With the high cost of housing and the low yield that most retirement plans offer, many people are turning to outside investment opportunities in order to supplement their savings. In order to invest your retirement savings, you’ll need access to a variety of reputable financial institutions that can secure your access to reliable investments. And one of the best ways to get access to reliable investments is by using your 401k plan.
If you use a 401k plan, it’s likely that you own a house (or plan on owning one in the future). That means it’s also likely that you have an extra cash cushion lying around that you would like to put towards increasing your investment portfolio. Fortunately, if you have an investment property as well as an extra cash cushion, it might be possible for you to use your 401k account in combination with your investment property in a way that will increase both your cash flow and equity value at the same time.
What Is A 401k?
A 401k is a type of retirement plan that allows you to contribute pre-tax money to an account. The funds in your 401k account are invested in a variety of investment vehicles, including stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. The earnings on these investments will be taxed at the time of withdrawal (when you retire or leave the company), but any interest that is earned on the investments will be tax-free.
The one big exception to this rule is with Roth 401k plans, which allow you to invest funds from your 401k account without paying taxes on those investments at the time of withdrawal. In addition to investing your own money, some employers may also match employee contributions up to a certain amount or provide other types of incentives in exchange for investing more money into their employees’ accounts.
Using Your 401k To Buy Investment Property.
If you have access to an extra cash cushion and/or an investment property that has some value, it might be possible for you to use those assets in combination with your 401k plan in order to increase both your cash flow and equity value at the same time. This is especially true if your employer offers a matching contribution (or another type of incentive) for investing more money into your account. If this happens, it’s possible that by using more than what is provided by just contributing from yourself, you may actually be able to increase both the amount contributed as well as how much additional income can be generated from using these additional funds.
For example, let’s say that you have a $50,000 401k plan. If you used some of your own money to invest in your account and then used the extra funds available to invest in your investment property as well, it might be possible for you to increase the amount of money you contribute by $10,000 and also increase how much income can be generated from using these additional funds as well. This is because the contributions made from yourself and the additional funds used from your investment property will be added together and then multiplied by whatever percentage is set for each contribution level. In this example, since both contributions are being contributed at a 5% contribution rate, it’s likely that both will result in a total contribution of $10,000 for this example.
In this case, if those additional contributions were invested at a 7% return on investment (ROI), it would be possible for those investments to grow by 10% ($1 million) over the course of just one year (assuming no other growth is received). However, if those same investments grew at an 8% ROI over the course of one year instead (adding an additional $100K to each account), it would be possible for them to grow by 13% ($1.3 million) over the course of just one year instead! This is because even though both contributed amounts are being invested at 5%, they are being invested at different rates (8% vs. 7%).
This is just one example of how a small change in portfolio growth rates can have a significant impact on the overall amount of income that can be generated from your investment property.
It is important to note that the number of funds available for investing in your 401k plan should not be used as a substitute for an actual analysis of your investment property. For example, if you have a $50,000 401k plan and your investment property has an expected annual rent roll that is $20,000, it might not make sense to invest all of those funds into your investment property since it would result in very little income being generated from the property (even though it would provide you with additional money to put toward other things such as retirement planning). Instead, you might be better off investing some or all of those funds into your 401k plan while still using some or all of those additional funds to invest in other real estate properties.
Equity Building Strategies For Investment Properties
It is important to note that the number of funds available for investing in your 401k plan should not be used as a substitute for an actual analysis of your investment property. For example, if you have a $50,000 401k plan and your investment property has an expected annual rent roll that is $20,000, it might not make sense to invest all of those funds into your investment property since it would result in very little income being generated from the property (even though it would provide you with additional money to put toward other things such as retirement planning).
Instead, you might be better off investing some or all of those funds into your 401k plan while still using some or all of those additional funds to invest in other real estate properties.
