Planning my next move? Thoughts?

[Chance Cooper]

So I have been at this rental property thing for a while and my plan has changed on a few occasions based on my life with the Military and family things that were going on. When I first started I always wanted to have 1 home paid for free and clear.

I always felt that was my fall back plan in case I somehow lost everything lol. I grew up in a foster home as a kid so I have always had that lingering around in my head..I don't plan on losing it all, but that was my reserve parachute. Here is my current situation:

House 1 paid for: Rents for $975

House 2 Mortgage of 65k: Cash Flows $475

House 3 Mortgage 152k: Cash Flows $305

Child Care Facility Mortgage 352k: Cash Flows $1200 (My wife and I bought this. She runs the facility and pays my Rental Company $1,200 a month because of the money we laid down for it.)

In addition, I add $1,500 of my own money to the pot every month, which is a grand total of $4,455 a month in cash flow every month. I have about $17k on-hand for reserves. 

I don't know if I should take that $4,455 and save up for house #4 or pay down mortgages. I would start with House #2 and just pay down the 65K if I did start paying down mortgages.

I will retire out of the Army in 7 years. My ultimate goal is to cash flow 10k a month between my rental properties and my Military retirement. I figure I can live comfortably off of 120k a year.

What are your thoughts BP?

Chance

[Brian G.]

@Chance Cooper I would reverse engineer. Figure out how many paid off rentals will get you to your cash-flow goal. Then, acquire that many rentals. Finally, use the combined cash-flow to pay off the balances starting with either the lowest balance or the highest interest rate.