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My coworker retired at 55, with a pension, and immediately started buying/refurbishing/renting houses, with a partner - another fellow who'd recently retired. Both had had property-management experience as side-jobs while pursuing their principal careers, and both were more enthused about hands-on activities than about the sort of armchair engineering that's pursued in our regular employment. Now this "retiree" has an apartment-house with ~20 units... and is intensely happy; but also intensely busy.
By my reckoning, the whole point of retirement is to so arrange one's life, that one's time is spent in hobbies and recreational pursuits, and not in labor necessary for securing an additional income. I'd rather delay my formal retirement and accumulate a larger pension, than to retire early, only to immerse myself into what amounts to a second career.
Retiring at 55 is pretty young and with medicine advancing the way it is, he can reasonably expect to live another 40 years. I agree retirement should be spent on things one enjoys, but maybe refurbishing houses and selling them provides him with enjoyment, maybe that is his hobby. Hands on renovating a house isn't my idea of enjoyment, but everyone's different. He's also making a ton of money, but the only downside is if he is just working on his "hobby" all that money is sitting in the bank. He should take trips to see the world once or twice a year, spend some of that money for a good time and help the economy
Nothing wrong with letting your children know the value of hard work and the importance of earning your own things, as opposed to inheriting them from somebody else.
Very true, totally agree. The kids did all wind up buying their own houses, but I could never understand why my grandfather didn't buy a house when he had the chance to. I think maybe he didn't want to deal with the worries of fixing and repairing things when the house needed it - when you have a landlord, all you have to do is pick up the phone and tell him/her that something is broken in the house. That is one of the advantages I see of being a renter.
My coworker retired at 55, with a pension, and immediately started buying/refurbishing/renting houses, with a partner - another fellow who'd recently retired. Both had had property-management experience as side-jobs while pursuing their principal careers, and both were more enthused about hands-on activities than about the sort of armchair engineering that's pursued in our regular employment. Now this "retiree" has an apartment-house with ~20 units... and is intensely happy; but also intensely busy.
By my reckoning, the whole point of retirement is to so arrange one's life, that one's time is spent in hobbies and recreational pursuits, and not in labor necessary for securing an additional income. I'd rather delay my formal retirement and accumulate a larger pension, than to retire early, only to immerse myself into what amounts to a second career.
many of the people i know made the mistake of cashing out early and taking a reduced pension .
they say their job was to much stress , but now they are still not able to retire on that reduced pension so they go out and get another job with low pay and crappy benefits .
now they are low man on the totem pole and are on the radar under some grunt supervisor who makes their life miserable .
they traded a good job with good pay and benefits for a crappy job and just different stresses .
I'm 36, I've never owned a home, and currently renting. Over the past two years I've seriously looked into buying, but the more I think about it I'm having doubts. Here's why
For one, I am not a handyman, (although I clean constantly),. Never have been and probably never will be, (I don't even like mowing grass),. Let's face it though, unless you want to live in a sh*tbox, all property needs work at some point. True, you can hire someone to do it, but it costs more money, (which I understand, nobody works for free),. Second, my son does not live with me, I mostly see him on weekends, and since I work during the week, and I work construction so when the weather is nice I work longer days and often Saturdays doing work around the house would cut into my time with him, and he comes first.
I have a friend that is 40 and still rents an apartment, (he has no kids or wife), and says he has no plans to own a home because he doesn't want the responsibility and would rather email somebody when something needs fixed. I have another friend that is a single dad and he hates being a home owner. Like me he's not a handyman and would rather go back to renting or buy a townhouse.
The only advantage I can see with owning is that once a house is paid off that's money in your pocket every month as opposed to renting where there is never a pay-off.
Tenants could care less about covering your taxes. Some places like California and Long Island property taxes are all over the place.
For instance the two largest homes in Nassau County Long Island in my in-laws town are 5,000 square feet pm similar plots.
