Imagine your life a decade or two from now.
Who are you?
What do you do?
How do you feel?
Now come back to the present moment and ask yourself, what is it that you really want.
If you’re like most people, then you probably have a long list of plans for the future. Children get older and need to go to college. Parents get older and need to be cared for. You might like to take a few vacations and travel around a bit. You’d probably also like to retire someday.
Now, think about your financial situation. Will you be able to make these dreams a reality in time? You might feel a small twinge of panic when thinking about your financial future. We know we’ll need money to live our lives to the fullest, but that seems to be getting harder and harder to accomplish.
“The truth is, countless people just like you are realizing they won’t have the money they need to live the life they want. These people won’t be able to retire. They may not be able to send their children to school and they won’t be able to help their parents when the time comes. One by one, they start removing things from their list of dreams until the only one left is survival. When someone reaches that point, a sudden and unexpected problem can send them over the edge. I know this all too well, as you will soon find out.” — Kathy Fettke
In this article you’ll learn why becoming a real estate investor might be your ideal solution.
If you invest in real estate, you might be able to retire.
People who invest in real estate have an opportunity that many people in America do not….the ability to actually retire. Maybe even early.
Here’s why:
1 – People are outliving their money.
People are living well into their 80s these days, and many people are coming to realize that they don’t actually have enough saved to cover their expenses. “While this may sound like a positive change, it’s creating an interesting problem… People are now outliving their money.”
2 – Cost of Living Is Skyrocketing
Inflation is making your living expenses shoot up massively every year. It’s getting more expensive live each and every day…and this makes it harder for people to even do the most basic things.
3 – No more pension and social security.
Our parents we’re able to retire because they could actually depend on receiving a pension and social security. Unfortunately, we won’t be so lucky. “It was a lot easier to save for retirement when the average worker retired at age 62 and the average life expectancy was 66.”
At the end of the day…People are living longer, which is great. BUT in their current state, pension plans and social security can’t take care of people for that long. The Result: a lot of companies have stopped offering pensions AND you probably can’t count on social security either.
So, now what?
Real Estate Investing > the Stock Market
Many of us have been told that we should set money aside in mutual funds, IRA’s and 401k’s, so that we can grow our retirement savings over time.
The big question: is this really the best way to invest our hard earned money?
So you can better understand the pros and the cons, let’s imagine this scenario: you have $500K lying around, and you want to invest it. You aren’t sure which investment option is best, so you decide to invest half in the stock market, and the other have in the real estate market.
Fast forward 10 years, and check out the following chart to see what happened.
Stock Market Initial Investment – $250,000
You’re must be super lucky, because you find yourself in an ideal situation, where your stock is generating an 8% return per year (Imagine that…). Because it’s doing so well, you hold onto it for 10 years.8% ROI for 10 Years -$312,910
After 10 years, you now have $562,910 sitting in the market…this is a fantastic return! Now, in order to get back to cash, you’ll need to sell your stock.
Total Cash: $562,910
LT Capital Gains Tax on $312,910 (15%): $46,936
Total Cash Returned: $515,973
You ended up making an extra $265,973. This is more than double your initial investment, congrats!
Real Estate Initial Investment – $250,000
You purchased a lovely single family home in a nice Midwestern town, with a projected 8% ROI. You rent out this property for 10 years, and with rent increases you end up getting your estimated 8% ROI every year.Conservative Estimate of Appreciation (2%/yr): $54,749
10 Years of Cash Flow off of 8% ROI: $223,374
Total Cash Returned: $528,123
In this example, your real estate investment has earned you $528,123 which is $12,150 more than you earned in the stock market.
Great job, congrats again!
Based upon this example, it seems like real estate is more profitable than the stock market. This extra chunk of change might be nice, but this isn’t the biggest advantage real estate investors have, compared to stock investors.
The biggest advantage is security. Because the truth is, the stock market is super unpredictable.
If you’re like most of us, you’ve probably heard that the ups and downs of the stock market shouldn’t worry you, because you’re investing in it long term. And it will, of course, go up again before you need to use it. The example above shows how well the stock market can work.
Until it doesn’t….
If you haven’t realized, there’s a real possibility that the stock market might be down when you want to retire. Would you rather take a chance…and potentially end up working an extra one, two, or even five years because the stock market decides to take a nosedive the day before your 65th birthday?….Or do you want to prepare now so that you can retire when you want to?
If the 2nd option is more your style, you need to understand this very important point:
The cost of living is increasing, people are living longer, the stock market is unpredictable, and you can’t count on most employers to provide a retirement income to live on.
“The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit an all-time high in October of 2007, closing at 14,164.43. This would have been a great day to retire and take out all your chips. 18 months later, the Dow dropped to 6,594.44. If you retired then, you’d find only half a nest egg waiting for you when you needed it. You simply can’t continue to use outdated financial advice if you hope to be able to afford 10, 20, or even 30 years of non-income producing years. Don’t you want a financial plan you can depend on?
What if there was a better way? (Hint: Perhaps becoming a RE investor might be better?)
Real estate investors have it better.
The truth: the old methods of saving, relying on company benefits, and trusting the government to keep its promises aren’t working anymore.
We need a new solution— a new investment strategy—if we want to fulfill their dreams.
Have you ever considered becoming a property investor?
Remember that investing in real estate is not a get-rich-quick scheme. I cannot promise that you will become a successful real estate investor in the next month, 6 months, or a year. I will promise: if you commit to getting educated and you apply what you learn, remain dedicated, and stay focused on your goals, you will have the retirement of your dreams.
You can can believe this statement, because at RealWealth, we understand how you feel. We know what you are going through. We know what it’s like to worry about the future because we’ve been there.