New Investor Introduction

[Joe Garretson]

Hello, long time listener, first time caller.  I'm going to way overshare as it feels necessary and hopefully will provide plenty of context for my mission ahead.

I'm a mid 40's guy south of Denver with an amazing family.  Totally cliche but I have the best wife there ever was and two kids (12yr old son, 11yr old daughter) who are beyond fantastic. I work in program management and have led an amazing 20yr career doing work I actually enjoy.  

Now onto the fun stuff. I suck at managing my money.  Or I should say, up until three years ago, I was brutal at managing my family's finances.  From trying to buy a car in my early 20's with a credit score of 467 to racking up $60k in credit card debt in early 2018, I've made every wrong move.  It's cost me deep into six figures over 20 years.  In March of 2018, it nearly cost me my marriage.  

Since that point in 2018, through much work individually, with my wife and the help of counseling, we are now moving toward a brighter future.  Relationships have been mended and are stronger than ever, trust has been rebuilt and we are controlling our finances instead of the other way around. We're now moving towards our medium term future and planning out our real estate investing path.  We haven't bought our first property yet but we're on a path to purchase our first buy and hold property no later than my 50th birthday (1703 days from today). Our mission is buy and hold and cash flow with the goal to replace our income to not have to work any longer. While we've been south of Denver for nearly 10 years now, we're planning to start investing in the Green Bay, WI area given a surplus of family there and reasonable real estate prices.  When our kids graduate high school, my wife and I are going mobile and plan to travel/work and chase the sun.  This is going to be accomplished through mailbox money.  

I've been binging on the BP podcasts and reading every book I can get my hands on.  I can't wait to engage more here in the forums as I get my feet under me.  Thanks for reading!

[Jeff White]

@Joe Garretson Congrats on taking the first step to recognizing your end goals and finances!  Those are two big steps!

Have you thought about buying a primary home in Castle Rock, especially since you want to wait till your kids graduate high school to travel with your wife?  That gives you plenty of time, and there are so many low down payment loan options right now, it is a fantastic time to buy, especially during the winter months when less people move. 

Nothing wrong with buying out of state, but I like buying in your backyard, especially if you don't own a primary residence yet.  

Long-term cash flow won't be as good as Green Bay, but if you plan on holding it for the next 7-10 years (or until both kids graduate), you will be happy that you did because you will still get nice appreciation over that time (Denver metro areas 6% per year over the last 40 years).