Enjoy the decline of America. Your liberty is slowing being stripped away. Socialism systems are taking over through government welfare programs. More and more people are reliant on the government to survive.
Getting a career off the ground in America is harder than it was 50 years ago for young men. Most folks a saddled with student loan debt, vehicle debt, with nothing invested in assets.
To get ahead and stay ahead be disciplined. I bought my first used vehicle AFTER investing in my first rental multifamily.
It’s all about the small wins throughout the journey.
I have amassed great technical career skills in the technology space. The future is 100% digital. For those older workers who had to reskilled into digital, I applaud you. It’s a complex industry and quite overwhelming for a forty-something.
From an income standpoint, I was in the 1% of earners in my 20’s. Since I took it upon myself to study personal finance, I didn’t spend all my earnings on bull shit consumer items. I paid off the majority of my student loan debt, started growing a portfolio of paper assets, started many businesses that failed but eventually found real estate and have been in this business for 3 years.
The proper model in the 21st century is to earn you money through a lucrative career or business and park that money in real estate. The common advise to park your money in a 401K but this doesn’t seem like the most logical thing to do.
Why?
You have no control over your 401K. No leverage. You pay insane taxes when you start withdrawing those funds along with insane fee’s if you withdraw the money before 59.5 – how does that sound like a good retirement plan?
The underlying personal finance landscape is changing. Modern conventional advice in the personal finance space doesn’t work anymore.
Examples include:
“Go to college and get any degree. It will be worth it.”
“Save 10% of your income.”
“You have one true soul mate (not finance but certainly affects your finances).”
“Work for money.”
“Financial freedom is impossible.”
The only way to cut through the crap in the modern world is to self educate. Study hundreds of books, podcasts, and games in the personal finance space. The government or your employer is not going to take care of you because they don’t care. As soon as the CEO wants to change their model and your role is no longer necessary or you don’t fit into some cult culture, regardless if you’re a top performer, you will be eliminated.
Such a scenario forces you to find another job, which is such a chore in itself. Then one must rebuild a career inside a different organization and most likely have to build up your earnings.
Building a book of business takes time. It takes time to build quality relationships with your clients so they trust you and give you more money.
The journey to financial freedom is going to take 10 years of disciplined work and investing. Most people will not do this. Most people will buy materialistic things, spend $70 a night going out “having fun”, never study a single book. This is why most people (less than 1%) will become financially free before 50 years of age.
The financially free journey is lonely at the beginning. Just think about it: if 1% of people achieve what you’re dedicating your life to, there’s going to be a period of time where your social circle is going to change, drastically. Take stock of what most of your friends are spending their money and time on. Most of them are not investing, learning about various asset classes, saving their money, or looking for ways to earn more money.
A smart person SHOULD be spending their time and money on these things. It’s truly that simple but it’s not easy, which makes it worth it.
The biggest hurdle to budgeting is not mathematical but psychological. If you can think, from a default, of spending less, personal finance is much easier.
There is no fundamental difference between personal finances and a company or government’s income statement and balance sheet. Fundamentally, they are the same.
Men will start to be known for their leisure activities more than their professional activities. Life is a balance between leisure and work. I prefer the former. My time is finite. More hours working isn’t going to bring me more happiness.
Making a few important investing decisions will drastically impact your entire financial life.
Namely, don’t buy a primary residence. Buy rental properties. Don’t marry the wrong person.
The key to winning the personal finance game is OWNING appreciating, cash flowing assets. At the beginning of your working career, you’re going to work for other people while you learn this concept. Then you’re going to start investing in cash flowing real estate while you continue growing a career. Within 10 years your real estate income should allow you to be financially free. From this point, you can now start investing your money in private equity. Buy an existing business with a loan. Improve it’s cash flow. Hire someone to run the business while you take the cash flow, or, sell the business for a 20-40X multiple since you improved the cash flow.
A phase in this personal finance journey will eventually encompass transitioning from W2 full time work to online business ownership. Real estate will be in the background for the rest of an investor’s life. Real estate is where you will park your money that was earned from career and business. This is not a quick process and it will take around 10 years to reach financial independence but the journey is 100% worth all the work and effort.
Why?
You will have earned true freedom. True freedom is what everyone in the modern world is dreaming of whether they realize it or not. True freedom is the ability to work when, where, and how you want.
True freedom and is not an easy accomplishment, which is the reason it’s going to take ~10 years.