I like what I do, where I am at so to speak. If you change one thing, you change all things and I would not do that.

That said, I sometimes think if I would have focused more on sports I would have been a professional athlete. The thing that turned me off the sports was watching my dad trying to get up off the floor when I was in HS. He was Big Train when he played with Night Train Lane. Saw him sounding like Fred Sanford getting up and ask what was wrong. Too much football when I was younger he says. Figure I would be all broken down and old at a young age, then live for a long time because I have good genes like that. No thanks

I would have just done lots of drugs and been homeless by now.


Oops!!

I meant I would have gotten into Motorsports sooner and been homeless by now.


Real answer.

I wish I had not dropped out of college and had given it a chance. I hated High School and was not happy about sitting in classrooms for 4 more years so I bailed.

I wish I had finished getting my engineering degree and had a mechanical engineering job like I wanted to do.

I like Land Surveying a lot its just the people I have to deal with. Plus its made me kind of Psycho over the years to the point that I do not like people and probably need professional help.

I get to deal with some real winners on a daily basis and it sucks.

If I had the discipline, I would have skipped the engineering degree and gone straight into RE investing at age 18. Early on, I learned I hate sitting behind a desk. I thrive on the independence and freedom.

Knowing what I know now? I know quite a bit. The problem is.., nobody wants to hear what I have to say. This, one of the problems of being an old curmudgeon.

So? Good luck to all. Even Speeder.

Hi...I'm 18 years old, have no money, no job and I'd like to buy this duplex:)

You would buy a 2007 GT3RS wouldn't you???

Make it happen. I passed on a couple of deals like that when I was in my early 30's and kick myself to this day.

Just make sure the combined rent for both units = more than you mortgage payment right now.

I am seeing too many listing way too high. Rent it for 700 a month of buy it for 170K.... hmmmmm... let me think about that......

I would have skipped college and gone straight into software development in 1983, working on PCs. I decided in 1983 that I didn't want to sit behind a keyboard for the rest of my life....

Wow, art huh? My youngest daughter was a great kid so I let her follow her dream and she got an Art History Degree and even spent part of a semester in Florence.

Then after she spent 5 years getting her degree she realized the "Art History" job opportunities and took a 4 month medical class so that she could get a decent paying job.

However, I told her that the good news was that if she ever got on Jeapordy she would ace all the categories dealing with art history!

Regardless of whether you think you can or not, you are correct.

Investing in RE isn't necessarily buying RE.

If I could do it all over again I would pick the path I took. After college I had 3 possible paths offered, the first was in market research with AC Neilsen in Chicago, back in 1969, seemed fun and promising. The second was in Real Estate Appraisal, which was fun and challenging and the third, as a result of family ties, was as a commercial pilot and flight instructor, which seemed best and the most exciting, but offered a starving wage and no benefits, etc. The best for me was in real estate, and after 20 years of appraising all types of properties(I was getting stale), I moved into other areas of real estate, and managed to always work my flying background into all kinds of advantages(mainly more flying, haha). Still doing what I love to do.
What I would say to the young guys and gals coming up, go with your heart first- if you don't love what you do, don't do it. I don't care how much you can make- in the end you will hate it and yourself for not following your dream or instincts. You only get one life. :D

I really believe that luck and attitude play a big part of whatever the definition of "success" might be, regardless of what you might end up doing.

As an example of what not to do, just read some of the posts on this forum from guys who claim to make hundreds of thousands of dollars and yet seem to have dismal lives. It's absurd. They seem to want to brag about their income but also b!tch about all of our social ills and the welfare cheats and how they are getting fuked on paying taxes and on and on. What fools.

I went to work in a factory when I was 17 and would not change anything about my life. Yeah, I was lucky and benefitted from some great timing not of my own doing but I ended up with a great "career" although the only reason I worked was to make money to raise my 6 kids. Yet I met and worked with some great people and got to see more of the world than most guys plus I had the opportunity to really learn the cultures of various nations since I would work closely with the locals for weeks or months at a time. And then I lucked into being able to retire at 55 and did cushy consulting jobs for my former company and similar companies!

So I would say that the secret is to make a decent and honest job or career effort but also to make the best of what life gives you and not turn into a high wage earner who is a bitter cry baby. Making money should be a means to an end rather than making and accumulating money an end unto itself. IMHO.

I think that it's often referred to as "Stop and smell the roses."

Well, I could...but I wouldn't. Man. how I wish I'd given the same answer to other questions of the past...;)

I'd do a few things differently here and there, but not much. School was one of my weak points, I couldn't stand it. I blitzed through my first year in college, that I would change, I wouldn't have gone straight out of high school.

If the question is based on a purely financial aspect, I should have stuck with golf. However, I still would not have played perimeter weighted clubs knowing that ball striking doesn't mean **** today.

At age 31, I began to focus on a goal I set for myself which was nearing the end of its shelf life. So here I am at nearly 33, taking a break from life, wrapping up what I really want, a college degree. I just pray that my number doesn't get called before then, anything after is a bonus. My life has been pretty fulfilling up to this point. I've done a lot of things I am proud of.

widebody,

i got my worthless degree in anthropology. wandered out to los angeles for a summer and ended up an animator. i've worked on dozens of saturday morning toons. i hide messages in them. hopefully i'll correct all the mental damage you do to your grandkids. i'll turn them into decent human beings.

Kid I know is a Navy nuke...hates it...is getting out ASAP...FWIW

Race driver

I spend most of every working day (and plenty of nights) doing anesthesia...frequently for people who have no intent (or capacity) to pay for the service that I'm oftern obligated to provide. Each person has the "right" to sue me for some resulting issue that I may well have not caused.

I'm also paying an attorney 3 times my hourly pay to straighten out a business deal gone south.

From a pay perspective, it seems that law school would have been a great choice.

Bomb technician, there's something about that job that makes people listen to you when they call you up... unlike IT where the bastards call you up for help, and then start arguing why they think my answers are unacceptable

"Sir... your server has 256 MB of RAM
you're running windows 2003, SQL server, and MS Exchange..., you WILL add at least 1GB of RAM, and i WILL close this case if you don't do so right now."

I should have take the NYC Sanitation job my old man nagged me to take. I would have made a $hitload of $$. and been retired five yrs ago!:mad: