What age range are you at your best? 20's? 30's? 40's? 50's?.....

What age range are you at your best? 20's? 30's? 40's? 50's?.....

Real Estate Broker · Cleveland Dayton Cincinnati Toledo Columbus & Akron, OH · Member since 2013 · 30k+ posts · 20k+ votes

I figured this would be an interesting discussion to have. I am really excited to hear from the folks who are much older than I am on this one. As they say "you don't know what you don't know"

@Jay Hinrichs

@Russell Brazil

@Chris Clothier

@J Scott

@Joshua D.

@Brandon Turner

@David Greene

@Joel Owens

@Scott Trench

@Nathan Gesner

What age range do you think you ARE, WILL, or HAVE BEEN at your best in your career?

When we are young we are often inexperienced. With age often comes wisdom and success but it also comes with a slow down. We loose our never ending energy and begin to slow down. We focus more on family and enjoyment when we've crossed off a lot of our life goals.

Me personally, I am 32 right now. I didn't come from any money and when I was in my 20's I worked a ton of crappy jobs including managing a Radio Shack, stocking pop for 7up, delivering pizza and installing / selling Invisible Fences but I had a plan to make it big. I got started on this plan at 21 but it wasn't until I was 27ish and burning both ends of the candle for several years that I was able to completely quit my regular job(s) and devote myself full time to my real estate business. 

Today I run a portfolio of companies with 60+ employees and have sold over $150M of investment real estate so my plan worked but if you talked to me 10+ years ago I was just some schmo schlepping pop onto shelves at grocery stores working for bosses I knew I was smarter then but wasn't ready to put it all together just yet so I was the only one who knew or believed this. 

I still work everyday as I write this. Probably put in 65+ hours a week but truth be told I am not working as much as I was when I was 25-30 and it was do or die. At that time it was a 6am-Midnight grind every day. I've got a son now (more on the way) and am putting much more emphasis on a work / life balance than I was a few years ago. So with that said, I'd say my late 20's I worked the most and the hardest but it's likely that my 30's will probably be the decade that I was at my best as I won't be ready to slow down from what I am currently doing but will be working the smartest now that I've got some experience to goal along with the resources that I've built for myself. As I hit my 40's and beyond I see myself going down to a "normal" 40 hour work week.



So with all of that said what age range do you think you ARE, WILL, or HAVE BEEN at your best in your career?

  • 20's?
  • 30's?
  • 40's?
  • 50's?
  • 60's+?
13Reply
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Rental Property Investor · Salem, OR · Member since 2016 · 202 posts · 305 votes
6y

@James Wise

This is great!!

I'm an old man of 62 but it took a lot of tumbles to get where I am. The nice part of being the old man in the room is I can just plug along on my path and don't even desire to play the game hard like you young bucks and does do.

I can invest in single family for all cash in B - C areas for cash flow and you youngsters can tell me how much more I could make with leverage in multi family and I can just turn down my hearing aids and chuckle. I've been down the leverage road since an amortization table was in a book, yeah like a paper book.

I can put receivables in a shoe box until there is enough in there to buy another shack because I don't even want a newer car or boat. As long as I can remember where I stashed the box every 6 months or so there just seems to be enough in there to buy another pig.

I still live in my own home but when I remodeled it years ago I did put the master on the ground floor and put 36" doors in so I wouldn't skin my hands wheeling the chair around. You youngsters all want to live in a loft these days, I still remember when it was cool to have forced air with the ducts under the sheet rock.

I'm just going to waddle down the hall now and enjoy the fact that I raised 4 kids to be more successful than myself, have some great grand kids with more on the way, my lovely wife has stayed with me on this crazy train and maybe they too will want a shoe box full of deeds someday.

You youngsters rock on and get the world tackled, as long as I can still see the screen on my laptop i'll enjoy reading of your victories and not on BP and James I just enjoyed another tenants from hell a couple hours ago. 

@James Wise

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  • Real Estate Broker · Cleveland Dayton Cincinnati Toledo Columbus & Akron, OH · Member since 2013 · 30k+ posts · 20k+ votes
    6y
    Originally posted by @James Wise:

    I figured this would be an interesting discussion to have. I am really excited to hear from the folks who are much older than I am on this one. As they say "you don't know what you don't know"

    @Jay Hinrichs

    @Russell Brazil

    @Chris Clothier

    @J Scott

    @Joshua D.

