Advice needed!

[Josiah Charland]

Alright so let me give everyone a little background. I'm 28 years old, I have been working for a large retail company for almost 7 years now. I got married 2 years ago. Me and my wife were able to purchase a property with 2 homes on it. One of them we worked on for about 3 months and moved into it. The other house had major structural fire damage that I am in the process as we speak to get permits to fix. The house was a cash offer me and my wife payed 14k and my father in law spoted us another 14k that we are paying back slowly but there is no rush. I just qualified for a FHA loan of 200k and we are looking for a multifamily. Here's where I need the advice. Me and my wife want to Completly live off of the cash flow from the properties. So far are plan is to move to a place were we will minimally cash flow then rent our current residence. She works a good job that pays good so we were talking about me quiting my job that way I can full time invest and work on the property and she will work the job untell we are making enough for her to quit. What I want to know is what is the best route to quiting your job and making enough to live on. We have no rent, no car payments or other big debts besides the father in law. Anything helpful would be appreciated!

[Lance Johnson]

@Josiah Charland - it sounds like you're already off to a start with the work you're putting in. The real question is how much cash flow do you need to make this happen? If you need $5,000 / mo and you are getting a 10% cash on cash return on your investments, you'll need $600,000 in cash (equity) invested across your various markets. If you can get by on $2,500 a month, you only need $300k in equity.

There is no single "best way" to achieve this. My recommendation is to set a few key, achievable goals and then develop a strategy. Have you looked at the Ultimate Beginners Guide, yet?

http://www.biggerpockets.com/ubg

That will help you get an idea for what's possible.

Determine how much free cash flow you need to replace your income, and then start building out the strategy to achieve it.