All Forum Posts by: Daniel McNulty

Stephen - Risk is in the eye of the beholder. First, I would mention that there are guidelines setup for qualifying for those distributions. Granted they are relatively liberal, including being quarantined, being furloughed, being unable to work due to lack of child care, owning a business that is closed or under reduced hours and frankly any other reason the IRS decides it is ok. If you fall somewhere in that spectrum, then its certainly an option to consider if you could use the cash flow.

However, if your sole intention is to pull out cash to make a short term investment, I would certainly advise you to use caution. Three years may or may not be sufficient for your investment thesis to play out. More importantly, IRS taxes and penalties are nothing to joke about. 

You may instead consider some version of a self-directed IRA if you wish to use your retirement assets to fund some kind of real estate endeavor. This would be within the normal confines of the law, and would at least reduced any of the above mentioned risks.

All things considered, its a rather complicated conversation to have via a public forum.

If you would like additional help, feel free to PM me.

Michael - Many people have ample time and abilities to be successful investors on their own. 

When it comes to plain vanilla stock picking, day in and day out, many wealth advisors will not add a ton of value. We are often paid to be more conservative, than gamble away our clients wealth on any big bet. 

True financial planners and advisors will discuss more than just stocks, adding holistic planning for your family, estate planning, tax planning, debt management, philanthropic endeavors. The excellent ones will be equally versed in alternative investments such as real estate and private debt strategies. All of this is to say, if you are paying someone to simply pick stocks for you, it may not be worth it. If you are paying someone for holistic advice, it sounds like you may not be getting what you bargained for.

Admittedly, I am a little biased, being from the industry myself.

I hope this helps. Feel free to PM me if I can be of any help.

Hi john,

It depends. Depending on the market you are looking at and the Strategy you are using. It would also depend on the type of financing you use. You should read Brandon Turners book on rental property investing first and it will give you all the tools you need to get started. In the Midwest that is plenty, but again it all depends on what you want.

I agree.  Helocs are flexible and if they are large enough can have a number of other benefits such as the potential to provide additional reserves or provide cash for improvements. The underwriting for a Heloc and the amount available will depend on the lender. As most people on BP recommend, I’d ask for referrals for local credit unions from other BP members in your area. They generally provide better rates and higher LTVs.

Brandon Turners book Rental Property Investing was great. I listened to it as an audiobook for convenience. Also keep listening to the podcasts, the more you listen the more you will understand. Stay persistent.

Gerald - Dan Campbell is completely right. I would highly recommend listening to as many BP podcasts as you can and picking up Brandon Turners book on Rental Property Investing. I have found both to be a cheap and informative way to educate yourself.