How Much is Enough _________?

How much is enough…. Money, real estate, clothes, purses, cars, vacation time, degrees? 

You can fill in that blank with anything.  

Sometimes this question comes from within or sometimes from family, friends and even Facebook warriors.   Some of you may have already been asked….

“You are a Physician, why are you bothering with Real Estate?  Isn’t being a Physician “Enough”?  

These can be tough questions and it is important to take time to analyze “Why” you are pursuing your chosen goals… Whether that be traditional FIRE via massive savings and index fund investing or Real Estate Investing or both. 

John D. Rockefeller the founder of the Standard Oil company was asked “How much is enough money?  and he replied “just a little bit more”… Now this would be the equivalent of Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos at the time.  He was the richest man in the world with the most profitable company but enough would be “just a little bit more”….

He is a controversial figure and ran into a little bit of Monopoly trouble in the early 1900s.  The end result was the Standard Oil Company was split up via the 1911 Standard Oil antitrust settlement….

What happened to this company?…

Well four of the successor companies are still around…  Mobil, Amoco, Exxon and Chevron.   Standard Oil was massive and John D. Rockefeller’s answer was “just a little bit more”…

One could argue that his answer just highlights his Greed and although his business history has some controversial chapters he was also known for his extensive philanthropic efforts.  John D. Rockefeller built a massive company, accumulated incredible wealth and then spent the last 40 years of his life focused on philanthropic efforts… Check out some of these articles to learn more.

https://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/almanac/people/hall-of-fame/detail/john-rockefeller-sr

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/John_D._Rockefeller

So, this brings me back to the original quote “How much is enough _______?”

This question is considered a negative when it involves money or forms of money/material possession.  How many purses do you need to own?  How many suits do you need?  What is the magic number of Short-term rentals?  Isn’t one enough?

(Rarely will it be asked how many surgeries are enough? How many lives saved?  When will you be done helping others?  These questions are only reserved for close family that may see that you are tired….)

Lauren and I have some Catholic guilt with the How Much is enough _____ question and have been discussing this question a lot lately. 

As we grow our STR portfolio we are weighing the benefits of STR ownership, rental income and time required for investment.  

How many Short-term rental properties is enough? 

What is the magic rental income number? 

Is it about a number at all?  Or is having a goal what matters to us?

We began this journey as purely lifestyle investors (Click Here) who wanted to spend time snowboarding as a family.  That was it… We learned life was short and spending time doing what we enjoyed matters most.  (The Fall)

Our first STR purchase was a slope side Mammoth Condo and was a mix of personal use and rental income.  We were happy if the rental income covered the cost of the place. 

If we decided to rent it full time we could net 50-60k but that is not the reason we purchased this one… and to be honest this property brings us more joy than any of the other properties.

As we have added to our portfolio we have maintained a personal use goal as long as the property is cashflow positive.  

However, as our portfolio grows the personal use goal has decreased and the cashflow goal has increased… We only have so much vacation time available for visiting out of State STRs…  

We are comfortable with this change and our plan for growth.  But we do not have a definitive answer to “How much is enough ________”.   Time has proven to us over and over that when we reach our goals they change. 

For Lauren and I, enough will be when it is no longer fun or a positive experience.  Enough will be when the time devoted to outside activities, work, blogging, courses, STR investing outweighs the time together. Right now it is a very nice mix.

We did not enter the short-term rental investment space to “free” ourselves from Medicine.  Our goal was to spend more time snowboarding as a family, while renting our place to cover our expenses.  The bonus was building generational wealth and passive income.  Now we are expanding our STR cashflow.

Some might say we did it backwards and should have focused more on Cashflow first and then on personal use latter but we would not change it if we could. Enjoying our first STR with our kids over the last five years was worth every penny.

Now as we expand the question will be how much is enough? A little bit more?

How much is enough _________ for you?

Enjoy your Journey to Financial Freedom