I thought I might share my story. I know others have done greater but if I can help or encourage anyone, great.
I turned 31 a few months ago and have been interested in personal finance and investing since college 2006-2012 (BA & MA). I decided to create this post to encourage others and, for the first time, to give a brief synopsis of my journey. When I graduated college in 2012 I had about $15,000 that I had made investing and as of 2019 I have a net worth of around $930,000. From the fall of 2012 to now I have been employed as a teacher outside of D.C. and have seen my base salary grow from a little over 50,000 to 71,000 dollars. During that time I have made supplemental income from coaching (around 4-5K annually), teaching an additional class (6-7K annually), and from reselling collectables which is a holdover from college (maybe 5k annually).
Net Worth By Year:
2011: 10,000
2012: 15,000
2013: 50,000
2014: 177,000
2015: 256,000
2016: 417,000
2017: 677,000
2018: 835,000
2019: 926,000
College Years (2006-2012)
My Start: When I was in high school I never saved any money I received. I was the type of person to go and spend the moment I got paid, received a gift, or just had access to cash for whatever reason. After the stock market took a hit during the recession I started investing in stocks. I initially had no idea what I was doing but in 2009-2011 it was hard to lose money and many stocks were seeing exponential gains. I decided to start saving and invested every paycheck (summer employment) and any gift I received. By the time I started graduate school I was actively reselling by finding wholesale collectables (cards) and selling them in smaller units. I made relationships with warehouses and then listed hard to find items. Some of the margins were small but with rarer items I could sometimes return 1000% which would create windfall situations that I would parlay into the stock market. By the end of graduate school (summer 2012), I had around $13,000 in the stock market and a few thousand in cash. Immediately after college I found a job teaching high school which paid around $50,000. Around that same time I purchased my first home, a townhome in the D.C. suburbs for $185,000. I made the mistake of making additional payments early on when I would make additional money from reselling but I eventually ended this practice.
2013
At the end of 2012 I started coaching. I coached year-round and the pay was terrible (I did it for enjoyment). Even though the pay was low that $5,000 or so per year was money I directly invested. It’s also worth noting that coaching and reselling are activities that boost my yearly income $10,000-15,000 per year. I won’t mention it again but I continue to do both activities and they boost my income. In 2013 I received a one-time inheritance of $13,000. I also managed to save a significant amount of my take-home pay because I rented out one of my rooms to a friend. Until I was married I always had a roommate to save money.
In 2013 I found the price of my townhome started to rise to about $200,000 or so. I also decided after much research that there were real estate markets ready for significant growth. I tried to reach out to lenders but was declined due to inexperience and low income. I decided to get creative and found third party investors. I purchased my first property in December, 2013 for 26K down (split between my partner and I) and the rest was financed through a promissory note with a deed of trust.
2014
In 2014, after dealing with horrible initial tenants, we remodeled the first unit largely with co-signer money and raised rent. We also bought a second property in the same market (about 2 hours from D.C.). That year my net worth went up to about $177,000. Much of that was paying down the short duration loan (5 and 3 years respectively), and from increasing equity (prices went up about 30%). I had a big year reselling (about 10K) and my primary home value went up to $215,000.
2015
This year I found two new investors and purchased 3 more homes in the same market. During 2015 my girlfriend moved in with me and we were engaged. Because of this, we decided to sell my townhouse, purchase a new home (5% down), and I used some of the proceeds to buy more rentals (4 that year). I purchased my single family home for $400,000. This took a huge bite out of my personal savings but made my fiancé happy and we rescued a beagle.
2016
This year I entered a new market and purchased 4 more homes. We were lucky enough to see many of our initial purchases continue meteoric rises (multiple more than doubling). During this year I also picked up another teaching assignment (~7K boost).
2017
I started using conventional financing due to ease and rates. During 2017 I purchased another rental or two and saw rents and prices rise. In 2017 my wife became pregnant and I realized that I was going to need to pay high daycare costs.
2018
I sold 1 property for $87,000. That property was purchased for $40,000 with $8,000 down. I also entered a new market and purchased 5 new properties. In 2018 my daughter was born. We pay about $315 a week for daycare.
2019
I have purchased 4 homes and have partial or total ownership of 18 properties in total. My daughter is now 1 year old. I don’t manage most of my properties anymore and am less concerned with expansion. I plan on continuing to invest but I am going to diversify into more stocks and potentially other business ventures.
Note:
Although I like the idea of early retirement I more value financial independence. I enjoy my job and so does my wife (an elementary school teacher). I will work until I don’t have a passion to do so anymore at which time I plan to start doing a lot of volunteering. I’ve found that compounding has been the greatest piece of my success (and some fortunate markets) and there isn’t really one deal that changed my life. I’m happy with what I do and find real estate to be challenging and interesting.
Please feel free to ask questions or clarification.
-SSPMAT
