Thanks, Dr. Medimentary.

That’s probably a good choice. I don’t have any physical rentals unless you count the house we rent : ). I know there is money to be made there, I was just never really interested. Is your publically traded REIT allocation an index fund? That’s typically the better way to go. But I have found owning a few individual companies like this is a valuable learning exercise vs. blindly buying the entire US stock market (although buying the entire market happens to have been the core of our portfolio for several years now). Returns aren’t everything, though, and people should really understand how the underlying companies in their index funds work.

I typically don’t let the tax tail wag the dog, but with Mrs. Max OOP’s marginal income as a part-time teacher, tax really isn’t much of an issue for us. My income is getting there, but I still have a few years before I need to worry about taxes too much.

Interesting update. I’ve mainly avoided real estate (no rental properties or investing platforms) as I felt I never understood all the details needed for success. I do have a very small allocation in a publicly-traded REIT, but the dividend yield has been pretty low.

Your dividend return seems impressive, maybe I should read up on other REIT options. I know some folks don’t like dividends for tax reasons, but it seems like good passive income, especially if one can decrease their marginal tax bracket.