See, Im impressed by this. Are you abe to explain a little more about your situation Wylie? It gives hope to the masses and seems a very realistic goal. Ive been watching SS for 9 years now and many of those with great aspirations then are still at it full tine today with still the sane tinefrane they had then which is now double.
Warning - this is a looooong post...
Happy to give more detail. Hubby had a great job, flexible enough to see his kids at 2pm some days, enjoyed the job etc. Last couple of years he was doing two jobs (plus). As people left, he was handed their jobs. It got stressful and he was working long hours and getting stressed.
He took LSL for a year (forced them to allow it by getting a medical certificate taking one week stress leave, rolled into LSL - otherwise they would not have allowed him the leave). Went back one year later, nothing changed, resigned after two weeks, after 29 years with them.
They lost a fantastic, knowledgeable employee and tried to fill his role with firstly one person, then two people. They were stupid to lose him, but that is how it went.
Anyway, we sold an IP (half share) which we bought for $170 and sold or $670K eight years later. That gave us enough to cover our interest on the other IPs until hubby reaches 55 (next year) and we can draw on his super if we need to.
I took a casual job two years ago because I was feeling a bit lost. Three good friends all had taken casual jobs as our kids got older and I was the last one standing
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I've said our IPs are negatively geared, but they really aren't. It is our living expenses that are eating into our income. Hubby worked for nine months since "retiring". Was going to help out an old boss for three months, and it turned into nine months. Most of that salary was salary sacrificed, and the balance is lower than before, but we hold on, hoping things pick up.
We don't have to think about what we buy, probably for the first time in many years. We will not touch his super unless we really need to, as we will pay tax on anything we draw.
I never wanted to sacrifice my time home with children just to get another IP. That was our choice, and now of course, we would not even get a loan, so our buying days are over.
I always wanted to have one IP per child to pay their way through high school and that is what we did. Neither of us wants or needs anything more than we have, so in some eyes, we would be seen as "not striving" or "not having goals", but we are happy with how things have panned out.
We are still probably more comfortable than many our age with children still in school, but we're not into comparing either. We have enough for us, and that is all that we care about.
I hope prices rise to counteract the fact they have fallen and our superannuation has fallen, and we are lucky that even in our 50s, we have time to allow that to happen. If it never happens, we are still ok.
We are not without drive, and since hubby "retired" he is busy looking after things that have been left undone at our PPOR and at our IPs and we are now helping to look after the IPs our parents accumulated (still single digits).
It is only since Dad passed away last year that we must distribute income from the family trust (though we could have been doing that for the past three years). I still don't think of these IPs as "ours" and it will take a while to do that. I don't even count these IPs as part of "our" assets and have never done so. It was always comforting to know there would be an inheritance, but it was something I never wanted to think about or rely on.
When we were engaged, I doubled my superannuation which rocketed it up very quickly. We lived for many years with hardly two cents to rub together, through choice. At any time we could have sold the IP we held in the early days to give us a better lifestyle, but we had food on the table and happy kids. What would more money have given us, really. So we made that sacrifice, sometimes with gritted teeth
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There is another thread about why people stop at two IPs. In our case, it was because I chose to be a stay at home mother. Hubby was on a pretty average salary 20 years ago and I didn't want to work full time (or even part time) with our kids in care. It would have taken all my salary to put three kids in care anyway.
So, in our case, we stopped because we couldn't afford any more without making personal and family sacrifices that we were not prepared to do.
