Thursday, February 16, 2006

And my next career will be....

My best friend once commented on the choice one has with careers. You can do something practical, that will ensure an income and a decent standard of living with money leftover to invest -- which will lead to financial freedom and peace of mind. The other choice is to follow your dreams, which is also important, but it comes with a high price tag. For me, the job of my dreams doesn't earn much money, and it would be better suited as a hobby. So I made a decision to be practical with the remaining working years I had. Afterall, I've had a lot of fun and adventure already!

I began thinking that once Aidan is school age, I need to be primed and ready to go back out into the work world and make the most of the next 20 years so that by retirement, Golf and I will be comfortable, Aidan will be sure of a good college education, and we can go travel and do fun things together. I also want to be able to do that WHILE I'm working and putting in the money. It might even be nice to be able to retire early. You never know.

And what will I do? Well, I always have loved watching these shows on TV: House Hunters, Curb Appeal, landscape shows and house flipping shows. It's always interesting to me how the value goes up and for how much. I've walked into a few open houses for sale just to take a looky loo and always look at the price flyers that are sometimes posted with the For Sale signs.

Now I always thought that the real estate market was already saturated. Just look at this housing boom! However, a successful friend of Golf's made a point that real estate will always be a viable investment no matter what. This wave is just ending and there will be another one -- it's cyclical. He mentioned that as a real estate appraiser, I can get enough knowledge about the real estate market to know when I see a deal for our own acquisition. That's the real value in the job, rather than the salary. And in the meantime, we both just have to save, save, save for our first down payment.

So it's a career move that feels practical and it feels like something I would actually enjoy and benefit from. I found an online course for less than $700 and I can do it in my spare time while still taking care of Aidan and the house. Ideally, I could begin working part time after Aidan's first birthday since my husband works from home. I finally feel like this is something that I can actually do, and we might just succeed at it! :)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I too am addicted to the housing shows. I also watch a local PBS news show called Real Orange that has a regular segment real estate developments. Yesterday the discussion was how an astonishing number of stay-at-home moms had acquired their real estate lisences. These women, all with BA degrees, were primed to get back into the work force and looking to the hoiusing bubble to burst. I spoke to a friend of mine in Santa Barbara yesterday. She said that a record number of houses were for sale there: people who purchased second houses as income properties there are trying to sell them for a profit while they still can. Interest rates have gone up and they will go up again by March.

Anonymous said...

Unless you like to be taught by talking wizards and birds, aviod the Rockwell Institute :)

~Cheryl

Thailand Voices said...

Amy, be very careful of the real estate business. I have a friend in LA who is an Architect (so he knows the real estate business inside and out). He went back to school 5 years ago and go an MBA in Real Estate Management. This guy has major contacts and major education yet he's been basically scrambling to make ANY money since he graduated 3 years ago. He says the real estate marketed is saturated with wanna be realtors and it's very difficult to make any money in it. Plus, you have to pay ALL your expenses when you go into real estate - you pay for the signs that go on the lawns, you pay the company you work for for your desk time, for phone calls, for advertising materials - everything.

My friend is in LA and he says the worst thing he ever did was make the decision to go into real estate. He is now $100,000 in debt and wishing he'd done anything but that!

Amy T said...

Interesting, everybody! Thanks for the heads-up.

I'm getting into Appraisal, which is not a sales job and therefore considerably less competetive, I believe. The job market outlook says that there will be many openings and I just have to give it a shot. It's all I got going for myself. I can do it!!!

Crunchy Domestic Goddess said...

congrats on figuring out what you want to do. :) doesn't that feel great??! i hope it all works out well for you and look forward to reading about your journey.