Need inspiriation and motivation... what motivates U?

Random Ramblings
1

Guys… I’m a regular on this forum but made this new name to remain anonymous with this post b/c I’m about to post some personal details…

I’ve been on this forum for almost 4 years now, mostly browsing and contributing when I can. 5 years ago, I graduated college, I was broke, and a little under $25k in debt.

Since then, things have worked out pretty good for me. I got corporate jobs, did side gigs, made some money in real estate flips, etc. But now I need a major push. I have my own home with pool in the yard, bought a nice used luxury SUV, have over $80k cash, $100k home eq, and I’m living very comfortable for a single bachelor. But it’s killing my drive and motivation.

Anyhow, long story short, I always wanted to leave corporate and do real estate full time and become financially independent. I was recently let go and am now collecting unemployment, so here’s my perfect chance with a nice government handout to go along with it (Where’s PM when you need him :slight_smile: )

So now I’m a bachelor with a house, car, pool, and steady stream of income coming in every month and I’ve lost the drive that I’ve had when I was living in one room in my bro’s apartment and hating every minute of it. I’m not even a party guy so this stuff isn’t exactly gratifying to have and it’s nothing to brag about. And for the record, I grew up poor… welfare, foodstamps, you name it so I’m very happy to be where I am now.

Now my problem is that I still have obligations to my family, I’m the youngest in the family and the only one with a house, b/c we live in a very over priced market and it’s been difficult to move into a house that would accommodate and extended family with our available income. I need to help my parents/older siblings buy a home, cover expenses, and basically make big money b/c one of us needs to make serious money already and break out of the 9-5 dependency cycle. But I’m finding it hard to do now.

You all have so much more money, assets, etc than I do… so where do you all get the drive to do more everyday? I’ve heard many times that you have to “love what you do” so that it’s not work anymore… but I don’t even know what I love to do. I don’t have a niche or a career b/c since I’ve left college, I’ve been jumping around doing anything that will get me paid. I haven’t exactly “pursued my passions” because when you’re broke, you pursue money.

I’m getting back into real estate now, but pursuing money isn’t motivating me right now. I’m finding it hard to do basic tasks that I keep putting off and I’ve lost the “eye of the tiger” spirit. I wanna make $250k/yr, something that I’ve never made, and get to the millionaire level soon! But I can’t even get myself going strong right now! :banghead

Sorry for the rant… just want you guys to throw in some inspiration here… I need a life line of some sort to change my mind set and get back into the swing of things…

2

If you have 80k in cash and you have been reading these boards,you’re questions have been answered several times over.

You are in a position to do a whole bunch of things.

If you want a kick in the ass, PM fdjake i am sure he will help you with that.

3

I get my motivation from 1 thing…

  1. If other people can do it, why cant I? Are they better than me?

Im naturally a very competitive person, and the thought of people just being better than me pushes me. Im not successful (yet), so time will tell how I turn out.

I dont know if that motivates you, but think about it. Think about all the hard things you’ve done in life, do you really think that people who are making money are better than you? Prove they arent. (thats where I come from atleast)

4

I think you’re WAY ahead of a LOT of other people…

First off…you RECOGNIZE the fact that you need motivation…You’re taking RESPONSIBILITY for your current situation…THAT is BIG!!

The next thing you need to do is take a very hard look at your FUTURE reality…

If you DON’T motivate yourself you’ll LOSE the house, the pool and the BANK ACCOUNT.

In my opinion you need to get another JOB ASAP…The real estate career (if that’s what you want) will happen when it starts COSTING YOU MONEY to go to WORK!! At that point you just QUIT “the job” and never look back…But don’t kid yourself…Starting a REAL ESTATE business with $80K that can SUPPORT YOU is a JOKE…It’s NOT HAPPENING. Especially if the ONLY real estate holding you have as of this time is the house you live in. The REALITY of your situation is at some point in the future your BENEFITS will run out and you’ll be looking at hefty monthly health insurance premiums or rolling the dice and HOPING you don’t have a major health issue that could wipe out that $80,000 in one shot.

Here’s what you need in my opinion…It’s very simple.

Go RENT yourself one of those efficientcy apartments for a week and LIVE THERE…I’m talking about those little DUMPS with a bathroom and a kitchen/bedroom…DO THIS…It will clear your head IMMEDIATELY. Seeing a possible future that is DISMAL would sure as HELL motivate me.

