The Background

I graduated with a degree in Architectural Engineering from Penn State University in 2012.  I attained a job as a structural designer in the Pittsburgh area.  I will preface this discussion by saying that I am fortunate.  God has blessed me way beyond what I deserve! 

In high school I caddied at the local country club. I was fortunate that one of the most successful business men there took a liking to me. I believe that he saw that as a young man, I was eager to work hard to get ahead in life. Once while caddying for him I distinctly remember him telling me that one of the keys to financial success was running your own business. My senior year in high school we had been talking about my intentions for college. One day we were walking down the 18th hole and it was HOT. He asked me ‘How are you intending to pay for school?’ My first thought was this is none of your business. He knew that I came from a middle class family with hard working parents. He knew that I was working upwards of 16 hours a day on the weekends as a caddy and caddymaster/golf shop assistant for a total of almost 60 hours a week during the summer. I politely responded to him saying that I didn’t know how I was paying for school. I was going to continue to work hard and make as much as I could during the summers at the country club and I was hoping my parents might be able to help me out as much as they can. Honestly I didn’t know how much my parents would be able to help because historically my parents didn’t discuss their personal finances with us as children, although they did make it a point to encourage (force) me to tithe 10% of every dollar I made, save 45% of every dollar, and I could spend the remaining 45% on anything I wanted. I had a couple thousand saved for college, but that would be blown through QUICKLY at Penn State. He asked to see my high school transcripts. Again I thought this was a little too personal, but trusting him I humbly delivered my transcripts to him the next weekend that I caddied for him. He got to see my performance through high school. I graduated with a 3.0 GPA and to be honest I didn’t try terribly hard to achieve that. I enjoyed school but I enjoyed playing sports a lot more. I could put minimal effort into almost any class that wasn’t an AP or French class and get an A or B so why try harder. After seeing my high school transcripts this business man offered to pay half of my tuition for every semester that I got above a 3.0 GPA in college. Talk about motivation! I made the deans list (>3.5 GPA) my first semester. I found myself studying harder, even though the freshman classes were still mildly easy. Long story short I ended up achieving a 3.0 or higher every semester except for one. My parents agreed to pay for any A’s or B’s that I got, further incentivizing me to work harder at school. I graduated college debt free and found a good paying job with a great company in my hometown! Like I said, God has blessed me tremendously!

The key that I want to emphasize here is that opportunity came to me through my network. But it wasn’t handed to me! It required hard work and determination over a long period of time to graduate from school worth nothing. My jobs at the country club were good because they paid really well for a high school student, but ultimately the relationships that started to form into my network (without even trying to develop this) opened up doors that helped elevate my success.

So what does this mean for you? You may not be debt free at the age of 23, but regardless if you want to be debt free and at what I would call this launching platform it can be accomplished at any time in your life!

If you are young (under 21), I would highly recommend that you try to build your network. Find mentors and people that can provide you with sound advice. Find people that you can learn from.  Do your absolute best to stay out of debt and begin saving money!  Most importantly, GO WORK!! These are your prime working years!! Laziness now will likely force you into working well into your retirement years to make ends meet. Hard work now can allow you to retire by 40 and enjoy MANY quality years of your life with COMPLETE FINANCIAL SECURITY!

If you are what I am calling middle aged, 21 to 40 years old. I would highly recommend that you find someone to mentor. You don’t have to be perfect, but you have lived life long enough to help the next generation avoid making dumb mistakes!

If you are 40+ and/or have already achieved financial freedom and success then consider giving back. I can’t wait until I am in this position! The most important thing to remember is that at the end of life no matter what pile of wealth you have accumulated you cannot take ANY of it with you! One of the most joyful things in life is giving to others to help them. Finding a younger person to mentor and give back to both with your time and financially is INCREDIBLY powerful and it will leave a LEGACY beyond your time on this earth!

The next blog article will discuss how and why I began investing in real estate!

In His Grace!

Justin