You Quit Your W-2 Job. How Do You Pay Yourself?

[Michael Glaser]

My goal is to be 100% done with my W-2 job in 5 years through REI and move from LA to Colorado. If I can do it sooner than all the better.

I hear on the podcasts so-and-so quit their job and now are doing this full time. They have a SFH that they sold into a 4-plex that they sold into a 12-unit and syndicated into an XYX, so on and so forth. When I think of doing that my heart sinks and I immediately think of "How do they pay themselves?", moreover, "What do they pay themselves?" If your money is always in flux how do you decide your income?

I'd be interested to hear from former W-2 people that have made the transition to 100% REI. If you're solely relying on rental income or are you refinancing and taking a cut of that for your own household, cars, bills, vacation, investments, etc as you continue to reinvest.

Mainly the mechanics of how you decide what you pay yourself. CPA's please chime in!

[Manolo D.]

Michael Glaser Didn’t have a W2, nor in REI rentals, but I cut myself a check and part of the monthly expenses / overhead on the company. You want to pay yourself the minimum living expenses that you are comfortable, plus a thousand or two just to boost self confidence. Then when your networth rises 50-100k, take off 5-10% of the rise and tap yourself on the back. Remember it’s networth. Yes people in podcast like to brag about that 1x to 4x to 12x to 100x, but they never mentioned what their networth when they did that. to me that’s important, if i have a net worth of 200k 2 units vs the guy having 300 unit apartment bldg and 100k networth, i think im better off when market dips.