Lets have some fun with this - 10 Year Plan

[Daniel McDonald]

I know I want to reach FI by 40. Yesterday I turned 30. But the biggest challenge for me is trying to map out my 10 year plan to get there. I would love some ideas/advice. I figured some background info would be important:

-Married, one kid on the way, live just north of Boston so obviously HCOL

-Currently in my second house hack, 2 duplexes in the same town, a ton of equity on the first rental but cash flow is a few hundred 

-Wife and I make about 200k (pre tax) combined and spend about 80, both like our jobs, not looking for an immediate out, she wants to climb the corporate ladder so likely won't seek early FI 

-Only debt is 35k in a heloc (and mortgages of course), but not much cash on hand, been paying off debts the last few years, my retirement account has about 70K

-Shooting for 10k month in cash flow of some sorts before I'd feel comfortable leaving my W2

-Part-time agent (but very new)

-Not one who will ever stop working, but would love to follow passions over paycheck

What would you do to reach FI in 10 years? TIA:) 

[Bill B.]

At least you’re not tied down by irreplaceable income. So hopefully not tied to your location by other means. Find any state without an income tax you like. That will save you $200k MINIMUM in your 10 year plan, hopefully more if it’s not a HCOL location, and the weather will be better unless you choose Alaska. 

If you can continue to house hack that will be huge. If you can’t convince the wife you buy a new primary home every year. Then a year later you move out in to a new primary and rent the old one out. This is the plan I followed starting at 34 years old. It took 5 years to be free and 10 years to be set for life. (I did buy a couple extra rentals during those years as well.) Ps.  this was before bigger pockets, before high speed internet, while knowing nobody that owned 2 homes, much less and rentals.

If you start to have any real success in real estate you could EASiLY save $500k+ in state income tax during that 2- year period. If you find a state with low property taxes, insurance and cost of living, the sky is the limit.