    @Brandon Turner

    @David Greene

    @Joel Owens

    @Scott Trench

    @Nathan Gesner

    What age range do you think you ARE, WILL, or HAVE BEEN at your best in your career?

    When we are young we are often inexperienced. With age often comes wisdom and success but it also comes with a slow down. We loose our never ending energy and begin to slow down. We focus more on family and enjoyment when we've crossed off a lot of our life goals.

    Me personally, I am 32 right now. I didn't come from any money and when I was in my 20's I worked a ton of crappy jobs including managing a Radio Shack, stocking pop for 7up, delivering pizza and installing / selling Invisible Fences but I had a plan to make it big. I got started on this plan at 21 but it wasn't until I was 27ish and burning both ends of the candle for several years that I was able to completely quit my regular job(s) and devote myself full time to my real estate business. 

    Today I run a portfolio of companies with 60+ employees and have sold over $150M of investment real estate so my plan worked but if you talked to me 10+ years ago I was just some schmo schlepping pop onto shelves at grocery stores working for bosses I knew I was smarter then but wasn't ready to put it all together just yet so I was the only one who knew or believed this. 

    I still work everyday as I write this. Probably put in 65+ hours a week but truth be told I am not working as much as I was when I was 25-30 and it was do or die. At that time it was a 6am-Midnight grind every day. I've got a son now (more on the way) and am putting much more emphasis on a work / life balance than I was a few years ago. So with that said, I'd say my late 20's I worked the most and the hardest but it's likely that my 30's will probably be the decade that I was at my best as I won't be ready to slow down from what I am currently doing but will be working the smartest now that I've got some experience to goal along with the resources that I've built for myself. As I hit my 40's and beyond I see myself going down to a "normal" 40 hour work week.



    So with all of that said what age range do you think you ARE, WILL, or HAVE BEEN at your best in your career?

    • 20's?
    • 30's?
    • 40's?
    • 50's?
    • 60's+?

     Also just for the record if you were tagged above I am not necessarily saying you're an old timer lol. I know Scott Trench is a young buck. I also want to hear from some more young bucks, old timers and anyone in between who are out there hustling like

    @Dennis M.

    @JD Martin

    @kenny dahill

    @engelo rumora

    @ryan murdock

  • Russell BrazilBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Real Estate Agent · Washington, D.C. · Member since 2012 · 17k+ posts · 30k+ votes
    6y

    Dude...you are only 32? You got to shave that beard, you look like an old man. 

    Im 40 now. Age 35-40 I had a good combination of energy, old enough to know what I was doing, proper capital to get **** done...but not as organized as Id like to be.

    Now Im 40, feel some of the energy leaving, but Im trying to get better organized, so well see.

  • Investor · Columbus, OH · Member since 2017 · 861 posts · 1k+ votes
    6y

    There's some psych concepts about this, for example the 5 stages of man: https://john.do/stages-of-man/

    Shakespeare wrote about the 7 stages of man ("all the worlds a stage") which was also represented in a set of paintings which has an interesting Wikipedia article:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Ages_of_Man_(painting_series)

    From those concepts I think its natural to expect to be at your peak in one of the mid-later phases, when you've figured out what you're good at, and you've had time to get good at it. May not be tied to an exact number, for those who are early or late bloomers, don't fret too much about it. 

    Also, in real estate it takes time to build up a reputation and a "gut feeling" that you can trust. Thus it may not be tied so much to your physical age but just how long you've been in the game. 

  • Rental Property Investor · Ankeny, IA · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    6y

    The answer literally changes with each year and decade that I grow older. Keep climbing that mountain. My career, my financial knowledge, and my success has increased each and every decade that I've been alive. 

  • Real Estate Broker · Cleveland Dayton Cincinnati Toledo Columbus & Akron, OH · Member since 2013 · 30k+ posts · 20k+ votes
    6y
    Originally posted by @Russell Brazil:

    Dude...you are only 32? You got to shave that beard, you look like an old man. 

    Im 40 now. Age 35-40 I had a good combination of energy, old enough to know what I was doing, proper capital to get **** done...but not as organized as Id like to be.

