Entrust Learning Center > Keyword: real > Developing Your Investment Strategy: Using your Experience as a Real Estate Investor to Build Wealth and a Secure Retirement

Developing Your Investment Strategy: Using your Experience as a Real Estate Investor to Build Wealth and a Secure Retirement

There are seven questions below to help you determine what your investment strategy should be. Take into account your family and your outside interests as you answer these questions.

By: Lisa Moren-Bromma

Every one of us has special needs and objectives we want to accomplish. When it comes to building a secure future, we need to look at our investments as a vehicle to get us to our goal. As a successful real estate investor, you have the experience and the capability to take your knowledge and expertise to develop an investment strategy that protects you well into the future.

Our eventual goal should be cash flow, income, appreciation and financial security. Many of us are at different levels in our business. All of us recognize that we must do something now to secure a financial future for ourselves and our families. Isn’t that why we got into investing in the first place?

I have listed seven questions below to help you determine what your investment strategy should be. Take into account your family and your outside interests as you answer these questions.

1. What is your present financial situation? Are you gainfully employed?

An entrepreneur, a retiree? Is your income in today’s dollars covering your expenses? Answer these questions with total honesty.

2. What are the financial goals/obligations you need to meet before you retire? Are you taking care of a parent? Have young children you feel an obligation to get through college? Helping to support a child with a family?

These are real situations that just don’t go away. Allow for them. After all, this is you spending your money, and you need to plan for the wealth accumulation you need in your retirement.

3. How much investment capital do you have to get started or to keep going?

4. Number of years left until you intend to live off retirement income?

There is no such thing as a gold watch anymore, so be realistic.

5. Annual income you will need to retire.

A good estimate estimate is to figure 70% of your current income. Of course, if you decide to do extensive travel, make it a higher estimate than if you were gardening around your free and clear home.

6. Number of years you expect this income to last?

This is a tough one with people living longer these days. Look at your family history as a guide to this question.

7. How much risk are you willing to take today to accomplish your goals in the future?

This is one of the most important questions you need to answer for yourself. A lot of us are not risk takers. Many people leave money sitting in a savings or money market account because they are afraid they will lose it. This answer will address what risk you are willing to take to achieve your goals. As many of you know, I am an experienced real estate and private mortgage investor. I look at real estate as my ticket to retirement. How about you? Maybe I can buy a rental property and re-sell it with owner financing, creating paper that I can receive income on well into the future. The possibilities I can utilize within my real estate and paper investments to develop
wealth are endless!

Our expertise in any cash flow can be used to grow our investment base which then helps us compound wealth with the same cash flow instruments we know and understand. 

We can even use our IRA or 401(k) to do these same investments with the money coming back into our retirement plan tax-deferred, or in the case of a Roth IRA, tax-free! Not only are we growing our businesses to earn wealth, we are taking whatever differences in profits that we make and investing in the same type of debt instruments in our retirement plan!! That’s a smart strategy!

The type of retirement account you need to have is a self-directed retirement plan where the administrator or custodian allows you, the IRA owner, to acquire the investment in your own plan. As the marketing director for The Entrust Group, we see investors from all around the country capitalize on their expertise in real estate and other alternative investments to build wealth in their retirement plan. 

Once you have assessed your situation, you need to develop your own personal investment strategy. No matter how much money you have amassed in your retirement plan, there is a cash flow you can acquire. Think of the income that gets deposited into your retirement account on a tax-deferred or tax-free basis. It is amazing to watch your retirement dollars compound.
With all of the changes in today’s economy, it is more important than ever to manage your future.

Hopefully, this article will help you start!!

Lisa Moren Bromma has been a real estate investor since 1978, an investor in private mortgages where the seller finances the sale of a property since 1988. She is a member of the National Speakers Association, and has taught thousands of workshops and seminars on the subject of real estate and marketing. She is the President of The Entrust Group, the nation’s largest administrator of self directed retirement plans. She is also the editor of the IRA & 401(k) Insights newsletter.

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