How Much Do You Need to Invest to Replace Your Income with Rentals?

BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

BiggerPockets

Education, Business, Investing

4.8 • 16.5K Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How much money do you need to invest to retire with real estate? We did the math, and it’s not as much as you’d think. In fact, in some markets, even with a small amount of disposable income, you could become financially free in just five years. We’re asked about retiring with rentals so often that we’re providing an in-depth answer in today’s show. You asked, Dave and Henry are answering. Today, we’re grabbing questions directly from the BiggerPockets Forums and shooting them straight at two of the most trusted real estate investors in the industry. One beginner wants to know how he can achieve financial independence in just five to ten years with rental properties. He has $3,000/month to invest, but will that be enough? Another rookie investor is considering the ultimate real estate portfolio to build: do you start with a single-family home and then move on to multifamily, or do something completely different? Dave and Henry both give a take that you might not expect. To end, we have a double debate: cash flow vs. appreciation (and which makes you richer) and existing vs. new-build rental properties (is a higher price worth fewer headaches?). Want to build wealth with real estate? Today’s answers might surprise you. In This Episode We Cover How much do you need to invest to reach financial freedom with rentals? What are the best rental properties for beginners? How to find the perfect fit for your situation Why, if you want to build wealth, you need to stop caring so much about cash flow The low-headache rental property: are new construction rentals really worth the cost? Why Dave is upset he hasn’t won the Pulitzer Prize yet And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1187 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Can you really reach financial freedom in five to ten years with real estate investing?
0:04.9	Even if you're starting from scratch without making a million dollars every year,
0:09.0	how much do you need to invest?
0:10.2	And how can you get the biggest return on the money you have to invest?
0:13.9	We're answering all of that today.
0:15.3	Plus, we'll talk about whether you should focus on cash flow or equity when you're buying your first rental.
0:28.5	Hey everyone, I'm Dave Meyer, head of real estate investing at Bigger Pockets.
0:32.0	And today on the show, I'm joined by my friend Henry Washington.
0:36.3	Today we're going to answer a few questions from real investors on the Bigger Pockets forums.
0:37.2	First up, we have one from an
0:38.7	investor who wants to start working towards a financial freedom goal, but isn't sure exactly
0:43.5	where to start. And I think we can help them out. That's right. Our first question comes from
0:48.9	Brad Hills. Brad says, I find myself in a situation where I have a bit of extra income and I want to start leveraging it.
0:56.3	My admittedly lofty goal is to become financially free in five to ten years.
1:01.5	I don't want to stop working. I just want to pivot my time to other ventures that can make some income that I enjoy.
1:07.6	I can afford to put $3,000 a month, maybe a little more if I get aggressive towards
1:12.1	this end. My monthly overhead is very modest. It costs me about $2,500 a month to cover my
1:17.9	living expenses, and I'm happy with the quality of life that affords me. So if you were in my
1:22.9	shoes and wanted to quit the nine to five in five to ten years to pursue other passion projects,
1:28.0	how would you go about it? Consider starting from scratch with no real savings or assets to speak of.
1:33.9	Love this question. There's so much to unpack here. I think what this investor is probably saying
1:38.8	is that they're ready to start and then they can continuously put an extra $3,000 a month into their portfolio, which to me is a
	...

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