Ian Royle

It was peculiar at work last night.  I have taken a job working night-shift in construction.  I prefer nights, no public, no tourists-the people who come and tour the facility they are building, paying to have built, or bureaucrats when it’s a government job, and no bosses for the most part.  The job is great and I am glad for it, I’m sure it will get me and my family through this recession.  But it was peculiar because of who I am working with.  The others, with the exception of the bosses are a curious bunch of odd-balls.  In particular a short, old little Frenchman from northern Quebec who told me in a single sentence, “I can build things for so cheap, so much cheaper than anyone else, but I need the money to do it.”  And, “If I win the lottory then I will not tell you and I will move to an island to live.”  It was the certainty in his voice that winning the lottery was something that wasn’t a distant possiblity but something as real as recieving a demand for payment in the mail from the utility companies.  He was a man without a plan, well other than lottery tickets to a one off payday and we all know money comes easy it goes fast.  But long term wealth, the type I believe is attainable needs to be approached with the idea of your assets providing enough money periodically to provide funds necessary for your lifestyle in the same period.  With that in mind I want to talk about my “One House a Year Strategy for 25 Years”.  The idea is that if you buy one house a year for twenty-five years and then sell those houses off for the next 25 years you will be completely fine.  Provided the following;

The mortgages are 25 years long.

No further leveraging is required.

The costs are covered, mostly, by the rents.

Then sold at almost any cost the house is a gain.

I’ll talk more about it later.