Hi all,
I realize you must all see tons of posts like this, but I am hoping you can help me out with some wisdom. I'll try and be as concise as possible. My long-time GF and I are in our early 30s, have been working corporate jobs at big law firms in a major city for the past 4 years, and are sick of it. We are not big city people. (We hate the stress and traffic and pollution and noise. We like nature and quiet and a slower pace of living.)
So we are planning our escape. Over the past months, we have been identifying smaller cities that have jobs that can support us, outdoor amenities we enjoy, and a lower cost of living. For now the plan is for at least one of us to stay in the legal profession (we enjoy it decent enough, and we have big $$ sunk into our educations). We are looking at mid-sized cities like Colorado Springs, Tuscon, Boise, and Fayetteville AR, for example. We are home-bodies, and plan on putting a large % of our money into our home and property, where we spend most of our time.
We are not frugal like you all, but we have managed in the last 4 years to pay off all of our student loans (and all other debts), and now have some ~450K in total combined cash assets. About 150K of that is in our 401K, and the rest has been sitting in a 1% savings account (I know this is terrible, but the plan is to use a big portion on a down payment and we are nervous to dump it into the stock market).
If one of us gets a job and the other does not (the most likely scenario), our income should be in the 100-150K region. We do not spend much on luxury items such as clothes or fancy food or cars, but we do spend money on groceries, netflix/amazon prime, hobbies, and some travel. Our current spending is probably around ~65K per year combined, but I imagine we could cut that down to 55K or so with some slight changes + moving to a less expensive location. I'd say a house in the areas we are looking at would run us about 550K. Kids are in the not-to-distant future - perhaps two.
So: my question for you all is: assuming my GF gets the "stable" job, what can I, in conjunction with our nest egg, do to help accumulate some wealth?
My goal is to (1) get out from behind a computer screen all day, (2) be my own boss, and (3) increase our wealth. Obviously, some portion of our nest egg will go to our home down payment -
maybe 100k. That leaves me with 200k or so that isn't wrapped up in our 401K.
One option is to simply invest the 200K and work odd jobs that don't cost too much, like freelance writing or tutoring. Another option would be to invest in some tools and increase my DIY skills (which are meager but existent), and use them to fix up our house (and perhaps make/sell things on etsy). I have also considered using part of the nest egg to buy some rental properties,or perhaps opening my own small business (perhaps growing medical marijuana if the state permits it, since I enjoy gardening). Ultimately, I have no clue comparatively which of these options are a good way to accumulate wealth efficiently. I know this is somewhat all over the place, but that's why I am here.
Finally, a vague question. What nuggets of wisdom do you all have for someone making such a move? What pitfalls do you see?
Thank you!