Creating long term cash flow income to sail and travel the world

[Andrew B.]

Hello all!

I'm Andrew, originally from Omaha, NE, currently living in the Denver, CO metro area with my wife. We are in our mid-thirties and I work as a project manager at one of the largest contractors in North America and she is a lawyer for the court of appeals for the state of Colorado for our W-2s. 

My work has had me on the road working 70-90 hour weeks for the last 5 years in places such as Newfoundland, Houston (x2), Maryland, Corpus Christi, and Japan, so it has been difficult finding time to finally start putting my investment strategy together.  

I'm new to real estate investing and currently soaking up all I can from the BP site and forums to help me decide where to focus my energy. I've previously completed a small hard money load to a local multi-family developer for a property that ended up selling the land before developing and then a personally guaranteed business loan to the developer to help them bond a lien situation that resulted in litigation against the contractor for breach of contract.  Both of these deals were short-term (<8 months) and worked out nicely but I'm not sure this is where I want to grow my investments as I don't have sufficient access to capital to scale these types of deals right now. Maybe in the future. I've also looked into investing in a new construction hotel partnership but those appear to be pretty difficult to get out of early if needed.

I have been intrigued by owner-occupied MF since stalking BP along with BRRRR method on the right opportunity. Another area of interest for years for me has been storage/shop garages and self-serve car washes in the commercial space. I think I always understood that income properties were an important piece of wealth-building, but until I started reading BP along with devouring some of the most recommended books, I suppose I never was able to articulate and understand how and why appropriately. This is changing rapidly and I'm getting very motivated to get something moving.

I am concerned about the local market here in Denver as it appears it is topping out a bit and good deals are difficult to come across but would like to try owner-occupied here as our circumstances aren't ideal for us moving at this time. I am not opposed to doing other non-occupied, out-of-state (or city) deals, particularly around areas I am somewhat familiar with including Omaha, NE; Lincoln, NE; most of Colorado, Houston, Washington DC and Maryland, Southern Maine and New Hampshire, and Pittsburgh. We have access to a reasonable amount of capital to get started and have great credit so I'm not concerned with being approved for financing once the right opportunity/ies is/are found.

I am working on the what my goals are right now but my ultimate goal is to create enough income from investments (RE and otherwise) to leave W-2 work in the next 10 years, buy a sailboat, and sail the Carribean, Mediterranean, and eventually the South Pacific and Indian Oceans or, more to my wife's liking, do some slow-travel around the world stopping in places for 2-4 months at our own pace. Ultimately, neither of us plan on working until retirement age and are looking to close the gap financially when we leave our jobs before 50 until we can touch our retirement plans without penalty. Those accounts are well funded and if left for another 30 years, should allow for a comfortable level of income.

My travel will be slowing down come November and I'm looking forward to getting to some meetups and other events to start building a network and learning from those who are already successful in these fields. 

See you all in the forums and some in person!

Andrew