How did you build your financial independence?

[Account Closed]

Hi All! I wanted to know if some of you would be open to share your success stories of building your real estate investments, advice you wish you knew when you started off, and the journey it took to get to where you are today? Also, if any of you have had experience with property managers, were you comfortable with having them run the daily operations? I want to be able to invest into real estate, bring in passive income with rental units, and hold on to those properties for a number of years in the hopes of being financially independent from my successes in the industry. Thanks all for taking the time to share!

[Llewelyn A.]

@Account Closed

I actually have a very different experience and recommendation than the main stream RE Investors.

I am a big proponent of being the best at what you are trained to do as an Employee at first.

Once you do that, you will be in the top 10% salary of your profession.

In my case, I was being paid around $200k around the year 2000 as a Computer Programmer working on mission critical Financial Software.

No need to throw away what you studied for all these years, acquired a great deal of skills and also advanced certifications or degrees.

Plumbers, Electricians, Computer Programmers (in my case), Janitors, Dancers, it doesn't matter. Be the best that you can be.

That shows (to yourself and others) that you have the discipline and motivation to attain a high level of expertise.

Once you are at that high level, you can transition to the next step, which is starting your own consulting firm in your field, further reaching higher salary levels, but this time moving into the Self-Employed Quadrant.

From there, getting the seed money for Investing and building up your Investments from your consulting business then puts you into another higher level even if you have to at first do some of your own PMing.

This is exactly what I did.

By the time I was financially free, which took me 6 years from Graduation. I no longer needed to work in my career. It was no longer manditory for me to work but I also had the option to work if I chose.

The great part was that even if my Real Estate Investments went wrong, which they didn't, the mere fact that I Excelled in my profession made the risk of failing in life very difficult.

In other words, there is a greater chance of failing in life if you switch to a different profession that you do not have real experience and expertise in rather than switching when you have already built up a business that can support any major mistakes or failures.

When I became financially free and no longer needed to work, I took off a few years to really build up my Real Estate Skills. Then I taught for charity for about 8 years, but increased my Portfolio.

There really is hardly a way to fail with this kind of plan.

I'm now using my Programming skills to build other businesses now that RE Investing has made me financially free.

The great thing is that there is NO stress in starting the other businesses. I'm putting in my time, which is the only thing I can lose.

But, because I have been so successful, it attracts others that want to be a part of those other businesses because of my track record. I have to turn away people who offered to buy into these new businesses. Wealth Managers become available, Commercial Lending Institutions will work with me, etc.

In other words, building new businesses which may be even more successful becomes easier once you have proven yourself to others.

Money follows success.

It's also less stressful because I don't really need to do it. No pressure really. However, if I do nothing, which I can do, I will get extremely bored and feel that my mind is just wasting away!

The above is far different than what I believe what the main stream may believe. They feel they should switch careers because they have been unsuccessful in their current career and feel Real Estate would be better for them. I hope they are right. But I fully believe that the above is a great way to go!