Source
r/leanfire•
portrayaloflife

29, M, passed the 1 million mark today, wanted to share it with somebody and say one thing.

Reposting cuz Financial Independence took the post down

Didnt know who to share this with, felt like it was strange to tell a friend and didn’t want to make anything weird so resorting to internet strangers haha. This community has been really helpful in the journey.

Started freelance digital marketing out of college and when I had enough business to cover rent I spun up an LLC and started routing all work through that. Acting like I was way bigger than I was (we, us, the team) etc and slow and steady continued to churn out quality work in a specific niche. It's grown a lot since, up to over 7k in just recurring passive income and about 40-50k in invoices monthly.

With the extra income I got lucky as hell thanks to reddit jumping on the crypto train in 2017, not as early as the whales but not bad haha. Investing in stocks on the fractional share apps was another wake up call i wish i started much earlier. It's like a living savings account. Most of my investments are in ETF's like VOO, VO, QQQ, shwab large and small caps, Ark, Tesla for the boys etc.

I turn 30 at the end of this month and to be honest having 1M is not the emotion I thought it would be... nothin different really, more than anything I think I’ve come to the privileged realization that for me, although i appreciate the security money provides, it isnt the root of happiness for me and I need to put more effort towards a more balanced existence.

Just want to meet someone cool to share life with. So for those in relationships, with great friends and close family. I just wanted to say, take it in, thats wealth right there. Thats the richness im gonna be working harder to obtain moving forward.

Thanks for listening. Peace and love.

Posted Apr 5, 2021, 10:38 PM UTC · edited

1.3K173
JasonSTX•

I spent this evening sitting around a fire on the patio of a cheap hotel drinking $3 a bottle wine from Trader Joe’s with old friends and a few new people that were staying at the hotel.

Just as much fun as going to a Brazilian steakhouse and spending $300 for dinner.

The experiences are the key along with those you are in cahoots with.

165
portrayaloflifeOP•

That sounds like bliss man, totally agree

46
astoryfromlandandsea•

Nothing against two buck chuck!! I like the $4 organic ones a bit more though haha.

36
Clutchcitybabay•

Brazilian steakhouse near me is only $25 for lunch. When I go it's the only meal I eat that day lol. It's worth it sometimes.

15
JasonSTX•

You gotta earn those meat sweats.

12
portrayaloflifeOP•

Don't be fooled by the bread and the taters filling you up, they're trying to trick you

9
JasonSTX•

Them and Olive Garden.

2
portrayaloflifeOP•

Fogo or Texas de Brazil? Lol

9
Clutchcitybabay•

Texas de Brazil lol. Friday for lunch is the only time they have the non weekend lunch special near me.

10
portrayaloflifeOP•

WANT

3
edwardhopper73•

I mean fun yea sure. Type 2 fun because that shit is nasty and the hangover will last for days.

7
kenzi28•

Excellent comment!

3
Vendetta425•

The cheap wines at trader Joe's are really good lol

2
IGOMHN•

Money can't buy happiness

2
JasonSTX•

I have known some miserable rich people. Also some miserable poor people. Money doesn’t come into the equation. It’s all about attitude.

2
LotharTheLeprechaun•

Not necessarily true. Money is absolutely important if you're making under about $90K, but above that, the returns diminish drastically.

"Attitude" doesn't feed a family who doesn't have enough to pay rent and buy meals. Money does. If the family already makes enough to comfortably afford all their needs, then you can worry about attitude.

0
JasonSTX•

Says who? Attitude can make living on rice and beans bearable.

Attitude can make you ok with moving to where the jobs are instead of staying out and suffering.

You want to talk about abject poverty living in a shack with no utilities and watching your family literally starve to death? That’s totally different than not making 90k a year.

1
Spencer68•

Great job! Be proud. I get weird talking finances with people also.

Recently at a family gathering my wife and I were asked if we got our stimulus yet. I simply replied no. They pried a bit a asked why not? And my wife says “because we didn’t qualify”.

I was pretty uncomfortable all but revealing our income level. 🤷🏼‍♂️

136
MaximumCarnage93•

Ironically, it is not a particularly high bar to get disqualified either. A lot of people living in HCOL areas won’t qualify and wouldn’t consider themselves that well-off.

66
Spencer68•

Yeah tell me about it. I was preaching that the stimmy should’ve been distributed based on COL. 200k in Fort Worth is waaay different than 200k in the Bay Area.

30
hutacars28M/32k/62% - 39/25k/1mm•

Bay Areans are working as rapidly as possible to change that though.

21
dCLCp•

How long do you think it will take? What are they doing?

1
MaximumCarnage93•

I can only imagine the castle that can be afforded in Ft. Worth versus the shack in Tenderloin.

13
VanguardFundsMatter•

The housing market is pretty hot here in DFW... but with that said there are 2,500-3,000 sq/ft homes in Ft. Worth in the low to mid 200s.

2
R0GUEL0KI•

You say that but I’m in San Antonio and was like “200k in ft worth you should see how far that goes in San Antonio!”

8
Spencer68•

Yeah. It’s getting real wild with the market here in the metroplex. Luckily I rode the wave with a couple investment properties

2
seejoshrun•

Definitely. We live comfortably in a MCOL area while saving 50% (or more) and still comfortably qualified for the full stimulus.

2
phatpat187•

Life choices bud. You can move wherever you want.

-6†
portrayaloflifeOP•

Ugh yeah i feel that.

4
[deleted]•

Congrats! Hey can you clarify how you went from growing your freelance business to securing 7k in passive income? I’m missing something. Is that from your unrelated investments?

