Layout:
Home > my realtor, the rich, and Tim Ferriss

my realtor, the rich, and Tim Ferriss

April 25th, 2015 at 02:21 am

Just some odd and end stuff. My realtor pulled up in her blue porsche sports car. And my painter says "are you sure it's a good idea to hire a realtor who drives a nice car?" I say she literally two weeks ago sold my friends house for $886k for a 2 bd condo listed at $799k (same town as me) without a home inspection or mortgage contingency the first weekend. And that's the 5th deal she's done for my friend including selling two of her previous homes, one multi family rental, and buying her current property. And each time she's got full asking price, twice before it hit MLS and sometimes without home inspection contingencies. So I think she's a smart realtor. And I'm hoping she'll want to work hard enough to get the biggest commission so she can buy her next porsche. Perhaps I'm crazy but in realtors I don't mine fancy cars.

So my friend Ms S comes over to see my place and give an honest evaluation. Her quotes to me are "You should have hired the painter to do the whole house. Then you wouldn't be stressing out about getting the place listed. You should have hired a stager they would have brought in furniture, your stuff doesn't match. You should have hired an organizer and hired a babysitter so you could have been faster in purging you place." All true point. But the real truth Ms S doesn't get and will NEVER understand is that "with what money?" Her response "you have to spend money to make money."

The truth is that when you are rich you buy what you want without care. Really, really rich, ie you never worked a day in your life and you never need to because you have a trust fund big enough to support you rich. A trust fund that can pay for private school for your kids at the tune of $50k/year and you not blink an eye. Big enough that when you have your kid you set aside $250k from your trust fund for her college fund. Big enough that you can buy a home cash at 25, be a single mom going to graduate school making $25k/year, and still pay for private school for said child and drive a new leased car every couple of years. That's really, really rich. Ms S is and can be very nice.

But her one fault is she doesn't truly understand how the poor lives. She likes to think she does because she volunteers doing birthday parties at shelters once a month. So she "sees" how they live and takes her kids there. But when I suggested she teach her teenager daughter about being "middle class" by putting her on a budget she said why? I'm sending her to habitat for humanity for teenagers this summer for 2 weeks to learn how to rough it and see how the poor lives.

I said shouldn't you teach her how the middle class lives? That an average family of 4 lives on maybe $800/month groceries (according to FDA) but she spends 3x that plus eats out most meals??? That most people can't afford only organic food? Her response was "oh E understands that. I don't just give her money. She babysits." So when you are that rich that you send your kid to "poverty" but haven't even taught them middle class budgeting it's hard to understand your friends counting their pennies.

So Tim Ferriss wrote the book the four hour work week. My DH tells me he's the reason why he's quitting his job. It resonated with him the idea that you can make more money you can't get back time. So he's taking the risk now to quit and do something else with the opportunity to have more time.

I figure Tim Ferriss is a lot like Mr Money Mustache but not frugal. He lives the life of luxury and isn't ashamed to admit it with lots of consumerish. But at the same time he's preaching working smarter and valuing your time.

5 Responses to “my realtor, the rich, and Tim Ferriss”

  1. creditcardfree Says:
    1429925887

    My realtor has a BMW sports car and some other nice looking black sedan. She told me she LOVES cars! Smile I really don't care what a realtor drives for the most part. Just because you drive a beater doesn't mean you are poor, nor does driving a high end car mean you make lots of money.

  2. DecisiveParadox Says:
    1429926479

    The most important thing I have learnt about rich people is you wouldn't know them when you see them. very much the millionaire next door mantra.
    people who have had to earn 100k would never ever spend it on a car, no matter how nice they are. The only people in my personal expertise that drive 100k plus cars are the once who use them to write down their income with a business.

    I have read Tim Ferris's book the four hour work week. Please be careful before giving up any source of income. remember Tim Ferris's biggest source of income is from selling books. Not from any drop shipping business or even his motivational speaking. EBay is crammed with drop shippers, so is craigslist.

    Some of the best advice I ever got about going into business myself was this.

    "What Have you sold in the last three days?
    How much margin did you make?
    How many times would you have to do it to reach a million?"

    That's it and its that simple. as with anything that I say YMMV.
    Better a little caution then a great regret.

  3. My English Castle Says:
    1429929549

    My first husband was a salesman, and his company required that he have a new car every two years. It used to drive me batty, but their reasoning was that if was perceived as successful, clients would be impressed.

  4. Joan.of.the.Arch Says:
    1429943570

    Has it hit you that you are getting ready to leave your friend behind? Frown

  5. rob62521 Says:
    1429983496

    There's a commercial being broadcast about being stupid rich where these folks who are so wealthy, they don't have to worry about saving money...sounds like the person you have described. I'd say you and your friend have grown apart. Those things happen, but your friend sounds like she is trying to act like she is superior to you? You live in your reality and yes, sometimes you have to spend money to make money, but you also have to work with what you have.

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]