What's next: Invest in RE or taxable brokerage?
Family of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids) in VHCOL area. One adult works, other adult stays home.
NET WORTH
$800k across retirement accounts
$100k college fund accounts
$100k in HYSA
$200K Home equity
Liabilities:
Mortgage $400k at 3%
Monthly net after maxing 401k and HSA: $16k with $15k bonus/quarter (averaging $5k/month)
Expenses:
Needs: $6k
Wants: $6k
Savings: $4k
We just finished paying student loans, and would like to make the best of discretionary savings ($4k/month and quarterly bonus of $15k/quarter). What's the best place for us to put ~$9k/month?
Ideally, we would like a business to offset taxes and provide other income and investment opportunity, which is why we are considering buying a property and use it as a short term rental. I think investing in RE for a short term rental could provide non-working spouse opportunity to fund solo 401k or SEP ira by managing short-term rental, and maybe even fund kids Roth ira by providing employment opportunities for them.
We could also avoid the headache by throwing money into a brokerage account, and keep paying ~$70k/yr in income tax.
Any thoughts are appreciated, thanks!