Get a Nice Rental
The housing decision that feels like the easy part.
"Until you know what your new life looks like, just get a nice rental."
Meet Tom. He sold his company and immediately bought a $7.5 million apartment in New York City, before he knew what his next chapter would actually look like.
After we sold the company, I immediately bought a $7.5 million apartment in New York City. It made sense at the time. I'd built my career there, my network was there, and the plan had always been to stay there.
Before I could even move in, Covid hit. A one-week trip to Florida turned into a hundred days, then we landed in a small city out west I'd never planned to live in, ending my vision of New York for good. To this day, I've yet to spend a single night in that apartment. It sits empty, costing me $20,000 to $25,000 a month to maintain, while I've tried and failed to sell it.
The mistake was never the apartment itself. The real mistake was buying it for a chapter of my life before I'd actually understood what that chapter would look like, and, most importantly, where it would even happen.
Trust me, wealth changes your life, including where you want to live. I wish I'd known that before buying that apartment. Give yourself a year, maybe two, to get used to the new life before you buy your dream home. Just get a nice rental until you know what that new life actually looks like.
Up next · Lesson 20 Good Money After Bad When the money already lost is the thing deciding your next move. Read next →