Investing advice 21 year old firefighter

[James Harryton]

Hey guys my end goal is to scale and hit the million dollar number to live well off and leave something behind for my family. I'm a 21 year old firefighter I make around $60k a year. I have a rental property that I paid for using fha for about 200k and I owe 191k on it I want to be able to hold it long enough to build equity, get a heloc on it and buy another one maybe duplex tri plex etc. however this year I'm going to be at a stand still because I'm going to paramedic school which is a year and I'm saving up for my wedding because I am getting married shortly after. Outside of that I still want to hit that number by late 30's I've been trying to figure out how to buy a cash flowing business with little to no money down I've had thoughts of using my heloc to then use on an sba loan to buy a business and I've also thought about taking out a life insurance policy to then put inside of a trust along with the home and borrow against the trust but I was advised not to do that from a Financial Advisor since the rates would be too high and it would take longer to build the wealth. Any ideas or advice on how I can navigate would be so helpful thank you so much!

[Jason Malabute]

Quote from @James Harryton:

Hey guys my end goal is to scale and hit the million dollar number to live well off and leave something behind for my family. I'm a 21 year old firefighter I make around $60k a year. I have a rental property that I paid for using fha for about 200k and I owe 191k on it I want to be able to hold it long enough to build equity, get a heloc on it and buy another one maybe duplex tri plex etc. however this year I'm going to be at a stand still because I'm going to paramedic school which is a year and I'm saving up for my wedding because I am getting married shortly after. Outside of that I still want to hit that number by late 30's I've been trying to figure out how to buy a cash flowing business with little to no money down I've had thoughts of using my heloc to then use on an sba loan to buy a business and I've also thought about taking out a life insurance policy to then put inside of a trust along with the home and borrow against the trust but I was advised not to do that from a Financial Advisor since the rates would be too high and it would take longer to build the wealth. Any ideas or advice on how I can navigate would be so helpful thank you so much!

First of all, thank you for your service as a firefighter. We really appreciate what you do—especially here in California where, unfortunately, fires seem to be a frequent occurrence.

On your question, I hope when you say your goal is to hit the “million dollar number to live well off,” you’re talking about income and not net worth. I made that mistake when I was younger—I thought hitting $1M in net worth meant something, but in reality, it’s just vanity. If your net worth is $1M but you’re making less than $100K a year, that net worth can’t feed your family, pay for your kids’ education, or cover the things your family needs.

Your main focus should be on increasing your income—whether that’s through a side business or other ventures that grow your cash flow. Here’s why: a good real estate deal might yield 10% cash-on-cash return (and that’s hard to find in today’s market). If you want $100K in passive income, you’d need $1M invested in real estate. To safely invest that much, you’d realistically need $2M total, since you won’t put all your money in one place.

Also, understand that real estate isn’t the best for generating immediate cash flow—it’s better for appreciation and tax advantages. With the right creative tax planning strategies, you can use paper losses from real estate to offset your active income. This allows you to keep more of your hard-earned active income, buy more properties, generate more passive income, save even more money, and keep the cycle going.

Speaking from experience, I’ve invested in single-family rentals, multifamily properties, and syndications, and I’m a general partner on multiple deals. I did everything backwards: I bought my primary residence first, then invested in real estate, and only later started my business. I should have done it the other way—start a business first to generate high, steady income, then invest in real estate to create cash flow and offset taxes on that active income. Once you have both your active income and passive income working for you, then buy your primary residence. That’s how you put yourself in the best position to provide for your family.

This is something young real estate investors really need to understand.