What is your WHY ?!?!?

[Account Closed]

I have a question for all of you BPers

I am an active buy and hold investor and some months I ask myself why am I doing this again?

I believe I do this because I do not have a clearly defined WHY to look to during those not so smooth times.  That being said I am working to create a perfect WHY for me.  I figured while I work on it I could hear from you all on your WHY.

WHY do you or do you want to invest in real estate?

[Account Closed]

REI provides me the opportunity to go into business for myself and create something from the bottom up. I lets me know that I can succeed on my own accord and being my own boss. What better opportunity is there in this life than to start a company and rely on your own merits? Could I go into another industry than REI? Sure, but I enjoy buildings, housing, and the comfort of my own home. I have always been excited for a new rental or home purchase in my life...very exciting. I want to provide this feeling to others through REI.

[Tom Chen]

For me, it's to never have to be solely dependent on a single source of income ever again...a J-O-B.

[Daniel Somers]

Money, time to travel, and for my future family

[Winston Kong]

Even though I'm young and just starting out, my WHY is for both myself and family. I grew up with my parents lining up to get food stamps and afraid of losing their home. I'm going into this career with the intent of becoming successful enough that I can allow my parents to retire early and no longer worry about paying bills. I'm also doing this for me. Going through Elementary to High School I've always been compared to my cousin and a few other classmates and I felt I could never be better than them. I'm driven for success in this career in RE in order to prove to myself than I am just as capable as anyone else I've been compared too. This is my WHY and what I believe will push me through the rough times in order to come out on top.

[Jason Rivera]

I have always toyed with the idea of owning rental properties as a buffer in the event of a downturn or job loss but I never got serious about it. My wife and I recently came to the realization that we'd like to move out of our condo and into a home but stay in the same general area. That means that I would need a sizeable down payment that I just won't get to without supplemental income. That prompted me to partner with my dad on our first flip which is currently on the market. I figured out approximatley how many flips I need to do to get to my goal and then I'd like to change over to multifamily rentals for financial freedom. I also have a rough idea of how many I would need for that. So for me, it's 2 "why's" based on specific life stages. If I go beyond my targets, it'll be for the fun of it vs the need. (A potential 3rd why)

[Craig Fitzsimmons]

Because I want to work for myself so my family and I have the freedom to do what we want, when we want!

[Brandon Hicks]

The short people that live with me and my desire to create multi-generational wealth.

[Tom Cooper]

Lots of great answers here, but these are mine:

1) To be able to have a bigger impact on more people in this world, primarily though supporting Christian-based charities, and missionaries, through investing both time and financial resources.

2) To enable my teenage son to a) pursue whatever he is passionate about in life, whether it pays well or not and have a significant impact on others.  The goal is not to leave him independently wealthy, but rather as I build my business with his help, he will have the model to build his own business without me one day.  Hopefully he will then pass that on to others.  That way if it is ever lost, he will have the skills and confidence to rebuild, unlike the majority of heirs who do not create their wealth and thus may or may not have the skills to rebuild.

[Dave Van Horn]

@Account Closed

At first it was to build long term wealth and attain financial freedom. Whether it was through cash flow, appreciation, etc. All with a vehicle that's a hedge against inflation.

But after so many years, I complete that "why" and was looking elsewhere for a new reason to wake up every morning. It took some time, but I've come to realize that now my goal is to help others do the same. With things like BP and my blog, I want to help investors get to their "why", hopefully saving them from making the same mistakes I did along the way.

[Nathan Waters]

Because I work in nuclear power and its not as stable of a career as it used to be. I want to build a recession proof business.

[Account Closed]

Susan Knight it's healthy for everyone to see other peoples whys !

[Grady L.]

I have always enjoyed working hard. Enough has never been good enough. I always thought there was something wrong with me... like I wasn't happy in life. The fact was simple, I was only happy when I was living up to my true potential. Problem is that you only find it from focusing and working hard everyday.

The biggest part of my focus has come from my daughter. I didn't grow up "rough" but I have always been driven to give her something more than what I had.

Hope you find what you are looking for!

[Manny Lopez]

The hour commute one way is my why. The back pain from all the driving, the fact that the person in he next cubicle burbs constantly, the fact that people around think it's impossible to make it outside of a county job? Starting a scholarship program for hard working students in 3rd world countries... Oh yeah and... flying my parents first class to change the forecast is my mo Effin why!

[Account Closed]

Winston Kong being able to free yourself from having to depend on others is huge ... I love my day job but I also know I can leave any time
And live the same lifestyle . I don't rely on my corporate job for a small increase in pay to increase my wealth !

