Letter to a Friend

What I think is enough. 

I grew up with "enough" in a happy home defined by a mom and dad who loved each other and my sister and me. Thus, even though we didn't have much money, we had "enough." 

What also helped us know that we had enough was our relationship with Jesus Christ. My parents taught my sister and me that we could be satisfied with a love for the Lord and little else. That didn't mean that we never did anything fun because we did many fun things. My dad liked to travel, and we visited many states and provinces. However, our church life was the most significant part of our social life. 

Dawn and I carried this same philosophy into our family life. I worked as a painter for twenty-two years at GMC Truck and Bus, and Dawn cared for our three girls. We also traveled as a family and even visited places like the Dominican Republic and Brazil. Those trips were with the idea of helping the less fortunate. 

I am now sixty-eight and nearing what most call retirement. Forty-one years ago, something happened that changed my perspective about "having enough." I realized that God wanted me to leave my job at GM and serve him full time. THAT WAS HARD to accept, and I did everything to avoid such a drastic decision. 

However, God never gave up on me and enabled my family to move to Brazil in 1997. We have seen him provide for our needs all of these years. Sometimes in unique ways. Our support network is small, with just thirteen churches and thirteen individuals. However, we've always had enough. 

My recent venture into real estate happened because I discovered that I had equity in our former "forever" home. I've made a lot of boo-boos in the past four years of investing. For this reason, I am always watching you and learning from your helpful videos. 

I have six single-family homes, three of which are leveraged, and I bought three with cash. My goal is ten. With my partial pension and social security, six to ten properties should be enough. We'll see how that goes. 😊

The winds of change are in the air, and who knows what our futures will hold. I saw you mention "socialism and hyperinflation" as what worries you most. It is hard to believe that we'd see such trends in our great country; however, they are both possibilities. Though these concepts are disturbing, my final hope is in the one who holds the future, Jesus Christ! 

It has been an exciting life. At times I feel like I have had two different lives. One "normal" and one way over here. I mentioned that I struggled with the thought of leaving my job. My life was connected to the States' average mindset these days. You have to work until you are in your sixties to retire. 

The older that I got, I wondered how my retirement would work. Because I had a paid-off house, but the property taxes were over three thousand dollars. So, I would have to make $250 a month just to pay property taxes! 😁 And like you, I rarely had $1000 bucks in the bank. If I did have that much, it was for church construction projects. Haha. 

Talking with a friend in 2016 opened my eyes to real estate, and I have been trying to figure it out ever since! 😂. Thank you for wanting to help others so much. You dedicate so much time to that effort that it proves that your intentions are just that, helping others. However, you are constantly dropping hints that make it evident that you don't think you are doing enough. We can never do enough to satisfy everyone, but we can continue to do our best where we are. 

When we do, God comes along and multiplies our efforts as we allow Him to guide our steps. With Jesus as our Good Shepherd, we can accomplish a lot, even through failure. My prayer is that you find the grace and peace of Jesus Christ.