Full time student, full time job, and investing in real estate?

Question

Any tips for balancing 18 credit hour classes, 40 hour work week, and managing my investments? Should I wait until I graduate to purchase more units? Hire a property manager?

Max T. · Answer

I must be pretty privileged because my wife (then girlfriend) thought it was cool that a 23 year old was buying a duplex back when our friends were just working and partying. I got points for "mature" . Now she could care less what I do with rentals. I tell her about a new project and she asks "If its a bad deal are we still good?" and that's as far as it goes. Sometimes division of labor beats 50/50.... with the right partner.

Jim K. · Answer

Oh no, I would most definitely not say that. You're going to end up doing what she wants anyway. Just make sure it's at least close to what you want.

My old college buddy's wife just recently posted on how she wants to make her French bulldog puppy get used to wearing cute little sweaters, so she wants suggestions on how to train the animal. Of course, she didn't write such things before giving birth to five children and convincing my idiot friend (who grew up on food stamps along with me) that they absolutely needed 6000 ft of living space in one of the most expensive living communities on the East Coast.

Max T. · Answer

@Jim K.

In other words, “don’t get whipped!”

Jim K. · Answer

@Bryce Efaw

Well, you didn't tell us how old you are. Assuming you're not under 21 or so and you've made a reasoned adult decision to pack your schedule like this for an adult reason, here's my advice:

Low-tech time management materials often tend to work better for me than high-tech ones. In periods of intense activity when every hour of the day has to be accounted for, you usually find me with my weekly planner in my pocket accompanied by a 3x5 index card with the day's schedule on it. I prepare that card for the next day every evening and hit the ground running early in the morning. It's a lot easier to tackle tasks each day when you're already committed to a course of action and you're not asking yourself what's next throughout the day.

If you can shoehorn the 40 hours into 16-hour double shifts, you really gain time. In 2 1/2 days, you've finished a week's work. If the big 16-hour days are your weekend, your week is free except for one 8-hour shift.Assuming you're under 21:

The time you're using for studying, working, and investing is being taken from many other important things in your life. One of the most important is getting ready for married life. I don't care if you're straight or gay -- you have to understand that most people want to end up in long-term committed relationships and especially when you're young, you are almost never told that these relationships are NOT easy and ALSO REQUIRE WORK, of a different kind. There's a great deal involved in picking the right person, and there's a great deal involved in choosing to stay with the right person as the years march on.

From my point of view as your garden-variety heterosexual guy, I have seen guy after guy after guy with some initial ambition blow the choice, and end up with a wife who was comfortable rather than who was helpful, who didn't really share the same life ambitions, who spend the early years basically lying to the guy to get what she wanted out of life, which boiled down to a nice house in the burbs and kids.

These guys I'm talking about grow up in suboptimal homes and usually spend most of their early years trying to get out of their situation, working their butts off in school and on jobs to scrape together some money and change their stars. During this intense young period of constant work, they have (maybe) a longstanding girlfriend or two. The guys often end up getting married only to find themselves ending up living their wife's best middle-class life, which often ends up little more than an elaborate charade of pictures posted to Facebook and Instagram that allow the wife to demonstrate to her mother and high school rivals that she made a good middle-class choice of a family provider and she is in the process of achieving middle-class household happiness. I'm not saying the women do this on purpose. But I've seen it happen frequently.

I have personally listened to about a dozen self-serving explanation of why a guy who's been married for years cheated on his wife and damaged his marriage. It always boils down to the same thing -- the guy resents his wife and children, and feels cheated by his wife's life choices out of a lot of things that he has tried to lie to himself for years, sometimes decades, about wanting. I have also listened to a slightly smaller number of self-serving explanation from cheating wives, usually explaining that their husbands are closed-off and rarely present in their marriage, preferring to spend all their time at work. Cheating wives will go to lengths few would believe to get back at their husbands for doing this.

So if I were you, I'd drop a few classes and postpone graduation. Cut back on my job or switch to a side gig. Get out there. Meet girls. Spend time with them. This is doubly important if you didn't grow up with quality roles models in marriage. Your chances of making a big mistake in choosing your life partner are statistically greater than other people's. Devote some time to this kind of work in your life, and you probably won't regret it later.

When was the last time you heard a guy say, "I went out with a lot of girls when I was young, carefully thought about what I wanted out of life and marriage, and made my choice accordingly. WHAT A MISTAKE!!! I wish I had just picked the first girl who made time to talk to me, blamed my absent daddy for not teaching me how to put a  cap on it, and knocked her up at 15. Yeah, everything would have been SO MUCH BETTER!"

Theresa Harris · Answer

What type of properties do you have-long term rentals?  Have the number of a handyman ready to deal with calls.  If you've had them a while and the tenant have been in place for a while, they shouldn't need much work.

Aaron W. · Answer

@Bryce Efaw That is exciting to hear you are investing in real estate at such a young age!

Deciding on what to do will depending on prioritization and your time management skills. How hands on do you want to be with your investments right now and in the future?

For me, I like to be as hands off as possible and delegate as much as I can when I can. I hire property managers to manage all of my properties so I can focus on other things, like acquire more properties.

If that is what you decide to do, then make sure you hire the best one you can find. Don't go with the first person you find or a buddy to take of it for you. The property manager are your eyes and ears and you should have complete trust in them. They can make or break the profitability of your investment depending on how well they manage it.

Good luck!

Full time student, full time job, and investing in real estate?

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