I think of myself as retired even though I still do some ‘work’.
I consider my life just after college, doing the 9-5 job, where my life consisted of spending the entire daylight hours working for some large company who didn’t care about me. This job consumed the most valuable part of my day at the most important time of my life. I had to answer to a boss that I was smarter than. I felt like a dirty girl, like I was selling my time for money, and getting little in return.
My friends would call me while working and I would say “Sure I can talk, Im at work!” because I was just wasting the whole day, everyday.
Now if someone calls while Im at work its “Cant talk now, Im working!”
But that does not happen often. My life now consists of doing whatever I want, all the time. No more rush hour traffic, no mandatory company events, I get adequate sleep every night, I spend tons of time with my friends, family, and pets. My life has dramatically changed.
There are many different levels of managing your own rentals, you could and spend 5 hrs/ week or 5 hrs/ year on it. If you are just in a constant state of ‘putting out fires’ as problems arise, just like the rat race, youre probably never going to get ahead. But if you can anticipate problems before they occur, replacing things that you know could cause problems down the road (shutoff valves!) you save yourself from emergency calls, and doing work when you dont feel like doing work. My house may have been built in 1897, but everything that is important has been updated as I see fit.
I still ‘work’ but I love doing it. Is that really work? Aside from the fact that I know that this (now small) amount of effort is sustaining my life; I simply like to fix/ improve stuff. The craftsmanship in these 1890s-1930s homes is a true lost art, and being able to restore them is nothing but fun to me. I feel like Nicole Curtis on that rehab addict show sometimes. I really like it when I get to fix something ive never done before, but after any completed project the sense of accomplishment is palpable.
I get to make a big impact on my local community. I have an opportunity to treat tenants fairly. Some landlords (with mortgages) are very tight on cash, some are only focused only on the bottom line. I don’t have any pressing finances so I can give tenants a little extra time. My neighborhood is ‘mixed’ with a lot of good old residents as well as some trash. I am slowly buying up the crappy places, making them look great- inside and out, kicking out the trash and replacing them with quality tenants. It’s a small neighborhood so the changes are noticeable.
There will always people that tell me im dumb, and my tenants are going to stop paying rent and Im going to have to fix a toilet in the middle of the night and Im not taking into account this expense.
When youre retired do you want to do zero work? One of my tenants is 76, still works 16 hours/ week. He told me you got to stay busy; you retire and your body starts to break down. He dosent have to work, he chooses to. I could hire a property manager- they exist. I chose to work.
My definition of retired is getting out of the rat race, and doing what you want, when you want, and never having to do something you don’t want to.