Passive income on $600k?

[Ricky Bobby]

35 years old married w/ about $1m in assets. $600k in cash and around $400k in retirement account.

Looking to live the retiree lifestyle soon and looking for passive income.

Currently reside in NC but will probably be moving to FL or TX.

Best way to use the $600k in cash to fund our lifestyle? How much would it bring in? Looking more at commercial properties now. I've never done the landlord thing but would like to start looking at it as we transition away from equities in order to obtain monthly cash flow. At a 5% return in equities that's only around $30k/yr.

Most stuff on this site is geared towards those looking to put minimum down on a SFH. I'm looking more for passive income vs. building equity wealth at this point. Or is that the wrong way to think?

Where should I start looking/who to talk to?

[David Faulkner]

There will be nothing passive about RE investing, at least in the beginning ... it is an active investment. If you want passive investment and you do not yet have the skills or knowledge to do your due diligence (which would only come after some hands on experience in active investing mentioned above), then buy a basket of REITs and/or S&P500 index fund and call it a day ... you could expect 8-10% returns over the long haul and a 4% safe withdrawl rate.

Having mentioned your financial status in an online forum, you are about to get inundated with folks telling you they can do much better than above with less risk if you will just invest your money with them or let them sell you a property that will do way better. Some of them may be legit, most will be snake oil salesmen, but you as a newbie won't necessarily be able to tell the two apart.

Otherwise, if you want to go the active route and build your investment skills, you can certainly do that in either market you mentioned. I'd keep a low profile, though, network with other local RE investors who are succeeding and have nothing to sell you, and learn how they are doing it by finding a way to add value to their operations. I would start slow and build the portfolio only as you find great deals and as your skills build. Perhaps rent for a year to familiarize yourself with the market, then house hack one investment property at a time to get your hands dirty and gain experience, then and only then scale up.

You already have a good amount of capital to work with, but compounding of knowledge and experience is every bit as important in this process as compounding capital. You currently have a good amount of cash and little knowledge or experience, which can be a dangerous place to be ... caveat emptor my friend.