4 "Yes I Can!" Strategies for Real Estate Investors With a 9-5 Job

Investing with a full-time job can be one of the biggest challenges that investors face. Not everyone can just quit whatever they’re doing and jump headfirst into the swift water of investing.

Some people really love their jobs; they just like to invest part time. They might be managers, supervisors, or even commanders. People are relying on them to perform at peak levels while at work.

Meanwhile, others are working to replace their salary completely with passive income. Whatever the case may be, we need to remember that we make time for the things we truly want in life. We surround ourselves with the people, materials, and ideas that drive us toward our true passions.

I hear too many new investors tell me that they don’t have enough time to invest in real estate. Some say their jobs are too demanding to allow for extracurricular activities.

This is merely a screen of excuses that we naturally use to justify our lack of action. To get past these self-inflicted barriers, I want to outline a few tips for investing in real estate while holding a full-time job.

1. Budget Your Time

Budgeting your time is one of the most effective ways to ensure that you give yourself enough time to work on your investments.

If we take a look at the people who have the worst spending habits, we notice that they usually do not have any type of budget in place. How can you expect to maximize your efficiency when you don’t know where you are spending your money—or in this case, time?

Maybe you can sneak an extra hour in your day to work on your investments, whether that’s over lunch, immediately after or before work, etc. You need to take a hard look at where you are spending your time to figure out where you are spending it inappropriately.

Are you watching too much television when you should be analyzing deals or working on offers? Did you catch every episode of Game of Thrones but still couldn’t find time to contact that real estate agent about touring investment properties?

Don’t lie to yourself. If you put entertainment before your investments, then your passion is probably not in investing.

2. Become a Master of Compartmentalization

Compartmentalization is a huge concept that you need to grasp if you are going to improve your investing career—especially if you intend to do so alongside a very demanding job. Compartmentalization is the ability to separate different aspects of your life into “compartments” in your mind. You should be able to plug into your business and perform at a high level, then turn around and plug into your investments and be able to pour out the same level of passion and energy.

You should figure out how to do so without these categories bleeding into each other, too. It’s important that you don’t let your negative experiences with work bleed into your investing, family life, and hobbies—and vice versa.

3. Journal Thoughts and Ideas

Journaling thoughts and ideas is a great way to help with your time segregation. If you have a thought about investments while at work and you don’t have time to act on that thought, just write it down so you don’t forget it.

Journaling these ideas can help you stay focused and organized while simultaneously keeping you from working on your investments when you need to be focused on your day job.

Journaling also helps keep your focus on a specific goal. Write it down, and put an action plan in place. It’s a quantifiable way to measure your progress toward that goal.

4. Build a Team

Building a trustworthy team is another great way to help manage your assets while you work. For a small fee, you can hire an assistant part time to keep your books and records or manage your contacts while you work your day job.

There is nothing wrong with doing this. If you want to take investing seriously, you will probably need help. You just need to decide where your time is best spent.

These are just a few of the many tactics you can implement in order to maximize your time and efficiency while you invest with a full-time job. Nobody is asking you to quit your job. Frankly, you may not even want to. THAT’S OK!

But you owe it to yourself to be the best performer in every aspect of your life.

Do you have any other tips for investors who work full time?

Leave a comment below. I’d love to hear your feedback!

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.