Investing for Geeks
So, I thought I&#x27;d type up a bit of more detailed explanation of my story and why I think real estate is a great investment for software developers, since my previous comment was a little lacked.<p>I bought my first house when I was 19.<p>It&#x27;s a little two bedroom shack in Boise, Idaho, which I bought in 1999 for $68,000.<p>I still have that little shack. Today it&#x27;s worth about $135,000 and the tenants I had in it essentially paid the mortgage on it and I own it free and clear.<p>I&#x27;ve actually got 26 total rental units and I generate about $10k a month of almost completely passive income off of them, net.<p>I made a ton of mistakes along the way, but I learned quite a bit--which I&#x27;m happy to share.<p>Over the years, I tried to buy one property every year.<p>At first I could only afford small properties and would put 10% down, so I was a bit leveraged.<p>But, eventually I was able to afford bigger properties and put more money down.<p>I always bought properties using 30 fixed loans and that ended up working out well.<p>I watched in horror as many of the other investors I knew--who were really speculators--went under, during the big housing crash.<p>I actually thrived during this time, picking up properties for cheap.<p>All the time I was working as a software developer, I had this goal of retiring early.<p>I kept saving as much as I could and investing real estate... little by little.<p>Like I said, I made mistakes, but learned from them and got smarter as I got more experienced.<p>Eventually, I had built up enough cash flow to actually &quot;retire.&quot; This happened a few years ago.<p>Why is real estate such a good investment?<p>Well, I think there are two main factors: leverage and hedging against inflation.<p>Leverage is extremely powerful.<p>A bank will lend you a large amount of money, sometimes 90% or more, for you to invest--if you buy real estate.<p>This isn&#x27;t the case with other investments.<p>So, you can buy a house for $100k, put $10k of your own money into it and if it goes up 10%, and is worth $110k, you make 100% return on your $10k.<p>That&#x27;s insane. I don&#x27;t know other investments where that is possible with such low risk--if you mitigate the risk properly.<p>Now, I don&#x27;t depend on appreciation--and you can&#x27;t count on it--but, you don&#x27;t even need it.<p>Just the cash flow alone can get you excellent returns on your money. Again, with little risk and huge upsides.<p>Hedging against inflation is also a beautiful part of real estate investment.<p>Most other investments are hurt by inflation, real estate isn&#x27;t.<p>In fact, if you owe money on a mortgage and inflation hits, you actually owe less.<p>Home values go up with inflation, as do rents.<p>I know it&#x27;s a bit difficult to believe--I probably wouldn&#x27;t if I hadn&#x27;t done it myself--but, I have done it and I did escape the rat race.<p>Anyway, if you&#x27;d like to know more, let me know and I&#x27;ll post the link to my YouTube videos and the video course (that is in beta) that I am releasing on specifically real estate investment for software developers.