    Now Im 40, feel some of the energy leaving, but Im trying to get better organized, so well see.

     Shave it? Bruh I'm gonna trademark it as a logo.

  • Real Estate Broker · Cleveland Dayton Cincinnati Toledo Columbus & Akron, OH · Member since 2013 · 30k+ posts · 20k+ votes
    6y
    Originally posted by @Anthony Wick:

    The answer literally changes with each year and decade that I grow older. Keep climbing that mountain. My career, my financial knowledge, and my success has increased each and every decade that I've been alive. 

     So thus far you've been on a continued climb? You don't anticipate that to continue till death do you? I imagine a slow down has to occur for you no? Maybe not though I dunno. Trump's done a lot in his career but didn't become the POTUS until his 70's. I imagine everyone who's become the POTUS would consider that their greatest accomplishment so maybe you will keep on climbing through each of these decades.

  • Rental Property Investor · Salem, OR · Member since 2016 · 202 posts · 305 votes
    6y

    @James Wise

    This is great!!

    I'm an old man of 62 but it took a lot of tumbles to get where I am. The nice part of being the old man in the room is I can just plug along on my path and don't even desire to play the game hard like you young bucks and does do.

    I can invest in single family for all cash in B - C areas for cash flow and you youngsters can tell me how much more I could make with leverage in multi family and I can just turn down my hearing aids and chuckle. I've been down the leverage road since an amortization table was in a book, yeah like a paper book.

    I can put receivables in a shoe box until there is enough in there to buy another shack because I don't even want a newer car or boat. As long as I can remember where I stashed the box every 6 months or so there just seems to be enough in there to buy another pig.

    I still live in my own home but when I remodeled it years ago I did put the master on the ground floor and put 36" doors in so I wouldn't skin my hands wheeling the chair around. You youngsters all want to live in a loft these days, I still remember when it was cool to have forced air with the ducts under the sheet rock.

    I'm just going to waddle down the hall now and enjoy the fact that I raised 4 kids to be more successful than myself, have some great grand kids with more on the way, my lovely wife has stayed with me on this crazy train and maybe they too will want a shoe box full of deeds someday.

    You youngsters rock on and get the world tackled, as long as I can still see the screen on my laptop i'll enjoy reading of your victories and not on BP and James I just enjoyed another tenants from hell a couple hours ago. 

    @James Wise

  • Theresa HarrisPro Member
    Member since 2019 · 15k+ posts · 11k+ votes
    6y

    I think the answer will depend on the person.  I would think in your 30s to early 50s are the prime years to buy and invest.  That gives you a long enough period of time for your assets to grow prior to retirement and you're starting at an age where you've bought your first house, settled into a job, paid off any student loans and generally settled down.

    People in their early 20s are still trying to figure out who they are and what they want to do and most have very little money as they are getting started.

  • Rental Property Investor · Ankeny, IA · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    6y

    @James Wise

    Very true. It has been about a 30 year climb thus far. But I am about to turn 51, and plan on retiring from my day job at age 54 (28 years government employment). And then I shall enjoy the fruits of my labor. I have no intention of building my real estate empire until death. I don’t need to be rich, but I’ll love pretty good on investments, pension, and real estate in just a few years. I’d say I am FIRE, just not a super early retirement.

  • Real Estate Broker · Cleveland Dayton Cincinnati Toledo Columbus & Akron, OH · Member since 2013 · 30k+ posts · 20k+ votes
    6y
    Originally posted by @Dean H.:

    @James Wise

    This is great!!

    I'm an old man of 62 but it took a lot of tumbles to get where I am. The nice part of being the old man in the room is I can just plug along on my path and don't even desire to play the game hard like you young bucks and does do.

    I can invest in single family for all cash in B - C areas for cash flow and you youngsters can tell me how much more I could make with leverage in multi family and I can just turn down my hearing aids and chuckle. I've been down the leverage road since an amortization table was in a book, yeah like a paper book.

    I can put receivables in a shoe box until there is enough in there to buy another shack because I don't even want a newer car or boat. As long as I can remember where I stashed the box every 6 months or so there just seems to be enough in there to buy another pig.

