Sloe Times
A journal of my adventures in learning and growing personally and professionallyWednesday, June 29, 2005
Dumping the anchor
A lot of the advise/information that I've been reading online points out something pretty obvious about people who 'decide' they're going to invest in real estate. By and large, a majority of the people who become interested never follow through. To a point I think I probably belong(ed) to that group because I've been kicking the ideas and concepts around for more than a few years and never really acted on it before this point and I had to wonder what the heck was holding me back? Knowing what was holding me back then lead to the next question, how can I get rid of this boat anchor?
I think the biggest obstacle holding me back in the past was not being prepared to invest the time to really study and commit to really doing something. Somehow good intentions just wasn't getting it done, go figure. The next thing is being unable to quantify the risks involved. Paralyzed by fear? There are probably still a number of risks I'm not seeing, but for the risks that I can identify I can start figuring out ways to mitigate them. Plus talking about them and planning to deal with them often identifies new issues to be aware of. I think the biggest risk/fear for me is the potential financial impact to my family if things don't work out like I plan. Taking risks is so easy when you're not responsible for anyone else but yourself. So the key here has been acknowledging the risks and planning accordingly.
The other thing holding me back is that there always seems to be something else that needs to have money applied to it and it draws away from my savings. I always seemed to be in the same place that I was the year before when I "made the decision" to start learning and investing in RE. The reality isn't quite that bleak, but with no tangible results it may as well be. So what's different this time? Well I'm armed with a budget that is helping keep spending under control, that's been a huge help where before we seemed to spend until the ATM machine said there was nothing left. Into the budget we built in a savings plan to put away cash for investing purposes.
There's a concept that we use when planning performance planning and reviews at work. Commonly it is referred to as setting S.M.A.R.T. goals which means
I think the biggest obstacle holding me back in the past was not being prepared to invest the time to really study and commit to really doing something. Somehow good intentions just wasn't getting it done, go figure. The next thing is being unable to quantify the risks involved. Paralyzed by fear? There are probably still a number of risks I'm not seeing, but for the risks that I can identify I can start figuring out ways to mitigate them. Plus talking about them and planning to deal with them often identifies new issues to be aware of. I think the biggest risk/fear for me is the potential financial impact to my family if things don't work out like I plan. Taking risks is so easy when you're not responsible for anyone else but yourself. So the key here has been acknowledging the risks and planning accordingly.
The other thing holding me back is that there always seems to be something else that needs to have money applied to it and it draws away from my savings. I always seemed to be in the same place that I was the year before when I "made the decision" to start learning and investing in RE. The reality isn't quite that bleak, but with no tangible results it may as well be. So what's different this time? Well I'm armed with a budget that is helping keep spending under control, that's been a huge help where before we seemed to spend until the ATM machine said there was nothing left. Into the budget we built in a savings plan to put away cash for investing purposes.
There's a concept that we use when planning performance planning and reviews at work. Commonly it is referred to as setting S.M.A.R.T. goals which means
- Specific
- Measurable
- Acceptable to you
- Realistic
- Time limited
posted by Andres Silva # 6/29/2005 07:40:00 PM 
Archives
May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005
