Sloe Times

I'm figuring that most people that were not born to a mentor, probably looked to a proclaimed (self or otherwise) guru when they thought they wanted to get out of working for someone else and captain their own lives towards freedom and wealth. I'm not really any different, having spent my youth at or below the poverty line and having no one around that was doing any better to learn from leaves little room to do anything but follow the same path. I don't know about you, but I hated being "poor" and not having the things I wanted. So, I did what any young, self-motivated person would do in that situation, I got out by learning something new. As it turned out I was pretty good at making those computer things do stuff people wanted and hit the job market about mid internet bubble and with a little luck and some skill managed to not get mangled when the bubble burst. However, I also did not strike it big while the iron was hot so to speak.

Now I'm in another fine mess. Making a decent wage and a half-step past living paycheck to paycheck. As I'm getting older I'm finding the desire to get away from the traditional paycheck stronger and the need to be more in control of my destiny much more desireable. So, like everyone else I revert to type and pick up some books and hit the internet to start trying to figure out if investing in real estate is the right thing for me and my family.

That last statement there is pretty damn important for something like this. I've learned one thing being married for as long as I have, and that's that no major finacial decisions can be made with including the wife. Even if the only thing she can contribute to the endevor is support, that's the bare minimum needed to make sure that it can happen and that I don't have to listen for months about how I shouldn't have spent the money on whatever big ticket thing I just bought is.

So the first step is edumacating myself enough so that I can then explain it to someone else. I've learned over the years that for me, if I can explain something to someone else and keep all the facts straight I know it well enough to be confident that I'll be able to use that knowledge in the real world. This brings me back to the question at had, do I look into the various gurus that are pushing books, courses, etc onto the market? Perhaps having this direct educational effort shave some time off the reading and researching that I would do on my own.

The trouble with that seems to be that most of the 'big name' gurus today are frauds (depending on who you read/ask). At the moment, I've compromised just to at least get things moving in the right direction. I've bough a few books and I'm reading around on the net and slowly working down the self education route. I'm on the fence about attending any sort of seminar and just need more data before I try to commit one way or the other. On the one hand my experience with seminars in the technical field have usually been positive learning experiences. On the other hand a lot of data I'm reading about RE seminars seems to indicate they are just additional tools to pry money from your wallet.

Like I said, I picked up a couple of books for $25 at the bookstore. The first is "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert T. Kiyosaki and the other is "The Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing" by Gary W. Eldred.

I was able to pretty quickly read through the Rich Dad, Poor Dad book (about 200 pages) and it's not exactly what I expected for something that always seems to be on the 'popular' shelf at the bookstore. It's more story than it is guide, but honestly it never said it was a guide, how-to, or cookbook for becoming rich. It did however get me to thinking about what I'm doing with the money I do make now and planted the seed that there are other wise I could be earning a dollar. There's apparently a couple of other books that make up the "Rich Dad Trio" I may give them a look see at the bookstore and see if there's some more specific advice on planning or what things a beginner should know.

I'm only about a dozen pages into The Beginner's Guide (which seems to be around 300 pages of denser material) so I don't have much to say about that yet. I should be through it by this weekend so I'll keep track of my thoughts on it and write something up then. In general, I'm pretty excited, but that's easy to be when something is new and different. Lets see how I feel about it in 30 days.

posted by Andres Silva  # 6/21/2005 08:57:00 PM