A Call for Inspiration: Share Your Overall Success

[Michael B.]

Hi BP. I find that the success of others inspires me and sheds light on what's possible. I have my why for wanting to create wealth... giving, family, travel, etc. and I assume others have their why as well.

I would like for people to share their overall success stories. What I mean by that is, if you're comfortable with it, share a broad range of your yearly income (whatever range you're comfortable sharing). Share that you're able to take a one week vacation once a month or four times a year or whatever it might be. Share that you were able to quit your 9 to 5, buy a lake house, whatever it may be. Inspire us with your success.

At times I have a hard time picturing the financial freedom. For example, if you own 10 SFHs cash flowing $200 a month, that's $2,000 a month which is $24,000 a year. That's cool. It's income, but it doesn't seem like travel the world, quit the rat race, financial freedom. Then there's the aspect of cashing out via refi and using that money to get your next property. I get re-investing profit to grow the business and getting that next property, but when do you cash out and pay for that vacation or pay yourself? Speaking of paying yourself, if you have LLCs that hold properties, how do you pay yourself through company? Dividends? Salary? Bonuses?

I hope there are examples shared that might help newbies and others get an idea of what's possible. I personally feel blessed with my job and am not looking to quit, at this point I'm looking to supplement, but I like exploring the possibilities of REI. Who knows, maybe someday the supplemental outweighs the primary.

[Brian Robbins]

Hit 50 yrs old a few years back and did a "review of the first 50".  Realized I wanted to make a bigger impact on society than I was currently accomplishing and simultaneously leave a legacy for my kids and grandkids. Looked around for ways to accomplish my goals faster and settled on MF Investing. Decided I wanted to build a real estate company to become the "Tom's Shoes" of commercial real estate. Since that time I have not looked back.  Just closed on a 125 unit townhome deal in Lexington, KY 4 weeks ago. Here is my "Big Why"...

From a young age, my faith was a huge part of my life. As a teenager in the border town of El Paso, Texas, I went on more than one mission trip into Mexico to work with kids in orphanages. I was greatly affected by what I saw. I also spent summers working with my uncle at a large church camp he ran in the mountains of New Mexico. You could say that service was part of my life from an early age. The year was 1997. My wife, two kids, and I had a great life by most standards. We had a successful practice, a nice home, and were active in our local church. But we wanted more. We considered adopting a child, then after lots of soul-searching and prayer, we decided to pursue the idea.

Through an amazing set of circumstances, we were made aware of a family of 7 orphans that the Russian government was going to separate. They planned to send them to three different countries, never to see each other again. While we knew that we could never adopt that many kids ourselves, we had a desire to help find a home for them. As we looked at the pictures of the seven kids, my wife felt called to take on the task of finding a family that would keep the kids together. As we set out on our mission, we targeted all our well-to-do friends, as we knew it would take someone with a very good income to support a crew like that. I can remember laughing to myself and thinking, who would be crazy enough and have a large enough home to adopt seven kids? As the months went by, we had no luck finding a family and time was running out. The Russian government was close to separating the kids and sending them abroad. With no apparent takers in sight, and the split-up of the siblings imminent, the idea of adopting them ourselves crept in. We knew there would be major financial sacrifices and challenges, but the thought of someone separating our two biological children (like these kids were about to experience) was more than enough motivation for us. Having a Savior who loved us enough to die for our sins, when we had done nothing to deserve his love, compelled us to do more than just join a $35 a month orphan-support program (those are great though and we support one too).

On August 12, 1999, we arrived back on U.S. soil having just completed the single largest adoption at one time in U.S./Russian history (at least that’s what the embassy told us). We arrived at the Raleigh-Durham airport with three boys (ages 14, 6 & 6) and four girls (ages 13, 9, 7, & 5) who spoke a total of 12 words of English amongst them. We had no idea of the great blessings and struggles that lay ahead. As we raised our crew of nine young adults, we learned of the challenges that many Eastern European orphaned children face. We saw the first-hand effects of rampant alcohol abuse that plagues Russian society, as well as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Reactive Attachment Disorder, and learning disabilities in our kids. We saw the psychological damage caused by their family being fractured at an early age and continue to see them struggle even today. Little did we know how this would open our hearts to the plight of orphans and human trafficking victims worldwide.

The most disadvantaged in our societies, the ones who can’t fight for themselves, often live in the shadows. Their great needs go unmet and their stories are seldom told. These kids and young adults need someone to fight for them. They need champions to take up their cause and go to battle, fighting poverty, fighting the sex industry, and most importantly fighting to save their lives. I met one of my Wellings Capital partners, Paul, on a business mission trip to New Zealand. He was an entrepreneur much like me and we immediately hit it off. I admired Paul because he had a desire to help the needy and spread God’s love. We continued to spend many years brainstorming on business ventures that would help investors, while spinning off lots of income we could use to help fund our humanitarian efforts. It is our goal to be the Tom’s Shoes, or Mercy Waters, of the multifamily world. We hope to produce substantial returns for the investors we partner with and create great communities for our tenants to live in. Our desire is to generate profits from which to funnel hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, into the education, care, and protection of children and young adults worldwide, to fighting human trafficking and the care of orphans worldwide. We believe we can leave a legacy that our children and grandchildren will be proud of and MF investing will make it possible!

Cheers!