Why would anyone want to become a property investor?
If you haven’t got the bug yet, here’s why one investor started building his portfolio.
Well, I can’t speak for others but I can share why I wanted to become a property investor. Don’t worry, I’m not going to rattle off a laundry list of complicated equation-packed stuffy reasons, instead, I’d like to tell you my primary motivator — the reason that trumped all the other reasons — the main reason.
Ok, here it comes, the main reason I became a property investor – drum roll please …
To have more control over my calendar!
That’s it.
That’s the reason.
Why is controlling my calendar so important?
Well, here are a few illustrations as follows:
I want to get up in the morning at a time of my choosing and not at a time chosen by my boss. I still get up a 5 am on weekdays but that’s because I want to. On weekends I sleep in because… I want to.
I want to go on holiday without having to ask my boss for permission. I used to “horse trade” with my boss to get time off, now I just schedule the dates and go. I like it better now.
I want the flexibility to determine when I work and when I don’t work, when I’m on duty and when I’m off duty, when I answer the phone and when I don’t answer the phone. I remember when I didn’t have this flexibility. The one-sided conversation with my boss went something like this, “Dave, you will carry the beeper 24/7 and respond within five minutes when called. Got it?”
No guarantee
When I started out as a property investor was there a guarantee I’d someday break free and gain control of my calendar?
No!
There are no guarantees in life. (Note: That’s if you don’t count death and taxes…)
Oops! Let me backtrack. There is one other guarantee in life and it goes like this…
If you do nothing, nothing will happen!
Or, maybe put another way, if you don’t plant any seed, how can you expect a harvest?
So, I had to plant. Even though there was no guarantee of a harvest, I had to plant property investment seeds. That way I had a fighting chance. I was in the game. I was on the playing field. I was no longer a spectator.
Spectators have zero per cent chance of winning. Spectators can only watch. I wanted to play.
And, here’s an ugly truth, when you play you risk injury; you risk pain; you risk failure.
Here’s a more pleasant truth, by getting on the playing field you give yourself a chance to win!
Did I know my property investment journey would be successful?
No.
But, I knew something else… if I continued doing what all the JOB people around me were doing; I’d have what they have. And I didn’t like what I saw. I saw co-workers 10 or 15 years older and they still had virtually no control over their calendars. I didn’t want that. I wanted something different. So, I had to do something different.
I became a property investor.
Become a property investor.
