4 June 2008
Time to invest
I don’t know about you, but for me, it is hard to find time to invest. In investment infomercials, I have heard this statement said a few too many times, “Put your investing on autopilot”. That’s exactly what people want, but it’s just not true. Even if you do have other people doing most of the work for you, you are managing those people. The only true way to put your investing on autopilot is to stick your money in a bank account, CD or stocks and then don’t touch it or look at it until you’re ready to spend the money. But most of us would like a little better return than that. Although I’m speaking specifically about real estate investing, the same holds true for stock investing or any other type. Each takes time and commitment.
Personally, I’m in what I consider to probably be one of the hardest times of life to take time to research investments, especially when it comes to real estate. A lot of time and preparation go into purchasing and either rehabbing/selling or renting out a property. And as I learned recently, you can put a dozen hours of work into acquiring a property and have it slip through your fingers at the last minute. In my case, I’m in my late twenties, married with two very young children. We just bought a larger house in the upper half of our price range that requires a lot of work on the inside and out. I work a full time 8:00 – 4:30 job five days a week and my wife works two 12-hour shifts a week. Obviously we stay pretty busy on our own. Just trying to keep a house in order with two children under three years old is a challenge in itself, but adding to that the work the house needs and it makes it nearly impossible to fit in a few hours here and there to search for and visit potential investment properties.
Also at my work, we have a somewhat Draconian web filtering system in place that blocks access to any web site related to Real Estate. In a way, that’s probably a good thing, because I might get myself fired for searching all day, and I’m not ready for that…yet.
I’m thinking that like most things in life that are worthwhile, I’m going to have to set aside a time each day, or several times a week to search for potential investments. Obviously this is not ideal, because there are times when you need to jump on an opportunity before someone else does. I’d love to be able to wake up in the morning, make a pot of coffee, sit at my desk in my boxers and spend two hours researching, but that’s just not possible… unless… maybe I could give up sleeping. That is probably not sustainable.
Do any of you struggle with this same issue? Do you have any advice on how to make time for investing? Maybe you have a good suggestion of websites or other resources to save time investing.
Thanks for reading.
If you like, or can at least stand to read what I write, make sure you add my RSS Feed to your list so you don’t miss a single post. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this.
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If you like, or can at least stand to read what I write,
make sure you add my RSS Feed to your list so you don't miss a single post.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, read this.
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