25 years old full of potential: tempted to go O/O

60k in real estate might return 20% annually or better under ideal conditions which is great, but becoming a fully independent O/O can easily double or triple his annual net income. He can invest into real estate with the increased income.

 

I read this new post of yours and then went back and read the 2016 version. I think mindset wise you were better off then then you are now.

I would move to the suburbs of a city that is a great location for trucking. You spoke of buying a truck, one day having a fleet, and making more money then any of your peers. So... do it! Forget Landstar. If you do this then get your own authority and run your butt off while learning the business end of this industry. Learn how to make money with 1 truck and then add another, learn how to make money with two trucks and add another. Once you have learned how to make money with 3 trucks then you’ll be on your way.

I could have gone to college but didn’t want too. It’s not for me. I’m a business minded person who seeks out opportunity and takes advantage of it. School is mindless to me. Working for someone else is the same. I want pure freedom over myself and my destiny. If I succeed or fail it’s 100% on me and that’s how I want it.

I started my company at 23 and am now 34. So I can relate a lot with where you are right now. I was the type that always saved my money too. At a certain point you gotta find your jumping off point and go for it. I have 8 trucks, 1 owner op, 13 trailers, a brokerage, and a small warehouse/yard. I make more money then any peer I ever knew and more money then anyone in my or my wife’s family. I call all the shots and do whatever the helI I want. I only say this because in your old thread you said this is exactly what you dream of. Well I’m telling you it’s possible!

DO NOT get me wrong though. This is an extremely tough, stressful, cut throat, pressure cooker of a business. It will age you dramatically. I’m 34 going on 64 mentally and probably 44 physically. It takes a long time to learn how to deal with all the weight, responsibility, and pressure of it all. I’ve had the anxiety, I’ve had the chest pain, I’ve had the waking up in the middle of the night in a panic thinking what’s wrong what’s wrong!? I’ve had my phone on vibrate for the last few years because when it would ring my heart would race. Would I have done this journey again if I could go back? Yes, yes I would 100%. I’m stronger, I’m proud, and I don’t take #### from no one. I have a 2 and a half year old who loves trucks, tractors, and if he wants to get involved one day my wife and I will be happy for him. If not I’ll encourage him to follow his dreams.

Think long and hard but don’t be afraid either. If you have a passion for business and making money, solving problems, leading people, etc then you will be fine. I’m the type of person who can talk business for hours, but bored as #### when my friends are talking fantasy football and #####ing about their jobs.

Hope this gives you some real world insight of someone who has been there and done it and it helps you at this cross roads. I can tell you are a deep thinker and articulate. You also save money and don’t spend it. So, if you got the business sense and are fairly good with people then I know you’ll do just fine. Good luck brother.

 

I vote you go for it. I became an Owner operator at 23 hauling cattle with only 14k. I've had ups and big downs, but now I'm 26 with a net worth that puts me in the top 3% of 25-29 year olds and I've really slacked off the last year. Probably just gonna take next winter off completely.

I'm also from a similar situation. My family all works in tech in Silicon valley where I was born and raised. I dropped out of college to go trucking and I've never regretted it. I've been to 45 of the lower 48 and 3 of the western provinces of Canada. I have more money than virtually all my peers I left behind who mostly exist in their small bubble like worlds consisting of a single city and a cubicle living paycheck to paycheck to pay their absurd taxes and sky high rents.

Starting out leased onto a percentage carrier isn't a bad way to go. Dispatching yourself on the spot market is a strategic game with constantly changing conditions. It takes time to learn, but it's doable.

Running under your authority at 10,000 miles a month you can pretty well figure an operation cost before labor of 1.20 per mile over the long term. The trick is to keep your running mile over 2.00 and you'll make plenty of money. Maintaining that running mile means on a flatbed you don't take less than 3.5 a mile into black holes like Fl and CO. Never take less than 2.5 into CA. The running mile matters more than the loaded mile. I've hauled $3 into CA and 1.80 out and pulled 2.40 a mile round trip for a profit of 1.2 all miles. That was a little over 4k profit for the week and made it home for the weekend. The guy who says "I never haul below $2 a mile no matter what" would have been sitting in CA that whole week. Running mile takes precedence over everything unless your doing less than 10k miles per month. Then you need to focus on profit per day say $500 per day. As miles go down the cost per mile will increase as your fixed expenses will be amortized over fewer miles.

Do you have a Facebook or anything? I'd really like to follow this Journey of yours. I'm also very interested in real estate investing. I'm looking at ways to do it in a more passive manner though whether that be building up a management company along side the investments or just investing into syndications/crowdsharing real estate groups.

