Step 1: read the manual

15 Books in 15 weeks:

If any of you have read The ABC’s of Real Estate Investing by Ken McElroy

(I’m sure most of you have at least skimmed its pages)

you may remember Ken briefly describing his life prior to investing. He graduated from college and immediately headed off to the corporate world where he discovered a disdain for the daily grind and how he longed to be his own boss. Instead of sticking it out in a cubicle, Ken quit his job and began buying properties full time and developed into one of Robert Kiyosaki’s real estate partner’s. It’s quite the story and, at this point in my life, I see many similarities between Ken and myself, which I will list below:

1.I also am a recent college graduate – obviously this describes plenty of people in America today. If I looked up the number of students who graduate from college every year, it’d be in the hundreds of thousands. I am lucky enough to be from a top 20 university and received a stellar education without accumulating a cent of debt, something for which I am immensely grateful (thanks, mom, dad, and Frank K. Houston). This facet of my education may give me a slight leg up on many other recent grads in the good ole USA.



(Go 'Dores)

2.I also immediately began to work for a large Company – Ken actually mentions in his book that he went to work for a consulting firm post-graduation and I am no different – technically my job title is a professional services consultant and I work for a large healthcare IT Company. Perks of the position include a very respectable starting salary, tons of upward mobility within the company, and I get to travel about 80 percent of the time. Cons of the job are pretty much the same – I make a respectable salary but it isn’t enough to be financially satisfied, I feel tied to the company because I am afraid to leave such a great opportunity too early, and I don’t know if the thought of traveling 80 percent of the time made you cringe but it can be a little overwhelming. I will see the inside of my apartment a grand total of 8 days in the month of September. I am currently writing this article from a hotel room (a very quaint bed and breakfast, actually) in northern California and won’t be back at home until the 22nd of September. Another con to the job: as great of an employee atmosphere as my company creates, I still technically have a boss.

3.I also long to be an entrepreneur – My father started his first company two years before I was born. When he found out my mom was pregnant, he did what he describes as him “kicking it into overdrive because suddenly booze and nice cars weren’t my only priority”. He went on over the next 6 years to build a company valued at well over a million dollars. He wasn’t very financially savvy in his early twenties, though, and lost everything. For 15 years after that, he has serially started more companies (his most recent endeavor: an asphalt company) and created his own financial stability. So I’ve grown up around small businesses and the mentality that being my own boss is the only way.

So, based on the similarities, I have high expectations for my investment career. I actually even have a few aces up my sleeve that Mr. McElroy didn’t have:

1.I grew up with two drastically different families – Now I didn’t delve too deeply into my counterpart’s personal history, but I think my situation is very unique even in today’s world of extremely high divorce rates. I have two homes, not just two sets of parents, but two homes. My siblings call both Pam and Val “mom”, and Greg and Ron have both been “dad” for over 10 years now. Where divorce fractures and tears families, it seemed to create an amazing situation for me: I grew up with two loving, supporting families. And they taught me two very different, very polarizing worldviews. That includes two different perspectives on money. I can delve into this more in a later post, but I would relate it to Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich and Poor Dads (can you tell I’ve been reading already?). This has set me up for a very grounded and realistic view of investing and both the highs and lows it can bring.

2.I love to learn and have so much to study – Ken started investing at a time when REI books, blogs, podcasts, etc. weren’t as unbelievably prolific as they are today. He had to fight his way through the markets and initial hurdles with only the help of his mentors and whatever else was available now 15 years ago. I am starting to invest in an age where access to knowledge (and thus, according to both McElroy and Kiyosaki, wealth) is abundant. I plan on leveraging this availability of knowledge to its fullest extent, which brings me to the purpose of this blog post….

I have read a few books, done a little research, picked my main avenue of investment (buy and hold), and have created a nice little timeline for myself which includes what I am calling:

THE PERIOD OF RAPID ACQUISITION OF KNOWLEDGE!

I have a slight flair of the dramatic, what can I say? Basically, my timeline mandates(meaning it is not optional) that I spend the rest of this calendar year acquiring as much knowledge as possible. There are approximately 17 weeks left in 2013, so based on my current job position, my level of free time, and my personal commitment to this project,

I am going to read 15 books on the topic of investing and growing wealth over the next 15(or 17 in all reality) weeks.

This gives me a little bit of wiggle room to both A.) Miss a week here and there and B.) Write posts about the books I read. I’ve already read a few and I plan to summarize what I’ve learned in my next post. Going forward from now until Christmas, I will continue to post at least once a week with my findings for all to enjoy. Hopefully, this process will keep me accountable and I will reach my goal of 15 books before year’s end! I hope you will take this journey with me, recommend books for me to explore, and comment on anything you find particularly interesting about my adventure.

Looks like I should have book a nook instead of an Ipad for all my time on planes….