I'm so pleased to hear this. Your posts are always so smart, I was hoping you'd come round to the idea of doing something different for a living. I'm sure other people will chip in with their advice, but my first reaction from reading this apart from YAY is to say don't think this career decision is "it". It won't be. Nowadays people do several things before they retire, and it's not necessarily what they started doing. I studied medicine, hated it, switched to science, worked in a lab, got bored, retrained in management, worked in healthcare and now I work for myself, as an educator. And am doing training as a Company Secretary. I'm 50 next year. Each change was part of a natural process of my personal development. I can't think of many people my age who studied one thing and are still doing it. So chillax about your decision, and see it as something you'll do for the next few years. That might be 5 or 10 or whatever, but take the pressure off yourself that you have to get every decision 100% right. You don't. You make the best choices you can with the facts you have. If real estate is your thing, go for it. Your family love and support you, and will go with you on this. I hope you enjoy it and look forward to reading more of your posts to let us know how you're doing!