Spend an entire WEEK there and ASK yourself IF it could REALLY HAPPEN to you…(IT CAN!!) Then ask yourself WHAT you’re willing to do to PREVENT THAT???

Then…Do just the OPPOSITE…Go somewhere BEAUTIFUL for a week…ASK yourself which one you want for your FUTURE???

These points in life FASCINATE me…What I find interesting is the decisions people make at these times…From my experience, most people have a VERY LIMITED TIME to REPROGRAM their brains…If they MISS that window…IT’S GONE…I believe it’s the UNKNOWN that ALLOWS us that window to RE BOOT how our brains work during these times.

Case in point…I see unbelievable tragedy everyday as a Firefighter…I see firefighters deal with it and civilians…BOTH have a small WINDOW,( in my opinion) to deal with the situation…The BEST RESULTS I’ve seen come from people who immediately tell themselves…“This is my new reality, I can not change what has already happened, BUT…I can change my FUTURE mental PROCESSING of this incident. It can HAUNT ME for the rest of my life, or I can DECIDE to LIVE what life “I” have left here.”

Sometimes you need a JUMP START IN LIFE…99% of the people I see everyday SLEEP WALK through their LIVES. They WASTE the time they have here, just like YOU’RE DOING NOW!!!

The DIFFERENCE between YOU and THEM is…YOU recognize it!!! :beer

Remember this…

You can make MONEY…

But you CAN NOT make…

T I M E!!!

5

Wow great post pete. I like that. You can make money, but not time.

For the poster, I agree too that you need a Job first. I’m up over 300k this year in RE, but there is no way I would quit my 80K a year airline job at this point. Not yet. Take plenty of time off, yes, but quit no. This RE game is tricky. I wish I could figure out a way to live completely off of my investments, but that one is tough. I’m afraid its going to take another 5 years. Just focus on getting a stable job, then turn your sights back on getting motivated.

6

What motivates me is winning and security. I’m fairly new to REI and have not completed my first deal yet, but I am a poor loser and it would kill me not to win. With winning comes money and with that if not blown comes security. 8 years ago I was living in my car, sleeping on couches and had $8k in collections. It is not a pretty feeling and I’m going stay as far away from that as I can. Currently I am 28, all debt pad off, 20K in the bank, and own a house. Sometimes being at the bottom and never looking back motivates.

7

Great advice… I have to say though, I’m really surprised that you guys are saying to get a job again. There’s no chance I’m going back to get a job, unless I’m almost broke and I’m forced to do it!

John, $80k is a good base salary, but after taxes, social security, etc. that’s about $55k you’re bringing home. I betting that I can make at least $50k in my first year in real estate, if not much, much more.

My living expenses are covered right now, I forgot to mention that I have housemates and that covers all my housing costs. Add the government handout to the rent roll, plus I have COBRA insurance at a 65% discount, and the conclusion is I’d be crazy to go and get a job that pays me $55k or more.

It’s like you said, I can make money but I can’t make time. Right now I have all the time in the world, no stress, nothing to worry about. It feels weird b/c this is the only time in my life that I’ve felt that way. I truly think I just haven’t adjusted to the fact that my life is going okay at this point and I just need to aim higher and harder now that I’m no longer concerned about making ends meet in the short term.

I’ll leave this open ended… I’ll find inspiration out there soon… I agree with fdjake that reprogramming the brain is crucial and maybe that’s what I need to do… My brain needs to realize that it’s time to think bigger and better… I’ll keep you guys posted…

8

The reason you’re being told to get a JOB by people that BUILT real estate businesses is…

They UNDERSTAND how hard it is to do this and are offering you a much more PROBABLY way of being successful.

I never understood WHY people feel they need to put everything on BLACK and spin the wheel??

Your unemployment benefits are on a TIMER as are your COBRA benefits…I can GUARANTEE you that there is no way you are putting together a real estate MARKETING PLAN that will generate enough income for you within the time frame you have. Notice I said MARKETING PLAN…Because in MY experience in the real word, spending REAL MONEY, it’s going to take you over 1 year a MINIMUM of $30,000 each year in advertizing to REACH the number of people you need to in order to quit your JOB, pay for benefits, retirement, BUSINESS EXPENSES, ect.

And here’s a little REAL WORLD real estate investing for ya…

What do you do about…THE PILE UP???

