Being a lazy millennial is starting to pay off

Being a lazy millennial is starting to pay off

Rental Property Investor · Cleveland, OH · Member since 2016 · 653 posts · 769 votes

I’ve always been the laziest person I know. By far. From childhood, I never really saw the point of having a job. I knew some people didn’t have jobs, but made a ton of money and did whatever they wanted. I just figured I’d rather be one of them instead. Classic Rich Dad Poor Dad move, I know.

The “old” people in my life were all regretting their younger years and talking about how they can’t wait until they retire at 65 to go on a cruise with a hoard of other 350lb diabetic retirees. Well, guess what, I went on a cruise when I was 15. Why should I have to wait another 50 years to do it again?

I’m a millennial. I want to be lazy now. Not when I’m 65.

My peers at college were all excited about being adults and getting jobs. Meanwhile, I was doing everything I could to not get a job. I had to get creative since I didn’t have a whole lot of support on my mission of laziness. I built websites, sold photography, flipped cars, day traded stocks, started a house painting business, etc., but had this weird dilemma at 22 years old where I still wasn’t rich. In fact, I was as broke as ever. So I did the most rational thing I could think of and moved to Australia, the magical land where people intentionally lose money in real estate.

One real job and a few more failed side hustles later I wanted to get serious about real estate. But banks won’t even let me through the front door. All my failed endeavors led me to be a “strategic business consultant,” meaning “I’m an expert at driving a business into the ground so you should pay me to tell you what not to do.” It’s not the most stable line of work.

Anyhow, a year ago I found some well paying consulting gig that could be done via my trusty MacBook. I ended my lease in Melbourne and somehow saved $25k while partying around Europe all of summer 2016. I’m very serious about real estate at this point, obviously.

Got back to the US and went, oh, apparently you can’t buy a house in Seattle for 25k with no job. Damn. But it turns out you can in Cleveland, Ohio. So back to the airport I went.

After aimlessly driving around Cleveland for a week, I remembered that if I wanted to truly fit in with the other millennials, I had to be broke. So I had no choice but to get rid of the 25k or be forever exiled by my peers.

At the airport, on my way back to Seattle I signed a cash offer for $24.5k on a rundown duplex. It’s not like I’d spend all $25k, duh. I’m no idiot.

Nope, just kidding. I might be just a little bit. It was a disaster. Everything went wrong. But at least I’m back in with the hipsters. As long as I don’t tell them I’m cash flowing $850.

Flash forward 8 months and you’ll be glad to know I’m still as lazy as ever. But damn, being lazy is a lot of work. I suppose that’s why I’m using 100% someone else’s money for my next deal. The deal I just now e-signed while sitting in my underwear on the couch. The same deal that inspired this fine literary achievement. A couple more deals like this and I can retire and be full-time Funemployed.

Now, my next challenge as an overly entitled millennial is figuring out what to do with the next 39 years until my friends retire. I’m open to ideas.

Well, I’m getting hungry so I’m going to wrap this up and get started. You’re only 26 once, I guess.

Time to put some pants on and go for brunch. 

Ryan

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Investor · Tampa, FL · Member since 2011 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
9y

I thought this post was satire, poking fun at grumpy old people complaining about lazy millennials, as it seems like you've done quite a bit of hustling. More hustling than your peers who just settle down in a job they hate and have to get drunk enough every weekend to forget about work until Monday. To me that's lazy, not you. 

The only comment I would make it if you're truly planning on retiring from rental income you will need much more than a couple more deals like this. Your entire yearly income could get wiped out if you run in to a big expense. I think you've got a lot longer to go than you think you do, but congrats for being on the right track...

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  • Natalie KolodijBusiness Member
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    Tax Strategist| National Tax Educator| Accepting New Clients · Member since 2014 · 3k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    9y

    So ....you're living on $850 a month? You can't afford Brunch. 

    * Your profile says you work for a tech firm. 

  • Rental Property Investor · Cleveland, OH · Member since 2016 · 653 posts · 769 votes
    9y

    In a couple weeks I'll be up to about 1500 cash flow, but you're right, I definitely couldn't afford brunch on $850. I have a couple consulting clients that help pay the bills, the main one is the tech firm.

