Become a Massage Therapist?

First, let me preface this article by saying that massage therapists are amazingly talented and giving people.  They spend hours leaning over a table, using their hands and their knowledge of muscles to help rejuvenate tired bodies.

With that said, a few weeks ago, Bill and I were cruising down I-85 heading to Florida when a commercial for a Massage Therapy School came on the radio.  The announcer touted the benefits of a career in massage therapy, and when the commercial ended, Bill turned to me and said, “You know, a therapist’s income stops every time a body gets off their table.”

Well that led to a discussion.  If a therapist has a client on their table they are making money to help pay the bills, but what are they doing to create wealth?  What about their retirement?  What happens in their ‘golden’ years?  Are they still leaning over a table when they reach their 50’s?

If the therapist is passionate about therapy, she doesn’t have to become an investor, but she does need to consider the fact that when her hands aren’t working, she isn’t making any money. The therapist will also have to schedule vacation time around her clients, instead of having the luxury of a spontaneous trip that passive income would allow.  Not fun.

 What if the therapist could spend a few hours a week learning about real estate and work towards picking up at least one rental property every year?  Doable, don’t you agree?  If the therapist spent ten years leaning over her table, and spent the same ten years picking up ten rentals, wouldn’t she be better off at the end of the ten years?  Wouldn’t she have done something to help improve her retirement years?  Wouldn’t she have done something to help get her away from the table?

When Bill and I married in 1995, I worked at our family’s hair salon and Bill worked at Electrolux, then went to work at Home Depot.  We knew that neither job would help us in our golden years, so we chose real estate as the tool to help build our retirement income. We didn’t know what we were doing and were scared to death, but we knew for certain that we didn’t want to still be ‘working with our hands’ when we were in our 50’s.  That fear far outweighed our fear of jumping into our first real estate deal.

Massage Therapy is an honorable career but, like my salon, not conducive to a great retirement.  And truly, it takes passion to be good at it.  I wasn’t passionate about my hair salon, and I really hated asking permission to take a day off.

Be passionate about what you do – whether it’s being a massage therapist or a hair stylist – but take a moment to consider how your career will affect your golden years.  You don’t have to become a full-time investor, but picking up a few rentals will certainly help make your retirement a little more golden.

Bill & Kim Cook are a husband and wife real estate investing team. They live in Adairsville, Georgia and have been investing in real estate since 1995. They specialize in buying single-family homes, mobile homes and mobile home parks. They also run North Georgia REIA and teach folks how to successfully invest in real estate.