I call it the PILE UP because that’s EXACTLY what it is…

You never find your properties in even, steady STREAMS…They ALL COME AT THE SAME TIME…I’ve been doing this for 20+ years and it NEVER CHANGES.
This takes HUGE amounts of CAPITAL…HUNDREDS OF THOU$AND$. But…This is the nature of the business…If you can’t AFFORD to buy and SIT on these properties while they get cleaned out, rehabbed, marketed, SOLD and CLOSED, you’re not going to LAST in this business.
The other point here is…You NEED to buy these properties WHEN they come along…Because you NEVER KNOW where, or WHEN your next DEAL is coming from…So if you’re PASSING on money making properties because of the PILE UP…You’re leaving HUGE sums of money on the table and your EXPENSES don’t care…THEY still show up EVERY MONTH!!!

Maybe this will help you…

Instead of looking at a JOB as TORTURE play a mind game on your BRAIN.

Everyday you walk in look around at all the HAMPSTERS you work with…A HAMPSTER runs on a tread mill in a CAGE for it’s SHORT LIFE…YOU are NOT a hampster…You’re USING that CAGE to FATTEN YOU UP so you can get the hell out!!..You’re doing a LIMITED SENTENCE…EVERYONE else is in for LIFE!!! If you can look at it like that, you should have NO PROBLEM “doin a little time.”

REMEMBER…Your not doing this for the PAY CHECK…You’re doing this so EVERY DIME you make in real estate can get plowed back into that business…

Flip some houses and start looking at COMMERCIAL PROPERTY when your bank account gets big enough…Those flips will put TENS OF THOU$AND$ in your bank account everytime…THINK about how long it takes a HAMPSTER to save $25K by putting a FRACTION of their PAY CHECK in a savings account every week!!! Add those flips to your $80K and within a few SHORTS years you could EASILY own a commercial building that generates MORE income than your JOB!!!

THEN you jump off the tread mill…Say goodbye to the HAMPSTERS and BUILD ON THAT!!!

Been there, done it, bought the T-shirt…THIS WORKS.

9

You have to remember that money is not a goal. Your problem is determining when do you stop (or in this case start). I have people ask me how many houses should I get. They ask when should I you stop. The answer is that you have to look at your goals. Getting money for money’s sake is being a miser. You have to have a goal in life and you use money to get that goal. If you want a car get money to get that car and stop. If you want a big house get money to get that house and then stop. If you want to sail around the world then make enough money to sail the globe and stop. In your case are you trying to fund your lifestyle permanently? I would list all the money I spend in the last 3 months and average it. That gives you the amount of your lifestyle. Make the goal to match your living expenses. Once you have done then stop and spend time with your family. You don’t have to be Donald Trump or Gordon Gekko to be happy. You do, however need to be you.

10

Ok Im going to take a crack at this…Be warned I dont hold hands and sing kumbaya…

First off 80k isnt all that much to have saved up…In RE it isnt going to get you very far,especially if you are living the Big Willy lifestyle with no job with a house,pool,suv etc…I agree you need to get a good job pronto ahora…Good luck in this economy…Secondly home equity is only good when you sell…Then you have to consider capital gains,broker fees etc…See where Im going with this?..A wise man once said it isnt what you make its what you keep…(Warren Buffet)…To make size money you need size money…Dont believe the BS here that this guy made xxx amount with his change in his jar he has been saving up…More BS gets spewed on the internet than anywhere…My advice is scale down on your Big Willy lifestyle and possibly scale down on your Big Willy house only if you are interested in becoming a serious money player…But more importantly you need INCOME and lots of it…I dont know your age but Im guessing you are late 20’s early 30’s possibly?..If so you arent doing bad but the rate you are going being unemployed and strapped down with a living it up lifestyle your 80k will be 50k pretty quickly…Even though I generally disagree virtually all the time with Bluemoon he is actually correct with his rambling…What are your goals?..Real Estate as in the cash flow business is a dogsh*t way to make money and a great way to lose money…The returns are decent but thats only if you have disposable cash to invest to make that return…80k isnt disposable cash…Once again Im sorry but Im being realistic…If your goal is to make 250k a year from making 80k a year thats a %300 jump in salary in very dark times…Im not trying to burst your bubble but there are a gazillion applicants that are probably smarter than you,me and Bluemoon combined looking for that job…I dont know what you do or what industry you are in but I suggest you figure a way to make income NOW…Being a landlord and trying to make a passive income off that 80k is a crap shoot…Dont waste your money because you will be disappointed when you find out your 80k is tied in wood and you are making %15 ROI on it (which isnt bad) but the 80k liquid is gone until you sell…My advice is this…Sell your home…Take the 75k after brokers fees etc and combine the 80k you have…Now you have a bigger piece of change to play with…You arent going to hit anything out of the park right way with 150k but you can look at better deals…Im not suggesting investing the 150k all at once either…But even you have a good deal and you have 100k into it you still have 50k leftover and no expenses…Expenses are your biggest concern if i was you with no income…Good thing about RE is that it brings in income,bad thing about RE is being a landlord because residential tenants suck…I would pick fdjakes brain on the commercial RE market and what funds you are playing with…What I do is not for you and you need much more capital to make 250k a year to do it…Fdjake can advise you how to flip in this market…I cannot…