  • Flipper/Rehabber · Montgomery, NY · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    9y

    I like the comedy associated with this thread! I agree with your thoughts 110%, why run through life waiting until you're 65 to "retire" and then enjoy the nicer things. Do what you can now and set yourself up to enjoy those things as you go through life! Do you live in WA or OH now? 

  • Investor · Youngstown, OH · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    9y

    @Ryan Evans what areas of Cleveland did you look at?

  • Investor · Easton, PA · Member since 2017 · 131 posts · 102 votes
    9y

    It's not cool to be lazy.  

    If you think you're so smart and so good at doing things so efficiently, we don't you do something big and change the world.  

    Give millennials a good name. 

  • Rental Property Investor · DFW · Member since 2015 · 89 posts · 36 votes
    9y

    Ummm? It seems like you were WORKING!  To even get where you are today with your $850 @ month fortune  :) took some mental and physical effort on your part. Hey I love the term funemployed.  May I suggest brunch at Mickey D's dollar menu. If $850 @ per month is your goal you might want to consider getting an $SSI check and even food stamps. It's easier and perfect for the "lazy" as you self titled.  It's great getting a monthly check from your tenants but not so great when a major or even a minor repair has to be deducted from that great fortune.  Do you boo.

  • Investor · Tampa, FL · Member since 2011 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    9y

    I thought this post was satire, poking fun at grumpy old people complaining about lazy millennials, as it seems like you've done quite a bit of hustling. More hustling than your peers who just settle down in a job they hate and have to get drunk enough every weekend to forget about work until Monday. To me that's lazy, not you. 

    The only comment I would make it if you're truly planning on retiring from rental income you will need much more than a couple more deals like this. Your entire yearly income could get wiped out if you run in to a big expense. I think you've got a lot longer to go than you think you do, but congrats for being on the right track...

  • San Francisco, CA · Member since 2015 · 19 posts · 5 votes
    9y

    Hilarious! Thanks for the good laugh! To each their own, I wouldn't call myself lazy at all, but I do see some similarities in your and my thought processes. I just keep trying to figure out how I can relive my study abroad year, but full time!

  • Investor · Kansas City, MO · Member since 2017 · 791 posts · 1k+ votes
    9y

    I'm in the same boat! It was the main motivator for me. 

    Here's one of my favorite posts I wrote about the "POWER OF LAZINESS" 

    .

    I’ve always been lazy. Or at least that’s what most people would probably have said about me ever since I was a child. Who knows, maybe I had the average worth ethic for a kid. But average work ethic doesn’t cut it growing up on a small farm in the flatlands of Kansas. I owe a lot to that failed farming operation though. Seeing my father work endless hours to eventually have to walk away with nothing to show for it but debt exposed the futility of the ‘just work hard’ mantra. Other farmers, my grandfather included, worked until their bodies just physically couldn’t anymore. I have tremendous respect for them, but knew I would never follow in that path. I was way too lazy for that.

    Don’t get me wrong; hard work certainly has its place. Thanks to the farm, I am no stranger to long consecutive days and weeks of grueling manual labor. I know sometimes you just have to buckle down and do what has to be done. I have put in 80 hour work weeks in business too when it’s needed. But the big question to ask is simply “why?”

    WHAT’S YOUR REASON TO WORK HARD?

    Is it because you’ve simply accepted and never challenged the traditional path that you get a job and just work hard? Maybe get a promotion, live below your means, and save a little. Then maybe you’ll be able to retire and live the good life after forty or fifty years of working hard. Spend more than half of your adult life (and the most prime years of your life) working hard so that someday when you’re old you won’t have to work?! That sounds terrible!

    So being the lazy person that I am, I started digging in to ways to possibly cut out decades of having to work… and I’ve made it happen. My answer to the “why” work hard is actually a manifestation of my laziness. I feared a life of never ceasing hard work, struggling in the rat race to get ahead, and doing so for the majority of my life. My answer to the why is so that I wouldn’t have to work for very long. I was more than willing to work hard for a window of time knowing it could shave thirty to forty years of work out of my life. 30+ years of living free… now that is a great reason to work hard!