    I still live in my own home but when I remodeled it years ago I did put the master on the ground floor and put 36" doors in so I wouldn't skin my hands wheeling the chair around. You youngsters all want to live in a loft these days, I still remember when it was cool to have forced air with the ducts under the sheet rock.

    I'm just going to waddle down the hall now and enjoy the fact that I raised 4 kids to be more successful than myself, have some great grand kids with more on the way, my lovely wife has stayed with me on this crazy train and maybe they too will want a shoe box full of deeds someday.

    You youngsters rock on and get the world tackled, as long as I can still see the screen on my laptop i'll enjoy reading of your victories and not on BP and James I just enjoyed another tenants from hell a couple hours ago. 

    @James Wise

    lol great stuff Dean. The insight from someone who's already been in the trenches and no longer needs to be is awesome...By the way which tenants from hell show was it? The one with the tenant giving out every excuse in the book as to why she was evicted? Lord that one was a treat lol.

  • J ScottPro Member
    Moderator
    Investor · Sarasota, FL · Member since 2008 · 18k+ posts · 17k+ votes
    6y

    I've started and run businesses in many different industries, hired and managed hundreds of people, had some big successes and some massive failures, and what I've come to realize is that age is a lot less important than experience.

    I often talk about the importance of failure, because I truly believe the number of times you fail is indicative of how much you will learn and how likely you are to succeed in the future. My successes have been awesome, but I've walked away from them with a whole lot less knowledge then I have my failures.

    I don't know exactly how to put it into words, but the biggest thing I've learned over the years is that building businesses, investing and making money is very formulaic. Once you understand the moving parts, the interaction between what you put in and what you get out, how scaling works, how leverage works (and I'm not just talking about financial leverage here), building a business is no different than building a house. The first couple times you do it, you're not really sure what you're doing, and the process is slow and tedious, and you may not have a ton of financial success; but once you figure out the process, a light bulb goes off, and it's something you can basically do in your sleep. It's the same with building any type of business or investment portfolio.

    This is why it's so important to just take action and try something.  Even if it's something small, or something that doesn't have a high probability of success, just the action of doing will provide some context and experience that will make the next effort more likely to succeed.

    That said, the hardest part of being successful is actually finding profitable niche. And worse yet, too many people never stopped even think about this factor.  This is what separates real business people from those who are just looking to make easy money overnight.

    Too many people choose their area of focus based on what's popular, based on what they're good at, or based on what they enjoy doing. Or, they look for the next get-rich-quick scheme.  Unfortunately, these aren't typically the areas that are most ripe for profit.

    People often think that I got into real estate because I enjoy real estate investing or because I was good at it. That couldn't be further from the truth. Real estate to me is no different than any other business, and houses are just inventory that can be bought and sold like anything else. I got into real estate because I saw an opportunity in the space. It was my knowledge about how to grow a business that has made me successful, not my expertise in real estate or love of the space.

    A good rule of thumb in business is that you don't want to be first to do something, but you also don't want to be last.  If there are zero competitors in your space, either there's some very hard problems to solve where there is not much opportunity. On the other hand, if everybody and their brother is jumping into a specific space, there's probably a low barrier-to-entry and too much competition.

    Long story short, for those who want to be successful in business, here are my two recommendations:

    1.  Start your first business today. Don't wait. If you don't have a lot of time or money, make it a small side business. But don't expect that your first business will be successful. It likely won't. But it will teach you a good bit. your second, third, fourth, 10th try will be successively easier, and eventually you will realize that there is a formula that works and that can be replicated. No different than flipping a house or buying a rental, the 2nd, 5th, and 10th times are infinitely easier than the first.

    2.  Don't choose a business because you're good at it, because everybody else is doing it or because it sounds like fun.  Find a niche that makes sense, and that is poised for growth over the next couple years. Find someone else who is already successful in that niche. And start by copying what they're doing.  Once you are successful at copying, then you can just focus on innovating. But in many cases, copying is enough to allow you to grow a decent-sized, successful company.  Again, no different than real estate.

  • Rental Property Investor · Salem, OR · Member since 2016 · 202 posts · 305 votes
    6y

    @James Wise

    Yep, she was great. I invest in Memphis and it is the same thru out the mid west in these neighborhoods. Once you learn to not expect different your on your way to success!!!

