I’ve been a big fan of Paula Pant for a long time. I love her personality when I hear her on her podcast. Her approach to money resonates with me. As a woman and an immigrant, I feel like I have a connection with her. I’m glad that she’s a very strong representative of a financially successful immigrant woman of color.

Her path to financial independence came in the form of real estate, and as such, I’ve also become interested in it. I find it very interesting and yet very frightening. There’s a lot I don’t understand about it. Despite that, I am ready to move forward and experiment with it.

I’ve been reading as much as I can and trying to understand the whole thing. I think I’ve prepared myself to enough to accept the risks that come along with it. I know the payoff of a great investment is really good, but I also know that the cost of failure might be high. Still, though, I’m curious enough to put some skin in the game.

I found a company in Japan that matches my needs. I want to own property but I don’t want to actually manage it. Fortunately, they speak both Japanese and English, which goes a long way to reassure me. I don’t want to go through this whole process without fully understanding what my responsibilities are, especially if I’m unsure about the language of the contracts. I want real estate investing to be affordable enough that I can pay for it without taking on a lot of debt. I want it to be a part of my investing portfolio as a form of diversification. I also want it to become another source of income, specifically the passive type where it doesn’t require a lot of time and energy on my part.

I came across this company almost two years ago and ever since then, I’ve been browsing through their website and listening to the podcasts. I’ve also read other blogs and websites about real estate investing. I’ve listened to others talk about real estate investing. Basically, I’ve been researching all this time. However, I’ve never taken the leap and actually done anything with all this information.

I’m a very risk averse person and when I started looking into this, it seemed like a very risky venture. I don’t know anything about owning and renting properties–it just seemed so complicated. It also seemed like a lot more trouble than it’s worth, which is why I’ve been so reluctant to jump into this.

Now, however, I feel like the timing is right. I’m fully prepared to accept whatever comes of this decision. I’ve also decided that not doing anything is doing more harm than good. I’m not going to learn anything more about the whole thing unless I immerse myself in it.

I feel like I’m ready. I’m scared and excited at the same time. This might be the change that I’ve been looking for. Recently, I’ve felt a lot of unrest in my heart. After sitting and thinking about the whole situation, I feel like now is the time to act. Hemming and hawing about the whole thing has yielded no results. If I take a stab at it, at least I know something will happen.

I’m good to go.