How to Retire Early With Real Estate by Chad Carson – Sneak Peek

Escape the 9-to-5 Grind and Do What Matters

Guest post from Coach Carson!… no. Refined by FIRE book review of How to Retire Early with Real Estate!? I love your enthusiasm but Chad Carson‘s new book does not drop until 8/23/2018, rest assured a book review post is coming soon. Ok already, enough about what this article is not, what is this post about already?

I do have a pre-release sneak peek of the content coming in Chad Carson‘s new book How to Retire Early with Real Estate by Coach Carson So take heart and read on. That is, if you have not already spilled coffee on yourself🙄. Seriously, learn to sip that coffee slooowlyyyy.

Who is Coach Carson?

For those inFIdels that don’t know, Chad Carson is a 38-year-old financially independent real estate investor, blogger, author, and entrepreneur. Currently, he is holding 90 properties with his business partner. He has been featured on Business Insider, Rockstar Finance, Mad Fientist, Bigger Pockets, several podcasts and more. He recently returned from 17 months in Ecuador with his wife and two young daughters. He is a graduate of Clemson where he played football for the Tigers but instead of getting on the 9-to-5 hamster wheel for the man, he chose a different path. Does that sound like an intro you wish you had for yourself? Well grab an ice pack and chill…he is called coach for a reason.

Inside the Huddle with Coach Carson

Last night I had the pleasure of meeting coach Carson for the first time and I made sure to get his take on some questions I hope help you all. So, take a knee and get ready for a free coaching session with Coach Carson.

I traveled to a real estate meeting where Coach Carson was speaking on… yup, you guessed it… How to Retire Early with Real Estate. Coach kicked off with five questions on how to escape the 9-to-5 grind and #DoWhatMatters. What are these five questions? I thought you might ask, so I brought my pen and playbook.

Five Questions to Escape the 9-5 and Do What Matters

#1 Your Why

Why is reclaiming your time valuable to you? What is the reason you are perusing FI? Why do you want to be financially independent? Coach asked, “If money where not an issue, what would you do differently?” He collected answers from the over 800 people he interviewed for the book. Do any of these make your personal why list?

• Raise my own kids
• Quit my day job
• Travel
• Pick-up basketball in the middle of the day
• Exercise
• Eat healthy
• Learn another language
  
  

#2 FI Number

How much income would you need to consider yourself financially independent? First, what is your bare basics expenses to meet your physical needs. Leave your boat out of this one. Second, what is your cushion number (what I might call fat FI #) where you have all the comforts and amenities that make you smile thinking about them. I know you are thinking about them right now anyways. OK, go ahead add the boat back in.

#3 Wealth Goal

This one will be personal; how much hustle are you willing to trade for dollars? Would you rather have the time with your family or have matching his & hers jet skis? Chad shows restraint in his own portfolio buy paying down properties and limiting his portfolio rather than growing it to the four corners of the earth. He cautioned us with a simple sentence “find what is enough for you.” He drove the point home with this line “How well are the assets that I have, translating to doing the things mentioned in my why?”  he reminded us that real estate is a tool not the goal. If you are trading more hours for dollars at this stage and not the things on your list it might be time for a mini-retirement to think about you cushion number again.

#4 Wealth Stage

Chad Illustrated the five wealth stages as a mountain climb.

1. Survival – enough income to meet your basic needs. – paycheck to paycheck
2. Stability – comfortably cover your expenses.
3. Saver – able to cover your expenses and stash some cash.
4. Growth – starting to see the savings accumulate and assets produce income.
5. Withdrawal – living off the assets.

#5 Plan

Starter Strategies

1. House hack – the live in with roommates to offset housing expenses and in some cases even make a profit.
2. Live-in-then Rent – under current law if you live in a house for 2 of the last 5 years the property qualifies for homeowner (not investor) tax rates.
3. Live-in Flip – Live in, repair, get a better tax rate then sell for profit.
4. BRRRR – Buy Rehab Rent Refinance and Repeat. This keeps the same cash pile moving forward to pick up new leveraged properties.
   
   

Core Plans: Growth & Withdrawal

1. Debt snowball – yup, Dave Ramsey style only paying off a portfolio of houses not credit cards.
2. All-Cash – the save up before you buy each property in cash plan.
3. Buy and hold – well… you see… technically… this is where you buy property and then you hold it. Seriously, that is it, unless you don’t realize you collect rent while you hold it.
4. Trade up (1031 exchange) – trade for bigger, better and higher rent properties tax differed thanks to the US tax code via a 1031 exchange.

Pro Tip – Ask Coach Carson:

Q: Suppose a man saves & invests in the following way?

1. Meet companies 401k match.
2. HSA, DCFSA & other tax-advantaged accounts to cover annual expenses.
3. Max out IRA contribution.
4. Return to 401k to max out contribution.
5. Return to HSA & other tax-advantaged to max out those accounts.
6. Stash the post-tax savings in a brokerage as a holding account for real-estate investment deals.
   

Is that a good game plan coach?

A: “Do both if you can, max out contributions to tax differed accounts and save for investment properties.”

Q: OK Coach 🙄 let’s suppose the X’s and O’s don’t line up? Suppose you have limited resources and have already asked your boss for twice as much money for the same old work?

A: “Then generally, I recommend prioritizing the real estate investment funding above maxing out the 401k account. You can spend income from real estate investments early and easily [without back doors, Roth conversion ladders or complex early withdrawal strategies] before the retirement age, in case you want to go to Ecuador or somewhere for 17 months.”

Action Step Takeaways:

1. Answer Coach’s 5 questions for yourself
   1. What is your why?
   2. Calculate your FI number.
   3. Set your personal wealth goals.
   4. Determine your current wealth stage and set goals for each subsequent stage.
   5. Plan out your real estate strategy to get you to the end zone. Then invent a new end zone victory dance, let’s be honest we are all sick of kids dabbing.
2. I should not have to say this one but grab a copy of  How to Retire Early with Real Estate
3.  Go forth, plan your work and work your plan.

If you are FIREd up about what you have read hear and would like to go deeper into the rabbit hole grab a copy of Coach Carson’s book HERE or check out more of his work at coachcarson.com and as a contributing writer at BiggerPockets.com

Still more FIREd up? Please share these links.

Stay tuned on Facebook and Twitter feeds. Use hashtag #retireearlyrealestate #DoWhatMatters and mention @coachchadcarson on Facebook/Twitter or @coachcarson1 on Instagram. Thank you!! Stay tuned for the book review coming soon.

Keep the FIRE burning my friends.