Jordan's Search Journey Blog Post #4

Where's the money coming from?

Like most one income American households, if you believe the statistics, we have not been putting away savings but acquiring debt. Last year, we had a car loan, a home loan, a home equity loan, and credit card debt. A medical emergency surrounding my son’s traumatic birth in 2013 brought significant hospital debt, along with a partial leave of absence from my job in###-###-#### in order to help care for my son. We were firmly in the red thereafter.

When this pandemic stretched out after the initial 2 weeks, my wife and I began exploring opportunities to move closer to her parents. I was working from home roughly three 10-hour days a week and going in for only one 10-hour day. After exploring buying a home and realizing capital wise it was going to be extremely difficult to purchase a home with our existing mortgage, we decided we needed to sell our house first and then find a comparable home to rent. My wife located a great place in February 2021 up for rent with lots of land and within our budget.

We jumped on the chance and thankfully got the place. We then did a bunch of work to our home to finish and get it ready to sell. It took longer than expected, but we got it on the market and sold it in September. After 16 years of ownership and tons of work done to the old house, we were able to get out of debt and put some money in the bank. We also sold our “new” 2019 minivan with 5 years of payments still to go, as the used market is crazy high right now. We actually got more out of it than we owed, a rare thing for a 2-year-old vehicle on a 7-year loan.

Now the plan is to leverage this money for living expenses while I search for a business, hopefully within the next year or so. Depending on when I locate it and how much the business costs, we may go all in and liquidate my retirement, seek investors, or a combination of the two.

Is your situation similar? Have you ever thought about changing your assets versus your liabilities? If so, consider reading Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad Poor Dad” book. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Dad_Poor_Dad