As we age and grow our net worth I find myself wanting to be more conservative and shore up our balance sheet some more.

I also will drive around the neighborhood looking for vacancy signs and phone numbers and looking at the types of housing available nearby, condition of the property and approx age.

It's not something we've really pushed heavily though as we kind of like the idea of the re-occuring income that rentals produce and I think we'll really appreciate that income once we reach retirement age and all of the houses are paid off.Kel

the above posts are spot on...it's all about fear...like marc, i was in college, and figured, what the hell...if i lose everything i could always go back to bartending...luckily i haven't had to yet, but i would if i had to..used to meet a lot of cute girls that way :wink: i guess it gets harder as you age, get married, have children and need more financial security..i could live on 500 bucks a month if i had to, so that helped alleviate some fears as well

Hi AllI am looking to diversify my investments, and one area I am considering is RE investing.My situation42yrs age with family, work as finance executive in small company I currently am invested in stock and bond mutual funds - all types foreign, domestic, etc, as well as cash.would like to get 50-75K into another asset class, as my current investments are pretty correlated.

After the GE washer died, I called them and they instructed me to have a GE-certified maintenance guy to look at it ($90 out of our pocket - not covered by the plan), we were told the washer is old and the part that failed is not replaceable since they ain't making them any longer.

I think I should protect myself somehow but I am not sure what the best way is especially since I don't have my own house yet but do have good amount of savings for my age. thanks

Not only if it had beautiful architecture I could admire, but the age of the building, its historical significance if any, the effort to construct it, etc.I am still in the process of absorbing what I can of RE investing knowledge everyday, but I know that I will enjoy seeing my hard work payoff in something tangible and real.

The question for the ages is - how long?

In my opinion you would be opening up a can of worms and costing yourself more by trying to do furnished apts for college age kids who do not have Mom to pick up after them.