Real Estate Investing – The Clint Galliano

As I’ve stated in another article, I was given an early retirement package recently. And if you have read other articles I have posted, you also know that I have been preparing for retirement for a few years now. I am currently 52 years old and planned to be retired from the oil and gas industry by the age of 55.

But I wasn’t sure that we truly had enough saved and/or invested to cover things. So I kept on working.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed most of the aspects of my job, but I was starting to get aggravated with the things I could not change or impact. And in one of my last positions, the amount of administrative busy work that was not HABU, Highest And Best Use, of my skillset.

With all of that said, being told that I was being retired early was a wonderful blessing!

Working from home for the last couple of months of employment and the subsequent five weeks or so has been a revelation. I see and hear people complaining about weight gain and complications from their chronic medical conditions during the pandemic lockdown. I did not experience any of that. In fact, my glucose levels are now sitting at a normal level, with fasting readings mostly below 100. They used to stay between 130 – 180. I have lost approximately 15 pounds.

I was also dealing with migraines due to some nerve issues in my neck. They were exacerbated by the constant stress of work.

Now, those are pretty much gone!

What I have realized over the last few days is that the stress from work was driving a lot of the issues I was experiencing. When I was still working, I would get to the end of each day and be too exhausted to do much of anything else. I would feel mal de ventre, (sick feeling in my stomach), due to worrying about the latest “crisis” occurring. It was so bad that for the last ten years or so, I rarely even had a casual drink because that would just add to the general malaise feeling, in addition to upsetting my glucose levels.

Now, I have none of those worries. I am content. I am spending more time with my family. I am preparing to take the real estate salesperson license exam to become a licensed realtor. I am continuing with real estate investing, looking for quality cash-flowing properties.

It begs the question, why didn’t I retire sooner?

Ultimately, the real answer is that I was not prepared to. After my job was changed and relocated in December, I started to figure out the HOW? of leaving the company. I have some answers, but not all. And that is OK. We have more than enough buffer to get the rest.

Cheers! from semi-retirement!

And, as always, let me know what you think in the comments. Ask questions, tell your story. If you like my posts, please share them with others and subscribe to this blog.

What I grew up seeing around me.

What I wanted to do.

Today I am going to relate my experiences with Money from when I was a child to present day, in a loose chronological order.

My parents split up when I was approximately 10 years old and I don’t really remember a whole lot about our finances prior to that. What I do remember is that after that point, things were not easy.

We moved in with my grandparents, away from friends and family, started a new school, and began a different life. At the end of that school year, I began an unwanted tradition of working every summer on one of my grandfather’s shrimp boats and later in my uncles’ seafood businesses. Whatever money was earned went to help cover costs for my mother, my sister, and me to survive. I would get a hundred dollars at the end of the summer to buy school clothes for the upcoming year and that was the about all I would see of what I made.

My cousins of a similar age were doing the same work as me, but they got to keep all of their money, spending it on nice stereos, toys, etc., because their parents were making money and running a business.

I started learning about the businesses because it seemed like the way to not be poor. What I learned, besides the mechanics of actual operations, were bad money management habits.

Things seemed to be all about making sure you got your share out of the revenue, to the detriment of everything else…spending the holidays at hunting camps, spending the last bit of money you have, with no guarantee of future revenue.

This is not a good model to follow, especially if you are trying to maintain a steady income, much less, grow your income. Eventually, within a few years, both uncles were out of money, with no business to support them, because they only focused on the “right now” and had trouble planning for the long haul.

The takeaway lesson from today’s post is to not spend everything you make. Practice restraint and plan for the future. Short of winning the lottery like a former co-worker, you will not get rich quick. BUT, if you practice this as a habit, it should allow you to prepare for retirement.

Let me know what you think in the comments. Ask questions, tell your story.

If you like my posts, please share them with others and subscribe to this blog.

Tag: Real Estate Investing

Personal – Why Didn’t I Retire Sooner?

My History With Money, Pt. I