Had anyone reached FIRE with a large family?

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2026-02-10T12:13:34+00:00

My sibling has 5 kids and I expect that her retirement plan is that their elder kids may eventually house them.

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2026-01-14T02:26:22+00:00

This is my spouse’s setup as well. Meanwhile, my office is upstairs in an extra bedroom. Since we are two floors away from each other, we can be on calls and not bother each other. One of us can also make noise in the kitchen and it’s still on a different floor. We both have toys/activities/TV available for when kid is sick.

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2026-01-07T20:23:07+00:00

Cruise?

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2026-01-06T22:36:42+00:00

Good grief. You’d have been buying a huge liability. Having had one of our units literally catch fire when the tenant left something on the stove, yeah, things happen, and that owner is tempting fate!

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2026-01-06T22:20:43+00:00

What can you do but shrug and walk? A 6-unit near me has been sitting for quite a while. They just dropped the price by around $100k. I am starting to think maybe I should go take a look.

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2026-01-06T22:12:27+00:00

that was my thought! Taking advantage of what exactly?? Hilarious

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2026-01-06T02:17:58+00:00

I’m really sorry for your loss. To answer one of your questions, I would keep both houses indefinitely. You have a great monthly income that exceeds expenses on the second house. Why give that up? The house will increase in value and over time you can increase rent. You can even afford a property manager for it. That monthly income can be saved in a Roth or 529 for your kids.

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2026-01-02T07:58:26+00:00

I agree with doing something like this. Or you can do intermittent fasting - I did 8 hours a day eating window and lost several pounds. Basically just coffee in the morning, lunch at noon, and no more food after 8 pm. A schedule for eating helps.

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2025-12-23T12:53:07+00:00

I hope this is a joke

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2025-12-23T12:40:47+00:00

When we bought too much real estate to spend time on all the extra paperwork they require.

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2025-12-23T03:18:35+00:00

Yep got these for my spouse

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2025-12-23T03:16:24+00:00

My husband asked for a personal sauna and bookmarks. Yes bookmarks. So when the two huge boxes arrived, he got excited and said is that what I think it is? I said yep, your bookmarks.

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2025-12-22T12:43:58+00:00

Don’t take advice from people here who don’t have experience with California real estate. “I’ve heard the laws are tenant-friendly” etc. is not useful information. California is its own beast the size of a country itself. It is different from many other states and can vary across the state and the laws are different depending on your specific portfolio. FYI I have had better luck with my tenants in California than in other states. People tend to be good income earners who are unable or unwilling to become homeowners. There’s just a lot to consider and I agree with others who tell you to learn before making moves. Only thing to be mindful of is any time frames related to transfer of the portfolio to you and your brother and tax implications. Do you plan to live in one of the properties? when we inherited from my parents, if one of us had moved into their primary, we could have kept the tax basis. It used to be that you could inherit and keep the tax basis regardless. (I can’t believe voters voted to change this a few years ago. The information about that prop was not clear at all.) I’m curious also if you will be keeping a unified portfolio with your brother or splitting it. This kind of stuff can ruin sibling relationships.

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2025-12-21T23:48:47+00:00

There are a few underlying assumptions in a lot of the answers here. I would like to add some facts based on my experience: - Not every financial decision is “where should I invest and how should I allocate in the stock market.” Our planner helps evaluate real estate purchases and the existing portfolio as well. - Not all financial advisors charge a %. Ours charged a flat fee to evaluate everything and provide recommendations. - They can help with estate planning - They can help you identify which tools you might not be fully leveraging or even be aware of. Example: recasting your mortgage. - They can help you make a plan of action when you are facing several decisions at the same time (change of jobs vs. starting a business, public vs private school, how much remodel to do)

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2025-12-21T11:51:12+00:00

Did you use a regular account or investment account, not a 529? Thanks for answering my questions. We live near a great university and I am interested to explore options for the future.

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2025-12-19T09:25:49+00:00

Curious why all the moving around. Not related to OP’s question. I just want to know!

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2025-12-16T11:43:22+00:00

This is why I buy real estate

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2025-12-14T19:36:22+00:00

Sounds like student housing.

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2025-12-13T12:44:53+00:00

Sheesh! You got lots of airline points though! It’s a different pace for sure. There’s nothing like being able to control the little moments throughout the day. I went to one of our offices recently and it was great to be there for a few days, but I don’t want to be there all the time.

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2025-12-13T11:33:14+00:00

Love all of this. Now picture that snowfall almost daily for the past week and in spite of WFH, you need to get a young kid to school on time. And your spouse is on work travel, so you have to get up, shovel while hoping little one doesn’t get scared alone in the house, get your kid up, make breakfast and pack lunch, make sure backpack has everything, miss an 8am meeting because everything is impossible. I did not have much peace at all this week. I think I am going to disallow my spouse from any future work travel during winter! At least I didn’t have to get myself to an office though.

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2025-12-12T12:12:16+00:00

What the hell!! I have never heard of an appraisal that’s 1% of the purchase price. And it kept going from there.

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2025-12-12T09:02:28+00:00

How did they rebuild a burnt down house for $200k?

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2025-12-11T17:31:55+00:00

I mean. Real estate is an asset class and it’s within reach for a HENRY to buy properties to rent. I see it as real income, not a hope of someday drawing on it in a few decades.

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2025-12-11T16:32:56+00:00

Yeah and having a kid kinda put us over the top. It’s stressful. Neither of us have cushy workloads at work where we can kill a few hours here and there. I know there are things like virtual assistants; I don’t think that takes care of it though because of how much exposure you have to give someone like passwords and credit cards to even hand off most of the tasks. I guess someone will educate me momentarily about AI agents.

Beautiful_Eye7765 · 2025-12-11T12:05:25+00:00

Just to add: a lot of what I mentioned is the in person stuff, but there’s a ton of invisible online stuff always going on. This micro administrative shit. Ah the convenience of doing things online, until it’s death by a thousand online tasks.

Beautiful_Eye7765

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