To really get ahead, you need to make investing a priority. Most people wait for the world to be perfect before investing, and that time never comes.
A wise man was speaking to a group of his students. He put a large jar on the table and carefully placed about 12 large rocks into the jar. When it was filled he asked the class: “Is the jar full?” They all said “yes.” He responded by producing a bucket of gravel and pouring it into the jar. Again he asked if the jar was full. This time the class was wary and replied, “probably not.” Next, he poured a bucket of sand into the jar. Once again he asked if the jar was full. By now the class had woken up and replied “no.” Then, he topped off the jar with water.
When it was full to the brim, he asked “what do you think is the point of this demonstration?”
One student answered that if you really try hard you can always fit more in. “That’s not the point,” the wise man said. “The point is that if you don’t put the big rocks in first, you will never fit them in later.”
The same principles apply to success in real estate investing. You need to secure the big things first and only then allow the small and peripheral things in life to fit in around it. That means setting a plan, a goal and a proven system first before you can let yourself be distracted by investing’s smaller issues.
What this means to real estate investors
For the casual or the serious real estate investor, applying this principle means not obsessing over the best time to buy or sell a property. Rarely, if ever, are you going to time your transaction perfectly so that the price of similar properties won’t be higher if you’re selling or lower if you’re buying a few months later. However, if you follow a good proven strategy and don’t change your approach to investing drastically every time market conditions change, your risk will even out over time.
Real estate investing can be a great addition to your investment portfolio, one that can start paying returns without having to wait for dividend cheques or an upturn in the stock market. Real estate also has the advantage of being tangible, a comforting fact in these sometimes turbulent economic times.
It’s something solid and strong – like that first rock put into the jar.