If you’ve been reading my blog, you will know I quit my “day job” in 1999 at the age of 39. I’d like to say I retired at 39, but technically I can’t, because I didn’t have FY money in my nest egg (and still don’t.) FY or “fuck you” money, is the amount of money necessary so that burning a bridge here or there (by telling somone FY) is not an issue.
Now, because I don’t have FY money, I feel like I need to entertain the possibility of a new business. Why? Well, the key problem is that I only have one stream of income at present. I think I need one more.
When I quit the rat race, I had what I thought was a trifecta of protection: A big 401K, enough savings to live fairly well for 3 years, and a single stream of income from my fledgling business. The first two were both in the stock market and got hammered a few short months after I quit. But the third has grown over the same time period. So REALLY, I only had two levels of protection. And I just lucked out that the second source did alright. Because of this, I think “3” is the magic number to keep from becoming a street person.
I really didn’t worry much about these things when I had a regular paycheck. Being on my own is forcing me to think even more about money than I used to. Of course I should have been worrying about this all along. Regular paychecks are like being hooked on drugs. While you are “using” you are happy and seemingly unaware of danger.
Bottom line? As much as I don’t want new commitments, the need for a second source of income has to come first. So I’m reading real estate books. The very fuzzy plan, at this point, is to form a new LLC, buy a house or two a year, and rent them out at positive cash flow. Use a property management company for the landlording.
This conflicts with my life goal of doing nothing. But in the absence of FY money, what can I do?
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