Hey Chuck! Thanks for reading! Some of this info is in the backstories – but in short:

– Yes, the mortgage interest is included as an expense, so it’s deducted from the rental income. I only pay taxes on the small positive profit I make.
– As for depreciation, since it all has to be re-captured anyway at some point I thought I’d leave it out. I realize this skews the numbers slightly, but not a huge amount.
– The $ put in is hard to compare, because the IRA had some company matching capabilities, and it was all pre-tax. The rental was all post-tax savings, and there were major opportunity costs lost during the saving phase because I was an idiot and just kept everything in a checking account while the market was roaring. This is explained a bit in the backstories too.
– So for this “comparison”, i just thought it would be interesting to see which one grows faster organically from this year going forward. Forgetting the past 5 years of ownership, I’m more concerned with what happens from here on out with the assets I currently own.

Cheers!
Joel

The stock market has certainly done well the past few months. Did you have both investments at the start of the year? How would that comparison turn out. Thanks for posting,

Oooh that would make a fun blog post about those crowdsource sites. Personally, I vetted some out and chose not to invest in any of them. It’s not because they were bad or don’t make good money… It’s more that it didn’t fit my investment style (which is more based on personal relationships). I will add this to my list of things to cover in a future post. Have you invested in any of those platforms? Curious to hear your results and experience.

Question: instead of investing in individual homes or properties what do you think of sites like Roofstock or RealtyMogul? They seem to offer nice opportunities without the hassle of property management.

Hmmm… My fav real estate resources are Bigger Pockets and Coach Carson. BiggerPockets (podcast) covers a massive variety of real estate subjects that I listened to and learned from while figuring out my own strategy. Coach Carson is just a wholesome and modest guy that aligns with my philosophies and has a conservative approach to rental properties. I did a crap ton of research and invested a lot of time to learn before jumping into real estate. There is no rush – that’s the advice i’d give a beginner in today’s landscape! Good luck and thanks for reading!

Thanks MHG! Yes I’m glad I have both asset classes, and it sucks that real estate is taking a beating right now. But… it could provide a great deal of opportunity in the future for people wanting to buy cheap housing investments? (I’m trying to look on the bright side!)

Cheers Paul. It’s definitely easier to stomach the fluctuation when your wealth is spread across multiple asset classes.