (No, I am not affiliated with that site.) It’s a glimpse into the lifestyle, spending habits, and portfolio of a young guy who made it to financial independence at 33.

I next read “The Boglehead’s Guide to Investing,” which spelled out the Vanguard philosophy of investing in plain English, and corrected many wrong assumptions I had about saving and investing. There’s another one out there — something like, “The only investment book you’ll ever need,” which has the same message and I glanced at it once and it looked equally good. Also there is a forum at bogleheads.org.

With some discipline, I have started going this route. Since first learning about it, I’ve learned that this approach is used by many, if not most, investors. Only time will tell if I, too, will become a millionaire by continuing to work my ass off and going the index-fund way, but so far I am better off than I would be without.

"Once you’ve taken care of the basics, there’s very little in this world for which your life is worth deferring." -David Hansson. "It’s not when women are mean or nasty that anything is out of the ordinary. It’s when they are NICE to you that you have to be on high alert..." -Jackinov.

[DarkRyuParticipant 2354]

There’s so much risk and almost no reward in stocks and other BS investments. The only real place to put your money these days is in real estate. Just make sure you don’t buy in areas where the housing market is crazy overpriced and you can make at least a few hundred a month over your mortgage in rent and you’ll be good to go.

But investing in real estate is for those that already have some money. Even if you can buy good houses for relatively cheap, saving up 20% down on a $200k house takes time. I own one house and just bought 4 more. Now I’m raking in an extra $2,500/month in profit over what the mortgage costs me. I plan to buy as many properties as I can and pay them off as quickly as I can. I’m hoping to have about $10 million in real estate totally paid off within 15 years. By then I won’t have to work anymore, making about $600k/year and I’ll only be 40.

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