Someone called into our live show and said: "I need $30,000 just to keep doing my job. Otherwise it's back to a 9-to-5." He was talking about his poker bankroll.

Let's walk through his financial situation together, and tackle his most pressing problem.

The Stats 🔢
Name: Liam
Age: 23 (PA)
Income: ~$10K/mo
Debt: $32K (car loan + mortgage balance)
Expenses: ~$1.8K/mo
Savings: $100K (pre-property)
Assets: $190K

Liam's been playing poker since 19 (using a fake ID). He went pro for realsies at 21 (with his real ID). The volatility of his profession is high, one day he's down $3,000, the next he's up $3,500. If this sounds stressful, it's because it is, and he agreed. Additionally, he's also got about $160K in equity in a rental he renovated himself ($20K still owed on it).

He came to me with a specific problem…

The Problem 🚨
He's in negotiations with a mortgage broker to buy a three-unit rental property (putting ~$80K down, which he got from selling stocks), that has three tenants already collecting $3,800/month in rent, and he wanted to know if he should pull the trigger.

The Patch ✅

A few options…

1️⃣ Send it. Put the full $80K down, become a landlord to three more tenants.

Pros: Instant cash flow, a steadily appreciating asset with a long-term time horizon and rac benefits.

Cons: Kills his liquidity, a second property to manage while he's on the road for tournaments, vacancy risk, bad tenant risk, maintenance/repairs and the list goes on.

2️⃣ Skip the house and invest it back to the market instead.

Pros: On the show we ballparked $100K now plus $5K/month for 20 years at a 7% (after inflation) average return, landing him somewhere close to $3M. It can be mostly automated, so he can focus on the things he actually cares about

Cons: Doesn't fix the itch that made him want to "do something" with the cash in the first place. It's boring (but the most reliable investment of all time).

Liam wasn't really choosing between a house and stocks. He was trying to make an uncomfortable feeling go away — stress. His job is super stressful, and having another property would only add to it. When we pried, we found out his job is the furthest away from fun and his real goal is to be independent enough that he could travel the world.

That's why we like Option 2: fund the job first, protect the downside second by putting it back into the market, and most importantly, find a way to start doing more of what he actually wants to do. He mentioned thinking about buying a truck and doing waste management, but more adjacent — and more interesting — is doing content creation around poker.

Rich Nerd wishes him all the best!

Watch the full video here:

Talk soon,

— Imran