Keep your day job but invest in real estate – One person – Multiple careers

What is the antidote to boredom, burnout, job insecurity and other work problems? The answer is to branch out into real estate investing in your spare time, while keeping your day job.

a new model

Author Marci Alboher, in her book One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life Success, shows how multiple professions and multiple identities can converge into a better, unified life.

Since I am a real estate investor/author who also has a regular 8-5 job, I identified with the examples of people in short careers that were most similar to me. One of those people described in the book was Robert Sundaley and a high school earth sciences teacher for more than twenty years. During his summer vacation, he began investing in real estate. He was so successful that he now teaches other teachers how to do it and has published a book about his experiences.

When I started my second career in 2002, I was motivated to change because my day job wasn’t giving me the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment I wanted, and because I wanted an additional source of income. However, I wanted to hold on to my regular job for the security it provided.

One race flows from another

My second career was buying houses to fix up and renting them out. After doing it successfully for seven years, I felt like I was the owner of my own mini-universe. I wrote a how-to book about my experiences (my third race) and I also do presentations (my fourth race).

However, reading One Person/Multiple Careers made me realize that I was not alone in the actions I took. I see now that it’s not uncommon for people to pursue a multi-track career as a way to balance their lives, like I did. Like when you buy a new car and suddenly you see a lot of cars like yours on the road, suddenly I discover a lot of people who have short sprints.

First develop an expertise in an area

As Alboher points out, writing, teaching, speaking and consulting are four chops that accompany any other type of work. Once you develop expertise in an area, it’s natural to pass that knowledge on to students, clients, and the public, and doing so can mean wearing different hats.

The unvarnished truth is that a single identity can be a liability. It leaves you vulnerable to sudden winds of economic change. To be successful and healthy, we must develop multiple identities that we can rely on when conditions change. Slash runs can also be an invaluable fortress against mental and physical illness.