And so it begins....

It all started January 1 2019.  As most people do, I tend to review how the previous year progressed and what I would like to accomplish in the coming year.  This year was different though, I realized that I am turning 40 this year (4 days ago actually)!  I remember back to the days when I was in my early twenties and my goal at that point was to retire at 40 and travel the world.  When I took inventory of my financials in the beginning of this year I realized that I was so far from that retirement that I was angry, then sad.  I decided that I needed to do something to increase my wealth, specifically my passive income.  So I set my goal to make $30k per month in passive income over the next 10 years.

Hi, my name is Andy Bauman.  I am fairly successful by most people's standards.  I went to college, I have a good job that I enjoy (most of the time) that pays me well, I have a great family with 2 kids and a wife that stays home with them, and we live in a nice house in a safe community.  I've always been frugal and saved a large portion of my income and invested it in the stock market.  Given typical assumptions for retirement investing, I should be able to retire sometime around 70 with the level of income that I think I'd like ($250k a year indexed to inflation).

But I've always wanted more!  I want to have a life where I can go where I want, when I want, with whomever I want.  I want to have a life where I don't have to worry about how much a meal out costs, or how much a personal trainer costs, or how much my vacation costs, or whether or not my stock investments will crash and burn.  With my eyes opened, I started looking around.  I decided that I wanted to get into real estate investing for the following reasons:

1.  Control and options - Investing in real estate comes with a lot of different options (wholesaling, commercial, NNN, multi-family, flipping, development, etc...) and each of these options can provide a level of control that just isn't available in the stock or bond market.

2.  Passive income - Real estate, in many different forms, allows a lot of potential for passive income.  If you have about $4M you can buy some good dividend paying stocks that will pay you a safe 5% - 7% dividend forever ($200k - $280k annually).  But in order to get there you have to invest aggressively and for a long time, which can come with large risks.  In real estate I should be able to get much higher yields through value-add acquisitions that are paid off over time by someone else.

3.  Tax benefits - Given my current W2 income is high, I'm always looking for tax brakes.  Not only will real estate offer distinct tax advantages (depreciation, 1031 exchanges, etc...), owing a real estate business offers even more.

So I made the decision that real estate investing is where my side hustle will be, but where?  Which niche?

In my next blog post I'll discuss the niche that I decided on and my reasons.

P.S.  I hope you like my first blog post!