Financial Independence - Anyone?
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I hate to break it to you but your goal seems wholly unrealistic.
You're the first person I've heard describe financial independence at "having so much money I never have to work again." However, let's assume that your goal is $100k passive income from investments. Assuming a conservative return of 3%, that means you'd have to have at least $3.3 million dollars saved up.
Now let's say your base $130k is a starting point for your wage growth. Subtract out rent (a shithole at, say, 800 a month, growing annually at 8%), taxes (gotta give the government their 40%), and food (500 a month growing annually at 5%), and NO OTHER EXPENDITURES, you'd have to see a wage growth of around 65% per year to meet your goal. That means making $950,000 by age 26, then making a little over $1.6 million coming out of your $250k MBA debt. Make a cool $2.6 million by year 30 and you'll have your money to be "financially independent". Obviously this is a simple calculation and can be dependent on the return your money can get, other expenditures in your life, etc., but you get the point.
Far be it from me to judge your goal, but I'm thinking you'll probably be a lot more happy living a comfortable life working till, say, age 45-50, and then retiring with a good nest egg than trying to meet your goal above. Plus once you start making a lot of money, you'll have to deal with lifestyle creep, and the costs I laid out above are definitely going to skyrocket. Instead focus on getting a job that makes you happy, that pays you well, and plan 2 or 3 vacations a year. I think you'll find it a lot easier to achieve.
Finally, here's a good thread that I think you can learn more from: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/blog/life-in-general-will-cost-more-than…
Hope that helps.
Read the 4Hour work week it has all the answers to your questions...
Zero chance.
I feel like 3% is a bit too conservative of a number than what I would use. I would use 5%, maybe even 6%. But I guess that's just me. I still feel like that's fairly conservative, though.
What are you going to drop a few million into that gives you a 5% return when you can't afford to lose? Right now 3 year CDs are at 1.45%, I'm actually curious where you got that number. He'll more than likely have less than 75k in the bank at 30 with roughly 150k in debt (maybe more), going off his assumptions.
There's commercial real estate in suburbs throughout the country that offer 7-8% cap rates. Although, that is not 100% passive income.
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