The Financial Freedom Formula Has Changed (2025 Update)

BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

BiggerPockets

Education, Business, Investing

4.8 • 16.5K Ratings

🗓️ 13 January 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Can you still achieve financial freedom with real estate investing? Around a decade ago, it was common knowledge that with a few rental properties, you could easily replace your income, retire early, and be fast-tracked to financial independence within just three to five years of investing. Is that possible anymore? How long will financial independence actually take if you start investing in real estate in 2025? And if you feel like you’re almost there, should you quit your job and dive head first into real estate? We’ve got two financially free investors on the show, each taking different paths to get there. Dave kept his full-time W2 to pay for his more passive real estate investments, while Henry quit his job to buy rentals and flip houses full-time. Would they both be okay if they lost their “active” income today? Yes! But they STILL choose to work to build the dream life that goes far beyond basic financial freedom. Today, they’re sharing how the financial freedom formula has changed, what you need to do to get on the path to financial independence/early retirement in 2025, and whether you should stay at your W2 while you build your rental portfolio or quit your job to pursue real estate full-time. The good news: financial freedom through real estate is still a significantly quicker route to retirement, but which path will you choose to get there? In This Episode We Cover: What “financial independence” really means and how long it will take for you to get there The cash flow myth that most new real estate investors believe (this could hurt you later!) Full-time real estate investing vs. keeping a nine-to-five and why you NEED “active” income to scale fast What to know about full-time real estate investing BEFORE you quit your job 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 BiggerPockets YouTube Grab Dave’s New Book, “Start with Strategy” Find an Investor-Friendly Agent in Your Area How to Retire Early with Fewer Rental Properties Than You Think w/Chad Carson Connect with Henry Connect with Dave Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1069 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

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You can achieve financial freedom through real estate.
0:03.1	You just need to be realistic with your expectations of what financial freedom even means to you
0:08.9	and about how you're going to get there.
0:16.4	I'm Dave Meyer from Bigger Pockets, and I'm here with my friend Henry Washington.
0:25.3	We are both real estate investors who are on that financial freedom path right now.
0:30.4	But as it turns out, we've taken sort of different approaches to achieve financial independence.
0:34.7	Henry quit his corporate job to buy rentals and flip houses full time.
0:37.1	I haven't done that, and I probably never will.
0:42.7	Today, we're having a real honest conversation about what financial freedom even means,
0:47.7	the pros and cons of different approaches to achieving it, and which could be right for each of you.
0:56.7	So, Henry, I have what I think is sort of a hot take about financial independence and retire early that I want to share with you.
0:58.3	But first, let me just ask you, what do you consider financial independence?
1:02.1	What does that actually even mean to you?
1:04.4	Well, when I first got started, I thought I was going to buy some properties and they would
1:08.8	pay me every month and then I would not have to work.
1:11.5	Didn't work out that way.
1:12.4	It didn't quite work out that way.
1:14.7	But financial independence, what it means to me now and what I'm working towards is to not have to have active income.
1:23.4	In other words, like, if I don't want to work anymore, then I don't have to, but my income needs are met through, air quotes, some sort of passive income.
1:34.9	And real estate's not truly passive.
1:37.2	But the idea is that I could work less than 10 hours a week if I needed to and survive.
1:43.2	That's what financial freedom really means to
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BiggerPockets, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BiggerPockets and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.