The Prequel to My Passive Income Plan
How I am going to keep my ass off the plantation!!!!
It took a lot to get me here. Here is a place where I only eat what I kill when it comes to income. Here is also where every vehicle I own is available to rent on Turo. Lastly, here is where I kill my savings account in order to keep my head above water and fire property managers and cleaners when I receive bad reviews on AirBnB.
Before I was here, I was an engineer for the DoD and later went to business school before I became a consultant for consulting firm. My job was stable, my income was stable and I kept having a feeling that THIS WAS NOT IT. I literally wrote a resignation letter 3 times and submitted two of them. The last catalyst was the COVID lockdown. I ran some numbers and realized that I could replace my consultant income “easily” with real estate. I also realized that I could put more for retirement away if I was a business owner. Once I realized that, I knew I had to jump blindfolded. I found a 4-plex in Dallas and was even pre-approved for $1.5 million. I thought this was going to be a breeeeeeze. This was honestly my first lesson in Entrepreneurship
The deal didn’t go through and I ended up diverting my U-haul pod to storage until I figured life out. Thank God for family because I was able to crash for a couple of weeks down in Houston, TX with my older cousin until I figure my life out. I realized a couple things while I slept on my nephews twin bed:
- A deal ain’t done until it clears final underwriting
- I can’t quit my “job” until I purchase this home
- People are really shady in real estate
- This is gonna be hard
Being in Houston and seeing my stable cousin with his wife, kids, house, and never ending practices made realize that if I wanted this life, I could get it. I don’t want that life. So I gathered my shit and found the cheapest Marriott that I could find and started my search again in Dallas. I ended up finally catching that whale while working remotely, flying back and forth to DC to watch my dad transition out of this realm, and not sleeping. Regardless to all of the ups and downs, 16 days after my dad died, I purchased a $1.24 million duplex in Dallas, TX.
Why did you do all of that Choo? Purpose. There are too many things that are not true that we all blindly believe. My mother and father both went to college and neither retired nor did they see financial independence. So I don’t believe in the narrative that says that all you need to do is go to college and get a “good job” and that’s it. We don’t ever ask what “it” is. It could be save your money, work for 40 years and then if you don’t die before, you can live the rest of your life going on cruises everyday if you choose. Well fuck all of that. I want to buy my way off the plantation by acquiring enough income producing assets that pays for my toll off of the plantation. More importantly, I want to help others do the same. I have not figured all of this out and I am only partially “retired” but I did it with rental income and a dividend growth stock portfolio. You can do it too!
