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Are you going to be able to retire? And if you do, will you be in a position to enjoy your life, pay medical bills and maintain an acceptable level of health?
Those can be chilling questions if you haven’t thought about them much. If you haven’t given them adequate thought, that means you haven’t prepared for certain inevitabilities.
Real estate investment can help you answer those questions and remove that chill factor.
Let’s face it. Not only will you not want to spend your golden years working, you may not be able to, regardless of whether you would like to. You may live well up into your 80s or 90s and be unable to do the job you are doing today or any job for that matter.
You need to lay the foundation of security and happiness for your future. Real estate investing can help you do that.
This is because, as your investments age, they should be making more and more money for you with less and less effort from you. It’s a sort of financial return-on-energy-investment that will serve you especially well in later years. That’s why people get into investing in the first place.
In order to prepare for your retirement in this way, however, you must examine your core. That means that you will need to make sure your needs are taken care of in such a way that you don’t have to spend all of your time clipping coupons and scrounging for pennies. You need to take the time to learn about real estate, and working at a job you hate, for minimum wage, is not the dream you had for your retirement years.
According to Robert Kiyosaki, author of the Rich Dad book series, you need to build a business system that can operate without you, thereby making money without working for it. Then, take a portion of that money and invest it, thereby exponentially increasing your earning potential. It’s the idea of having your money work for you instead of you working for money. That is what real estate can do for you.
As you grow older, you should be working less, not more. This is partly because your ability to work will decrease. But it is also because you deserve to be able to work less and enjoy your life more. You’ve put in your time and now it’s time to enjoy your retirement years!
Retirement isn’t about being forced out of a job or at least it shouldn’t be. It should be about leaving a job to catch up with your life. To spend time doing the important things like hanging out with family, grandkids and friends, travel, engaging in hobbies that you enjoy and giving back by volunteering for causes and organizations you believe in. Not to mention getting enough exercise.
If you are in a job now that doesn’t allow you to do these things you want because it doesn’t pay enough or because you don’t have enough time left over in the day, then consider switching to a job that pays more or gives you more free time. Develop a business system in which you can train people to do the work for you. Then, when that is up and running, and providing you with the money and time you need, start learning about real estate investing.
Once you have a basic understanding, outline a plan. How much extra money do you want to earn monthly? $500? $1,000? $5,000? $10,000? How many properties and what type of properties would you need to purchase?
Talk to experienced real estate investors and share your plan. Get their feedback and advice, revise your plan/strategies and start the first steps. See if you can get an experienced real estate investor to agree to mentor you. Perhaps you can volunteer to work a few days in their office in exchange for training. This will help you significantly.
One you begin, make sure you are making enough money to live on, and then enough money to invest in additional properties. After a while you should see your money start to grow exponentially. Then you are on your way to a happy retirement.
Bill Manassero is the founder/top dog at “The Old Dawg’s REI Network,” a blog, newsletter and podcast for seniors and retirees that teaches the art of real estate investing. His personal real estate investing goal, which will be chronicled at olddawgsreinetwork.com, is to own/control 1,000 units/doors in the next 6 years. Prior to that, Bill and his family lived in Haiti as missionaries serving orphaned, abandoned and at risk children for Child Hope International.
