There’s a common misconception in society that real life begins after college. This myth is an impediment to growth and an unjust narrative on what young adults are capable of accomplishing early on. There’s no better evidence of this than in the area of real estate investing. The earlier you start saving for your first real estate investment, the more you stand to gain in terms of wealth, security and passive income. Don’t let myths and outdated norms get in the way of your wealth building potential in life. Read on to learn all the compelling reasons why you should save while you’re still in college to invest in real estate as soon as possible after graduation.

 

Your Living Expenses Are Covered

 

As a college student, you’re either living at home, on campus or near campus. There are exceptions, but it’s likely that most of your living expenses are paid for. Meals come from home or a paid meal plan on campus. Utility payments may be non-existent or covered by your parents. You may even be insured on your parents’ plan. You may have no or very few bills to pay each month, which means you have more discretionary income to save for your first real estate investment.

 

Most college students move things out of their childhood bedroom very soon after graduation. After you graduate you’ll likely need to get your own place near your new job. Once you move out of the family home, the monthly bills start moving in on you. You’ll have to pay for rent, electricity, gas, internet and maybe water and trash bills; not to mention your own groceries, fuel and car insurance. It’ll be harder than ever to come up with a lump sum of money to invest in real estate after you’re saddled with all those new monthly living expenses.

 

No Student Loan Debt – Yet

 

While you’re in school the tuition bills are piling up, but you don’t have to worry about that quite yet. After you graduate, though, you’ll have to start repaying your student loan debt. Payments might start coming due immediately, or you may be able to get a six-month grace period. Either way, those monthly payments will put a large dent in whatever income you start earning from your first job after graduation. And this is on top of those monthly living expenses you now have to shell out for.

 

Fewer Family Obligations

 

As a college student, you have one person to take care of – yourself. You don’t have a spouse or children to help support or worry about. You have sole power over your decisions about what to spend your money on. There’s no better time to put away money for a future down payment on a real estate investment.

 

Shortly after graduation you may have increased family obligations. Many new graduates already have significant others in their lives. You may even already be engaged to marry or have plans to start a family very soon. The more family obligations you have, the less discretionary money you’ll have. You’ll want to set money aside so you can buy a primary residence for your new family. You’ll need money to pay hospital delivery bills, buy baby equipment and pay for pediatrician visits. That dream of investing in real estate may get pushed further and further into the distant future because you’ll have more immediate family obligations to consider.

 

More Free Time

 

Even hard-working college students have more time while in school than after they graduate. You’ll probably never have more free time than you do right now, in college. You don’t yet have career distractions, you aren’t yet being forced to put in massive hours of overtime to “prove” yourself and you don’t have a new young family placing demands on your time. Before graduation is the best time to learn about real estate investing, all the real estate investment options available, and how to earn passive income through real estate. And it’s the best time to set aside all the money you can for your real estate investment after graduation.

 

To get a Fannie Mae loan on a typical real estate investment after college, all you need is the down payment money plus one year of W-2 income, which you can acquire with your new career soon after college. You can save the down payment of about $20,000 (give or take) while in college and borrow the rest using your clean credit history as a recent grad and a new career person.

 

Don’t wait until life starts making demands on your money and time before you get started saving for your first real estate investment. College graduation isn’t some kind of “starting line” where you’re suddenly granted permission to run the race of your life. The journey toward your future financial goals can start right now, where you are at this moment. All you have to do is take the first step.