Please help to figure out next move

[Mary Jay]

Hi guys,

I have a question: cant seem to figure out my next move. Or actually how to spend or borrow 40K

1) I am buying now in florida for 200K and it will rent  for 2K, will cash flow 200-300$ per month.

2) Have a rental out of state that is almost paid off, owe on it 6K, worth 80K. I can probably refinance it and get 50K out.

3) In my instate rental probably about 50K equity

4) House I live in has probably about 200K in equity

6) 115K in 401K, can borrow upto 40K

Plans:

1) Was thinking of buying a 4plex out of state that cash flows 1K/month. Have to come up with 50K in downpayment. Where should I get it from? My 401K? Or refi my out of state rental? Or get hard money and then refinance?

2) Was thinking of buying a house close to me, 4bdr/2bath and selling mine and move into the other one. The house below market value about 50K now. It wont cash flow. But if I sell mine and take that 200K in equity and but the other house, I will owe on it about 100K

3) Refi my house and pay off my instate rental completely and move there and be mortgage free? My goal is to get put of rat race ASAP, so may be this is the right choice? My Rental is only 3 bdr, so if my family moves in there it will be a bit tight...But I will have no mortgage on it

4) Buy cheap houses in the middle of nowhere that cash flow 300-400 per month...

Anyway, I am lost and cant figure out what to do.

What I know for sure is I am not sure how long can I handle my job, I cant stand it. So, probably  it makes more sense selling my house and using equity to pay off my instate rental and move into it?

Anyway, what do you guys think?

[Tyler Mullen]

SQUIRREL!

@Mary Jay I empathize totally with your sentiments about your job, you wouldn't believe me if I told you the story of my last one, but you have to hit pause for a minute because you're all over the place.

What I'm hearing you say is that you want to quit your job so you can go do something else/better... in order to do that you need to have other resources and income.  I propose that you focus on one strategy/path of all those you listed, find the repeatable thing that you can turn into a business which will then grow and support you and enable you to quit your other job.

Check out The One Thing, see if that helps.

[Nick Rutkowski]

As my daughter says "Dad, you're waffling!" So many options @Mary Jay, what if you refi your personal home and purchase the 4-plex? 

[Charlie MacPherson]

@Mary Jay I agree with @Tyler Mullen.  It sounds like you are infected with a very expensive disease I call the "hardly waits".

How do I know?  Because I've been there - more times than I care to admit.

The hardly waits will cost you money and you'll make (most often) bad decisions, because your judgment is clouded by your intense dislike of your current situation.  Like I said, I'm speaking from experience.

Give yourself a 30 day cooling off period.  Resign yourself to staying at your job and being the best you can be at it.  Afterward, you'll have a better chance of making clear, rational decisions.

[Mary Jay]

Thank you guys! 

You all are so right!

my brain is just all over the place...All the time!!! 

And its very hard to make decisions!

I think its kind of making more sense now in my head what I want so I will try to be more organized in relating this info to you guys:

in order to retire/do something else, here is what I think I need:

1) live in a paid off house

2) have 6 k in passive income...

Even if I stay in my job, which I probably will for a while, I really dont want to leverage my house to buy investment properties. I dont mind to leverage my house and downsize and buy a primary residence and live mortgage free...

Here is the big question, in order to buy more investment properties what do you think is a smarter way to go:

1) borrow from 401K

2) borrow from equity in a rental

Where would you borrow if you were me?