Critique my fastlane plan

[Daedalus]

Hi! I was just laid off from my job in the oil industry and am going to use this as an opportunity to get my fastlane where I want it to be. The job was eating 18+ hours a day of my time and made it difficult to do anything else. I look at it as a positive! I will have a year of $2k/month severance pay coming in. This is more than I need to live, since I went into hardcore monk mode, sold my house and live in a paid off RV. I have very little personal overhead and no wife or kids, so this is the time to CRUSH it.

I am making $5k a month net on average ($12000 rent roll) from my rental real estate. I really like this model although it is not as fast as some others. With my limited skillset and passion for the business, I think this is the surest path to success. I would like to double this to $10k a month, at which point a partner and I could travel the world indefinitely or settle down somewhere and live a great life without working if we didn't want to.

Additionally I would like to leverage my knowledge of Internet marketing to start an amazon business. I made my own private label product with a 50% profit margin and this is launching next month. It's terrifying putting $4k in startup costs on a credit card when you have no job, but I can handle it. Real estate is my "slow and steady" fastlane and amazon will be my "try to job a home run" fastlane.

Now like I said I have $2k a month of severance for a year. $5k real estate income. I am also participating in medical research studies (I hope to only do this for the short term) that will yield an additional $2k per month with lots of freedom and free time. I'm also doing some remote "job" projects for people who have already built their fastlane for free, with the hopes that it will take off and I will profit while adding value for them.

With this strategy I am thinking I really don't need a traditional job again. Even in months where I take a vacation to Mexico I don't spend more than $2k total. I mainly get anxious about not generating enough to buy more real estate in a timely manner. Do you think trying to score a $100k a year stressful job would be beneficial or harmful to my plan? I am thinking the latter, but this is new territory for me. I'm enjoying my new freedom.

Overall, what do you think of my plan? Is there anything I shouldn't be doing, should be doing, or could do better? I have a masters degree and could go back to a job, but honestly it is more exciting being a part time lab rat (60 days a year) and pursuing a dream. I just don't want to end up as a broke loser at 40 (I'm 29).

 

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[All In]

From what I see, you're answering your own questions.

Do you think trying to score a $100k a year stressful job would be beneficial or harmful to my plan? I am thinking the latter, but this is new territory for me.

Careful with "but". Trust yourself.

I'm enjoying my new freedom.

I have $2k a month of severance for a year. $5k real estate income.

I have very little personal overhead and no wife or kids

Other than mitigating your overhead (the 4k on a credit card, is that a one time thing?) it sounds like you're FREE.

I just don't want to end up as a broke loser at 40 (I'm 29).

Seems like an unhelpful thought to me.

I am also participating in medical research studies (I hope to only do this for the short term)

Is this truly necessary?


Your position sounds great to get stuff done. Good luck!

 

[BigBrianC]

Why not just keep expanding in real estate and increase the velocity it's bringing you money?

Sounds like you've got some great opportunities in front of you though!

 

[pgtownsyou]

7k a month with very minimal bills sounds like a great position to be in if you ask me! Not sure why you're throwing the medical studies in there.

If you're stick of living in an RV, there is a thread or two on here that talks about buying some sort of duplex or quadplex, living in it, and renting the rest out so that it pays the mortgage. Not that you need to read a thread to know how to do this, but it might be an option you hadn't yet considered!

As a side note - were you working in North Dakota? I used to travel out that way a lot to work on the pipelines. How hard on the new oil prices hitting everyone out there?

 

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[Daedalus]

Yes it is a one time thing and will hopefully return 6k once my inventory sells out.

I like your comment about "but." Language is powerful. I struggle with self doubt at times.

I also like your comment about the broke at 40 thought not being helpful. But it is scary at times when I see friends making six figs in corporate gigs while I do crazy things like the above with the belief that I will eventually outdo them thanks to exponential growth. Not that I'm a keeping up with the Joneses type, but nobody wants to hang with a broke guy, especially attractive women.

 

[Daedalus]

Brian, that is the goal. But I need 15k for every new property I buy. I would feel really good if I could get one every two months. Each property will ultra-conservatively net me $400/mo. So as you can see that could take awhile to get to 10k/month from my current 5k. It's definitely doable, I just worry that something will happen in the meantime to cause everything to implode if I am solely relying on real estate income

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but here's the way I look at it:

$5k real estate income + $2k severance = $7k a month. $7k x 12 months = $84k income.

At a 20% effective tax rate: $84k x .25 = $16.8k.

Unless you need to stay home to launch your business, and do the other things you want, you essentially have $16,800 to travel the world (that amount coming from what you'd save from tax deductions). Consider going to Asia, South America, or Europe, and launching your Amazon business from there. You essentially get to upgrade your lifestyle for free, live like a king (in the right country), and get an experience while you're still young -- in my opinion, that beats living in an RV.

