Can real estate create happiness

[Andrew Perkins]

Hello!

A friend and I have recently begun sitting down with people who identify as “Happy”, and trying to find out what that means to them. It made me curious, as a part of the biggerpockets community, how real estate can impact happiness.

As a quick example for me - my wife and I started investing in real estate a couple years ago have just a couple SFRs so far. We aren’t making tons of profit yet, but some of the things that it has given us so far, I feel greatly contribute to happiness. It’s given us something to build. Something to pass down to our children. It’s forced me to learn and grow! I’m reading books again, listening to successful people, trying to do what they do. It has made me so excited for the future, and I’ve realized that the possibilities are endless. It’s even benefited my (non real estate) career. I’ve learned from the podcast that small steps lead to great things, and that momentum can be created! The list goes on and on, and it’s all originated from real estate - or more specifically, biggerpockets.

So, what I’m really wondering is - Is this unique at all to real estate? Or rather, is real estate a vehicle that can generate happiness more effectively than other paths?

[Will Fraser]

Hey Andrew!  In short, real estate does NOT create happiness.  There are some splendid things about about real estate investing, as there is with wealth and fitness.  These good things are simply tools and do not have the ability to produce happiness, but rather this is a decision, or more accurately a series of of ongoing microdecisions in life that we would better refer to as worldview or personal worldview that affects each of us every day.  This is the reason that dirt poor labor class dads in Bangladesh who would never dream of property ownership, much less wealth, can be happy. They could even be joyful, but they can not be wealthy.  Those two are independent and quite frankly not even correlated.  

You are on a solid path and I hope the zeal in you continues to grow and thrive!  Dig deep and understand that it is NOT happiness, but rather a situation in which you have the ability to determine how you spend your time and make decisions that align with multi-generational values you have.  Those are awesome things!  And happiness . . . you can have that, too! Regardless of what you have or what you do day to day, happiness in there for the taking!