Should I stop?

"And backbeat, the word is on the street that the fire in your heart is out"

I always assumed that I'd be investing for the rest of my life, but right now, I don't see the point anymore. My IP income is $200k now (gross, definitely not net!) so I know that eventually I'll have sufficient passive-ish income.
I could invest more, but as I said, I don't know that I would want to, as I don't think I'll ever have a need an income of more than $100k net after tax, which my current portfolio will provide in time.
I detest status symbols and don't ever want to own a new car or a boat or similar. My children will be attending public schools and even if we splurged and went on a $20k annual holiday, that would still very much be within the budget.

The only thing that still seems appealing to me is to expedite the time it will take to get there, by for example starting developments at some point. Or if we were to return to a point where a CIP would pay for its own P&I loan, I'd be interested.
I know that buying more properties and then selling some to decrease my debt levels might get me there a bit sooner, but for whatever reason, that doesn't seem that appealing to me.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? How did it pan out for you?

Note: I've also noticed, that I've posted a few threads questioning my property journey over the years, so hopefully it's not too much of a repeat for other members.

 

Can you think of anything you might want to use extra money for? Helping kids with deposits? Charity?

 

If the passion for property is gone you need to find something else that ignites it

 

Been there done that, well still doing some of this n that. posted about it here
Real Estate Sell Down

In my 20s I would've bought 100 IPs, in my 30s maybe 50, by my 40s the questions was "What for?" and by 50 it was "Who am I holding these for?".
And then the market popped...

Some people be like "you could miss out on millions in 10..15...20 yrs time".
Yeah nah I'd rather do what I want now (well I've done so for 30yrs) without needing to make millions.
I'd been an REA or broker if I wanted that. Builder is hard work with no money.

 

As you get older you see more people dying and begin to think what’s the point in investing and not enjoying things. Although I ave 2 friends older than me that refuse to enjoy themselves and want to keep accumulating.
It’s like crossing to the other used of the river and carrying your boat with you

 

This might be selfish of me, but I don't see working harder just so I can be charitable as something I want to do. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for charity, I would just prefer to curtail my spending to give than to try and make more money to give.

Helping the boys is a good point, but the older one is 5 now, so we've probably got around 20 years until that becomes an issue, so by that time we'll definitely be able to help.

Yes, started my own company two years ago and absolutely loving it. Assuming the company continues to grow, I currently don't think I'd ever want to completely retire. But I do want to be able to.
I think maybe I didn't make it very clear, while our gross rent is $200k currently, our net rent is negligible, so definitely not something we can retire on right now, it's just that I don't see the point in continuing to accumulate when we'll have everything we'll ever need if we just wait from hereon in.

My wife also wants to continue working (part-time) indefinitely. Though being a teacher is taking a toll, so it's very important to me that she'll be able to do whatever job she wants and it doesn't have to be high paying, as long as she enjoys it. But that's probably quite a few years down the road.

 

If you haven't maxed out, I'd probably max out with IPs (you can't be too far off serviceability limits with the majors I presume), then call it a day....provided your PPOR requirements have been met.

 

Yep, I have no intention to work for charity but certaily have more to give these days.

It's a good place to be in. Take the work you want, quote a bit more if not too interested.

The issue at this point becomes cashflow, and may delay the FI for years.
And given the current situation finding an IP that increases cashflow may not be possible.
Though adding or improving to existing IPs may be feasable.

 

Whatever you want (or not want) is a personal choice. Just as long as you don regret it. Eg you stop increasing the investments, so you ‘lose’ some future gains, and realise later you could use the money.

Nothing wrong with hitting your goals and being happy about it.

 

I doubt anyone can provide you with an answer.
Each investment journey is unique.
You went down the high yield, low social economic route.
But you have hit a road bump called serviceability.

I know someone who done the high yield path and never hit serviceability as they have more income coming in.

Hopefully someone will PM you and talk to you about it. I've doubt it would be discussed openly.

 

Hey @spludgey

I am in the position to pull the plug from full time work now if I re-arranged my finances (ie sell some properties and pay off debt).

But have decided against it because I have a young child (8 years) and plus I don't feel strongly about anything in particular I would want to do in absence of full time work. Hence, its best to keep working and investing but at same time spend more money and enjoy life.

I have decided to continue investing because the larger the asset base I grow the more money is compounding for me. I think financially I would be better off with this option than say stop investing and use the savings in say paying off debt.

To give an example if my asset base currently is $2million and it doubles in 10-11 years it would grow to $4million. I don't think I can save $2 million (after tax) in 10 years. The dollar amount keeps getting larger the bigger your asset base is. Also, the $4m will one day become $8m and then $16m and so on.

You don't want to unnecessarily stretch your budget to risk your current asset base and/or not enjoy your life as well. So balance needs to be there but I think continuing to invest in whichever asset class (shares/property) you are comfortable with is the way to go.

My 2cents.

Cheers,
Oracle.

 

Seems to me that this now less about money and more about time.

@spludgey , you've only got so much time on the planet..... What are you going to do with it?

 

You hit the nail on the head!
It's not the money it's the "something else" that keeps you going .
Many times in our life cycle our investment income exceeds our working wage and we could have stopped.(my first my working pay was equalled in 1964 (£2 PW) , then again in 1972 ($34pw) after 1994 ($1k PW ) again the "something else" keep me going .
"Born 1953 still going strong ". (Thanks Johnnie for the saying)