A Nervy Approach to Retirement Saving
Forget your 401(k) plan. The big money today is building nest eggs on everything from show horses to rock bands.
RICK KAHLER can’t explain the mysteries of string theory, speak Mandarin or quote long passages from the Odyssey, but after buying and selling hundreds of properties for 30 years, he has a virtual Ph.D. in real estate.
That’s why the South Dakota native felt quite comfortable some years ago when he made what the rest of us might think of as an obscure investment, plunking down $7,500 to acquire a tax-lien certificate on a piece of property in his hometown of Rapid City. The certificate gave Kahler the right to the delinquent taxes on the property, plus interest, if the city collected them. He’d get the whole place if the owner defaulted. County records included a photo of a sturdy looking house and showed there were no other liens or mortgages.