And what motivates me is to make SIZE…Ballgames and BBQ’s aint for me…For me the action is the juice…

Know where you stand in this world and what you want…Like my wife said to me recently…You dont make money you collect it…Yeah…I made her say that again :bobble

11

Make-IT,
I’ve got a different take on your posts. You said, “I’ve lost the drive…finding it hard to do basic tasks”…

That smacks to me of clinical depression. A large percentage of us, and especially men, have untreated depression. This medical condition has a 20% mortality rate and is not to be ignored.

My personal depression meter is if I find it overwhelmingly hard to EMPTY THE DISHWASHER and it lasts more than 3 days, and I am all slowed down, then I start thinking that I am slipping back into a depression. Haven’t been there now in 10 years, but it’s a real condition. It hurts. Physically. It affects everything. And it can kill you.

Ask yourself these questions:
Are you waking up in the middle of the night?
Are you eating more or less than normal for you?
Self-medicating your mood with alcohol or drugs?
When did you last smile or laugh outright? Jump for joy?

My personal brain chemicals didn’t like it when I had a regular, salaried job. I learned that I need the jolt of constant change, taking a risk, having adventures, being my own boss, maybe starving.

So I left my nice, professional, salaried job and got my real estate license. I learned immediately that I loved NEW DEALS! NEW PEOPLE (who signed contracts and made me money), NEW HOUSES! NEW KNOWLEDGE OF HOW TO MAKE MONEY! NEW PARTS OF TOWN!

I was totally jazzed that I could immediately go head-to-head at a negotiating table, me, a total real estate newby, with a guy who had been doing it for 30 years. And I could win!

There was a level playing field! Couldn’t wait to get up in the morning and go out into that real estate battlefield with my new armour–the cell phone, the MLS book, the sheaf of blank contracts ready to be signed…

So my advice is:
Become your own best friend. Monitor your condition. Draw a mental line in the sand, and seek professional help and medication if you can’t do your basic tasks. Seeking that help is one of the hardest things in the world to do, for a strong person. To actually say, “I need help-- NOW.”

Forget becoming an investor just yet. Become a real estate agent, then broker. You will get so much information, and so many great deals falling into your lap that you of course can start investing then. 10% of the brokers do 90% of the deals. That can be you.

First, why not take a vacation right now, when you need it? Take along an armload of books. Sleep. Eat. Be alone. Regenerate. You have earned some time to reflect on where you are going.

Good luck, and let us know how you are doing. You did well in asking for advice.

Furnishedowner

Furnishedowner

12

More often than not, if you love what you do everything will be so much simpler. I think you should look for something you would love doing, if real estate is your thing why not. When I got a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering I knew that profession wasn’t for me. I never gave up. I worked for a little under five years to save money (big money in that profession actually) and then resigned and took up Music!! I’m teaching music now and playing in a band with a few steady gigs here and there. The money I’m earning teaching music doesn’t even hit half of what I was earning back when I was practicing Mechanical Engineering (although I am still working as a paid consultant for the same company I worked on before studying again, not to mention they still pay me way bigger than what I’m earning teaching music)… So here’s the thing, it isn’t always about the money. :slight_smile:

13

zeratools,
You are exactly right. It’s NECESSARY for mental health to change your line of work if you can’t stand doing it.

