Ah, I feel like my advice is the complete opposite to Azircon... but I would pay off your mortgage as soon as possible.

Paying off the mortgage reduces your risk. 

Buying apartments increases your risk - if interest rates rise then you'll cop that on all your properties, you'll have to pay for damages and maintenance, if the apartment goes unrented for a while it dramatically cuts into your returns, if some new apartments go up you can end up owing more on a mortgage than they're worth (increased supply) and if there is an extreme weather event and insurance finds a way to avoid a payout, your risk magnifies... even if insurance does pay out it's a massive hassle.  On top of all that, you have to deal with renters, who can be lovely, or an absolute nightmare.

I legitimately don't understand the argument against paying off your mortgage, maybe it's a regional tax or credit score thing?  The way I see it is if you pay off your mortgage then you require a lot less to live off, your housing costs are minimal, and any additional income you make can go towards investments. You can pay off an apartment a lot faster if both you and the tenants are paying that mortgage. Once the apartment is paid off, you can pay off the next apartment way, way faster if both you and two tenants are paying it off.

If there is one free financial advice I can give you that is this:

NEVER PAY OFF YOUR MORTGAGE

There is no scenario in the world in any country under any circumstances that is a good idea. Period. No further discussion on this topic :)

> we would invest into two or three apartments instead

Yes, please do that. As soon as possible. Start with one. The smallest that you can afford. Hire a property manager and he/she will manage. Own it though a different name or business. We do a LLC here, you will do something equivalent there.

Regarding crypto. Forget about it.

Yes, I am probably the most anti-crypto person you will find here. Yes, I have crypto, a lot of it. However, that doesn't mean anything. Crypto doesn't have any tangible use. Not yet anyways. There is almost no scenario in the developed world where you can do something with crypto that you can't with cash. In developing world, people don't have cash, so they turn into crypto. That is a net loss for the rest of us.

Best of luck with that. I know that rental properties can be a good source of income if you have the right place and the right tenants. I'm kind of starting to feel like this cycle might fall flat too. If something doesn't happen soon...

Yup, Sure price WILL move.. up OR down.. but can u just sit and wait and hope the value goes UP? I tried and watched in dismay as my money got less and less.. turns out if I had only held on for a couple more YEARS, I would've profited. Nope, no more crypto 'investing' for me.. except for HIVE and HBD.. they're cool. 😎🤙

>Anyone have any experience with owning rental properties?

No. before we lived in a flat and my father's parents were our neighbours. My dad sold the flats and bought the house where we live now. Of course that was more than a decade ago and now we is just me and my mother.

At some point in the past, we decided to invest in sleeping time. We went for something that apparently people around us do not understand, even if it is common sense. What we did? Basically, we rented a house that was fully paid, in order to move close to work, and rent a house for ourselves (me+wife) at walking distance from work, instead of commuting (the other house was like 40-60 minutes driving from/to work). So, renting a paid house to a tennant, use the money to rent a house for us instead close to work. 

The aim of this was to save one hour, one extra hour, and wake up one hour late everytime we go to work. In my opinion, the benefits are huge, with no extra spending. Saving so much time, gaining time, this is worth much more that living in a house that is yours. Time gained is so precious, I can't even explain. 3 hours saved per week is 6.5 days of extra time per year, and I use all of this for extra sleep. I hope my body will thank me later in life for all this gimmick. 

And yeah, my family doesn't understand my logic, they would rather commute from a house they own instead of renting  close to work.

Now that I finished my rant, here where I live, you need to meet some conditions and do an annual gas and electricity check, have the documents to prove it, have smoke alarms and CO2 alarms, have a secure house and a few more law requirements in order to be allowed to rent. There is also a special insurance if you have tenants, and the question of keeping the rent deposit safe (you need to let people pay at least 1 month's rent as a deposit, as a rule of thumb, in case they decide to go early and not pay). You need to return the deposit when tenants leave if the house is looking ok.

Tax implications - you need to pay a good part of rent received as tax, as it is extra income.

Can you please give a hint for the best crypto to buy. Not a financial advice, just a friendly advice. The last crash I got rugpulled due to panicked selling. 

Well looks like winning the lottery is actually impossible for you unless someone happens to gift you a winning ticket so definitely don't include that XD

If you can afford buying and maintaining 1-3 apartments to rent out that definitely sounds good on paper, not sure about the reality though (from observation there might be times they seem more a hassle than they're worth if you get horrible tenants that trash the place and refuse to move out).

Good luck with all the plans!

Well, I do have some experience owning rental property. In our area (Seattle) rentals don't seem to do much better than CD (Certificates of Deposit) over the long term. The whole bet is on property appreciation. I held for a while and yes that was my experience. I didn't really make much on rental, but it helped me carry a 4% mortgage on it until I sold to pocket some capital gains.

I haven't ever owned rental property, so can offer no advice or insight.  It seems like a good idea on paper.



Paying off debt is still on my radar but in order to do that I have to sell the crypto I have already and I'm not willing to do that.   So I chip away at the debt and try not to incur anything additional.  Decisions, decisions..

I wish you to reach the level you want in the financial issue. I hope you will post a post about it soon, and we will be happy while reading.

Trust the crypto. The bull run will eventually come. Spot wait patiently on the market. When you reach the price you want, sell and get away from the market :)

I was renting out an apartment. The income was about 3.5% per annum. HBD staking is better.

I think there is a long way for me to consider living off crypto (HIVE), at least as a passive/side income, if I will continue being on HIVE.