Stop The Insanity!

After I tagged him yesterday, Kenric tagged me back. Bastard :-)

Five Reasons I Blog

1. Motivation. Back when I started blogging in July, 2004, I viewed the blog as motivation for me to follow through on my plans. I had a habit of starting things and not finishing them or only doing something once. I had just sold my first investment property and wanted something to drive me to keep up investing in real estate. The need for more blog fodder proved to be a good incentive for keeping me moving forward. I'd like to think I don't need that incentive anymore...
   
2. Education. Really, REI isn't that hard. The biggest hurdle I had to get over was taking that first step of buying a property - I was intimidated by the thought of being responsible for another mortgage. I want to show others that finding and buying investment property is not that hard, not scary, and provides great wealth potential. All you need to do is conquer your fears. Many of the books I read were great on motivational-type messages, but there was nothing that gave step-by-step instructions or details on the process of buying, renting, and selling properties. (And since every real estate deal is different, there really can't be a book that does this.) Being analytical by nature, I craved these details when I was starting out. My thought was, by blogging about every minute detail of my experiences, I might be able to help those like me who were motivated but still a bit scared. As I said, every deal is different (not to mention, each state has different laws), but there are similarities and hopefully my experiences can help others.
   
3. Networking. By nature, I'm a shy person. It's difficult for me to go out and meet others in a social setting. Since networking is an important part of real estate investing, the blog helps me find other investors in a way that is more comfortable to me.
4. Money. I don't make lots of money from this blog (on a good month, I'll get close to $50 from the Google ads), but it's extra money for me and I budget it towards things I would never spend my W2 income on - like my ludicrously expensive ice cream maker and my next frivolous purchase - a MAME cabinet. Truthfully though, I do make some good money indirectly from here - it's through this blog that I got some properties in Oklahoma.
   
5. Fun / To Kill Time. When I started the blog, I was working at a day job that wasn't very challenging. I had about 6 hours of free time a day. I needed something to fill up that time and I filled it by reading the message forums at richdad.com. From there, I started reading other blogs and decided to start one of my own, writing entries during the free time I had at work. Now, I have much less free time, but I still blog because I enjoy it.

The other meme I was tagged for was five things I obsess about. This is really tough for me because I don't think I obsess about anything. In fact, I've often felt I am not even totally committed to the hobbies I enjoy and if I was forced to give them up, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. I'm a stereotypical Southern California native - laid-back about pretty much everything. I guess if I had to say I obsess about anything, it's cashflow. I want positive, passive cashflow every month and I look for investments that will provide that. Other than that, I sort of coast through life, enjoying a little of this and a little of that, finding joy in whatever comes my way.

Now that I think about it, I should ask my wife what I obsess about. I'm sure she could come up with a list!

And now, I will take it upon myself to stop the insanity and I will not tag any others for this meme :-)

Tagged: Magazine Meme

Trisha has taken a break from building her empire and tagged me to find out what magazines I read on a regular basis.

This one's easy. I read exactly one magazine regularly: Cook's Illustrated. I love to cook and what I like about this magazine is they don't just give recipes. They explain what different ingredients and techniques they tried, the results, and discuss how they came to settle on the ingredients and methods they present. The engineer in me loves this stuff. The magazine also only comes out every other month and is fairly thin, which means I can find time to read it all.

Occasionally, I'll pick up an issue of Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine, which is a nice Phoenix-based REI mag, but I don't subscribe and only read it sporadically. I get it more for the ads than anything else.


I'll tag:

Kenric at Live Learn Invest (Cliff also tagged you.)

Molly at My Madeleine (who will probably never see this, since I am a lurker on her blog)