DEBT FREE! Now What?

[Mike Paisley]

Good Morning BP community,

My name is Mike and this marks my first post on the forums after being an active podcast listener and forum reader. 

Here is some background info and then I'll get straight to the point:

I am 28 years old and worked hard to pay off over $75,000 of student loan, auto, and credit card debt over the past three years and am now DEBT FREE. I have no dependents, am currently renting, and have a stable 9-5 and a side hustle in the evenings. 

I worked hard on getting my expenses as low as possible (without house hacking) and generate roughly $3,000/mo. on top of my expenses. 

I have built up $10,000 of emergency savings and take the company match for the offered 401k plan. My goal is to be financially independent by the age 35.

My question is what to do with my surplus of income to reach my goal?

Thank you for your time and ideas!

[Randy Bloch]

Congratulations on setting yourself up for success. I would start by defining what financial independence means for you.  How much reoccurring income do you need at 35yo to consider yourself financially independent.  Will you continue your side hustles after 35? Need to consider health insurance, wife and kids?  Then I would model out in excel how much you will have at 35yo with saving 3k per month + 401k and match. Maybe ~500k net worth with some appreciation.  I would then build plan Of actions to close the gap between the excel model and what you defined as financial independence.  Start layering those actions into your model until your model equals your FI #.  Then execute your plan of actions.   The plan of actions could include lots of things:

Househack

Brrrrr

Buy and hold

Stock market investing

REITs

Syndication 

Turnkey out of state rentals

Short term rental

Peer to peer lending

Other side hustles??

Depending on the plan you decide you might want to engage a Certified financial planner and REI team (agent, mortgage broker, CPA, contractor, handymen). Your strategy might be very dependent on where you are located as cash flow REI are not feasible in some areas. I would definitely consider staring with the househack and increasing that $3k of monthly savings.