{"id":185520,"date":"2025-11-05T13:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T20:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/?p=185520"},"modified":"2025-11-05T13:00:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T20:00:14","slug":"how-i-went-from-0-to-one-million-dollars-in-seven-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/how-i-went-from-0-to-one-million-dollars-in-seven-years","title":{"rendered":"How I Went from $0 to $1 Million in 7 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2018, I started over with nothing. By 2025, I\u2019m in spitting distance of the Two-Comma Club. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I first started investing in real estate in my mid-20s, I made some bad <\/span>investments in<\/span> rental <\/span>properties<\/span>.<\/span> I never got a mentor\u2014I learned every lesson the hard way. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By my late 30s, I couldn\u2019t afford to keep subsidizing those early investments with my income each month. I unloaded every property I owned. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every good investment I\u2019d ever made got wiped out by the bad ones. I turned 38 with nothing to show for 16 years of working adulthood. It was like falling on the wrong square in a board game and being sent back to \u201cStart.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how did my wife and I go from $0 to nearly $1 million in less than seven years? <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Two-Pronged Attack to Build Wealth Fast<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To build wealth fast, you need to save a <\/span>huge<\/span> percentage of your income<\/span>, <\/span>and <\/span>you need to<\/span> invest it for high returns.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It helps to have a high income, of course, but my wife and I have never had that. <\/span>Katie\u2019s a school counselor (<\/span>teacher<\/span> salary), and my company <\/span>SparkRental<\/span> has<\/span> always been more <\/span>labor<\/span> of love than <\/span>cash<\/span> cow.<\/span> In most months, I earned more as a financial writer than as an entrepreneur organizing an investment club of peers. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That didn\u2019t stop us. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aggressive Savings Plan Part 1: Expat Life<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For most of the last seven years, we <\/span>lived overseas<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>That enabled us to live <\/span>a comfortable life<\/span> on my wife\u2019s income and benefits alone<\/span>, <\/span>and save and invest all of my income.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The international schools where my wife worked provided us with <\/span>free<\/span> furnished housing.<\/span> We paid reduced U.S. income taxes <\/span>due to<\/span> the <\/span>foreign earned<\/span> income exclusion.<\/span> For the last six years, we <\/span>didn\u2019t even have a car<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And of course, we enjoyed a lower cost of living overseas. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bottom line:<\/span> We enjoyed a savings rate of 50%-70% <\/span>for<\/span> each of those years, which we <\/span>turned around and invested for compounding<\/span> returns.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aggressive Savings Plan Part 2: Living Stateside Again<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In June, we moved back to the States to be closer to family. We knew we\u2019d take a financial hit, so we prepared for it. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We still manage a 35% savings rate, even living in a major East Coast city. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, we negotiated a <\/span>discount on rent<\/span>. As a former landlord myself, I know my way around these conversations. \u201cMy wife and I each have credit scores in the mid-700s. We don\u2019t have any pets. And if you\u2019ll accept $____, we can prepay the first six months\u2019 rent upfront.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not every landlord was willing to take hundreds off the rent in exchange for prepayment. But we only needed one to agree. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, my wife and I decided to try sharing one car. <\/span>We bought a used Hyundai Tucson, and in over four months of living back in the States, we\u2019ve <\/span>only<\/span> had one or two scheduling conflicts <\/span>around<\/span> the car.<\/span> Sharing one car not only saves us on car payments, but also on insurance, gas, maintenance, and more. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We use a high-deductible health plan, in conjunction with an HSA, to lower our tax bill. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We contribute to other <\/span>tax-advantaged accounts<\/span><\/a> to further lower our tax bill. Plus, we score some <\/span>great<\/span> tax savings through our real estate investments\u2014but I\u2019m getting ahead of myself.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yes, we go out for fewer meals and coffees than we did abroad. But so what? I know how to cook, as do many of our friends, so we still eat plenty of restaurant-quality meals. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aggressive Investing<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t save $1 million worth of pennies in a jar over the last seven years. Our investments did a lot of the heavy lifting for us. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I\u2019ve written about before, I <\/span>invest<\/span> about half of our portfolio <\/span>in<\/span> stocks<\/span>, <\/span>and the other half <\/span>in<\/span> real estate.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stock investing strategy<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I keep my stock investments simple: index funds rebalanced by a robo-advisor. I personally use Schwab\u2019s, which is free. <\/span>I have it set to <\/span>pull<\/span> money <\/span>out of<\/span> my checking account every <\/span>single<\/span> week and invest it automatically <\/span>as a form of<\/span> dollar-cost averaging.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also buy a few index funds manually, including more international stock funds. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s seriously that simple. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Real estate investing strategy<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I hated being a landlord\u2014and that goes for the good rental investments I made later on, not just the early lemons. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, I <\/span>invest passively<\/span><\/a> through the co-investing club. Every month, we meet on Zoom and vet a new investment together. Any member can invest $5K or more, and together, we invest $400K to $850K. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some months, it\u2019s a <\/span>private partnership<\/span><\/a>; in others, a private note; in others, a syndication. Some investments are more income-oriented, like the land fund we invested in this month, paying a 16% distribution yield. Others are more growth-oriented, and others combine both income and growth. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This<\/span> lets me practice dollar-cost averaging with my real estate investments, too. Over time, the returns have compounded <\/span>to drive<\/span> my net worth ever higher. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want Extraordinary Results? Stop Being Ordinary<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The average person will never build real wealth, regardless of income. As of last check, the <\/span>average savings rate<\/span><\/a> in the U.S. is a paltry 4.6%. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the investing side, the average American fares just as <\/span>badly<\/span>. A <\/span>20-year analysis<\/span><\/a> from 1998 to 2017 found that while the S&P 500 averaged a 7.2% annualized return during that period, the average retail investor earned just 2.6%. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think you\u2019ll <\/span>get rich<\/span><\/a> saving 4.6% of each paycheck and earning 2.6% returns on your money? You\u2019ll barely keep pace with inflation. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aim for a 25%, 35%, or 45% savings rate. Then invest for 10%-20% returns. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do that, and you have a shot at becoming a <\/span>millionaire within the next five to 10 years<\/span><\/a>, even if you\u2019re starting from scratch like I did in my late 30s.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2018, I started over with nothing. By 2025, I\u2019m in spitting distance of the Two-Comma Club.  When I first started investing in real estate in my mid-20s, I made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":158586,"featured_media":185501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7358],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing-stories"],"acf":[],"comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/158586"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}