From the time I was a child, I was always interested in what my parents were doing in their business. My father was a chef and owned restaurants and my mom was his loyal partner in crime. I remember washing dishes with them on the weekends when I was as young as five and six years old. I worked all day to earn that special pastry or exquisite special menu item.
From this early age, I learned a lot about business and even more about money. My father carried cash everywhere he went and while he owned a couple of credit cards, I can’t remember him using them much while I was growing up.
When I turned nineteen and had been working at my job for some time, I decided that I needed to get myself a credit card. I’ve never been one to do anything halfway so I applied for six credit cards and I waited patiently for the magical plastic cards to arrive. For some strange reason, I thought plastic was power.
However, I learned quickly upon their arrival that plastic and I would soon part ways.
I remember standing in the dining room of my parents’ house while my dad was having his morning coffee. I excitedly showed him my new wallet with my six new credit cards and he gasped in horror. He looked at me and asked, “What are you doing?”
I said “Dad, look! I’ve been approved for 6 credit cards!”
He quickly reminded me that while I had a job, I was broke – living paycheck to paycheck. He calmly got up, walked into the kitchen and returned to the dining room with a pair of scissors. He looked and me and said something that I have never forgotten – something that I live by: “Interest is something you earn, not pay. If you don’t have the cash, you don’t get the goods.”
I don’t remember whether or not he actually said the words, “Give me those cards!” but I voluntarily and quickly handed them over. Then my dad and I sat at the table cutting those cards up into little pieces. He told me one day I would thank him.
That conversation changed the way I looked at money. I started saving, and I started investing. I remember being in my early twenties interviewing financial planners and I realized that no one could manage my money better than I could. I have been managing, watching, caring for, and leveraging my money ever since.
Fast forward a number of years and I am now selling real estate, making money, helping people buy and sell houses. I desperately wanted to buy an investment property so I could begin to build wealth in real estate like I saw others around me doing. However, being a self-employed independent contractor made it almost impossible for me to get traditional financing. But one day a friend of mine who owned a lot of investment real estate said to me, “There is money out there; you just have to find it. If you find the right deal, you can get the money for it.” And that is when I began schooling myself on everything investment, everything money, everything leverage, everything wealth-building.
I remember purchasing my first real estate investment and how nervous I was right up to the day of closing because I was convinced the lender would fall through. But as my friend had assured me, if you find the right deal, you can find the money. My first investment was a strong investment and the lender knew it.
I still live by those words my dad said years ago, and I still manage my own money and my own investments. When you decide to build wealth in real estate, you can learn from others who have gone down that road before you. Without my friend, I probably never would have begun my real estate investment journey and I am thankful to this day for that counsel.
If you too desire to build wealth in real estate like I did, I would be happy to help you on your journey! Come join me as I share my investment secrets, strategies, and systems at my first-ever “Building Wealth Through Real Estate Investments” class:
May 1st/2nd (SOLD OUT)
May 13th/14th – Seats still available!
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