Missed Time Finally Pays Off

There are quite a few positive aspects to making a living as a full time domain investor that go beyond the income. I think the biggest advantage for me is my flexible schedule. I may spend a lot of scattershot time focusing on my business, but I make my own hours and am fortunate to be able to spend much more time with my wife and kids than if I worked in a corporate job.

A little over four years ago, I had my eye on a domain name I wanted because of a personal connection to the topic. The domain name expired and was in an auction that ended on a Sunday afternoon. My wife and I had brought our kids to a local playground, and I retreated to the car so I could focus on the final moments of the auction without showing our daughter that I was paying more attention to my phone. This wasn’t a particularly valuable domain name, but I wanted to own it.

I expected the conclusion of the auction to be brief. It was, afterall, a Sunday afternoon and the domain name wasn’t that special. The auction ended up taking quite a bit longer than I expected because the bid kept getting pushed up little by little. In the end, I won the auction for less than $1k, but I felt badly for missing out on the time at the playground. The fact that I can still vividly recall this particular auction is sort of funny now because there have been so many playground visits since then.

After several years of holding the domain name and passing on at least a dozen offers, I finally agreed to sell it for a nice return.

I think I am fortunate to make a living as a domain investor. I get to spend a lot more time with my wife and kids than if I did something else. The business of domain investing is not easy though, and there are a lot of times I should be spending with family that I am bidding on an auction or checking on an inquiry. I am glad to sell this domain name for a nice ROI, but I still feel badly about the time I spent on the auction when I should have been in the playground.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

7 COMMENTS

  1. I have a 3 year old and a two year old now. It’s the biggest reason I haven’t been on the blog comment sections or auctions as I have been in the past. Just more important things than money in life.

  2. Well you have to think of all the times you made it to the playground and not that one time or those very few times you didn’t.

    I am very happy to have flexible hours too. But I do other things outside of domaining as after 13 years doing just (or mostly) that I got a bit tired. So since 2015 I do some other work I find really interesting and gets me out into the world. Of course that work has flexible hours as well.

  3. I missed a ton of time with my kids building my domain and development business, but I was able to make it possible for my wife to be home, always there for every single snow day and sniffle. Nothing is more precious than time. To control your time is true wealth.

  4. Our kids don’t recall much before 8-10 yrs old. They were just happy to know we were there when they needed us vs when they didnt.
    Ultimately, teaching them to be free and independent turned out to be the most appreciated gift they have ever received.
    Cheers
    Happy Holidays !

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