When to give up the 9-5 job?

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Sorry, but IMHO, this "Just Over Broke" is guru BS to entice people to buy their courses. They try to make it sound like there is something shameful to being employed by someone else and that wholesaling, doing short sales, fix and flipping or whatever is somehow "better" than having a job. Here's my view - you're trading one job for another. Really, there are two routes to "quitting your job". One is to have enough investments that the returns give you enough money to live off of. "Enough" is a very personal number. By investments, I mean totally passive - dividends from stocks, coupon payments from bonds, interest from CD's, rental income. Achiving that truly does give you freedom because there's no effort involved in making that money come in. The other route is to be self employed. Guess what - you're still employed and still have a Just Over Broke. In fact, its almost has some big downsides over working for someone else. 1) You're almost always on commissioned sales. Turn the crank and do deals and money comes out. Stop turning and the money stops. 2) You rarely have any benefits. Medical in particular can be a real issue if you're truly self-employeed. 3) You have to make all the decisions. A few bad choices and your toast. A lot of what we're told is "real estate investing" is just being self employed. Wholesaling, fix and flips, property management, developing, doing short sales -- all area JUST JOBS. Getting to the first goal of having the money just come in is the real goal here, IMHO. Its actually the one we're beat into every day by lots of different people. Like the "retirement planner" every brokerage house has on their web site. Swapping you job working for someone else to being self employed is a very different sort of decision. It may well be the right one, and lots of people are very successful with that choice or are much happier or both. But its still a job.

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To answer the OP's question, for me, it is October 1, 2010. I have already given notice. My wife is going to continue to work so we will have benefits. The main reason for all of this is the death of my mother in April. I am really doing too much personal work at my current job and that is not fair to my employer. Trying to oversee 30 rental properties across six states is a full time job, so I am really just changing jobs. Like Jon said, I am trading one job for another, but this time, I am the boss. I am looking forward to it. :D

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It's always a leap of faith at first. Thequestion for me was whether to sell my owner operated businesses and get immersed in real estate full time. I took 6 weeks off, drove around the country visiting old friends, got back home and decided to sell my businesses and concentrate on real estate. That was ten years ago and was the best financial and personal decision I ever made. However, you must realize that you'r e out there without a security blanket, there are no regular Friday paychecks. I personally would not have taken the leap without a financial cushion and lots of experience and expertise in commercial real estate. You probably need experience , knowledge, and analytical ability to be successful as a full time real estate investor. The more capital you have the easier it is - but I have seen people with limited capital successfully launch full time careers as real estate investors.

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It's a very personal question. Some noobs quit their job right after they go to the "Get Rich in Real Estate" seminar and before they have any REI income. Others never quit their job, even with several thousand per month in net REI income. If you like your job, keep doing both,. If you don't like your job, you might consider getting into a more satisfying career that can also provide REI capital. For me, I'd want my RE passive income to exceed my living expenses by a substantial amount before I left the day job. But I like my job, so doing both is satisfying.

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Hey Dennis. I would make sure I know exactly my cost of living, including medical insurance (at least until we get our free insurance from Pres. Barry). Then build a reserve of at least six months of that cost of living number. Make sure you are able to continue to grow your business and cover your cost of living. I certainly haven't gotten there yet, but I'm working on it.

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Jon, I am doing the debt snowball on all of my properties. Once one property gets paid for I take what I was paying on that one and apply it to the next properties principal. My monthly payment amount never changes after each house is paid for. Just takes time to get it done.

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Dennis, maybe you are doing this, but why not hyper-save income from your job to invest in real estate, accelerating the time to critical mass? By hyper-save, I mean save/invest half your income or so. Create such a laser-like focus on your goal that it ensures you will get there reasonably soon.

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http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/62/topics/9622-when-can-i-quit-my-9-5-job- This thread is pretty old but asks the same question might be worth looking at.

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if you are comfortable with the income you are making with your properties or doing real estate investing i think is the time. and or if you start thinking your job is taking a lot of your time -instead of working with your business and making more money your time is occupied with regular job i think it time to call it quits. a few friends of mine quit their job because it was taking up their time when they can be their own boss and making their business successful so it's up to you really to decide with your own situation.

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For me the hard part is I have a good paying job. I don't like the fact that if I want that job it will have to be on 2nd shift. I have many rental properties but they are not all paid for. When they are paid for this game is over.