I work a regular job. It’s not in the finance sector, but it probably would be if I started over today. My job isn’t particularly unique or special. But, there is one thing that isn’t super common, at least it wasn’t many years ago when I accepted the job, and it has opened up all the opportunities for me.
I work from home.
Several years ago, I was offered a job that would allow me to work from home. This was something I had wanted to do for a while. It would actually mean a small pay cut for me to accept the job, but I knew it could open up a world of possibilities.
I like my job. I am good at it, and I am well paid. But, it’s not something that I am so passionate about that I do it in my free time. Instead, in my free time, I want to do things like trade options, invest in real estate, and invest in startups. Working from home allows me to spend more time doing those things.
I used to arrive at the office at about 9 am. That would be followed by some greetings, a chat about last night’s game, a morning meeting and before I could get deep into work it was lunch time. So, maybe it was 1:00 before I I could start getting real work done.
Now, I can be in my home office at 7 am and have a solid 2 hours of deep work done before I would haven even arrived in the office previously. There is magic and power in that. Most of my work does not have to be done at specific times, it just has to get done. So, if I need to work early in the morning, or late at night, it’s not a problem. I still have meetings and deadlines, but imagine what that allows me to do with most of my days.
The stock market is only open during specific hours. If you want to trade, you’re going to need to be relatively available during those hours. I’m not staring at the market all day, but when I need to be, I can be.
Talking to real estate agents, bankers, brokers, insurance agents, contractors, and visiting properties is all easiest performed during business hours. If you don’t have that kind of flexibility at your job, real estate investing is going to be harder.
Deciding to work from home has been one of the best decisions I have ever made, and that’s not even taking into account the standard benefits of working from home like no more commute time, more time with family, no crappy fast food lunches, no need to wear pants. Ok, like I said, I have a family, I still have to wear pants.
Not everyone can work from home, but if you can, and you have passions that would like to pursue outside of work, I fully recommend it. It’s a lot easier and acceptable to work from home than it was when I started.