    LAZINESS DOESN’T MEAN SLOTH!

    Laziness in the sense I am talking about does not mean that the desire to lay around like a sloth on a couch all day playing video games and watching TV. The type of laziness I am referring to is simply not wanting to spend my time and energy doing something because I have to. Not spending my time and energy at a cubicle dealing with people I don’t enjoy. I want to spend my time doing what I want to do and when I want to do. I can spend time on personal hobbies or passion projects like this blog.

    Ten years from the start of our investment journey had been our target to get our freedom. We actually made it in seven years. Our days are completely free to do with as I please. Thanks to my laziness, my wife and I have complete financial freedom. 

    HOORAY FOR BEING LAZY!

  • Real Estate Broker · Cleveland Dayton Cincinnati Toledo Columbus & Akron, OH · Member since 2013 · 30k+ posts · 20k+ votes
    9y
  • Rental Property Investor · Cleveland, OH · Member since 2016 · 653 posts · 769 votes
    9y

    I'm not planning on trying to retire off $850 a month, but it's a start. Glad a few of us saw the satire in my little story!  If I close the current deal and do a few more similar deals in the next couple years I'll be in pretty good shape. But I won't be stopping my consulting work anytime soon or I definitely will be eating off the dollar menu :)

    @Austin Fruechting , looks like we're very much on the same wavelength. I think there is a big difference between mental laziness and physical laziness that many people ignore. Love your post! 

    @Brian Pulaski I'm back in WA now, but have plenty of flexibility with my consulting work to fly back if necessary, which I have budgeted into my monthly figures :)

    @Andrea Mas we actually have the same goal it looks like - 20 by 2030. My master plan is already sticky noted to my office wall haha. I might be able to help with the full-time travel goal. My specialty is helping people get professional jobs, largely in remote companies so they can do what I did all last year. I realize how ironic that is to say after writing an article on laziness, but feel free to PM me!

    @Nicole Heasley Beitenman I'm buying near 185th up by the lake and looking at a couple areas like Old Brooklyn as well.

  • Real Estate Broker · Cleveland, OH · Member since 2012 · 771 posts · 252 votes
    9y

    @Ryan Evans

    Brilliant. Keep picking up those cash flow properties. A lot of your fellow millennial hipster friends are hanging out in your investment area. A few months ago I was in the coffee shop over there on Waterloo and they were talking about the director's influence on the Harry Potter movies. I had to check the map on my phone to make sure I was still in Collinwood. :P

  • Real Estate Agent · Denver, CO · Member since 2014 · 151 posts · 101 votes
    9y

    This is great! I think a lot of old timers get upset when they see millennials sitting in a coffee shop during the middle of the week on their computers...but most of the time they are working!!! 

    Just because you aren't sitting behind a desk for 40+ hours a week doesn't mean you aren't working or being productive!

    We only have $600/month in passive cash flow right now, but that's $600 more than any of our friends have, or will have in the near future. We also don't talk about our investing much, because we just get glassy eyes and judgy looks haha.

    Keep up the good work!

  • Rental Property Investor · Cleveland, OH · Member since 2016 · 653 posts · 769 votes
    9y

    @Timothy Murphy III I can only assume you mean Six Shooter Coffee, AKA my second office when I'm in Cleveland! I've gotten to know the baristas there far too well haha. My first property is actually close enough to the arts district to be a strong selling point. And it's where I met my 2nd, but current real estate agent!

    @Billie Miller that's $600 a month worth of avocado on toast that our millennial friends can only dream of! haha. I get the same glassy eyed stare when talking about investing. And unsurprisingly, I get a lot of real estate investing advice from people twice my age who haven't even paid off their one and only house yet. 

    Fortunately, I never get a hard time from sitting in the coffee shop in the middle of the day because I blend in with all the students. But, one of my current first world problems is that I don't have much to talk about with all the other people my age in the coffee shop. The other 26-year-olds around me are studying for their upcoming art history exam and I'm on the phone getting landlord insurance policy quotes or something! haha. 

  • Dunbar, WV · Member since 2017 · 16 posts · 8 votes
    9y

    I love the satire in your story! Great work making a positive name for us "lazy millennials"!

