Mindset of the situation
Hey all. I have a question for the group about mindset. NW of between 10-12m. It was earned through w2, equity investing, and real estate investments. Like many others this wasn’t a pop overnight but a 15-20yr journey. And now I find myself in my mid 40s.
I recently purchased my dream house and moved our family. Not sure if it’s just some buyers remorse, or overwhelm, but my wife and I are actually considering moving back to our old house which we still have.
On paper we can afford the new house nbd. We have solid cashflow from real estate, equities compounding, and basically no debt - we have a mortgage on the new house but would pay it off when we sell the old one. The delta between the homes is around $1m, and the carry costs are effectively doubles. $50-70k at the old house $100-130k at the new between tax, insurance, maintenance and whatever projects I’m doing since I can’t sit still.
As I said we can afford this. But I think the entire process exposed something else. I can see the numbers on the screen, I see them go up or down or whatever. But all I really feel is the rental income. I left my job the end of last year, and solely operate the rentals. They net around $300k/yr alone in cashflow, and they appreciate and they ensure I pay no taxes plus the equities appreciate. So my income feels low to me these days and a bit abstract, since it’s really the equivalent of a $500k/yr job taxed at ordinary income. And overall the realization I had is that my mindset has simply not adjusted to the our reality. Im finding myself kinda confused since I still look at many things like $1000 is a lot of money and I’m kinda locked into “but I don’t have a job” so I’m conserving mentality. I know if I remain disciplined for 7-14more years our reality estate equity + equities likely take us to $20m +/- 20%. So my goal has been just don’t touch anything until retirement age. That said I am not sure what I could possibly do in 15yrs with $20m I can’t do now. Other than this house purchase and its significant carry costs we kinda live modestly. But we do have 4 kids and are entering the high spend years (outside the NW I have 529s funded for college, so that’s also nearly done it’s just a few more years contributions needed to cover it).
Anyway. With that whole rant. Any tips or experiences shares of this process for others would help. After decades of discipline and goals it seems strange not to have that mission and live off the accomplishments