One was built 1900 and the other in the year 2000. In 1990 no building dept so hard to tax home as they have no clue what is in home or condition and they base tax also on age of home.
The house built in 1900 which is all renovated by the way inside pays 13K year property tax. The one built in 2000 pays 36,000 property tax. The tenant is not going to pay him an extra $2,000 a month for same size house cause he has high property taxes.
Tenants could care less about covering your taxes. Some places like California and Long Island property taxes are all over the place.
For instance the two largest homes in Nassau County Long Island in my in-laws town are 5,000 square feet pm similar plots.
One was built 1900 and the other in the year 2000. In 1990 no building dept so hard to tax home as they have no clue what is in home or condition and they base tax also on age of home.
The house built in 1900 which is all renovated by the way inside pays 13K year property tax. The one built in 2000 pays 36,000 property tax. The tenant is not going to pay him an extra $2,000 a month for same size house cause he has high property taxes.
On the surface, what you say is true (that tenants couldn't care less about covering taxes) but what ends up happening is all the costs are generally covered by the rents otherwise it ends up off the rental market. Not many people keep a rental when it loses money. People sometimes do, for specific reasons, but not many.
I have rentals in California. If they decide to drop Prop 13 for rentals which will raise the property taxes and the rental market could not support the increases necessary to support the increased costs, I am selling. As simple as that. So, from this point of view, the tenant pays the costs, including property tax. The market may determines prices, but there will be no market if the prices don't support the costs.
here in the tristate area many rentals are far cheaper then buying . the owners are hoping appreciation makes up the short fall .
in fact all our deals have been that way . for many years the rents don't cover expenses , but in the end we sell the property's and reap our profits on the appreciation .
what we still have left are break even rents at this point but once liquidated those co-ops by central park will bring in 7 figures .
Do what you want. I'm always surprised by posts like this that ask "Is there anything wrong with not (insert life choice here)?". If you don't want to buy a house or have a car or go to college or get a dog or get married or have a kid, please don't. Why anyone would base their life choices on what a bunch of strangers recommend on CD baffles me. Do what you want and if that changes, do something else. Simple.
The worst was around 2004-2006 when everyone was pushing me to buy a property and having seen properties increase at a ridiculous rate. I did not want to be house poor so refused to buy. Many that were pushing me to buy were wishing they hadn't by 2008/2009.
Not sure if the OP is getting pressure to buy a place, but I still get it today. The last time I got pressure was right after a few coworkers bought and then the company had layoffs and they were not happy.
I'm 36, I've never owned a home, and currently renting. Over the past two years I've seriously looked into buying, but the more I think about it I'm having doubts. Here's why
For one, I am not a handyman, (although I clean constantly),. Never have been and probably never will be, (I don't even like mowing grass),. Let's face it though, unless you want to live in a sh*tbox, all property needs work at some point. True, you can hire someone to do it, but it costs more money, (which I understand, nobody works for free),. Second, my son does not live with me, I mostly see him on weekends, and since I work during the week, and I work construction so when the weather is nice I work longer days and often Saturdays doing work around the house would cut into my time with him, and he comes first.
I have a friend that is 40 and still rents an apartment, (he has no kids or wife), and says he has no plans to own a home because he doesn't want the responsibility and would rather email somebody when something needs fixed. I have another friend that is a single dad and he hates being a home owner. Like me he's not a handyman and would rather go back to renting or buy a townhouse.
The only advantage I can see with owning is that once a house is paid off that's money in your pocket every month as opposed to renting where there is never a pay-off.
I would appreciate professional opinions. Thanks
Nothing wrong with not being a homeowner. I rented for 5 years and recently bought a home. My renting experience was great and I loved the maintenance free living. I've only been a homeowner for a few months and I've already had to spend money on maintenance issues, and I've also spent a lot on home improvements that I wanted. So yes, it's been very expensive but also fun, and so far I'm enjoying my home more than the rental. I've lived in the same area for a long time and have no plans to move so I felt comfortable buying. Looking forward to the tax breaks!
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