Magic School Bus

[Dustin DeSmith]

Wasn't sure where to put this so off topic it is.......

"Take Chances, Make Mistakes, Get Messy." Ms Frizzle 

This seems to be the big majority of advice going around when I look to invest, or it's the polar opposite and it's only secure "sure things" take your little bit and be happy.

I'm sure both ways work for individuals given where they are in life and ability to handle risk. But what I'm pondering is what about you poor guys in the middle who can take a calculated risk and even if the s**t hits the fan you can ride it out long enough to break even or get a profit. This is kind of where I sit. I have some capital on hand, access to more if the deal is "perfect" and worth the headache caused by using it, and a credit score that is a lenders wet dream. Given all of this I've decided I might sideline it until the end of Feb "unless a too good to pass up deal falls in my lap" Until then I will keep learning and searching.

Why would anyone choose this? I'm sure many on here will agree with my WHY, when they know it. Simple honestly, My family comes first, my wife is pregnant with our second, we had a bit of a scare one night and she got brought across the hospital to the E.R. "she's a R.N. so being at a hospital was a bonus" Good news ER Dr cleared her for home, we had 2 other Dr's clear her for work, so all is clear but with some issues that are still a mystery even after tests and multiple ultrasounds. She even ordered a Doppler device that shows up today to help monitor the situation. All is well right? Well I've noticed having a pile of $ keeps Murphy away, so if I have to have a Medivac chopper on Main ST podunk and take her anywhere on the planet your F##king right that's what's going to happen.

What does this have to do with my investing strategy, well I set up our finances so we can live off of a 40hr week on one income "I usually work over that but its a good base". The plan was to live off of one and take the other one to invest, so if all of the buy and holds were vacant we could pay the mortgage with that income, so no pressure to take a bad renter or have any concern about missed payments, giving us the ability to screen better and have better less drama, then take the income from when they are rented and pour it and any extra on the one with the smallest mortgage and take that and roll it to the next smallest, rinse and repeat, because a paid for rental will cash flow like a mother and with no risk of foreclosure. After several years the rents alone will buy more properties compounding over time, I know my cash on cash won't look as sexy as being leveraged to my eyeballs but I'll have money and paid for assets. At the same time buy Notes and reinvest all earnings from those back into more Notes along with my leftover money from the first income. Add all that together with my 401k and my other investments I think we should do alright for a Blue Collar worker from western Wisconsin.

Questions, comments, or concerns?  I'm open to discussion as long as it's polite and friendly.

Thanks for taking the time to read and best of luck investing and/or running your real estate business

Cheers, Dustin