HI,

My name is Rob; I am a 38yo accountant, originally from ITA resident in NYC;

I am posting this to see how other people see my financial situation and how
would they act in terms of freedom;

The numbers:
-I have a house in ita valued 400K, paid off, rented for past 8 years at $950.00/mo
-I have 80K in cash
-I have a 45K/ year job, no c/c debits, no dets, no car payments;

Im honestly tired of living a fast paced life and 9 to 5 job, and I m thinking of ways to get out: either the city or the country;

Could you pls have an idea?

Thank you so much for your help.

rob
O

Do you have any retirement accounts?

Sounds like you're doing great to me, but yeah, maybe a retirement account would be a good idea. If you wanted to throw 5k into a roth IRA you'd probably be well served in the long term.

Do you enjoy your job?

We need more info.
What are your total expenses?
How much of your income do you save?
Where do you put it?
Do you have any money invested in anything other than real estate? If so, where? If not, why not?
What do you want to do with your life (How does your current life not match your ideal)?

It... trips some mental filter of mine to see "9 to 5" and "fast paced" in the same sentence.

hi,

Thank you for your answers,

To respond to some: no i do not have a retirement account; ( i dont know
where they "put my money" and i prefer them into my saving instead).

my expenses are:

rent= $675.00/mo
food =$450.00/mo
subway = $108.00/mo
phone = $55.00/mo
other/cleaning/various/ = $200.00/mo

i save $1,500/mo but im not HAPPY anymore living like this; i dream of freedom;

Would you retire like this with $1,000.00 net incoming income and $80K in cash? (that i can use to buy a property in the relocating country even if many "poor countries" does not allow you to buy land)

thanks

Are you asking if you can safely retire NOW? If so, absolutely not. You're still relatively young. 80k in cash and 1k~ of income (which isn't guaranteed) won't even get you to 65, let alone 80 to 90.

You're in a good spot considering your income, but you really have a ways to go (IMHO) if you're looking at early retirement.

As others have pointed out, you're a loooong way from retiring.

One thing that stood out to me is the equity in your rental property seems to be grossly underperforming. You've got $400,000 tied up, generating $950/month, or $11,400/year. That's a return of only 2.85% on your capital. And that's BEFORE taxes, expenses, and the "headache factor" of dealing with landlord problems. You could put that money in a tax-sheltered retirement account and invest it in a simple money market fund and drastically improve your return.

This question seems a little strange coming from an accountant but I'll take it at face value.

I think kombat is on to something. The rental property is not performing. If you sell it you would have $400,000 + $80,000 in cash. That's not quite enough to live (retire) on, but it's a fairly good nest egg for someone your age. You could potentially move somewhere rural or whatever would address the lifestyle issues you have with NYC and get a low stress job you enjoy more.

Now a stupid question on my part: What is ITA? I'm kind of assuming you mean Italy but that is far from clear! Maybe it doesn't make any difference but maybe it does.

kombat,

i agree the house is underperforming, but it's still the best rent i can get, and ive
family emotions involved in that house because we built it with years of savings (my parents savings)

as far as long way, yes i agree but with a condition: it depends on where you retire:
if i go live is South Thailand, you can live so cheap, the rent and cash alone will last
decades

hi doinghomework,

ITA stands for Italy,
i agree that the egg is a good one but not enough, but selling is, for now, an option
my parents would be heartbroken if i do; to be honest i think the value is higher than
400k; that is the value of 2002; now i guess the house is worth around 500k

If you can't sell let's forget about the "value" of the asset. Treat it as an income stream instead. Don't forget to subtract maintenance costs, lost months of rent between tenants, etc.

If you think you can live in Thailand off $950 a month (without touching your 80k in other savings) why not give it a shot?

I agree with stan. If you're viewing the home as a family memento and as such can't sell it, then you shouldn't view it as part of your portfolio except for the income stream you're getting (minus costs).

If/when that changes, I'd reassess my situation. If you're only getting a 2 to 3% return on the rental property, you very well may be better off selling and investing it somewhere. Even a fairly conversative approach would net you a better return and save you the head-ache with the time you have left to work.

im a curious: how much 400k would return
if invested in a money market, retirement account
and what the risk would be?

thanks

Money markets are paying very very little right now... I just looked at Vanguard's different money markets and they are all well under 1% return (for the last year) right now. They are among the lowest risk investments.

can you work for yourself? Are you experienced enough to do that? You can get your freedom and potentially earn more.

I got to say, 45k in NYC is a very, very low salary. From the looks of it, you really lowered your quality of life for many years to save that money!