  • Flipper/Rehabber · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2009 · 1k+ posts · 732 votes
    9y

    @Ryan Evans

    Great post and very funny! You have a great writing style! It seems every new generation gets the reputation for being lazy. Generation X I remember were called 'slackers' too. I think with millennials in many cases they might be more likely to be working multiple 'gigs' or side businesses versus a 9 to 5 job . Technology makes this more possible than in the past.

    Interesting you purchased in Cleveland from out of state. Cleveland is one of the markets I've been looking at. Seems there is quite a bit of buzz about the city recently too. 

    One article here you might find interesting. 

    Cleveland, once called the mistake on the lake, is on the cusp of cool

    http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-cleveland-2017...

    Which part of Cleveland did you purchase in? How was it getting the property rehabbed, did you stay in the area the whole time until the rehab was done or were you able to find contractors or a local property manager to over see it?

    Best of luck

  • Rental Property Investor · San Diego, CA · Member since 2013 · 3k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    9y
    I thought twitter caused millennials to prefer brevity?
  • Realtor · Denver, CO · Member since 2013 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    9y

    Wait until you get married and have kids...

  • Flipper/Rehabber · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2009 · 1k+ posts · 732 votes
    9y
    Originally posted by @Matt M.:

    Wait until you get married and have kids...

     But the media says in addition to being lazy...millennials aren't getting married or having kids either..

  • Colorado Springs, CO · Member since 2017 · 10 posts · 3 votes
    9y

    haha! I have you beat on laziness sir!

    See, I have stayed at home with my four wonderful monsters for the last six years; apparently eating bonbons, getting my nails done and watching soap operas . And I won't be working until next year. At which point I'll just have to get a job bartending or something equally well paid and part time to help pay off my first investment property.

    I plan on retiring at the ripe old age of 30, which is only five years away. Lol. At which point I intend to solidify my retirement plans and take my family off to do many fun things. Use your twenties to set your foundation. Use your thirties to have fun since the kids will finally be old enough to enjoy it. By the time you are in your forties and those kids have run off to college you should truly have the retirement thing down pat. :-)

  • Investor · Youngstown, OH · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    9y

    @Matt M. What about marriage and kids?

  • Realtor · Denver, CO · Member since 2013 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    9y
    Originally posted by @Nicole Heasley Beitenman:

    @Matt M. What about marriage and kids?

     He's going to need a lot more cash flow to support a family.

  • Rental Property Investor · Cleveland, OH · Member since 2016 · 653 posts · 769 votes
    9y

    @Joseph M. Cheers! The technology definitely makes it easy to make money these days. I mean, if you can't find a job you can just go drive for Uber and make $40k a year. Not ideal, but better than living with mom and dad. I wouldn't mind moving to a place with a backyard so I can get on rover.com (airbnb for dogs) and have people pay me to play with their dogs while I work from home! haha

    I'm buying near the Waterloo Arts District, a good neighborhood-level example of what Cleveland is all about in my opinion. It's a bit dumpy, but slowly becoming cool! I post a lot on Cleveland so have a gander at my other posts if you're interested. So far I've been swinging the hammer on a lot of the work, but I've contracted out a bit. Looking to get less involved in the future, though. 

    @Brenna Walker you might have me beat in some regard. But rather than getting a job, wouldn't a true lazy person get another investment property to pay off your first one so you don't have to get off the couch? ;)

    @Matt M. I think @Joseph M. makes a point. Another first world problem of mine is so many of the single ladies in my "target market" are only focused on getting their psychology degrees and working at Starbucks. We don't have a lot in common, to say the least. Or maybe it's that I'm too humble. Either way, kids are probably a ways out. But if you know anyone, tell em to PM me haha! 

  • Colorado Springs, CO · Member since 2017 · 10 posts · 3 votes
    9y

    Haha. 'Tis my intention I must admit! But I want it paid off as fast as possible so that my husband can quit his day job. I have many lines in the ocean that I am working on right now. 

    Yay for bonbons and soap operas. "I've never seen someone work so hard to avoid working!"

    ;)

  • Software Developer · Vidor, TX · Member since 2015 · 922 posts · 639 votes
    9y

    Sweet.

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