How to Build Your 2026 Real Estate Investing Plan

BiggerPockets Blog
Published: December 29, 2025
Pricing & Profitability

Summary

This article discusses financial planning for real estate investors, emphasizing the importance of setting specific financial goals, including after-tax income and equity targets. Hosts can use the advice to plan their financial freedom and ensure they're making enough income from their STRs.

Key Insights

  • The article suggests calculating after-tax income needed to support your lifestyle and adjusting for inflation when setting financial goals.
  • The best way to have cash flow later in your investing career is to have a lot of equity.
  • You should divide your annual income goal by the cash on cash return you think you can get (5-8%) to calculate your equity needed.

Action Items

  • Estimate the annual cash flow you want from your STRs and then estimate the cash on cash return rate you can achieve. Use these values to calculate your real estate equity goal.
    Effort: medium
    Impact: high
  • Calculate your average monthly expenses and then estimate the after-tax income needed to maintain or improve your current lifestyle.
    Effort: low
    Impact: medium

Tools & Resources

  • Start with Strategy: The book 'Start with Strategy' by Dave Meyer, has an Excel file that can help calculate these numbers.

Common Mistakes

  • A common mistake is not accounting for inflation when setting financial goals.

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