My name is Matt Ruhl I started my real estate journey in 2019 during one of the hardest times in my life — going through a bad divorce.

Luckily, I was able to keep my house and eventually sold it, making a decent profit. At 24 years old, I was young and honestly made a lot of dumb financial decisions, spending much of that money on things that didn’t matter. Girls Partying and trips.

At one point, I had moved into a friend’s house and was living in a tiny spare bedroom that barely fit my queen-size bed. I remember thinking to myself: If I don’t do something smart with the money I have left, it’s going to disappear, and I’ll be stuck working my city job picking up trash downtown for the rest of my life.

That’s when I got hooked on BiggerPockets.

Almost every day during my 50-minute drive to and from work, I listened, learned, and soaked up knowledge from so many great investors and guests on the podcast.

With only about $10,000 left from what remained of the money I hadn’t already blown, I bought my first rental property — a very old, ugly triplex in a small town near where I grew up.

My parents told me not to buy it. Some friends thought it was a bad idea too. But I did it anyway.

That decision changed my life forever.

Today, the same parents who told me not to buy that first property now ask me for financial advice.

I focused on small multifamily properties in smaller towns and cities outside of Columbus, Ohio. By doing that, I was able to buy properties far cheaper than Columbus prices while still achieving strong rents after renovations.

I recently closed on my first trailer park and made the decision to leave my W-2 job.

Today, I can honestly say I’m financially free — and a huge part of that journey started with BiggerPockets.

You never know how much one decision can change the direction of your life.