Theory: Freelance work + Landlording = Not being a slave to a 9-5 desk job

When I first started this blog, I had the intention of researching careers that I think I may like, since I can’t seem to find anything I like for more than a few months and wind up quitting in about a year or so.  But I had a revelation that what I wanted to do, what I was good at and had passion for was something that has been sitting right in front of me for over three years and that was being a landlord.  Oh yes, I know what you are thinking, “that person who takes my rent and buys fancy cars and clothes and doesn’t fix any of the problems I have at my house.”  I used to think the same thing, but being on the opposite end of the relationship, I can see now what landlords go through.  I assure you I don’t have a fancy car (had the same car since 2002, a Camry) and I don’t buy fancy clothes, in fact I don’t by fancy anything.  The money I receive in rent goes directly towards my mortgage, and I don’t even make a profit with the rent.  I am still paying out of my pocket for part of the mortgage (in another post I will address the mechanics of how many units it takes to make a profit).  I digress. 

Since it takes a while to build up a real estate portfolio, I still need to some type of work in order to take care of every day expenses.  Even though I found what I love, I can’t do it full-time, so in the mean time I am still searching for something that I can do, something that I want to do and that is fun as well. 

I always float around the internet trying to find interesting websites that will help me in my journey and I think I came across just that, but again didn’t realize it until now, about a year after I first happened across it.  The website is called www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com.  The owner of the site is a 28-year-old Stanford grad who uses his unique view of personal finance and wealth building in order to get people motivated to get out of the rat race.  He is definitely not one of those stuffy finance experts who try to teach you that your portfolio should have a certain percentage of bonds and stocks, or pushes you to stick to a budget where you track ever penny of your spending.  Now I admit, I got caught up in trying to teach people the same thing (well, doing a budget but not tracking every penny), but after reading about his psychology behind money and what people want, I have changed my views as well.  He always presents challenges for people to open their minds to the possibility of making more money by doing something they want to do rather than being tied to a desk and computer.  He even developed a course to help people tap into freelance work with things they already have knowledge in.

This has me interested because I have so many ideas for work that can be used as freelance, but I always had no idea where to start.  His course helps people nail down just that.  I didn’t sign up for the course,yet, but he has a preview course that makes it seem it may be a good idea to enroll in the full course. 

I have a few ideas in my head, and maybe the course will help me figure out which one will have the “most bang for the buck.”  I am considering pet sitting/cleaning, teaching classes to retirement communities about the online world, helping landlords organize and understand their business and cashflow, helping people organize their electronic documents and photos or consulting to increase productivity and streamline processes in small businesses.  I will continue updating as I move forward.