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Some of the challenges for retirement are making sure your income is sufficient to meet your needs.  You want to have enough to make sure that you do not run out of money when you are in your later years.  Leaving something to your kids or love ones, leaving them in a position that is better then what you had, hopefully moving your family up the ladder of prosperity.

These are the things I have been thinking about and trying to figure out what would be some of the methods to get me these results.  

1.            Investing in the stock market, dividend paying stocks that should provide a constant stream of income. One of the challenges is the percentage that you earn on your money is quite small.  You could go with a much riskier company but then you have no idea if this company will continue paying a dividend for the years that you will be alive.

2.            Most of us have a 401K or other retirement vehicle that is invested in the stock market. The average long term return from the market is 6%.  Now this comes with a condition that you do not retire into a rescission or depression.  You hear the statistics that 95% of the investors lose money in the market, if that is true then what is the stock market.  A vehicle for wealth transfer, we are transferring from the 95% to the 5% who are actually making a lot of money.  So in the long run do I feel lucky enough to invest in the market and then have enough to retire on, the jury is still out on this one.  The common wisdom says this is one of the best retirement vehicles, in my years I have seen that the common wisdom is sometime got it all wrong. I will still keep a portion of my retirement in the market. I am reluctant to put my life saving in something that  I have no control over and the vast majority loose.   

3.            Insurance companies offer annuities, or you could have your money professionally managed. Noticed how big and fancy the buildings are for insurance companies and brokerages? Also see how much the CEO's are paid in these companies.  To do anything for you they want you to pay a fee. My view this is another wealth transfer, I get a small portion of the returns and they get the lion's share.  

4.            Syndication: Forming a syndicate with 10 of my friends, we each put in 100K from our retirement accounts(Self directed IRA) and buy an apartment building.  For me personally tenants are sometimes a pain in the neck but the rental rate tends to keep up with inflation.  The purchase of the building is with the understanding that it will be professionally managed, someone else deals with the tenants. (Professional management and finding a good one is a large topic unto itself.)  The purchase is with the calculation that the building will start out with a 5% to 7% return on the investment. That 5% to 7% is pretty much the same you will see from the stock market, you would see approximately $500 per month.  In approximately 30 years the mortgage is paid off or refinanced sooner so you see a much larger income stream from the building, not counting inflation of rents you could see a monthly return of $1,900 for the rest of your life.  Rents tend to keep up with inflation so your return would do the same.  After you are no longer with us it can be transferred to your children, and they will see this income for their life time, as long as the building is kept in good condition.

My goal is to eventually have 3 of these, there is no fear of out-living your savings, they will be held in a trust so there is a reduced fear of being sued and it makes it easier to transfer to you children after your passing.
Do your due diligence, nothing is as simple as it seems there are many pitfalls but from my view a real estate syndicate is one of the best retirement strategies I know of.

I am looking to invest with like minded individuals.  Interested shoot me an email at:

maurice.murray at salmur.com (replace at with @, done to keep the spam bots away)