At what point are you over leveraged?

[Lawrence Moore]

Out of curiousity from my previous post (https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/311/topics/34...) 

I figured I should ask this. How many properties do you all own fully compared to leverage/finance? Do you believe you can ever over-leverage? Obviously while you're young it is a good thing to do, but I don't think someone who is 65 should have 30 leveraged properties all on their own. 

Any thoughts? 

[Curtis Bidwell]

@Lawrence Moore Why would you discriminate against folks reaching maturity?! The principles of Leverage work equally for the young and old. The bigger question is how much do you have in reserves to cover yourself should you find yourself in a downturn - which leads to another critical question regarding cash flow.  At 50+ I'm fully leveraged on several properties that have wonderful cash flow. I'm not as leveraged on others that don't cash flow as well. I don't intend to ever pay them off, but rather take the cash to live on and the equity do other things with - expand, buy notes, give to charities, etc.