"The Plan"
The Plan came about because of how little retirement resources we have secured away. There are many reasons for how little we have set aside, but most of them come down to two primary factors, first that we worked for very little money to ourselves in the non-profit sector and second, the intense needs of the people we live and work among while we live outside of the USA. Most of our working adult lives have been well spent, from a position of helping some of the neediest people on the planet. But the net result for us personally is that we have not used many of these resources toward our own benefit. That net result means that we have a deep shortfall of the resources theoretically necessary to carry us along in our non-income producing years - which are in our near future. (theoretical in the sense that we easily could die before any of those resources are needed)
While it is mildly comforting to read that most Americans also do not have much money saved (misery loves company?), and few resources set aside for their golden years, that nevertheless does not change the fact that we too are facing that near future dilemma. So after several especially painful experiences this past year, which clearly revealed that we are indeed getting much older, more fragile, and plus a horribly enlightening letter from the Social Security Administration detailing how little we could expect in retirement - out of all of that, came "The Plan".
The plan is to BRRRR real estate (BRRRR - Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat) enough real estate that we can perhaps feed ourselves and house ourselves and continue our life-long pattern of helping others in greater need. The Plan came about far far too late to be highly effective (works best if started in your 20's), or to have much margin for error, but we are boldly going where few in our line of work have ever gone before. We are especially poor candidates for the The Plan, because we live 5000+ miles from where The Plan is taking place and that takes more money (leaving less to save) and holds higher risks (because we are so far away). Plus the disaster known as the American banking situation (see previous post) makes this very difficult to accomplish.
Yet any forward progress is indeed progress and we will make the best of whatever we can accomplish before our non-producing income years arrive. A poor plan of action taken, is far superior to no action and no plan at all. Cheers to The Plan
