Hey All,
*Very* long time lurker, first-time poster, who has been practicing off-brand Mustachianism for several years. We have a unique housing situation where your crowdsourced analysis could be very helpful!
First, my wife has a job (a pastor of a small community church) on the island where we live, which comes with a house, utilities, internet, and cable included; as well as an island car and a parking spot on the mainland. If we wished, all those benefits could be converted into a housing allowance of about $1100/month. We pay social security tax on the housing benefit either way, which comes to about $2500/year.
Secondly, we live in a highly desirable location, both for year-round residents and vacationers, which means that housing stock of any variety (to sell, to rent, year-round, seasonal) are in high demand.
At this juncture, it looks like my wife will hold the job for a *very* long while, so we're trying to figure our best strategy as if we're planning on being here perhaps until near retirement-age, if not well past then.
With that in mind, we've been mulling our options, especially since we've saved about 40k especially for a downpayment that could perhaps be put to better use if we don't need that money for real estate.
I can think of three options, and I'd love your feedback, questions, and additional ideas!
First, we could stay in our current house and save everything else (we otherwise make somewhere between 33-37k a year.)
Secondly, we could buy a property where we could both live and have a second unit to rent. This would cost 250k-300k all told; and I'm confident that could produce a 100% occupied year-round rental that would go for 800-900 a month.
Finally, we could take the nest egg we saved towards a downpayment to buy a piece of land, put up a couple cabins or tiny houses to start generating income, and plan on building there later on.
What option sounds the most early retirement friendly? What questions might we need to consider as we look at our path forward?
Thank you!