Our Financial Independence Journey: The Rules of the Game
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Real estate investing over the past 20 years has been one of our primary means of building financial independence. Here’s an introduction to our philosophy, with lots more to come. Read all the posts in Jonathan Cope’s series about Our Financial Independence Journey.
Our daughters enjoy Monopoly.
They cajole aunts, uncles, and grandparents in to playing during the holidays.
Over the years their strategy and gamesmanship have grown increasingly sophisticated.
Deals are made. Calculations are considered. Financing is arranged. Partnerships are struck.
Wheeler dealers, both of them.
The game of course becomes more interesting the more they understand the limits of the rules.
The art of the possible.
The same is true for their parents.
Our real estate investing philosophy
Our dealing is limited largely to real estate investing.
We tend to the dinner, the dishes or the bar during many Monopoly marathons.
But in investing we’ve discovered that appreciating the rules can make the effort fun and, sometimes, meaningful.
Knowing that expenses are deducted from rents before taxes due are determined makes paying bills on rental properties downright palatable.
Knowing that increases in rental property values can be used to buy more properties makes the occasional toilet fix seem low maintenance.
Knowing that offering good families good homes results in good friendships makes the work feel more like a partnership than an exchange.
For us investing in rental property has offered great rewards both in life and in return.
And it is an effort we hope our daughters will appreciate, learn from, and possibly carry on.
We’ll never achieve a monopoly, but maybe together we’ll achieve with our tenants and daughters something more meaningful.
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