I had the opportunity to be invited to the American College of Physicians South Dakota Chapter annual meeting this week. I was asked to speak about real estate investing and how it can help this group of people.
The ACP is a group of internal medicine doctors, all highly intelligent and high performers. I explained that they were probably like me – they worked hard to get into medical school and then after that, they were on rails. The school told us when to study, test, eat, and sleep. We were spoon-fed the necessary information but then we graduated and suddenly the instruction was gone. We were maybe told “Go forth and prosper. Oh, and max out your 401(k).” And that was it. But for high-performers, who grow accustomed to a certain lifestyle, that won’t be enough.
They need to be planning for the future. A great way to do that is through real estate investing. But, that needs to start now. It takes a while.
I was asked some great questions. I learned that many of them already are doing some sort of investing or at least are looking to it. For them, the most important thing is mindset. They need to step into the mindset of taking that extra income now and using it to grow something for the future. Not to continue buying things now. Another question to ask is, “I’m not buying boats and cars, but why don’t I have a down payment saved up?” It’s due to a kind of attrition. It’s all the expenses that we build up, like having 5 streaming services. Removing expenses is as important as, and may be more important than, increasing income.
Interest isn’t holding high performers back – it’s the mindset. And the best way to get there is to learn about investing. I’m really happy to have gotten to speak with this great group of high performers and hope to see them investing in the future!