 

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[themaxx]

I am also participating in medical research studies (I hope to only do this for the short term) that will yield an additional $2k per month with lots of freedom and free time.

+1 on the is this medical research stuff necessary. It's great if you get the placebo, but I was told that a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend doesn't remember a year of his life after a medical experiment.

 

[mayana]

I agree 100% about the medical research. I don't know what it is all about in your case, but it seems like it could do more harm than good in the long run.

Otherwise, I LOVE your plan, and I think you are in a perfect position to get where you want to go.

Keep up the good work You didn't need us to tell you anything lol!

 

[Daedalus]

Thanks guys, it gives me a ton of additional confidence since people who have already left the rat race like the plan.

Medical research does make me nervous but I will do it until I can replace the $2000/mo in income with real estate. That should take about 5 properties, so I will need 50-75k in cold hard cash, which should take about a year.

I like the post about going international. My main goal in life is to travel the world. Instead of doing that now, I could move to Bangkok for a year or two while my stuff grows and then hop around the rest of the world. I wouldn't want to travel extensively right now because it would interfere with running this operation. I'm a bit confused on taxes though, since I think the foreign earned income exclusion only applies to income earned from a job in a foreign country, not from real estate income (through an llc) based in the US. Maybe the amazon income would qualify? I'll have to look into this.

 

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[miked_d]

Congratulations on being laid-off. You busted your a$$ for several years and you have something to show for it (rental income). This income already puts you ahead of many others (including myself). You kept your cost of living low and now have passive income. Continue building your empire!

The Amazon business can be profitable. Don't forget to keep adding sales channels (eBay, Etsy, etc) so that Amazon does not control you.

Don't worry about those making 6 figures. Think of it like this - you clear $60,000/yr for tending over rentals. How much time does that take? A few hrs a week? You are already ahead of them

Medical trials appear to me to be an unnecessary health risk.

 

[EN_VY]

You're in a pretty good position if you ask me.. Time to go hard!! I'd stay away from medical research though. Good luck!

 

[Daedalus]

Here's another idea I had to really speed things up...

After severance runs out, attend a ~$10k coding bootcamp to become a web developer. I would try to work remotely from the get go, but it's more likely I would have to come into an office for about a year and then go remote. But a remote $80k+ job would make me absolutely stinking rich in short order. The only way I can tolerate a job again is if it's remote...I can't tolerate living in the crappy cities I've put up with for the rest of my life. My life is over 1/3 over, probably, and the quality has suffered tremendously due to location.

Has anyone attended one of these bootcamps or have any advice? I'm talking with a few that say some of their grads got remote gigs or negotiated it within a few months. I don't even care about the pay as long as it's over 40k...the location independence is crucial and the extra income would supercharge my growth.

 

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[Demonmt]

Here's another idea I had to really speed things up...

After severance runs out, attend a ~$10k coding bootcamp to become a web developer. I would try to work remotely from the get go, but it's more likely I would have to come into an office for about a year and then go remote. But a remote $80k+ job would make me absolutely stinking rich in short order. The only way I can tolerate a job again is if it's remote...I can't tolerate living in the crappy cities I've put up with for the rest of my life. My life is over 1/3 over, probably, and the quality has suffered tremendously due to location.

Has anyone attended one of these bootcamps or have any advice? I'm talking with a few that say some of their grads got remote gigs or negotiated it within a few months. I don't even care about the pay as long as it's over 40k...the location independence is crucial and the extra income would supercharge my growth.

Why are you still thinking Slowlane? You've escaped the rat race....

Why don't you expand your real estate investing? You don't need to make the upfront cash yourself: use OPM (other people's money). You have a proven track record of success! PM me if you want help.

 

[Ninjakid]

I guess you're a fan of StackOverFlow?

After severance runs out, attend a ~$10k coding bootcamp to become a web developer.

Nah dude, don't spend $10K to learn something that you can learn for free by using the mystical power of Google.

 

[zerobrainwash]

Just wanted to chip in as someone currently working as a web developer. It cost me ~$500 to become a fairly competent developer. The costs were mostly books and tutorial sites. All the information you need is indeed online and if you are motivated enough, you will find your way through. Also, I can give you some guidance ( recommend best tutorial sites, books ) depending on what kind of projects, technologies interest you the most.

The advantage of coding boot camps is that they will undoubtedly teach you quicker than if you were trying to do it yourself. The good ones are also up to speed to best development practices and tools. By doing your own research online you can easily pick up bad practices from bad tutorials, or even more likely, get so deep in the rabbit hole you won't find your way out. It's really hard to choose what language to learn, what editor to use, etc. when you are starting to out. So the path you should choose really depends on which one you value more, time or money.

I can say though that learning how to code is nice but it's just one among many other skills that are needed in building an online business. SEO or copywriting are just as valuable and will also give you jobs. So coding is not the only way to find remote work.

 

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