Hi everyone. I am turning 50 on the 15th. big milestone.

I am still working hard paying down my 'house fix up debt'. My goal was to pay it all off by year end. I am likely to have less than $20k left. House is very nice and in a great location. I thought of selling it as it is huge for just me but felt the stress of moving was too much for me (after doing house construction for a year and a half and the chaos and virus right now in the World). I am staying here at least for now. House is unlikely to lose value.

I am still working my project management job. Pretty stressful job as a whole and just this week the bank I am at announced 50% reduction in PM staff due to a re-org. I work on contract and was 'up' 12/6.. They were going to reduce that to 10/30 but since I am leading a high profile project (and hopefully good at what I do) they extended me to 12/31. This is that company where you can leave and come back in 3 months but can only work 23 months at a time. Not sure if that still applies w the re-org or not.. ie if there will be demand in 3 months after I leave. A preliminary look at jobs though it appears I can find something if need be...and most project manager jobs are remote now so easier

Thing is I really want to get out of working the 9-5 thing or maybe just switch from this field or get a job where I am more active.. less stress... more activity

Rentals are key here. I am in the process of switching property managers. The old one was going more into condo associations and my properties were being neglected in a huge way. late sending of rents to me, late filling properties, maintenance not kept up etc. The new guy so far is FANTASTIC.. head and shoulders above the old guy. I am really enthused. I got rents from October 2 days ago from the new guy. The old guy is still figuring rents from September.

The new guy gives me LOTS of confidence and excitement that I can regularly count on the rents for income. I am currently forecasting an average of $7000 NET rents a month and this is with a real estate tax escrow. Some months I may get more.. as my budget includes high vacancy and maintenance figures which month to month are less so far then expected. I did not escrow taxes last year as I was paying for the house fix up so ended up having to take 4 solid months of rental income and put it 100% towards taxes. I can not do that if I plan to live off the rents as primary income. My monthly personal living budget is $4600. Most of that is the house.. $2352 and health insurance $514. I am currently auto saving $500 a month, doing 3% 401k (they limit me) and using 100% of the rest to pay down the house fix up debt. All rental income now goes to the house fix up debt as well.

in either case.. lots more to share.. I will share more in upcoming days. I think I am planning to find another contract in January just to pay off the rest of the house fix up.. and use these next 2 months of this contract to explore other fields, income producing activities. The thought of wholesaling real estate and/or a blog appeals to me

We shall see

Refinancing the house from 5% to 2.75 this week. big change!

Glad to see a lot of the long timers still here. I am wishing everyone well. It seems so long since I started this blog and reading back over it is fun and reminds me of how crazy it was at first. Do any long timers remember when I bought the first 6 homes and did that short refinance on the house?! I am not sure I could stomach that stress now. I think though when you have nothing to start with you have nothing to lose so risks get easier. Time does go by!

Have a good day all.