There are various asset classes in which to invest as part of your wealth-building. Aside from stocks and bonds, there is real estate (my favorite), cryptocurrencies, precious metals and more.
But there is something more valuable than these. An asset so finite that its massive global undervaluation baffles me. We all have this asset but it diminishes with each passing year. Finally, it is the only asset that can never be replaced.
Time: The Most Valuable Asset
Did you know that time is an asset? Think about it. We only have so much. We start our lives with seemingly endless time and as we get older we have less. Towards the end of our lives it is the only asset that we wish we had more of. Even if just a few more minutes. How much more would we desire days and weeks.
The Time Is Lost
Unfortunately, people trade this asset for replenish-able assets, most commonly money. And while I understand because I do myself as a working professsional, the reason I chose to invest in real estate is to get my time back. Each year, many hard-working Americans opt not to take vacations because they “work for a living,” as I heard one hard working man once say to excuse himself of the possibility of taking any time off.
As a manager in the corporate world, I have led many people. I have experienced stress and watched those who I led experience it. There is lots of fear in the workplace. Fear of poor performance evaluations, fear of losing jobs, fear of not fitting in. Working as a middle-class person, even with all the gadgets and luxuries, is stressful, because each day we must go to work in order to maintain this level of living. I have heard of people having heart attacks from the stress of this grind.
What is success?
Is success more money? How much? Why is it more money? Are not we really after time? Time is power and freedom. Freedom to make an impact. We think that Elon Musk is successful because he is super rich. Our brains my be confusing his financial net worth as his success and not the impact he is making (pioneering space exploration as well mass production of the electric vehicle). When you have time, you can work on your impact!
Get Your Time Back Through Passive Income
Now, in order to get your time back, the ability to work more manageable hours, take vacations, leave your job altogether to lead your true mission, there must be passive income. That is how you replace dependence on your earned income, the most stressful type and start to enjoy the fruits of passive income.
With passive income, you can cover extra bills, cover your earned income altogether, give more to missions/charities, reinvest for more wealth building, or any combination of the above. The most important piece here is that you did not sweat each week to get it.
Passive income could be stock dividends, rental income from your personal rentals, cash distributions from your passive investments in apartment syndications, and others. The more you save and invest towards passive income, the faster you can snowball those investments into sizeable passive income to get your time back.
Why I Chose Real Estate For Passive Income
Passive income is a time-earning tool. You cannot add more time to your life, but you can deobligate time from the stressful commitments we tend to make in our busy weeks. Earning passive income is freedom to say no just a little bit more.
This is why i chose real estate as my primary wealth-building tool. I convert my extra earned income to passive income through real estate investments and will continue to do so, so that I could live out my mission and make the impact I know that I am purposed to do.
Reflection
What is your purpose and how will passive income help you live it out? Let’s talk about how you can get more time in your wealth portfolio.
