Who here pulled the trigger and retired?

[Jack B.]

Why did you decide to retire at that point?

What kind of cash flow did you have?

What kind of equity did you have?

Did you relocate to a lower cost of living area to do it?

Did you move into a house hack situation to retire?

I ask these questions because I'm seriously considering pulling the trigger on retirement. I had planned on working another 5 years, but with a 1.2 million net worth (exclude a couple hundred thousand after transaction costs if I sold) and the corporate world getting worse, not to mention the fact that I wanted to do geographic arbitrage to retire anyways, I'm looking at pulling the trigger sooner.

I've looked at Tampa and Las Vegas, and have visited LV twice in the past few months. It meets all of my criteria and then some for quality of life things important to me. Plus if I cashed out and relocated there I could buy apartment complexes and clear six figures cash flow self managing AND house hacking (live in one of the higher end units).

I'm debating what to do and wanted to see who else has done it, and under what circumstances, the reasons for doing it, especially if earlier than planned.

I could ride out my single family homes to 2+ million for a few more years here in Seattle, and even get it up to 3 with savings from W2 income if I hustle at buying more rentals and keeping my high paying job. 

But, no one is promised another day. I've had life threatening health issues twice in the past 6 years. It seems as long as I take my medication the chances of me dying from my bad genes is reduced drastically, but I wonder will I work another 5 years hustling to get more and more money than I need and then be diagnosed with cancer and given 1 month to live? This happened to someone I know, except she didn't have the money to retire.

Retiring as a millionaire NOW with six figures in cash flow in Las Vegas doesn't sound too bad to me....Of course that's assuming I can find the deals. From what I see so far, they are out there, but tough to get a larger complex, mostly 4 and 7 unit buildings so I'd have to buy a series....

But the point is, I could hustle and get it done this summer, and start a new chapter in my life. Or grind it out for multi millionaire status in Seattle for a few more years THEN retire, if I still have health to enjoy it. I'm in my mid thirties.

[Jerry Shen]

I consider myself retired. I sold a tech company in 2013 and I'm investing the proceeds with @Joel Owens in some commercial real estate deals. Joel's right on the money though with having a purpose. I'm only 34 years old and while I could potentially live pretty well on the rental income for the rest of my life if I invest well, I want to keep building tech companies because it's fun for me.

For me, the goal of retirement isn't not working and playing golf, it's working on what YOU want to work on and eliminating as much BS as possible. Most jobs are 95% BS and 5% actual work. But real work is very gratifying. I plan on living entirely off of the cashflow from my commercial properties so I can afford to do the work that I really want to do, regardless of salary. In my case, it's starting more tech companies with my friends and not having to worry about taking a salary for an extended period of time.

I did move to Denver from the Bay Area because there are similar amenities but far lower cost of living and better work/life balance. I'm investing $2M into commercial real estate, with a goal to generate 10% CoC (200K/yr in cashflow). Goes a long way in Colorado. Other capital is in riskier investments for long term growth (stocks, Bitcoin, etc).