A lot of people ask us for recommendations on real estate and related books to read. Well, today we are going to start a new periodic series on the blog that reviews recent real estate books that we’ve read. So without further ado, here goes…
What is the Book?
The Real Estate Retirement Plan – An Investment and Lifestyle Solution for Canadians by Calum Ross with Simon Giannini.
What You'll Learn
The book starts by talking about traditional retirement and why, for many reasons, today’s younger and middle aged population will not be able to look forward to some of the typical retirement income sources of previous generations (ie workplace pensions, generous government entitlements, etc). The population needs to prepare itself for funding their own retirements going forward.
It then segues into a "good debt vs bad debt" discussion about how the public has no problem borrowing to buy depreciating assets like cars or other toys, but find it risky to borrow to invest and buy cash flowing and appreciating assets (ie real estate or equities). People need to start viewing their personal balance sheet more like a corporation, get rid of their bad debt, and also convert their dead equity (ie equity in their personal residence) into productive equity by using it to invest. The best way to do that for most people would be to refinance equity in their home to buy additional investments, either cash flowing real estate or dividend paying equities. Come retirement time, this strategy should pay off in spades, and the author shares many examples.
Later in the book it talks about building your team, such a mortgage broker and real estate agent, and later about investing in real estate and how to profit from this borrow to invest strategy long term.
Why I Recommend It
I agree with the majority of the concepts in the book and put them into practice personally and with our clients all the time. It's especially good for beginners as it's written with easy to understand terms.
My Critique
Some of the examples used I thought were pretty rosy. This is definitely not a get rich quick concept; more of slow, steady climb in wealth concept. Don’t want to people thinking this stuff is easy!
So there you have it folks. Our first book review on the blog. If there are any other books you are interested in hearing about feel free to drop us a line ☺.
Check out our video review of this book here!
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