Pool Pro, What are you Working Towards?

Working forever should not be your game plan. Yet almost 40% of self-employed individuals have no retirement plan. The question is, do you have a plan and if not when were you planning to start? The earlier the better.

Real Estate is how we have been investing for the past 21 years. We don’t flip the houses but keep them and rent them out. I have been a landlord in Southern California since 2001 giving me over 20 years of experience. I have done everything from eviction and fighting with the city planning/code enforcement department to removing a dead body. Being a landlord takes some getting used to and you do need to have some people skills.

Real estate offers many key benefits and here are a few:

1) The tenants are paying off the mortgage for you.
2) You get a great tax write-off with rental real estate
3) Your asset will grow at the rate of inflation or above that rate.
4) It’s relatively safe and you have a tangible physical asset
5) After 30 years or sooner you will hold it debt-free
6) Rents go up at the rate of inflation.
7) You can draw equity money out when needed with a cash-out refi.
8) You can do a 1031 exchange for a larger property with zero tax implications.
9) Under the right conditions, your rentals can produce cash flow.


But you don’t have to do real estate. You can just invest in Roth IRAs, Mutual funds, Investment funds, and other investments of these types that take very little hands-on operation. We just like real estate and the benefits of owning properties debt-free. The key is to find an investment you like and then to consistently put money into it year after year.

As the recent FTX failure showed I would avoid risky investments that promise high rates of return. You don’t need any crazy return on your investment. 8%-10% a year will make you a millionaire over 30 years in very safe investment funds.

You also need to consider that as you get older your body will start to break down. You can’t service and clean pools forever. One way to extend the life of your service business is what I call Empire Building. Keep acquiring more and more pools and bring on an employee and then keep adding pools and employees until you reach a level where you don’t need to be in the field every day. This could mean 150 pools, 300 pools, or 1,000 or more.

Working for a company in the industry after you call it quits on your route is another option. Hayward, Pentair, Jandy, and Leslie’s all looking to hire former pool pros. They pay well and you may find the work on the other side of the industry very rewarding. It is something to consider and a way to continue to earn a good income and save on the wear and tear of your body.

A good retirement calculator can be found here:
https://www.ramseysolutions.com/retirement/riq

Just enter your goal and what you already invest and in 2 minutes the site will let you know how you are doing.

The bottom line is it is never too early or too late to start planning. Start today.

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