Rent Checks Coming in Already!

I have received two rent checks already for March.  I have not yet checked the rent collection boxes, but I suspect that a few will be in the boxes by tomorrow.  I anticipate all 24 rents to be paid by 2/5, which is the late fee date.  Most of the rents will be collected by Monday morning, and deposited in the bank.  Solid tenants never bounce checks, and I have not had a bounced a check in years.  So the monthly accounting goes something like this.

My mortgage payments (P&I) for all of my rentals are less than $4,500, so it doesn’t take many rent checks to cover the payment.

Taxes take another $2,400 or so.  Association dues $1,200.  Total “hard expenses” are ~$9,700 per month, including mortgage.  I consider maintenance, management fees, and vacancy expense to be “soft expenses”.  I manage the buildings myself, so I pocket that fee along with any rents.

So there is a good potential to be FI right now.  Of course, some additional insurance money in the bank never hurts, so I will keep toiling away for another year or two at my real job.

Retirement at 56 in two years is still early retirement.  I have 35+ years in at Social Security, so at 70, I will have a decent check.  I have a small pension from my real job too, that kicks in at 65.  Free health care from the VA, but I will probably buy a high deductible policy to cover me if I am rushed to the hospital.

I plan on winding down the rentals at age ~65, and possibly do a 1031 and convert them into farmland.  A lot less worries with calls from tenants with land.  Maybe I will buy a cattle farm and become a rancher!

Rental income can be a great source of passive income.  Even greater if you manage the buildings yourself.  And even better than that, if you can do the maintenance.

When do you pay your rent or house payment? I like to get rents early, but I pay the mortgages on the 5th.