When you are broke, it’s hard not to feel like a loser. It seems that everyone else in the world has it figured out except you. This especially applies to those who choose to get married early in life.
My wife and I married when I was 25, and she was 22. Today is our 16th anniversary, and a good time to reflect on how we got this far.
When we married, we didn’t have two nickels to rub together (we had some savings). My mom bought us our first bed back in 2006. I had previously lived in the barracks my entire career.
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The Marine Corps moved me to Okinawa, Japan, in 2006 but didn’t allow me to bring my wife, so she had to stay with my mom in San Diego. I was a young E5 back in the day.
Humble beginnings. We started by renting a room inside a rental with my mom. Over the years, we have grown to own three homes and multiple acres of land. We both have fond memories of those early years.
Today, many people want to skip these humble beginnings and start with nice cars, weddings, and homes. My friends, please avoid trying to cut the “starter years.”
These early years of marriage (or being single) can allow you to get far ahead in life. Or they can destroy any chance you have of achieving financial success. It’s okay to start with zero; avoid going into the negatives.
Your 20s and 30s. I seem to write a lot about the 20s and 30s. I write so much about this timeframe because I wish I had some guidance during these years.
Your 20s and 30s are the best time to hustle and learn to invest. Many of us spend our 20s and 30s “playing house” and racking up debt with cars and houses. Then in our 40s, we are broke and suffer from depression, divorce, and loneliness. Who would have guessed that a lack of money could take an emotional toll on you?
If you want to build from zero to zeros, you have to start planning your retirement during your 20s and 30s. No, that doesn’t mean you plan to retire in your 60s when you are 20. This means to plan to buy your freedom from bondage in your 40s or earlier.
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The best way to free yourself. The absolute best way to free yourself is by living below your means and reducing housing expenses. I give examples of minimal living in my article “Real Estate Investing in Your 20s.”
In your late 20s and early 30s, you will probably get the urge to buy a home. Please read “Real Estate Investing in Your 30s” for my take on buying your first home. In short, buy something small and can serve as a rental down the line. You don’t need a huge house to start your life—you can thank me later.
Our experience. I speak from financial experience. We bought a home out of our price range back in 2008. It took us until 2021 to get our money back from this home. We kept it, and finally, we were able to do a cash-out refinance to recover our down payment.
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We should have bought a smaller home with no down payment using the VA Loan in hindsight. Then we could have invested $60,000 into the stock market in 2009 when all the prices went down.
Or we could have bought some rental properties at the bottom of the market. There were a lot of options to invest and earn those zeros, but I was missing something.
I lacked the knowledge. Yep, that’s right; I lacked the financial sophistication to make better choices. Not all opportunities will be perfect, but I could have avoided a lot of heartache by reading and learning.
Instead, I played video games and watched Netflix with my wife. I have no regrets, but I would be out of the Marine Corps right now with the proper planning.
So, I am here in Japan because of my financial ignorance, away from my family. I will spend my wife’s birthday, Valentine’s Day, our 16th anniversary, and my 41st birthday away from home. Oh yeah, they all occur this week.
From zero to zeros. However, don’t cry for me. I am determined to build as many zeros as I can in the next few years. I look at this as an opportunity to save our children the same heartaches.
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Yes, they will go through their trials and tribulations—that’s the formula of life. However, they don’t have to be at zero, and they don’t have to navigate life without guidance.
We started with zero passive income. Now we make over $3,000/mo in “mailbox money” consisting of rents, royalties, and dividends. There is no better feeling than waking up to $50 of dividends in your account or $20 in book royalties.
You know you are on track for good things when you see your investments grow from zero in 2019 to $200,000 in 2021. But you don’t just achieve these things by blindly moving through life. You have to build focus through the core values of passive income: self-education, self-motivation, and self-dedication.
Set your goals. If your goal is to get rich, chances are you will burn out early. You have to aim for something higher than yourself or just pure money. Money doesn’t do anything or mean anything special. However, it gives us options to live the life we choose.
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If you are lost looking for your higher purpose, read the book “Think and Grow Rich.” It is an older book but talks about attracting money to yourself. Understanding your attitude and relationship with money is vital to growing your wealth.
I also recommend “Effortless Money” and “Know Yourself, Know Your Money” as books to read early in your journey to achieve zeros.
Clear guidance. After you have some background information on your money philosophy, it’s time to get to work. Let me be clear; it won’t be easy to build an empire. Life isn’t supposed to hand it to you.
Most people will fizzle out and let time do all their heavy lifting. They will look at the compound interest calculator, start investing 10% of their income from age 25-65, retire at age 65 with $500,000 in the bank, and draw social security.
They will live the rest of their lives on a fixed income because they never learned to invest and grow wealth. Is this your dream life? Do you want to spend 40 years grinding away to build someone else’s empire? I hope not.
The most explicit guidance I can give you is to break the employee mindset. It will be one of the hardest things you will ever do in your life. Trust me; I am still trying to break it after 23 years in the Marine Corps.
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They condition us to be employees from the start. There is only one correct answer in school, and your teacher holds the key to success. You can’t collaborate with anyone on tests, and you can’t use notes. Those with great memories and follow implicit instructions do well.
However, those stellar kids have a hard time as entrepreneurs. Read the book “Why “A” Students Work for “C” Students” for more on this phenomenon.
As an entrepreneur, you have to fail and make mistakes. You then need to bounce back with clearer vision. You cannot be a perfectionist. You need to get your product out quickly and let the market determine what changes and updates you should make.
Entrepreneurship is the true path to zeros. Whether you keep your day job or not, you have to start a business and learn how to invest.
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Conclusion. There is so much to talk about, but I will leave it here for today. I started as a worker with an entire mindset of climbing the corporate ladder. I climbed the ladder to the rank of E9. However, it’s still someone else’s ladder.
There is nothing at the top of someone else’s ladder. You don’t have ownership, you can’t sell it, and you can’t pass it along to your children. In fact, you can’t even hire your kids into the business. You can’t give your wife a job or take vacations as you wish. You can’t increase your income by adding value or launching new products. You can’t even use the company’s logo to endorse products. You are a tool that they use to complete the mission.
It sounds harsh, but it is true. Again, there is nothing wrong with being an employee, but the employee mindset kills innovation, motivation, and work ethic. Build your own shit. Then you will earn more zeros than you can imagine.
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Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. All Right Reserved Military Family Investing
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