    I'm from Oregon so your reference to our tenant laws was spot on. I find it crazy that the powers to be think that pouring this BS on is helping house those that need it most. All my affordable housing builder buddies  are flocking out of here.

  • Rental Property Investor · Portland OR · Member since 2018 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    6y

    I feel that my late 40s to now mid 50s have been awesome. I have accomplished a lot, have the experience to do a lot more etc. 

    i would not go back to a  younger age if I could and look forward to learning what more life has in store :) 


    ETA I have a lot of life experience tho- i have done and seen a lot. And all that has allowed me to maybe be a bit more creative and to dream bigger than some :)

  • Developer · NY/NJ/PA · Member since 2018 · 758 posts · 935 votes
    6y

    I'm in my 30s and think every age group has its' pros & cons. 

    In your 20s you can work insane hours + party at night somehow. 

    In your 30s you have more experience and contacts, you can still work a lot if you have no kids. This is when you start working "smarter". 

    I imagine 40s+ will be about working more efficiently.

    At some point you have to slow down working and enjoy life. 

    Personally my plan is to "retire" around 40. Meaning I'll go from a 60+ hr week to a 20-30 hr week. Just do 1-2 projects a year and manage my RE portfolio + small businesses, no more expanding.

  • Multifamily Syndicator · Houston, TX · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    6y

    @James Wise Definitely share some of your thoughts. 

    I'm in my 30s now, and I am fully appreciating the ephemeral nature of life. 

    With that said, I am pushing for a more balanced lifestyle and trying enjoying my family more. 

    I predict 40s will be an interesting decade...

    The truth is we cannot take all the material things acquired to the next life!

  • JD MartinBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Rock Star Extraordinaire · Northeast, TN · Member since 2015 · 10k+ posts · 16k+ votes
    6y
    Originally posted by @James Wise:

    I figured this would be an interesting discussion to have. I am really excited to hear from the folks who are much older than I am on this one. As they say "you don't know what you don't know"

    @Jay Hinrichs

    @Russell Brazil

    @Chris Clothier

    @J Scott

    @Joshua D.

    @Brandon Turner

    @David Greene

    @Joel Owens

    @Scott Trench

    @Nathan Gesner

    What age range do you think you ARE, WILL, or HAVE BEEN at your best in your career?

    When we are young we are often inexperienced. With age often comes wisdom and success but it also comes with a slow down. We loose our never ending energy and begin to slow down. We focus more on family and enjoyment when we've crossed off a lot of our life goals.

    Me personally, I am 32 right now. I didn't come from any money and when I was in my 20's I worked a ton of crappy jobs including managing a Radio Shack, stocking pop for 7up, delivering pizza and installing / selling Invisible Fences but I had a plan to make it big. I got started on this plan at 21 but it wasn't until I was 27ish and burning both ends of the candle for several years that I was able to completely quit my regular job(s) and devote myself full time to my real estate business. 

    Today I run a portfolio of companies with 60+ employees and have sold over $150M of investment real estate so my plan worked but if you talked to me 10+ years ago I was just some schmo schlepping pop onto shelves at grocery stores working for bosses I knew I was smarter then but wasn't ready to put it all together just yet so I was the only one who knew or believed this. 

    I still work everyday as I write this. Probably put in 65+ hours a week but truth be told I am not working as much as I was when I was 25-30 and it was do or die. At that time it was a 6am-Midnight grind every day. I've got a son now (more on the way) and am putting much more emphasis on a work / life balance than I was a few years ago. So with that said, I'd say my late 20's I worked the most and the hardest but it's likely that my 30's will probably be the decade that I was at my best as I won't be ready to slow down from what I am currently doing but will be working the smartest now that I've got some experience to goal along with the resources that I've built for myself. As I hit my 40's and beyond I see myself going down to a "normal" 40 hour work week.



    So with all of that said what age range do you think you ARE, WILL, or HAVE BEEN at your best in your career?

    • 20's?
    • 30's?
    • 40's?
    • 50's?
    • 60's+?

     I am almost 50 and closing in on retirement from a lifetime career in public service. Each decade has been different for me in strength and weakness:

    20s: Hardcore bundle of energy and drive, but low levels of knowledge and capital. Poor choices sometimes brought by lack of experience or impetuous action. 

