Those of you who are following my monthly blogs know that I have been on a mission to achieve certain goals – to remain financially free and independent for the rest of my life. Without getting into details, starting toward the end of October 2017, I decided to go on a parallel path to meeting those goals.
There are certain risks associated with following such a path. First, doing so would mean that my workload more than doubles, as if I did not have enough to do already. Second, there is a possibility that I may lose focus on the existing path to get to my goals.
So why did I decide to follow such a path? Here is a simple answer. Despite intermittent successes with the path that I have been following for the last four years, I was not reaching my financial goals in a timely manner. Worse, there has been no consistency in monthly performance results. This is not good. As someone once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
I have always viewed real-estate wholesaling as merely a temporary measure – simply to help stabilize our cash flow within a relatively short period of time. That said, as of now, with over a hundred wholesale leads to follow up at any given moment, I know that I am “this close” to making it in this business. Yet, too often, when I think a deal is about to close, it ends up not closing for whatever reason. Having experienced this more often than I care to admit, I felt that I had no choice but to follow a parallel path when an opportunity was presented to me from a trustworthy source.
Whether or not this decision turns out to be a wise one, only time will tell. I expect November 2017 through April 2018 to be a period of intense learning, implementing, and ramping up the new business. I am giving this new opportunity – and myself – one year to prove its worth.
In the meantime, I am excited beyond measure about the possibility of how this may finally enable us to resume travelling, which has always been David’s passion. After having visited all seven continents as well as 62 countries, all our travel plans came to a screeching halt in December 2010. That was when we cancelled a trip to Japan, my home country, which was supposed to be enjoyed with an extended family of nine.
During our 45-year marriage, David has always stood by me, no matter what. At our age, knowing full well that the rest of our time together – here on earth – is finite, I want to make sure that we continue to enjoy life together; and have no regrets in the end. While we’ve always gotten along incredibly well through thick and thin, regaining the financial freedom that we used to have will help afford the life style to which we were accustomed BEFORE the market crashes of 2000 and 2008.
Today, my weekday-morning routine to “strive” for making five offers on real-estate deals – all the while staying well within our buy formula – remains intact; yes, five offers per day. Needless to say, it is much easier said than done. The bottom line, however, is this: no offers = no deals; and no deals closed = no cash.
My afternoons and weekends are now devoted to learning and implementing the new business. The level of support by this community is beyond words. I love every aspect of this business. And the best part? David and I are having a blast, working on it together.
Lastly, in either of the parallel paths, I like the fact that I’m the only one that can fire me – if ever. I am grateful for the freedom to do what I believe needs to be done to help improve our financial situation. Above all else, I cherish every minute of my life of freedom in the U.S.A.
Happy investing!