The key to finding work that you like? What you do in your spare time! I was always reading the real estate want ads and fantasizing about houses. I liked moving to a new rental house and changing my immediate environment. I liked and needed change. Now I’ve got houses that I can change anytime, so I stay put.

I also liked managing money and studying loans and financing. I liked dealing with people. Liked solving problems.

So finally I have my perfect self-cobbled-together job. Which makes me money.

Furnishedowner

14

What motivates me? Fear of ending up as a bag lady.

As for the job issue, if you can make $50,000 a year with real estate and you spend that $50,000 a year on living, you will spend the rest of your real estate career, every year, trying to generate another $50,000 from your $80,000 capital.

If you can make $50,000 a year with the real estate, and invest that back into your real estate business, the second year, you have $130,000 to invest instead of $80,000. So maybe you can generate $80,000 the next year instead of $50,000. Invest it back and you get better funded and make more money as each year goes by.

But in order to invest your profits back into your business, you need a way to support yourself. Hence the job.

One other thing to think about: it really helps to have good credit and to be able to borrow money at a reasonable rate. It is sure easier to borrow money if you can show a steady paycheck.

You are getting advice from the people who are actually supporting themselves with real estate. You will get different advice from the people who want you to give them your $80,000 in exchange for their “secret” for gaining real estate riches. Just keep in mind that those gurus are making their money by selling investment programs, not by investing in real estate.

15

Hi,

Actually working as a "Bag Lady" is pretty easy, but I understand it doesn't pay well!

I come from a long line of americans going back to 1632, most of my family history was plantation owners, country gentlemen, for over 225 years our family or extended family had 10, 12, 15 plantations with the great big columns, the long drive way with the tree lined lane’s.

In the civil war everything was lost, the homes, the land, the animals and horses, all were gone! My family came west to Texas, and most settled there or in Oklahoma and became ranchers and farmers, an honorable living for mostly broke settlers, my great, great grandfather invested in mining on the eastern slope of Colorado (The family silver, they say!) and my great grandfather rode with Theodore Roosevelt (I have a letter TR wrote to my great grandfather.) he made a fortune mining (In the tens of millions) all lost on Black Friday 1929!

So my grandfather, father, and I started from nothing, my grandfather was a painting contractor in the 40’s and 50’s, but hardly saved a dollar, my dad worked for everything he had, he was smart about it and made his accomplishments over 50 years.

Now when I was a kid I once dreamed of having my own plane and piloting vacation flights from Southern California to the ski resorts at Tahoe, then I remember thinking I wanted to be an Attorney
then a race car driver, but the truth was I had no idea what I would do when I grew up, my mom and dad liked real estate, gave me some help and breaks so I learned real estate, none of my sisters or brothers have ever made a living at real estate.

But the only ongoing thing in my mind all the time I was growing up was to have enough money to do the things I wanted to do and be my own boss, I wanted to be comfortable and I wanted to travel when I wanted to, and I didn’t want to depend on paycheck to paycheck.

Real estate for me has been a means to an end, I have put real estate profits into business ventures and have won and lost two previous fortunes (Net worth over 1 million), but I have kept at it, I learned from my mistakes and continued to move toward my goals!

Today after working hard for 9 years I have established my third time around (Third Times a Charm)
My business ventures make more money today than real estate, my primary ventures in portfolio properties is for tax shelters, and I have been flipping houses for the enjoyment. (And Entertainment)

I really enjoy what I do, I don’t look at anything as a job (In spite of long work weeks), and in my case enjoy providing employment and benefits to associates that work with me toward common goals!

Whether your goals is a nice wife, two kids and a white picket fence with a moderate income to afford a stable life style to being Bill Gates and inventing the next Microsoft the world is your oyster, and you will get from it what you give to it, and your joy and happiness will show in what ever you choose to do!

Good Luck to you Make_It, and Make _It the best life you can!!!

                        Gold River
16

Nice post, Gold River, very inspiring.

We have a connection-- Your great-grandfather rode with Teddy Roosevelt. One of our family’s great-grandfathers, Purdy Conrad, supplied the mount.

He was the horse broker for the Rough Riders, selling hundreds of horses out of the Horse Heaven Hills in Washington State according to our family lore, and some old newspaper clippings. I believe the horses were shipped off by train.

Hope your great-grandfather had a good ride.

Furnishedowner

17

Great story Gold River!! :beer