Recommendations for newbie with some cash to invest

[Petie Ehm]

Hello BP Community,

I'm planning to move to and invest in the Denver area (long story). Anyway, unlike some, I have some cash to invest - coming from a small inheritance and also from the sale of my current home. Essentially, this will represent most of the cash we have accumulated (outside of retirement plans) during our adult lives. So, yes, probably risky to toss it all into the REI wind. But, we're game.

Since considering this direction, we have come to realize that some start out with little cash and make it. Without defining the amount of cash we have, exactly (let's say it is less than $400K, more than $150K), but with defining our current goal as to supplement upcoming retirement income (somewhere in the meager to modest range) what do folks recommend as a good financial strategy to pursue? Larger downpayment on fewer properties or smaller down payments with greater financing on many more properties? I'd say we'd be hoping to gain from our efforts in the 10-15 year range. Granted there are plenty of other decisions to be made - buy and hold multi-family, single family?, flip? house hacking? etc., etc. 

Thanks for any feedback.

[Frank Houpt]

Hey Pete, Welcome to BP. I am in a similar place that you are. Having some start up capital is great, but I am trying to be as thorough as I can with my research. In my opinion, the worst thing to do would be to jump in without a detailed plan and lose my nest egg. I currently live about 3 hours west of Denver, near Glenwood Springs. I'm struggling with some of the same questions you are. There are so many areas to get into. The best advice I've gotten lately, is to decide on a niche and become a pro. I think it's good to learn a little about different strategies, like buy and hold, flipping, or wholesaling, but I've found it to be overwhelming trying to dig too deep into all of them. So I guess my suggestion would be to try not to focus on too many different strategies, but decide on one that you think will fit your lifestyle and get you closer to your end goals. Good luck and congratulations on moving to an incredible state.