[Account Closed]

It's great to see people get away from the money is everything mentality . I was upset to see the close mindedness when people said it was all about money . It's simply not and many of you prove this !

[James Dorsett]

For me this is a simple one. My kids!! I want to be able to give my children every option out there if they wanna attend Harvard I don't want to have to tell them well you worked hard for the grades but daddy can't afford that I want them to have a good Christmas every year a good birthday every year and be able to do any extra curricular activities they want to when I head to see our Lord I don't want to leave them with debt I want to leave them with security

[Account Closed]

James Dorsett I don't have kids yet but it doesn't get any more important than that !

[Aaron Howell]

My main WHY is getting independent from my W-2 job.  My boss got fired two weeks ago.  I've been taking 8 day vacations since September and loving every moment of it.  My company doubled my PTO in February 2016 so its a no brainer but each 8 day stretch makes me more and more wanting MORE.  I feel like kicking the W2 job to the curb and making a break for it !!!! I'm up to 12 units and i feel like I need 8 more to make serious changes.

[Loren Clive]

Independence. After years of being self-employed, there is no way I could work for anyone else. The value of my time is priceless. 

Putting your money where your mouth is. Real estate investing is total accountability. It really weeds out the big talkers from the doers.

Challenging yourself to dream bigger. I never thought I'd own one house on Maui, let alone as many as I do now. I'm using all my creative skills in real estate, and it never fails to totally engage me. It's always changing, never gets old, I LOVE IT.

Being the change. I really appreciate seeing the tangible results upon the conclusion of a real estate project. You are getting paid to solve a problem, i.e. sell a house in the case of realtor work, or rehab a house when investing. The fact that you're doing good for the community and making money makes it simply awesome.

Not for the kids. Although I have kids, I am not doing it for them in the sense of a legacy. I have seen my share of trustfunders crippled by guaranteed income, and I do not want my children counting on inheritance. Instead I hope they learn to be entrepreneurs themselves from watching my entrepreneurship.

[Cheryl Branche]

My why's are:

To be able to tithe more at church

To be able to help my nephews pay for post-graduate education

To have something to invest my time in

To not have to work in my 60s and up

To be able to help my brothers and nephews health concerns as they age

To be an example of how one can start again financially at 40-50 and succeed

To have leisure time to travel, read, do needlework

To share as much time with my brothers and my nephews as that and I want

To donate to the care for the organ fund at church

To assist women entrepreneurs in the US and abroad

To be able to donate at least one million dollars to the department of surgery at HUH

To donate at least one million dollars to Hoeard University

To donate at least one million dollars to Howard University College of Medicine 

That's it for now!

[Kanwar Sodhi]

3 reasons:

1) I want to excel at my full time career with no worry of money. Maybe having a 9-5 wouldn't be so bad if you didn't have to feel like you were stressed to do it.

2) invest in my kids (when I have them). Protect my kids. Give them a choice and happiness but discipline.

3) give my wife a life she dreamt of. She can pursue this on her own as well. I want her to also excel in her talent and work not to make money but to do what she does best.

[Charlotte Edwards]

Like a lot of people said, it boils down to money...but right now, we started REI to diversify our investments. In a few years, we want our kids to go to school in the USA and we are toying with our career options. Mine aren't great in China, but my husband's are better (though he earns so little compared to what he could in the USA).

What I want, because it's mostly me doing the REI right now, is to have a REI career ready for me/us to support us when we move. From there, we'll see how things go.

Long term, this is to fund our retirement. My parents were "forced" into taking SS early due to a cancer diagnosis..and they didn't prepare well financially. I don't want my kids to be in the position I'm in with my parents. And I'd like to help my parents financially once they start making better choices with their money.

[Brian Jackson]

My WHY is my soon-to-be wife.

I want the freedom of time and money so that we may spend as much time together as possible.  

I want to indulge my impulses to travel and work on new projects.

I want to live my life the way I want to live it!

[Mary White]

My why is definitely for my kids. They are involved with almost everything in our real estate world and are learning important life lessons every day. Just today my seven year old helped my analyze a potential rental purchase based on what parts of the property would appeal to a kid. We're closing on a fantastic 4-plex fix and hold and once it's done we're going to donate a house to Guatemala through our church. This will teach my kids important biblical concepts and the value of crazy levels of generosity. The money part is great, but the real sense of achievement comes from what I can give to my kids and through my kids.

[Ingrid J.]

To gain the ability to own my own life, in other words decide what my time is spent on. As an employee I won't have the same privelidge. And when I get to choose I'd like to spend most of my with friends and family, or traveling the world.