Is this all worth it?

[Rivy S.]

I currently earn a six figure salary at a pretty non-pressure, but full time, job.  We have 4 small children and would like to have more.  So we've been trying to build our rental portfolio so that I can replace my income and retire, but it's slow going.   

These last couple weeks have been really crazy, selling one house, under contract on one, and starting renovations on a third.  My husband made a comment that really gave me pause.  He said "We're making ourselves totally nuts now, so that when our kids are grown up we won't have to work. "

It's ironic, because of course the whole point in our real estate ventures is to enable me to be more present for our children. But on the way there... it's even harder to be present for our children.  Catch 22.  I'm interested in hearing different perspectives on this.  Any other working moms out there who want to share how they made this work?

[Andrew Johnson]

Rivy S. I can give you the "child" perspective on this one. If you grow up in it you don't know better. You don't know that it's a little odd holding a can of nails while your dad nails up new fencing in the back yard of a rental. You don't know that trashing out a vacant unit is weird. You don't know driving by to pick up rent at 8 pm is a little different. You don't know that your classmates don't time themselves to see how long it takes to change a door lock. And you also hear the endless droning from your parents about how "these will pay for you college". Guess what, they did. Both parents worked full-time and then owned far more than 3 rentals.

My point is that you can choose to spend time away from your kids doing this. You. An also spend time with your kids on your REI adventures. One day I'll run the math on how many open houses I went through as a kid. It's thousands, I know that. Not for nothing, it doesn't hurt that REI becomes the beating "you are going to college" drum on those weekends doing paint touch-up and wondering "what exactly am I scraping off of this stove?"