Conversations with a Jewish Man on Christmas Eve

I had a very interesting interaction with an older Orthodox jewish gentleman, while at work on christmas eve. He was part of the staff who cleaned up the Operating Rooms after a surgery has occured (guess you can call him a janitor). I was in the O.R. waiting for a case to start when the head nurse called for him to go clean a room. One of his co-workers jokingly said "hey come on leave him alone, it's christmas eve.. he shouldn't be working". A doctor was walking past and replied " who ? Rosenblum... he doesn't have to work either, hey man, when are you going to sell me one of your buildings?"

The doctor continued to give him accolades on being able to own multiple residential properties while I eavesdropped.. and when the doctor walked away and left him in the room alone to clean up, I decided I would approach him, introduce myself, then ask him if I could pick his brain in order to get some helpful hints on how to get on the road to being a successful property owner.

He was very down to earth, and was really open and honest. I asked him how'd he get started and he told me he saved his money for about 3 years and bought his first property from one of his cousins. He made careful decisions when it came to lawyers, banks, and the loans he took out.

Out of nowhere he says to me (in an orthodox jewish accent) " you know what the problem is with you people?... you like to buy too much garbage, you see, we don't do that.. we don't care about basketball shoes or cars, the only thing we care about is our property, it is the fastest way to become wealthy"..

I wasn't offended by the "you people" comment, mainly because I felt like he was being genuine and speaking to me with wisdom.. and actually WANTED to pass on some words of wisdom..

He continued "my friend, I promise you.. all you have to do for me is save your money for atleast 2 years, thats it, and I guarantee you.. you can get into a property"

He continued and we spoke about other little details pertaining to real estate, being a landlord, renting, so on and so forth.

In the end, I realized I met a man who was a multimillionaire... who owned a couple multi family properties but was still humble enough to go to work as a janitor everyday!..

When I finished college one of the things I promised I would accomplish as early as possible, would be to buy a house or maybe two. Mainly because it is the fastest way to wealth and homes are an excellent investment. One of my "resolutions" is to make that goal one of my main focuses for 2009!