What is/was your primary income stream when you started, and did you have other investments?

[Ben Kevan]

This question is for those of you that do this as a living, and as a supplemental income.

What is/was your initial primary source of income? And if you've since gone into doing REI as a primary source, how secure did you make your position before switching?

Also, for people that have a primary day job, did you still invest into a companies 401k (past the matching % since you want to make sure you get the free money), or did you take that extra income as take home pay and invest it into your REI ventures?

My position is that I'm currently holding a well paying day job, and want to build my capital to the point where I can become a landlord of at LEAST 1 rental unit. I'll be starting off gaining knowledge of the markets by trying out some Wholesaling to help expedite the creation of the capital for the purchase of a rental unit (really to help build the down payment).

I ask the questions above because I plan on keeping my primary source of income, and do not plan on doing REI full time, but do want to have a nice structure to have a steady revenue stream. Yet, I find myself reluctant to stop my contribution to my 401k (currently doing 11% 401k and 5% ESPP) to help expedite the gathering of capital towards purchasing my first rental unit. I am 28 years old, and currently have about 60k in 401k, so I think I am up to par with my age group.

So my second question is, what do most of you do that hold day jobs as your primary source as income when it comes to capital gaining? Do you keep 401k? ESPP? Or do you use that for using to build capital for your real estate ventures?

Thanks for taking the time to read, and thanks to any answers.

[Joe M.]

I'm not a full time investor but I have a 10 year plan to transition to it being my sole source of income. I'm almost done with year 1!

As to the income question. I'm in sales so my income can fluctuate fairly substanitally from year to year based on how much I sell. Fortunately for me I can "live" off of my base salary and I don't rely on commissions to pay the bills. I've been able to do this by eliminating all my debt except for the mortgage on my primary residence.

I do still invest in my 401(k) and put money away each month in my kids 529 college savings fund. I'm able to do this because I've had a few good years and I've been able to build a decent sized fund for RE investments. However if I were in a position where my choices were to either invest in my 401(k) or invest in real estate, I would most likely not do the 401(k). My company doesn't offer a match on 401(k) dollars so it makes the decision a bit easier.

Before real estate I was investing heavily into the stock market. While I made a few sheckles here and there, the ride was just to much for me. I don't like the fact that one talking head on CNBC can either run a price up or drag it down. I like the control I have over my investments in real estate.