A Second Career, for Fun?

I’ve been on a little vacation from writing, not because there isn’t anything to write about, far from it. Recently, my wife and I decided to pursue a second career for both of us. When I retired from my first career of near thirty-eight years, I said I wanted to work at something that interested me and not be hung up on the income aspect of it. I do believe when you’re unencumbered by income requirements, it frees you to just enjoy what you’re doing. Our youngest daughter has shown an interest in doing this as well, Team Something, we haven’t quite figured out the details of an LLC name and the splitting of money earned or the expenses schedule either. But we feel this is the right move for us and are currently taking the Texas Real Estate required course hours which will be followed by taking the exams for state and national levels. At least I’m thinking about the state exam for two other states, Colorado and California. We have picked a company to be our overhead Realtor Broker and leader and is largely because of our huge respect for the CEO of the company in addition to our friendship.

My biggest regret is that I didn’t start this years ago following my retirement. I feel like I’ve wasted working time, but I’m somewhat not bothered by it as we took time to build both our house and our rent cabin. The regret thing is only about the feeling that I’d be more established in the business and somewhat more known in the area. I don’t hold unreal expectations about success as my goal is to close on three or four homes a year. I also won’t think we’re a failure if we fall short of the goal and will certainly be happy if we exceed it.

Now studying at sixty-five is more of challenge than expected only because I haven’t committed an amount of time daily, in fact it is more trying to get a certain amount of time a week. But now that we are headed into vacation, I think I’ll actually be able to complete the course and take some practice exams before getting home. My biggest problem is the interest in doing stuff daily that also holds a lot of interest for me. Add in my time I spend with my eighty-seven-year-old father and I’m fairly busy. Real Estate is the perfect place to work in as it gives us the latitude to make our own schedule to keep everything in balance.

I’ve read taking an interest and making a career from it is usually a recipe for success. In time, I’m sure we’ll have a very good idea of whether we succeed or not. The only concern or wonder is how long will we do it? I feel I have a good ten years in me and maybe fifteen, but when I reach the age of eighty, it should be the time to hang up any working notion I might have. But if the number of congressional people there are that have worked well beyond that age, who knows, probably health will be the determining factor in how long we do it.

With the costs of living going up at an alarming rate, the extra income might be a welcome addition to handling our household expenses. Hopefully, within the next two years, the economy will resolve and there will be some checks in place to control the leader of this country. It is amazing how in twenty-one months he has been able to damage the existence of every household in this country, but more amazing is the lack of knowledge or care that he has done so.