    30s: Still good energy and better knowledge. Setting good foundation for future wealth. 

    Early 40s: Less energy but greater understanding of money and wealth building opportunities. 

    Late 40s: Seriously declining energy, much greater wealth and knowledge. Some health issues.

    Overall, I feel I was at my best in my early-mid 30s in terms of total package. I'm far wealthier now but have nowhere near the drive or stamina I used to have. Some days I feel positively ancient. It's a damned good thing I got my financial future solved before 45 as I shudder to think how it would be if I had to grind it out hard another 10-20 years. 

    i should qualify all of this by noting that I grew up so poor we were homeless at times and frequently without electric, hot water, etc. and thus I have been working full or nearly full time since 9 years old. That kind of experience makes you old and wears you out faster than your years. 

    Skyline Properties
    View Page
  • Rental Property Investor · Durham, NC · Member since 2016 · 7k+ posts · 7k+ votes
    6y

    @James Wise interesting topic. Statistically you earn the most in your late 40s (for men) and probably peak mentally around the same time.

    Personally I would say your 30s-40s are the peak for most people but it can vary a lot.

  • Rental Property Investor · Erie, PA · Member since 2018 · 6k+ posts · 9k+ votes
    6y

    Great topic ! All my adult life I was always a machinist / tool and die maker working in tool shops for 55 +hours a week to build somebody else’s business . I got where I hated going to work because my wages were fixed ..then my father died . He was skilled and worked hard yet died broke because he had a lousy retirement plan and drifted in life instead of setting goals .

    As I reflect on his life I’d say he made a series of errors and settled for the vow of the average . So I decided I didn’t want my kids paying for my funeral .. I would be different and so began a journey to seek out ways to accelerate my wealth in a short time . The only logical realistic choice I could see for me was real estate investing . It’s been a wild ride but I’m still fairly new and learning everyday . I am 41 and going to make my 40’s the decade I retire and transition into investing only .

    Real estate has spiked me as an employee it has me seeing things much differently . I’m sick of building someone else’s dream and going forward I’m focusing on building my dreams . I always made above average pay through my 20’sand 30’s but I now realize working for money is a losers strategy . You need money to work for you .

  • Rental Property Investor · Savannah, GA · Member since 2018 · 174 posts · 129 votes
    6y

    @James Wise

    Just wondering, why do you still work so much? 65+ hours still working when it sounds like you could definitely be financially free with how much real estate you manage/own. Do you just love the grind? Or do you not have ‘enough’ yet?

    Your physical body is technically at its peak at 25 years old, but I would assume that’s not the case for business or financial success.

    Time is the ultimate freedom, but it doesn't seem like you value it that much with your continued rigorous work schedule. Hey, maybe just love it, but my goal isn't to create another job through REI.

    People work away the best years of their life, it’s unfortunate. You’re at your best now, take advantage of it.

  • Joel OwensBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Real Estate Broker · Canton, GA · Member since 2010 · 15k+ posts · 11k+ votes
    6y

    I am 44 years old now. Age is just a number. I just came back from the park running 12 miles. My time is decent for my age about 9:00 flat per mile pace. I workout 5 days a week and take off 2 days.

    As you get older you value money less and TIME more. The investing buying the right way gives you the freedom to decide your ideal happy life you want to live day to day. I have refined my business model over the years to be what I want it to be. Potential clients go to my site and click get started. They then submit PFS and we jump on a call. From there if they seem like a good fit and I do for them as well then I send the exclusive agreement.

    These procedures are not followed then we never get started. They can opt out in my web stats and I never even have to think twice about it. I want my ideal client and my ideal passive investors for my syndication and nothing else. If you have to do a different system for each potential client or investor you can't run an optimized and scalable business. You have to put them through a funnel and only the ones that meet the criteria make it all the way through the process.

    I have a family as well. We started late but have our son Ryan who just turned 28 days old. Sleep deprivation is real folks! lol

    I set a goal that I would not use sleep deprivation as a crutch or excuse not to exercise and hit metrics goals with my business. I tend to have a photographic memory verbally and visually. Many people unless they have a stimulus in front of them think of nothing and brain is shut off. Running for me is therapeutic. My mind goes 24/7 so the running actually shuts it down for a few hours and resets everything. I also come up with great ideas and problem solving during this time as it gives me ultra focus and thinking on unresolved complex problems.

