When I used to work for Fry’s Electronics, and as a stock broker for Fidelity, I hated every single minute of my life. Even when I wasn’t at work, I just sat around dreading going back to work. At work I would stare at the clock imagining the hands would speed up so I could just go home. When I finally realized I was literally wishing away years my life, hoping my time would disappear into nothing, I pooled every penny to my name and got the hell outta Dodge.
I packed up my car with my junk with and I moved from LA to Dallas / Fort Worth with no job, prospects, family or friends. I lived in Motel 6 off of Rufe Snow for a few weeks. Eventually I settled into a C Class Complex in Bedford in a 400 sq/ft studio apartment. It cost me $380 a month. I paid 6 months up front. I owned my 81 Cadillac Fleetwood Diesel outright. I had some money in the bank. I was happy and I had a mission. Potential. Limitless potential. I was frickin’ psyched.
Several years later, after a series of successful RE deals, I found myself living in Park Glen in North Fort Worth. I owned my 97 Buick Park Avenue outright. I owned all my Big Lots furniture. No credit card debt. One Friday afternoon I paid off my mortgage on my 1700 sq/ft 1992 built home. It was worth around $120k. I had about $1200 a month coming in semi-passively. My expenses were well under this amount. I was happy. I had a mission. Potential. Quite a bit of potential.
Several years later, after a series of successful apartment deals, I found myself living in the posh Roanoke, Keller, Westlake corridor. I had just purchased my ridiculously huge dream house in cash. ~7,000 sq/ft & ~$1.3mm. Black Lamborghini in the garage. Expenses were up tremendously, but I could certainly afford it. By my own definition, I had “made it”. I was pretty happy. I had “completed” my mission. I’m sure I had potential. I bought more cars. I installed an expensive outdoor kitchen. I was bored.
Naval Ravikant says: “Stop sacrificing today for some imaginary tomorrow.”
There is only today. There is literally only NOW. Stop doing things in life that you do not want to do, and start doing all the things you think you want to do. (very quickly most of those things will disappear, but that’s for another time) What we crave, what we need as Humans is freedom. Nothing short of freedom will do.
Freedom can be had at many different income levels. I had HALF the freedom I wanted at $0 income! I had 75% of the freedom I wanted at $1,200 a month in income. I probably had a little less, maybe 70% of the freedom I wanted at $50,000 a month in income. There’s a lot of gravity to deal with when caring for larger amounts of capital.
If I could talk to 20 year old Will Crozier right now, here is my advice to that ignorant punk:
Get involved in RE or other asset classes that you are excited about and learn them inside out. Free yourself as quickly as possible from whatever enslaves you. Focus on making $5k a month passively. That’s your target. Keep your expenses low. Live for today. Travel now. Meet more people now. Start doing humanitarian work now. Start DJing now. Start taking 2 hour coffee breaks in the middle of a “work day” with a friend now. (and don’t discuss business!) Go watch a movie with your girl at 11am on a Tuesday.
Now’s here the cool part: Continue doing your RE and business investing at a slow pace, in the background, across the decades in front of you. Keep TIME on your side, with years clicking away without people paying attention. If you compound even at a slow pace, you will create ENORMOUS multi generational wealth, far bigger than you could have ever imagined. We all know that life is short, but “money life” is extremely long. Keep investing until you are 90 years+.
Who knows? Maybe you can keel over dead with with your 1031’s passed down to your kids with that bad ass stepped-up basis. F-You IRS!!
