Advice If You Were Me

[Ben Riggs]

Hey BP community I want to thank you in advance for any level of contribution to my question. I need a bit of professional/personal advice. I am a sophomore finance major at Texas A&M. I'm a 20 year old from the Dallas area who's been in love with the idea of real estate for years now. I've worked my butt off to get to where I am and I plan to be able to graduate December of '22 with no debt.

My question to you is what would you do if you were me?

I have goals of being a philanthropist & even running a Real Estate LLC. down the road and I'm open to any advice on getting there with my next steps regarding how I spend my summer of 2021.

I'm questioning whether I should consider applying for financial analyst internships because that seems to be the largest source of employment for my fellow alumni OR to target an internship that would more so help develop my commercial real estate experience. I want to be as productive as I can with my summers regarding internships but as of now I've yet to make the turn from part-time summer retail gigs to more relevant experience internships. I was top of my class in high school and have a competitive academic record, good character, and great social skills, yet still haven't found success in applying for internships. Last summer was really hard to watch many of my friends plans get cancelled on them so I just want to make sure I'm setting myself up for success as a front runner for job recruiting. Pay really isn't a priority to me either, I would love to just work really hard for a company and develop as an individual.

As of now I'm continuing to soak up every podcast/book/advice I can get my hands on. I've been able to talk with several people who've had their success and have since retired. I've been following the likes of Dave Ramsey since my booster seat days (which makes me slightly hesitant on diving in on a house-hack) and I love to watch Graham Stephan. The BP guys are amazing, likeable, and sharp as a tack, and I love to hear everyone's journey to success. 

If y'all have any amount of advice that you think would be beneficial or know of someone that I should connect with, I would be so thankful.

Thanks again for your time and feedback, I genuinely appreciate it.

-Ben

[John Teachout]

My advice would be to do everything you can to work towards a successful completion of your degree. I wouldn't mix your "future" and the present. ie, knock out the college thing and then move forward from there.