Realistic Timeframe to Quit your Job

[Mark Douglas]

I'm 23, with a decent 9-5 job.  I bought one duplex six months ago, and am looking to purchase a 4plex as my next buy/hold investment.  I'll need one more 4plex after this to cover my living expenses with the combined cash flow.

My question is two-fold:

1) How long did it take you to quit your job, or scale back the hours significantly?

2) Did you reinvest the cash flow into the property, or use it to live off of?

[Michael Seeker]

@Mark Douglas - I started out around the same age and had aspirations to quit my day job as soon as possible.  I was making about $50K at the time and it took me about 3-4 years to reach a consistent level of net rental income that matched that.

At that point, I had the freedom to be much more vocal about what I wanted out of my day job (mainly higher pay, more visibility and a high degree of flexibility).  At that point I decided that if I wanted to keep investing and growing my portfolio (as well as diversify my knowledge/experience) then keeping my day job was integral.

Since I still have a day job, I don't use the rental income for personal use at all and actually regularly contribute more funds to the business.

If you quit your job as soon as you can afford to, you'll have a very hard time growing any further.  Banks will not want to lend to you with no W-2 income and just enough rental income to cover your expenses.  You'll have a hard time building up enough cash to have a down payment for a purchase and you'll probably be very bored if you don't have something besides your couple rentals to occupy your time.

Just some things to consider