    I don't think production goes down with age I think you learn to delegate tasks to others who can do it better and faster than you. I don't want to build a business model where I have to be the one doing everything all the time because physically and time wise there will be a limit to that no matter how good you are.

    Some of my colleagues in the commercial retail space who are older in their late 60's and early 70's kind of view things this way.

    When they were 20's and 30's they wanted to rule the world with their business start up. 40's and 50's the company grew but they started implementing more hires and positions. Now 60's and 70's they have trained up those employees for succession plans or buyouts. Day to day they still work but it is more minimal involvement as they age.

    So 20's to 30's in age. All out for business and maybe 20% time left for family and friends with little to no mentoring others.

    40's to 50's in age training up others to walk in their footsteps. Maybe working on business 50% of the time,35% family and friends, 15% mentoring.

    60's and 70's in age maybe 25 to 30% business, 50% family, and 20 to 25% mentoring.

    Anyone can design a structure how they like.

    For me I want to scale my business but within certain parameters such as not working more than X hours per week, then X hours exercise, family, friends, traveling, etc. By designing the daily life I want it's easy to say NO to those things that do not fit into that plan. Everyone wants your time but you have to be the master of it.      

  • Investor · Greenville, SC · Member since 2016 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes
    6y

    I work with executives in their 50s and 60s and they run circles around our other team members. It's not the years of experience that matter...it's the type and level of experience...and the type and level of experience of your peers.  Practice does not make perfect...perfect practice makes perfect.

    There is no such thing as work/life balance.  If you want to be great at the "life" part, that takes a lot of "work" too.

  • Nathan GesnerBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Real Estate Broker · Cody, WY · Member since 2010 · 28k+ posts · 41k+ votes
    6y

    I'm still on an upward climb!

    I grew up in a small Oregon logging community with government cheese, powdered milk, and 90% of my clothes were hand-me-downs or garage sale specials. I had to split wood for two days and shoot a few stray cats just to earn enough money to afford the entrance fee for the homecoming dance. I joined the military at 17 and served for 21 years. I was making a good check every month, learned how to live debt-free, and bought a house by the age of 30. Compared to all my relatives living in trailers, I thought I was high cotton and never thought to strive for more.

    After I retired from the military, I decided to get into real estate with a focus on property management. I knew property management had a lot of bad apples so I figured I could make a good living at it and improve the profession. However, my mindset was still stuck on working to earn a paycheck with no plans to do more. 

    It wasn't until a few years ago that I finally realized I was capable of more. I still struggle with limiting beliefs but have gotten much better at escaping that mindset and continue to find ways to grow as a person and investor.

    I just turned 50 last month and can technically consider myself a millionaire and financially independent but I have no desire to stop working. My next goal is to build a life focused on helping others. I am aiming for a monthly income of $40,000. I will use $10,000 for me and $30,000 towards others, whether that's local charities or digging water wells in Africa.

    My late 40's were my best, by far. I woke up to my potential, I discovered a decent balance of work and life, and I believe I've finally found my purpose in life. But who knows what the future holds!

    The DIY Landlord Book4.7247 Reviews
  • Erie, PA · Member since 2018 · 413 posts · 348 votes
    6y

    Great topic.  I enjoy reading things like this

  • Member since 2019 · 94 posts · 75 votes
    6y

    @Joel Owens get it Joel!

    I just did a light calesthenic workout a few minutes ago and feel great. At 35 I'm making the highest salary I ever have, about to close on a mobile home park, under contract for a triplex and have one SFR ( soon-to-be 2 when we move to the triplex. I also stream video games a few evenings per week. I feel like life is just getting going if you stay in shape and eat well.

    I've definitely found super intense workouts don't go over well for me now. It's better to split it up in a lot of less intense sessions now that I'm approaching 40. I've considered picking up running as well. L

    Wish you the best!

  • Rental Property Investor · RVA · Member since 2016 · 5k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    6y

    I just turned 30 over the summer. My 20s were mostly spent working and figuring out my path. 30s will be better because I have now have a track record, commitment, and a trajectory.

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