This is my final week in corporate America. I have left behind a 6 figure job, where if I had stayed, I would be making $500,000+ in my late 40s early 50s.

“Live 5 years the way no one else will, so you can live the rest of your life the way no one else can.”

This is a success story of hard work and determination. I was the typical NY commuter who lives in NJ. I spent 3 hours a day commuting into and out of NYC. Everyday. For 10+ years. I recall at 23-24, getting off the train after my 1 hour and 40 minute commute had ended and watching middle aged adults sprinting to their cars to get home and beat the 2 minutes of traffic in the parking lot after commuting nearly 2 hours. It was at that time I thought to myself, if I’m doing this in my 50s, I screwed up somewhere.

Real estate investing has set me free. My wife and I sacrificed our tails off to get here. We bought our first house in 2014 (a 3 family with lots of problems) and within a few months it created a raging hunger inside of me to acquire more. In order to acquire more I got my real estate license and also started to manage property for people to make some extra money. This was on top of working on Wall St 9 hours a day and commuting 3 hours a day.

The amount of mental freedom real estate investing created early on was remarkable. I no longer cared about laughing at a bosses bad joke or trying to play office politics. Didn’t care about buying nice things. Only cared about real estate.

We acquired our 2nd property (a 2 family) in 2016 that was also a dump and fixed it up. At this point I started reading about Biggerpockets and learned to pyramid, or what BP brands as BRRRR. Except, I didn't BRRRR. I BRRHR'd, meaning I got HELOCs. I got them on a 3 family that we lived in and I got them on investment property too. I liked this approach much more as it kept my mortgage payments the same and I could use the LOCs over and over again.

My best project was acquiring a 2 family for $625,000 that I managed for a client and getting a variance to add to it. The variance changed my life. I bought and rehabbed the house with a LOC and I didn't spend a nickel of my own money on it. I increased the rents 80% and the value followed. That one I did refinance and I got all my money back, plus another large LOC and paid off all my previous LOCs. I didn't spend a dime of my own money on it.

As our portfolio grew and my management portfolio grew, it made my choice to leave my 9-5 an easy one given the growth. I realized you can always make more money in this life but you cannot make more time.

So today, I have a management company that manages $15M in assets for clients as well as our own portfolio. Zero inherited money. No partners (aside from my wife). All done after working and commuting 12 hours a day.

Just an attitude of wake up, be nice, kick ***, repeat.

Looking forward to what 2020 has in store as I’m not stopping, only getting started. My aim is to double our properties under management in NJ to 120-150, grow the brokerage side of the business, start doing construction project management for our clients and open up my real estate office later this year. Most importantly I am happy I can watch my kids grow up, grab lunch with my wife whenever I want and not be chained to a desk sitting in meetings about meetings, being trapped in a horrific cross state commute or deal with other corporate nonsense.

Feels amazing folks!