What's your why? Why are you after financial freedom?

[Michael Fundaro]

I'm looking for a little inspiration here. I haven't posted in a while, probably because I haven't been thinking of real estate much lately.  I "started out" 5 years ago when I read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad," and dove in.  24 year old me had stars in his eyes, chasing after this thing I just learned about called "Financial Freedom" without knowing what the heck I'd do with it when/if I ever got it.  Bought a duplex that doesn't cash flow and now here I am, approaching my 30th revolution around the sun as the tired landlord I said I'd never be.

I realized that just not liking my job wasn't enough of a motivator for me.  So I dug a little deeper to find out why I'm after it and scared myself when I found out: I don't know!

So, investors on here, especially people starting out: why are you after this Financial Freedom goal? Does it go beyond the finances? What really makes you enjoy investing in real estate?

[Erik W.]

Interesting thread.  I'd like to address a point by @Sarah Brown first, then I'll dive into the OP's specific question.

I think a lot of people actually ARE cut out for being cube farm workers.  These are your typical 8 - 5, 40 hours a week, middle class Americans.  They maybe have a college degree (or not), they like to show up at 8 AM (or 8:05, or 8:10), grab a cup of coffee, swap stories at the water cooler, take an hour lunch (or 1 hour & 15 minutes) while they read a novel or play video games or stream the latest episode of GOT, and clock out at 5 PM (or 4:55), go home and that's their career.  They'll hopefully tuck aside 10% of their income into a 401K in a pre-defined series of stock mutual funds.  they take a 2 week vacation somewhere every year, have two cars on payments most of the time, pay off their mortgage after 30 years that usually includes 2 or 3 refinances to do home improvements and/or send their kids to college.  Then they hope to downsize and retire and enjoy the grand kids and traveling the country in an RV (on payments).

To be clear...there's nothing wrong with that if that's what someone decides.  But we all see what's missing in there: it's a cookie cutter life that is palletized, shrink wrapped, and shipped to someone as a "life" by the Amazons and institutions of modern America. 

But there's no entrepreneurial spirit.  Nothing to really cause one to step outside and take responsibility for one's own life and destiny.  These are the people who complain that "corporations have ruined America" and "the middle class lifestyle is disappearing."  They've never learned what it means to earn a living vs. having a pre-defined plan for living handed to them all pretty with a bow around it.  Again, that's fine if that's all you're fit for.  And for MANY people, that is all they are fit for.  This is the world that the Industrial Revolution and the rise of corporate America has built since the turn of the 19th Century.  It's the factor worker / blue collar career that began in the 1870s and gradually morphed in the 1960s-70s into the corporate American white collar career.

But some of us are weirdos and really want to sink our teeth into life and tear a hunk out of it, chew it up, and see how good it tastes.

100- 400 years ago we would have been pioneers, leaving family, friends, and a known way of life behind to strike it out on a dusty trail that was fraught with peril and no guarantees.  We would have been sailors on ships to "new" lands, frontier farmers scratching out a living, gold miners and prospectors, or rail road builders.  Sadly, the age of explorers and pioneers on this planet has come to an end.  Until Mr. Musk puts us on Mars we have to find something else to do.  Enter...the small business owner / entrepreneur / real estate investor!

We're not satisfied to lead a simple existence, and often times that is frustrating when our efforts achieve no results.  Still, we grind on, knowing there is something amazing about creating the thing that earns one's keep, even if it means following in the perilous footsteps of others.  Pioneers follow the trails of explorers.  Knowing at the end of the day there is no paycheck....no meat to put on the table, unless our conscious effort, will, wisdom, skill, determination, and a dab of good timing all come together to make it so.

That's what the whiners and complainers don't understand.  Wealth doesn't just show up.  It has to be created.  Sure, there are a few lucky (?) ones who get a pile of money dumped at their feet because they were born into a rich family or they won the Lottery, but almost 80% of wealthy Americans are 1st generation rich (The Millionaire Next Door by Dr. Thomas Stanley) meaning they willed that wealth into existence.  They persevered.  They showed up at 5 AM and stayed until 11 PM, unlike the 8-5ers above.  For them, "lunch" is 10 minutes to grab some food and scarf it down while calling vendors, tenants, customers, etc.  Vacations are put on hold for 3-10 years while building up a solid foundation and the business can start to run itself.

I can say the reason I (partially) chose this route is it's coded into my DNA. I have always wanted to know about the inner workings of systems and processes. It's fascinating. I like to build systems and processes...partly why I'm into Info Tech as a day job but thrive on my side-hustle of REI. I like to get my hands "dirty" in the real stuff of life. And I see the rewards are potentially much better for those of us who choose this route than for those who risk nothing other than simply following a path that most other people do.

Millenials may be the first group as a generation to reject the pre-defined life/career trend of the past 100 years more than others, but there's still a long way to go.  Maybe some day more people will find the lure of adventure and reward preferably to 40 years of the daily grind.  Every day is a great day to be a live and do something new and interesting...and hopefully get paid well for it!