Jason from Irvine, CA

[Jason K Green]

Hello all. I am Jason and I am currently living in Irvine, CA. While this is now home, I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma. What a different world I now live in.

My background is in finance. I received my bachelor's degree in finance from Northeastern State University in Oklahoma. I later received an MBA from the University of California, Irvine. My career has been spent mostly in the credit union industry where I helped manage the interest rate risk as well as the investment portfolios of various credit unions.

So why am I here on Bigger Pockets? Well, I have grown sour toward the corporate world. I took over as the CFO of a small credit union here in Orange County only to discover that the CEO was messing around with the balance sheet in ways he should not have been. After investigating this activity and being told to leave it alone, I decided I was not comfortable signing the financial statements. To which the CEO responded by showing me the door. That credit union is no longer in existence as it has failed and been absorbed by a larger organization.

I then joined a fund that wasn't a bank, but had a very similar business model. They took in deposits and lent out money. They had been in business for over 60 years, but had never had anyone with banking industry experience on staff. I was brought in to implement an in-house Asset/Liability Management (ALM) system, which is a sophisticated way of managing interest rate risk. While I was there I found some flaws in the loan pricing model, which was Excel-based. I made recommendations for an online solution which was also implemented. I met with my boss every other week to discuss what I was working on. Not once did any concerns about my performance come up. Not once was I told that I was not performing up to expectation. A week before Thanksgiving I was brought into a conference room and told that it was my last day to work there. I was simply told that I was not the guy they were looking for. I later found out that I was replaced three months later by someone making 60% of the salary I had been getting.

I was told to go to college and get a degree so I could get a good paying job. I was later told that those who get MBAs make more than those with just a bachelors degree. Now, I am not refuting that claim. However, those are averages and while I was pulling in a six-figure salary, what those numbers do not show is job security (or lack thereof).

So what's next? I am currently driving for two unnamed ride share services. I won't mention names but their initials are Uber and Lyft. I actually like doing this more than I thought I would. This is a temporary solution, but driving for Uber (when I say Uber I mean both Uber and Lyft) has got me rethinking my career path. You see, with Uber, the more I work, the more I make. If I were to go back into banking, I would likely pull another six-figure salary. But it also wouldn't matter if I worked 40 or 50 or 60 hours or more. I would received the same salary. So I have been looking for opportunities that would allow me to be compensated at higher rates based on more effort. Now I don't know if real estate investing will live up to the requirement 100%. But I think it will more so than having a corporate job.

And then I answered an ad. "Real Estate Investor Seeks Apprentice" you've seen these signs at busy intersections I'm sure. I saw the ad on Indeed.com, an internet job board. Give us $20,000 and we'll give you every course we have and you can start marketing our courses and start earning money right away while you study our courses!!! Look!! I made $95k in the last 10 weeks!!! Who doesn't want to make $95k in 10 weeks?!

Well, that sounds great, but they are paying out 50% commissions to their marketers. That means the education company believes their courses are really only worth half of what you are paying for them. 

And then I discovered Bigger Pockets. Now I haven't been through the entire site and all its forums (Nor am I likely to do so. There's so much information here that if I made that my full time job I wouldn't have time to actually get into real estate investing.) But what I did realize is that I can likely find most, if not all, the information I would have gotten in those courses right here, mostly for free. (I don't want to say completely for free because I don't know that yet.) I also discovered the podcast. I've listened to five episodes so far and they are great. I am really looking forward to learning what I need to know to start my real estate investing career.

I open to connecting with you all. Let's be successful together!!!