"A 27-year-old millionaire reveals how he built his wealth"

Great young man. More power to him!

The military has been the catalyst that raised a lot of us above the level of our parents.
 
"Do you have a summary for us?"

“In high school, there was pretty much no financial education and my parents wouldn’t talk to me about money,” he says. “Everything I learned about money I had to learn myself.”

Or, just watch the video.
 
serie1926 said:
"Do you have a summary for us?"

“In high school, there was pretty much no financial education and my parents wouldn’t talk to me about money,” he says. “Everything I learned about money I had to learn myself.”

Or, just watch the video.
Click to expand...

Okay, never mind.
 
There's also a text version, which I read, and ignored the video.
 
Bestwifeever - I read the text version too.

Summary: He went into the military and got them to pay for his college. He banked most of his pay from the military (since they covered housing and food). He dollar cost averaged in a big way through the market downturn. He bought some rental properties along the way. And now he's a Millionaire at age 27.

The kid definitely sounds like he'd fit in here.
 
From the link:

he decided to enlist in the U.S. Navy at age 20. He earned about $55,000 a year as an electronics technician....
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Is that right, $55k right away as an electronics technician? Something seems off.
 
Is that right, $55k right away as an electronics technician? Something seems off.
Click to expand...

I didn't see that 55 Grand. If that's in there, something is off. The whole vibe of the video sounded like a late night infomercial for real estate investing
 
Yes, the $55k was in the text version. Knowing nothing about Navy pay it seemed high for a newbie enlisted guy.
 
Even if the Navy pay is suspect, the fact is this guy did a great job of LBYM and helped educate himself. I give him a lot of credit and he has made some good decisions along the way. His net worth does include all of his potential, with a big chunk made up in real estate that has appreciation factored in.

He is miles ahead of me at that same years of life.
 
Hmm. Feel like my Navy pay was on the order of $130/month for a seaman apprentice, and not a bunch more as a 3rd class sonarman in a war zone. Of course that was just around civil war time.... Now making his fortune in real estate, that sounds right and proper.
 
38Chevy454 said:
Even if the Navy pay is suspect, the fact is this guy did a great job of LBYM and helped educate himself.
Click to expand...
Unless, of course, this is all made up. I'm not saying that's the case, but it is certainly suspicious if the numbers do not work out at all.
 
I read this story when it first came out. My first thought was that it seemed a bit of an exaggeration. It is not unusual for people to amplify their wins and minimize their losses when telling a story. It could be 100% true, but again the odds are against the 100% part in my opinion. I take all these stories with a grain of salt. Of course the point is still valid, LBYM and invest and you come out ahead of those who don't.
 
Intelligence, frugality, hard work. He's done and is doing well. Nothing wrong with that.

"Now let me turn myself into a commodity in the blogosphere, affiliate advertising world."

>>> Yes, I'm a cynic. <<<

My opinion, Mike Piper (oblivious investor) is someone who is doing it right.
 
CaliforniaMan said:
It is not unusual for people to amplify their wins and minimize their losses when telling a story. It could be 100% true, but again the odds are against the 100% part in my opinion. I take all these stories with a grain of salt. Of course the point is still valid, LBYM and invest and you come out ahead of those who don't.
Click to expand...

+1. I usually assume thee stories are no more accurate than online dating profiles:

Online Dating Profile Lies - Online Dating Statistics - Woman's Day

Where studies show most people have been found to lie about, well just about everything including income, and "80% of online daters lie about their height, weight or age."
 
I help junior enlisted members with their finances fairly often, so while I'm not too familiar with naval electronics techs, I am familiar with their salaries. I see two ways he could reach $55K/yr. Either he is counting the freelance money he earned ($15-20K/yr) as part of that $55K, or he earned bonuses. Some military career fields offer annual or multi-year bonuses in undermanned jobs. Maybe some combination of the two. As a first year sailor, he was probably earning around $20K in base pay, and depending on his duty location maybe $14-25K worth of housing and food.

Either way, kudos to him!
 
RISP said:
Should be more like $25k IMO, unless he got some crazy bonuses for overseas deployment or the like.

E4 - Petty Officer - 3rd Class (Navy) Salary | Salary.com
Click to expand...

My guess:

He was a Submarine ET. He'd be entitled to a few proficiency pay bonuses, and would promote to E4 right away during school. Shortly after that, he could easily make E5, where he'd also be entitled to live off the ship and thus collect a housing allowance. Many E4/E5's collecting BAH live with roommates and are able to save some of that allowance.

E5 over 4 makes $2550 base/month. It doesn't say where he was living, but let's assume Norfolk (largest base in the world). His housing allowance there would be $1200/month. That's $3750/month so far.

He's on sea duty, so he collects sea pay: $160/mo under 2 years, up to $350/mo once he's over 3 years sea duty (usually one tour for the enlisted guys). So let's say he stays at $160...

Now up to ~$3900/mo.

If he's a submarine ET, that's another $155/mo for sub pay... now $4150/mo. That's right at $50,000/yr for an E5 at 4 years of service, which is quite possible if not likely in that rating.

Depending on housing allowance, how much time he had at sea, how long he actually served, he could easily be making $55,000 per year as a first term sailor. If he had a nuclear specialty, he'd have other bonuses even as an E4 that could push him toward that range.

There's nothing wrong with his salary projection.
 
Basically true, but those are 2014 numbers. An E4 under 2 years in 2007 (the highest rank he could have been) was making $1699/mo in base pay, and he wouldn't have promoted to E5 within 2 years. So he wasn't making $55K in basic pay, BAH, and BAS when he first got in. By the time he got out, maybe.


Again, the important thing is he was living significantly below his means and I know plenty of people who would benefit from his example.
 
Again, the important thing is he was living significantly below his means and I know plenty of people who would benefit from his example.
Click to expand...

Every single one of these types of stories I have ever seen engage in the following:

Being vague about specifics. hell, they can tell any story they want on that basis

Indicate the specimen person "worked really hard" for something when in fact they did not. They mostly just showed up to a gig that had a good outcome

Indicate the specimen person was somehow really smart of could know things nobody else could know when the reality is they tried this or that based on their situation as many others do and in their case it worked out atypically well. ie they got lucky

Sure, LBYM too. So what?
 
I think LBYM is one of those things they tried that others don't. Unfortunately a lot of people won't even try LBYM, so seeing how somebody else did it is a good example. And I don't begrudge the reporter for leaving out details in a short article. I think of these as teasers to get somebody to do their own research later on.

Would I personally like specifics? Yes, but I'm a numbers person and find reading the minutiae of how somebody changed their financial lives to be interesting. Most people don't.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum
 
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