SUCCESS STORY: Mosaic

OK success story. Once again not sure if I am posting this in the right section yet due to limited number of posts am being denied access to other areas of this forum. Either that or I am a moron which is also possible. Born and raised on a picturesque Gulf Island off the west coast of Canada. Come from an extensive family of educators with a few lawyers thrown in the fold.

My father was the head of the theater department at a local university and my mother was a highschool teacher. I had an exellent upper middle class childhood : my folks did an amazing job yet the emphasis(nothing wrong with this) was education , the arts, travel etc. My parents could of been categorized as aging hippy idealists. We raised our own veggies, fished from the pacific ocean and had some horses:a nice little hobby farm .

Basically as far back as I can remember I was obsessed {fascinated} with money and capitalism..Not" basic instinct obsessed" yet genuinely couldn't get the idea of business off my mind. Donald Trump was my hero growing up. ok along with the Vancouver canucks.

Began my first small business at the age of fifteen selling firewood, had a landscaping company , the list is longer yet you get the point.. A turning point for me was reading a book called The Wealthy Barber" not really fastlane literature yet introduced me to the concept of compound interest and I believe touched on real estate investment , mutual funds etc. The main paradigm was to PAY YOURSELF FIRST. Ok so super basic concept, started paying myself first religiously.

Became involved in construction, graduated highschool honours English student , horrible math skills. Forgot to mentioned that at the age of eight my parents went on a sebatical for eighteen months and home schooled me as we circumnavigated the globe. Saw around twenty five countries, really opened my eyes to culture, poverty, different religious beliefs. I think this shaped me as a person and helped me with future perspective. Ok finished highschool and due to the fact of paying my self first along with some decent stock pics, high mutual fund growth and some small side businesses bought my first rental property at twenty. Had my parent s manage this for a small fee and went off to university to study business. Shit, wait my math skills were too low had to major in Sociology, I digress.

University was a big party , yet at the same time allowed me to network with some folks and meet a hell of a lot of nice young girls. Did I mention I have networked well... Ok , well at university western canadian real estate went on a tear and my rental home doubled in value in three years. During this time bought a loft condo in victoria bc which was zoned transient so was able to run a few home based businesses and write off my mortgage.

Fast forwrd a couple of more yrs, dropped out of university to wheel and deal unloaded both my properties , cleared three fifty k profit , continued to Pay myself first and by the age of twenty five was in a nice position with a near half million k net worth. Ok kept putting money into real estate networked my way into some private money lending , set up several small businesses and sole proprietorships as well as working in construction and was in an advantagious position.

Did I mention kissed rat race goodbye as most my friends were settling into middle class, mindnumbing careers. At this point started to sink some capital into Bali Indonesia as my father had retired there. I bought amazing ocean view land and build a house right before prices went up steadily. Became really interested in multiple streams of income, passive income , rental properties etc. Also came to understand the power of currency exchanges. To summarize this get payed in dollars and living off of in my case Indonesian rupiahs. Oh did I mention I am obsessed with Bali Indonesia. Dont want to sound like a tour guide yet if you love south east asia you will adore Bali. Consistently ranked as the top or near the top Island destinations in the world. I live there between six and eight months of the year . I hate the Wet Coast Of Canada winters. Core income is derived in Canada , we were not hit or haven't been hit hard by the recession that is crippling the states. I have had excellent R.O.I the last yr and a half.. Ok I could go on and will elaborate if anyone wanted more details yet my fingers are sore and I am a poor typer. I am currently thirty three years old, self employed basically my whole adult life, have multiple forms of passive income, and most importantly I understand how to make money. My life is great and I have the freedom and time to constantly research and execute business deals which just increase my portfolio power. I really love business , am not a genius , am not Donald Trump. Have learned balance and work my ass off. Am not quite a millionaire yet am dam close. The sky is really the limit.

I am currently starting to look at spec home investments , import business, and several other streams of passive income. I definitely got a tad bit lucky with some early real estate appreciation yet was able to leverage that in a way where transitions into other businesses has been a breeze. Oh ya also always pay myself first and re invest like a champ cheers guys sorry about the spelling and grammar. hope this might inspire some of the young fast lane folks.

Speed + Rep

Thanks, I tried to fix some of the spelling and grammar.

Fantastic, inspirational story. Hope you stick around these parts. Rep +++

Great story, do you mind explaining 'Pay yourself first?'.

To pay yourself first means simply this: Before you pay your bills, before you buy groceries, before you do anything else, set aside a portion of your income to save. The first bill you pay each month should be to yourself.

I wish i had this in my mind when i was young...

I'm sorry, but I must absolutely disagree with this. You can't save if you have debt, else you are just fooling yourself.

You must pay your bills first, (rent, mortgage, food, gas, etc) the most basic necessities must be met first. Then after that, you can pay yourself first (savings, retirements)

rent, water, electric, heat, food, basic telephone, insurnace (higher priority)

pay yourself (savings & retirement funds)

business investments, cable, movies, video games, clothes, vacation, etc (lower priority)

You can disagree but that's what it means:

Pay Yourself First
Paying Yourself First - Business Paying Yourself First - Pay Yourself First - Your TeenAnalyst.com
SOHO Finance -- Pay Yourself First?
How to Pay Yourself First and Create Massive Wealth | eHow.com

And i can show many more examples. Regarding debt, of course you can't do it if you have debt and end up without money at the end of the month due to debt, but that doesn't mean the concept isn't like i posted...
If you have debt but what you earn covers what you pay and you still have something left, why not put that amount in the beginning of the month and then pay your debt?
I have debt and i can't do it because there's no money left at the end of the month...

Cheers Bond for the response. I thought "Pay yourself first" would be investing in yourself e.g. set a side money to spend - whether it be luxury items, holidays, books to keep you on the game.