I am writing to give a BRIEF (I hope) update on my investment strategy. We came across some additional funds recently so it has been on my mind a lot lately. My “go to” plan is and always will be putting money into 401k and then Roth IRA first. Tax free, and we can still make a pretty good ROI assuming the stock market doesn’t totally crash. But then what? If we have extra money that we are not going to burn through what is the next best investment? I keep trending toward real estate because people make a KILLING in real estate, but I keep thinking too that some people lose their butts in real estate, and that is even people who do it full time.
So, rather than wasting hours and hours of time looking for sweet but cheap real estate opportunities (I don’t think you can actually get both without a lot of work), I have finally decided that I am going to buckle down and re-focus myself on my websites. I am making a sweet ROI on each site. I really do need to run the math but I truly believe that if I just put 50% of my earning back into my websites I really feel like I can make an ROI happen that is WAY over what a typical, non-active real estate investor makes. Think of it this way – if I had $100,000 right now, and bought a house to rent out, chances are I could make like $9,600 MAX on the property per year. Then pay expenses, remodels, taxes…. What does that make like 5% annually?
I can take $1,000 right now and turn it into a 25% return next year or $250. I am starting a new niche site that I purchased for $12, and I think that I can make $250 next year. By website flipping standards if I am making $50/month on the site I should actually be able to flip it for $1,750 if I wanted, so double my money in 12 months, or let it keep rolling at $50/month!
I am curious to see if I can make this work, and want to give it a shot! I will be giving monthly updates on this website to help keep myself motivated.
Real estate is so competitive and some people have so much experience doing it, I really feel like using my current skills to my advantage is the way to go for sure.
THEN the next step is scaling. Can I do the same thing with $10,000? $100,000? If I scale it by creating a huge number of sites can I handle the upkeep? or if I focus on one big website will I be able to manage it properly? I guess I could find out by researching the heck out of it, but I really feel like I learn best by jumping in head first. So from my perspective there is only one good way to find out!
Have a nice holiday and I will provide an update in a month and a half. Hopefully by then content will be written and I can start uploading everything. In addition, I have been working on my “main” sites as well. I have been steadily increasing my revenue per month (compared to the same month last year and the year before) so I will provide an update on my sites as a whole as well. My monthly average last year was $127. My monthly average this year through the month of October is $210. I am really hoping if I can put some energy into the sites, especially the DIY site, then I can get to an average of $500/month next year. An extra $5,000 per year isn’t bad, right? Sure I am spending half/most of it to keep all of the sites growing but maybe the same time next year I will start thinking of an “exit strategy” for some of my sites if it makes sense.
Please let me know in the comments if I am missing something or if you have any questions or comments on my strategy!
Dan