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BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

We Achieved Financial Freedom in 5 Years with Rentals (Doing These 5 Things)

BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

BiggerPockets

Education, Investing, Business

4.816.6K Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2026

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In just around five years, these two investors went from zero rentals to financial freedom through real estate. In their own words, “I want as few doors as possible with as much money as possible.” That’s what we’re all after as real estate investors. How can we generate the most passive income with the fewest properties, headaches, and issues to deal with? A little over five years ago, Amelia McGee and Grace Gudenkauf were willing to buy any property with any problem, to get in the game. They wanted to quit their jobs, become their own bosses, own their time, and live the lives they imagined—not be tied to a paycheck. Now, they’ve achieved financial freedom and are sharing the five things that got them there. What’s the one thing Grace and Amelia say every new landlord should put in place at the start? Why is day-one cash flow overrated, and what’s the thing that actually makes you wealthy? Plus, why do they think “growing” to a big portfolio is too risky and not worth the effort? Grace and Amelia learned all these lessons the hard way over the past five years. Today, we’re giving them to you in under an hour so you can get to financial freedom even faster. In This Episode We Cover Why you don’t want a big real estate portfolio and the much better alternative  Stop focusing so much on cash flow: Why chasing passive income is delaying your financial freedom Stop growing, start selling: The single most important piece of advice for current investors  The one crucial metric that shows whether you should keep a rental or sell it  One type of rental property that Grace says is solving all her problems  And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠h⁠ttps://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1253 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

These investors reached financial freedom in less than five years of real estate investing.

0:05.2

Today, they're sharing the five most important lessons they've learned along the way.

0:09.7

Grace Kudenkopf and Amelia McGee started investing less than a decade ago.

0:14.5

By 2021, they both left stable jobs to go all in on real estate.

0:19.5

In the early years, it felt like the cash would never roll in.

0:23.0

They were grinding, grabbing any deal they could get, wondering if they'd made the right

0:27.3

choice by leaving their jobs. Then the shift happened. By year three, they started seeing

0:33.0

real results, real cash flow. They could start being selective about what properties they bought

0:38.7

and which partners they worked with. Now, five years in, they both have stable portfolios and

0:44.5

financial freedom. They're optimizing to achieve the simple, stress-free real estate businesses

0:49.9

they envisioned from the beginning. With these five lessons, you can follow the same path

0:54.6

and soon have your own life-changing passive income streams.

1:03.3

Hello again, friends.

1:04.6

I'm Dave Meyer.

1:05.8

He's Henry Washington.

1:07.5

Our guest today on the show are Grace Gudenkov and Amelia McGee. You may know them as the founders of the Wire community. They've spoken at BP Khan and wrote the Bigger Pockets book, The Self Managing Landlord.

1:20.0

Grace and Amelia have each accomplished so much in this industry that it's hard to believe they've only been investing in real estate for about five

1:28.3

years. But it's true. They both started separately right around 2019. And we wanted to have them

1:35.1

back on today because I think their journeys have been very typical of what most investors

1:41.0

experience. At the beginning, it's a grind. There are strategic pivots.

1:46.9

And then if you hang on long enough, you achieve financial freedom. Grace and Amelia have learned

1:53.0

a lot of lessons even during their relatively short investing career. And today, they're sharing

...

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