Anonymous wrote:He was charged with a felony for doing drugs at a party? Yeah right. I realize this is probably irrelevant to your question, but he hasn't told you the whole story.

+1. I would tell your "friend" to invest in rental property, 2 apartments. If the family doesn't have savings, save at least $50k for a rainy day. Friend should continue to run current business (and/or look for new job) and NOT rely on rental income as primary source of income. Rental income will pay down small mortgages on apartments - when they are paid off, income should be invested.

OP, will you at least admit that your "friend" is actually you.

OP again - Thanks for all the ideas - keep it coming!

Anonymous wrote:$300k will get you 3 or 4 modest single families in Florida. Rent will be $4,500 a month combined. You could live of that if you had to.

In what area (OP here)? Thanks for the suggestion.

Anonymous wrote:$300k will get you 3 or 4 modest single families in Florida. Rent will be $4,500 a month combined. You could live of that if you had to.

We have property in Florida (inherited, rather than chosen because it doesn't make good investment sense) - property tax is extremely high.

$300k will get you 3 or 4 modest single families in Florida. Rent will be $4,500 a month combined. You could live of that if you had to.

Anonymous wrote:He was charged with a felony for doing drugs at a party? Yeah right. I realize this is probably irrelevant to your question, but he hasn't told you the whole story.

Probably distribution

With only $300k in, rental is difficult as good income to support a family, and too many variables involved (unexpeted maintenance, vacancies, deadbeats, etc).

Franchise is OK, but realize that to make good money you need to either a) have you in your family work in it to keep labor costs low or b) have many of the same franchise (think Subway) to get an economy of scale.