MONEY IS NOT IMPORTANT, BUT DON’T KID YOURSELF
When I first came to the United States, I was a poor graduate student at the University of Central Florida.
My stipend was $12,000 per year. It was less than the earnings a person with a rate of minimum wage.
Since I came in the US alone, with no credit history, I can’t apply for a credit card.
There was a stretch of time where I will budget my whole week with only $10 per week.
I will bike to the grocery store every Sunday after hearing a Catholic mass. The back pack will be stuffed with chicken leg quarters ($4), potatoes ($2) and maybe milk ($2) and rice ($2).
With a heavy backpack, I will maneuver my bike through the busy streets of Alafaya Trail in Orlando.
Back in my apartment (which I pay $340/month and shared with 3 roommates), I will cut the leg quarters into small pieces. Half of the meat will be simmered with potatoes, the other half will be baked with lemon pepper.
That was my meal for the whole week.
With rice, it was enough.
It was more than enough.
After graduation, I worked with start-up pharmaceutical companies. With a wife and kid, we bought a house and was living what they call the American Dream.
But when the economy went south in 2009, the start-up company ran out of money and I was handed the pink slip.
My hope of climbing the corporate ladder and getting the corner office never materialized.
Although I secured another job, I realized there’s no more secured job. I wanted to go on my own with a business.
I went from business ideas to business ideas.
I was selling things on eBay. I may get some profit but it wasn’t consistent. Another venture I went to was investing in Treasury, then Stocks and Bonds. My strategy I was buy and hold. It was a passive approach in investing.
I remember one of my older co-workers who invested in mutual funds gave me his old copies of the Morning Star, a report of all the mutual fund market.
One younger co-worker showed me his portfolio of mutual funds in Vanguard and he said he read “Money” magazine for advise. I never read that magazine again.
Although I win some and lost some money, it wasn’t the lifestyle you ever wanted of working at home in your pajama.
There was a promising venture that I went to also. It was the Forex market. My former co-worker introduced me to the volume and candlestick analysis of Forex market. Again, I was disappointed. Came Bitcoin, but was not profitable for me.
I thought I was going to hit big selling private labels in Amazon, but this is where I lost a chunk of money. I would order products from China through Alibaba and sell it on Amazon, but since it was a retail business, the margin was razor thin.
For a while, it was a 10% margin during launch and could go up to 20% but after all the advertising costs, I was left with almost nothing.
A mentor advised me to get out of the retail business. It’s so much work and the margin is so low.
The mentor also advised me to not go on real estate. Although the profit margin is huge, it was too much work.
“Save it for your retirement”, my mentor said.
Then I found an on-line business using sales funnel.
This is where my revenues grew.
I once heard that money doesn’t change you, it only amplifies you.
When you don’t have money before, and you’ve been generous to give money to charity, then when you become wealthy, you give more.
If you’ve been serving other people when your income was just modest, then you become a force in serving people once your net worth increases.
That man standing in line for a burger is a billionaire. He is worth $90,000,000,000. He can buy that burger stand. But with no bodyguards, opted to follow the line.
This is an example of money doesn’t change you, it amplifies you.
With revenues coming from my multiple passive incomes, I know money doesn’t change you, it only amplifies you.
I give money to my favorite charity (Catholic Charity) and Breast Cancer Research.