 

Exactly, my father in law always says I should buy houses because that’s what he does. I can do that later in life to build wealth more stable and slowly. Right now I’m about getting money and buying trucks is what will get me there much quicker. I just silently chuckle to myself when people tell me what I should be doing when I make 5 times more and have done it 5 times quicker. However, I always listen because you can learn something from anyone and everyone. The smartest person in the world can still learn SOMETHING from the dumbest in the world.

Whole reason I’m on TTR is to learn.

 

Real estate syndications might be good for you as you probably qualify as an accredited investor at this point. You can find syndicators on Biggerpockets.com and vet them yourself.

If you'd be open to it I'd also like to add you on Facebook. As you probably know all too well the kind of people who are willing to step out and cut their own path in this world are exceedingly rare.

 

Thanks for the tip, I’ll check it out.

I actually don’t have FB but I’d be happy to exchange private message with you and potentially LinkedIn. I’m a really private person but your right, coming across like minded people especially our age is very rare. I tend to relate way more with people a lot older then me.

 

I would suggest that you take a little bit of time and think about what you want. It may not be a bad idea to take a year and work somewhere not just to save more money, but to really take a little time just think about what you really want.

Youth is a wonderful thing because you have your whole life ahead of you and you can do anything. But youth is bad because you have to decide on with that something is. Think about what you want and where are you would like to be in 5 or 10 years. Keep in mind at some point you may want to get married and have children and how will Trucking affect that? If you are going to be away or if the demands of trucking will maybe be too much it's something to think about. This business is kind of like being a farmer. It's not just a job.

I have known people that were engineers that hated it. I have known people that graduated college and did something completely different because they just plain didn't want to do what they went to school for it. There are plenty of people right here on the Forum that are educated people that got into Trucking because they hated being in an office and they hated the corporate environment.

The truth is that's good information for you, but you have to decide what it is that you're after. Maybe you want to go to college for something completely different. Not to be funny but it seems to me like lawyers can do anything and they seem to have so many Avenues of work from being a commentator on television to working for humanitarian groups, or possibly being a consultant or whatever.

I'm not suggesting necessarily that you should become a lawyer, I'm just saying that you need to think about things because there certain Fields where you can make a lot of lateral moves. Trucking really isn't that way. In trucking you're either going to work for someone, you're going to run your own truck, or you're going to have a trucking business where you have other people working for you. There aren't really a lot of lateral moves by having experience driving. Certain college degrees can give you that. You should also bear in mind that, I know that you're young, but if you had any kind of a medical problem that disqualifies you and without any other training that's the end of the road.

If you decide the trucking is for you and you want your own truck, then you need to concentrate on the trucking business first and put real estate aside. You will need the money that you have to get started in this business and you're going to have to take time to make sure that you have plenty of money and you're making money and you reinvest your money back into your trucking business. After a certain period Of time that you know you've made money and you know what it cost you to operate and what you need to repurchase trucks etcetera Etc at that point you can begin to look into real estate. But first you would have to completely dedicate yourself into the trucking business.

There is a famous public speaker that said he had a grade school teacher tell him, "do not let potential be written on your gravestone". He said that always stuck with him because being intelligent and being someone that other people perceive as capable isn't enough. You have to actually do it and continue to do it.

I also would like to follow your progress. Keep in touch and let us know what you're doing.

Make the best decision for your future that you will be happy and successful and content with your life and with the quality of your life, especially in your later years.

I wish you well.

 

So what.

You are not asking for advice at this point, just validating what you want to do.

I say take the $60k and get into real estate now, it is a good time to go into it and you would be better off than being stuck in a truck for a week at a time.

ALSO just think, establishing yourself in a passive income business would give you a real solid backup if trucking doesn't turn out for you, there are things that happen on the road that will screw you up.

 

Right now is a terrible time to get into real estate. Prices are grossly inflated in all major markets due to currently being at the tail end of the longest bull market in history along with historically low interest rates. Massive amounts of institutional money have been moving into the commercial real estate markets due to the aforementioned over priced securities and low interest rates. As interest rates rise and we enter the next recession real estate prices will plummet and THAT will be the time to purchase. Why on earth do you think right now is a good time to purchase real estate?

 

It's just as bad as getting into trucking.

We still have low interest rates, there are still deals to be found and there is still a lot of people paying outrageous prices for rent and coming into a market where there are gaps, it may be a good time to get in.