The Expert Investor: Early Retirement is a Mistake, Rent INSTEAD of Buying!

BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

BiggerPockets

Education, Investing, Business

4.8 • 16.6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2024

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why does this veteran real estate investor say that early retirement and financial freedom are a bad idea? Why does he think renting, NOT buying a house, makes more sense for most Americans in 2025? And what’s the one mistake that lost him hundreds of thousands of dollars even after being an experienced investor for decades? Jonathan Greene, one of our favorite repeat guests, is back on the show to share. Jonathan’s father, a serial real estate investor, taught him everything about rental properties early on. Together, they walked potential properties, snuck into foreclosed homes, reviewed the profits and figures line by line, and even dealt with evictions together. This equipped Jonathan with the skills to not only build generational wealth for his family but also financial freedom for himself. However, once he achieved it, Jonathan realized that early financial freedom wasn’t worth it. But why? This episode looks into the mind of one of the most experienced investors in the entire industry. Jonathan shares why he still decided to work even after building a real estate portfolio, the investment he made that cost him severely, why he’s moving his money into a more “passive” investment, the reason renting makes MORE sense than buying in 2025, and what a beginner should do RIGHT NOW to start investing in real estate. In This Episode We Cover: The reason Jonathan says early retirement/financial freedom is a mistake One thing every beginner to real estate investing should be doing right now Jonathan’s huge loss and the lessons he learned about pricing yourself too high Renting vs. buying and the obvious choice for most Americans in 2025 What to teach your kids about real estate investing and generational wealth And So Much More! Links from the Show Join BiggerPockets for FREE Let Us Know What You Thought of the Show! Ask Your Question on the BiggerPockets Forums Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat The House Hacking Strategy The Passive Real Estate Investing Show Listen to Jonathan’s Podcast, Zen and the Art of Real Estate Investing Invest in Turnkey Properties with REI Nation Grab the Syndication Investing Book, “The Hands-Off Investor” Find an Investor-Friendly Agent in Your Area Renting a Home Is Financially Better Than Buying—Wait, What?! Connect with Jonathan Connect with Dave (00:00) Intro (01:26) Learning to Invest as a Toddler (04:41) Teaching Your Kids About Wealth (06:31) Flunking Out Then Back to College (07:54) DON’T Retire Early! (16:08) His Huge Losses (17:02) What Jonathan Invests in NOW (22:30) Don’t Buy a House? (26:11) How to Start TODAY (32:39) Exposing Your Kids to Real Estate (35:34) Connect with Jonathan! Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1054 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email advertise@biggerpockets.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, it's Dave.
0:06.7	Today, we're bringing you some stories and some lessons from literally an entire life lived in real estate.
0:13.4	Jonathan Green started walking houses with his dad before he could even drive.
0:18.7	Some of those visits might today be called trespassing, but they gave him a unique outlook
0:24.4	on investing that almost all of us can learn from even 40 years later.
0:28.5	Jonathan has been on the show a couple of times before, but it's been a few years, so I was
0:33.1	really excited to ask him how he thinks newer investors should think about financial freedom, investing,
0:39.3	home ownership in this new era where we have a market with 7% interest rates.
0:44.6	This conversation had some topics that really might change your mindset about investing,
0:48.6	like how syndications can be a starting point instead of an end goal.
0:52.6	So I think you'll find it both enjoyable and very helpful.
0:56.1	Here's my conversation with investor, Jonathan Green.
0:59.2	Jonathan Green, welcome back to the Bigger Pockets podcast.
1:02.1	Thanks for being here.
1:03.0	Dave Meyer.
1:03.7	Thanks for having me for our first appearance together.
1:06.5	I'm excited.
1:07.1	Well, first of all, congrats on the 3P, right?
1:09.1	This is your third.
1:10.2	It's hat trick,
1:11.1	officially. You've done it three times now on the podcast. But I'm excited for this because I feel
1:17.2	like I've known you for a while, but I don't actually know a lot of your original real estate
	...

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