20 here, Joined last year. I'm mostly just an observer on the forums but I'm always willing to answer questions in pm's.
I'd say my core financial goals are to own a clothing line and use it to allow me to save enough to buy a house in the mountain with full solar power and carbon negative living without mortgage and a significant savings. Oh, and for your guys using satellite internet to keep in touch. :P

thanks for the invite. First of all I really like the stories given below. A little about myself, I'm 17 from CA. i'm really interested in the RE business, liked the idea since I found that it gives the oppurtunity to get wealthy and help my family and others get more in life. Not very special or anything but i'm not that good at this kind of stuff.

well since members here are eager to go on the fast lane..and want to start their own ventures...i would like to offer some help..please do check out the business for sell listings at sunbelt business sales & aquisitions and get started to make your dreams a reality..so tell me which business you think you would be good at handling?

Quick addition:

You guys ever went to eat out at a nice restaurant, and instead of eating what you really want, you have to look at the price first?

Ever live in an apartment where you can hear the person in the bathroom doing their business, because the sq footage is so small?

Tired of big financial companies taking advantage of us little guys (VISA, Mastercard), and not being anything to do about it?

Convinced yourself that the car you drive is the best, and you love it, but only because that's all you could afford?

Those are the big reasons why I am looking for a fastlane way out. Think of all the little things in life that you sacrifice because of a lack of money. My JOB is exactly that, I make enough just to go broke every month.

Hi all, I am new member in this forum. I build a small business now related on handicrafts wholesaler and retail.
I need some advice..
Thanks

thanks for the invite, now I need to be a better role-model to some of you younger guys and get back to reading and most importantly putting into practice the wealth of info on these forums

here's my story... was a very imaginative and creative child and then the worst thing happened in HS, I decided I want to go to college and that getting my degree to fall back on would help me if times got rough. Well thanks to the expenses of college(not including tuition) I got my first credit card and plenty of debt to go with it... b/c of this I have had to work jobs all through college while letting my grades take a hit and letting the wonderful indoctrination center I wasted all that money and 5yrs of my life at strip me of the creativity and imagination I once had for the sake of getting that piece of paper...

now officially 1yr out of college, I was lucky enough to start my business for about 7 months after working for my best friend's step-dad, well the business went under but I still walked away with my head above water and enough to fund my current 4 month unemployment, but it seems like the debt is not gonna go away anytime soon, on the plus side I made the first big investment of my life in buying my parents' house and have been able to afford it due to being my own property manager and having roommates, but unfortunately I need to find a revenue stream soon, including a j-o-b or else I might have start tapping further into credit to keep what I have....

through it all I have tried to stay positive, but it's a rough economy and whether you're unemployed like me or a small business owner the last few months have been trying, thankfully I know even the best of the fastlaners have had some ups and downs and I'm hoping to learn from these down times to be a productive fastlaner myself.

oh yea, I'm now 24 and in Chicago.

Hi, I just joined. I'm not around the forum (or anything online) much anymore due to lots of projects going on. Just thought I'd post my 2 cents and say hello. I'm 24 and living in Phoenix, AZ. I own 2 shares of stock (gift from grandparents years ago) and some interest in real estate. Glad to be here. Thanks for the invite =)

Wow, Herman, that's an amazing story.

Glad to have you here. Can't wait to hear about the rest of your journey!

A little bit about myself...

I had an odd childhood. My mother and father valued education. My mother, a college professor, taught me at home until my teenage years. At the age of 13, I began my freshman year of college as a mathematics major. At 16, I dropped out. I kept asking all of my professors "How do I make money with this?" Their answers sucked. Engineer? Barf. College Professor? Vomit. Actuarian? Yech. Statician? Give me a bucket. I wasn't going to college five years early just to get into the rat race faster than everyone else. F that.

In my late teens, I fell into heavy depression, often suicidal. My parents kicked me out because I wanted to start a business instead of finishing up school.

Their logic was this:

Herman should not try to start a business now, because that's just about making money. And he won't succeed at that. It's too hard. The rich get richer; the poor get poorer. Instead, he should go to school. Why? To get a job. Why? Blank out.

Money isn't everything, they preached. They preached that while they spent their entire days trying to get it. Nothing is everything. Only the universe is. They used a nonsensical cliche to evade what is really so god damn important.

I was homeless for 6 months, but never lost confidence in myself. I picked up literature that talked about money. Picked up the Forbes 400. Saw that 70% of billionaires are self-made. I read Thomas J. Stalney and others. Found out that millionaires and rich folks OWN BUSINESSES. Most of those folks are self-made, too. I moved to Chicago two years ago... I met some young (late 30s, self-made deca-millionaires). It's definately possible, I learned. My parents were wrong. In America, the rich get richer. And the poor get richer, too.

I'm 23 now. Still learning. Still reading. Still meeting people.

And getting very close to knocking this shit out of the park. The most important lesson that I learned in college was that the most important lessons are not learned in college.

I had an odd childhood.

My adulthood is going to be out of this world.

I'm 17 from NJ.

Just to bump my earlier post:

"How young were you all when you got started with you business endeavors? What got you interested in business/investing early on?

For me, I think I was just always interested in luxuries and money, and I knew that investing and entrepreneurship was one way to acquire them. My interest in real estate started when I was about 13 and at my friends house, I began talking to my friend's dad about "building". I'd always been fascinated by new projects and developments, but never really understood them. He explained the process to me, and from then on, I aspired to be a successful real estate investor and developer.

Now, four years later, my passion for real estate has only increased, and I can't wait to get started!!!"