It is also possible that one or more of the tenants that are currently living in the property may leave and then no longer be paying rent as a result. In this case, any money that is earned from future rent payments may not go back into building equity in the investment property. This can happen even if there are multiple tenants living on the property. It’s important to note that this strategy will likely require more maintenance on the part of the landlord, which can be expensive (especially if you own several rental properties at once). You should always consider all options before making any decisions about how best to use these strategies on a long-term basis.
Using these strategies can help build equity faster by reducing vacancies and lowering maintenance expenses. When you own an investment property, it is important to consider how these strategies can impact your overall cash flow. This can be a critical factor in determining whether or not it makes sense to use this strategy in the first place.
Another way that you can help build equity in your investment property is to find a tenant who will pay a higher rent than the current tenants. For example, if you currently have four tenants living in your investment property, and two of them are paying $1,000 per month, and two of them are paying $2,000 per month, it might make sense to negotiate with one of the lower-paying tenants to increase their rent payment to $2,500 per month. While this may seem like a good idea on paper (it means that you would be able to build equity faster), it can have some unexpected consequences.
For example:
It may be difficult to find a tenant who will agree to take this higher rent payment. In addition, you may have trouble finding a tenant who will agree to accept the lower rent payment that you have to offer.
The $2,500 per month rent would be roughly equivalent to $120,000 per year in income. If the property is paid off in 20 years (a typical amount of time it takes for most properties), then the new higher-paying tenant would pay roughly $115,000 per year in rent. This means that your net profit from renting out this property would actually decrease by about $15,000 from what it might have been if you had just continued to charge the lower-paying tenants the same amount of money. This can result in a loss of about 50% of your potential profits for each year that this strategy is used on this property alone (assuming no other changes are made).
Using these strategies can help build equity faster by reducing vacancies and lowering maintenance expenses. When you own an investment property, it is important to consider how these strategies can impact your overall cash flow. This can be a critical factor in determining whether or not it makes sense to use this strategy in the first place.
Pros Of Using 401k To Buy Investment Property
The following are some of the benefits of using a 401k to buy investment property:
The tenant will make their rent paid directly to the 401k instead of you paying the rent. You would then receive a monthly check from your 401k for whatever amount was left over after covering your expenses and covering the mortgage payment. This can help you build equity faster because you would be receiving a larger cash flow on a monthly basis than what you were paying as rent previously. The tenant will also not have to worry about paying any taxes on their income (due to the fact that it is not income to them).
Cons Of Using 401k To Buy Investment Property
There are some disadvantages that could come with using a 401k to buy investment property in certain scenarios:
The tenant may not be able to afford the higher rent payment, and you may have trouble finding a tenant who will agree to accept the lower rent payment that you have to offer. If the property is paid off in 20 years (a typical amount of time it takes for most properties), then the new higher-paying tenant would pay roughly $115,000 per year in rent. This means that your net profit from renting out this property would actually decrease by about $15,000 from what it might have been if you had just continued to charge the lower-paying tenants the same amount of money. This can result in a loss of about 50% of your potential profits for each year that this strategy is used on this property alone (assuming no other changes are made).
If you are able to find tenants who can afford a higher rent payment and will accept a lower payment, then this could be an effective way to build equity faster. However, if you notice that your tenants are already paying too much in rent (which may be common with investors), then there is a good chance that they would not be willing to pay more, so there is no need to try and force them into making these changes.
There are many different ways that you could sell this property in the future. One of the best ways to sell a property is to use an agent who specializes in selling investment properties. This way, you would not have to worry about finding a tenant, and the agent would be able to handle the rest of the process for you. If you decide not to use an agent, then there are still ways that you could put this property up for sale yourself, but it may take a lot more time and effort on your part.
Conclusion
Whether you’re looking to buy an investment property, fund your retirement, or both, a 401k can be a helpful tool. With the right guidance and sound financial planning, you can use your 401k plan to make significant contributions to your retirement savings. And when the time comes, you can withdraw funds from your account at any time without incurring taxes.