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portrayaloflifeOP•

Definitely! Offering retainers to clients. In this case for the most part, we manage all our client's website hosting accounts partnering with some managed WP third-party partners. Adds up over time!

103
Gold_Karma•

“We”

70
DerpDerpDerp78910•

If he's making 40-50k a month now it probably has turned into "we"

56
portrayaloflifeOP•

It is offically we haha, though scaling is tough without capital. Had to work double-time to afford the first employees salary plus payroll taxes/medicare etc. It's a tough leap from solo to team.

5
connic1983•

we manage all our client's website hosting accounts partnering with some managed WP third-party partners

How much do you charge per month per website hosted? Do you offer technical support in case site goes down for that charge?

I tried to start a small web hosting company 6-7 years ago and people would freak the f out if I told them they would have a recurring 20$ a month charge. But had no problem spending thousands in creating the site in the first place. I guess it was just me being a bad seller? (which I am)

PS: congratz 1M is nice

18
nguyenli1•

Is that passive income from your business?

1
ExistingAd4279•

Would you be willing to donate $5 to a good local cause? That is happiness there:) good job on the 7 figures.!

1
MHKED•

Doing this by yourself is really impressive. I made MM by 29 last November with a spouse so kudos to you. A lot of it is the same feeling but after $1MM i really began noticing the compounding growth of $1MM working for me. In 6 months I was already at 1.2MM. Hoping the same for you

74
Van-van•

It’s been a rather remarkable runup

21
rustest2•

How couldn’t you notice the compounding growth before? Are you saving $200k a year?

7
Quisenburg•

I suspect the growth of last year's market played a role.

10
rustest2•

Well, S&P 500 grew by about 29% in 2019, that should have been noticeable as well.

8
fireduck81•

Correct, recent years have been exceptional. And anyone who remembers the years from 2003 to 2012 will tell you they were a nightmare. So if you’ve been investing longer, this is a long awaited turnaround.

3
Character_Clue_7588•

Congratulations on the mil.

I'm 26, M net worth -20k. I've always advocated that people shouldn't feel weird discussing money. I think it's helpful and healthy, especially working in jobs where people negotiate salary. My wife and I are still NW negative, just due to 80k in university fees. I wonder if/when I have a slightly more impressive net worth if I would still be comfortable discussing it with friends and family? Does anyone have any insight into this.

64
theslutsonthisboard•

I feel like the more money I have, the less I want to talk about it.

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portrayaloflifeOP•

I think its like anything else, when you’re around people in equal footing its way easier to talk about.

41
git_world•

Do you also own a real estate?

7
portrayaloflifeOP•

I do not, thats what I'm angling to attack next but I live in a city and it's expensive

7
yvngmysterious13•

^

3
ontha-comeup•

Me and my wife were -$300k (student loans) and now we are +$650k. Talked about it with friends and family in both circumstances. Makes it easy to discuss the highs when they knew about the lows.

9
trickshot99•

I completely agree with being open about money, but I wonder if it is more just not wanting to make others feel uncomfortable about their situations and also maybe not showing people you have that kind of wealth as they may have certain expectations of you? I'm not too sure as I am nowhere near that kind of level yet haha, but I can imagine that may be the case.

7
Roshakim•

The more wealth disparity you have between you and your friends / family - generally speaking - the more they will resent you, be jealous, and maybe even harbor quite a lot of dislike for you. It seems that even among friends and family - they will chalk up the major reason you are where you are to pure luck of the drawn and you won, whereas they didn't.

Not because of any effort on your own, not because you studied finances in your spare time, not because you live well below your earnings, not because you sacrificed the present to have a more meaningful future. It's quite unfortunate :( There may be some exceptions, but I expect this is the general case for most.

3
Character_Clue_7588•

Thank you for your response. Impossible to argue your point. And to be honest, I can unfortunately see this playing out.

3
SaintMurray•

Sir, this is a leanFIRE sub.

58
Fledgeling•

If they retire right now with 1m, isn't that roughly lean fire?

60ish years@$30,000 is around 2m.

13
git_world•

Let's say OP buys a real estate at 300k. The rest 600k would put him into leanfire? Cannot think of any other big expenses.

8
blorg•

A nice juicy real estate

9
portrayaloflifeOP•

Can I get a #4 and some spicy nugs?

7
SaintMurray•

Egregious, you should be making your own nugs at home with your coop chickens. Check the math.

3
portrayaloflifeOP•

Your leanfired

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
Improve_together•

Congrats mate, nice to see someone smashing it at such a young age (even if it was partly luck 😂) good that you’re starting see there’s more to life than the money as well, other than meeting someone anything else you’d like to explore with your time?

33
KindredWoozle•

As someone who reached the 2 Comma Club last year, I wish to add that luck had a lot to do with it, that is, buying real estate at the right time, to take advantage of explosive growth in my market.

17
mattw08•

Wait. You hit a billion? Congrats.

8
KindredWoozle•

Thanks for catching that! I hit 1 million, so TWO commas, not 3

9
mattw08•

Damn maybe one day. Either way congrats!

4
yvngmysterious13•

Can you explain more on how you made $1m?

3
KindredWoozle•

I made retiring by age 50 a goal back when I was in my early 20's, and reached that goal at age 52. I made net worth of $1M my goal in my 40's. I lived very frugally and saved aggressively. I developed a low-cost lifestyle. I bought assets rather than spending on cars, or clothing, or toys. I put in a lot of hours at my business, and after selling that, a lot of hours getting a professional degree that got me into better paying jobs. Stock picking didn't work for me, so I invested in rental homes that needed some work, when sale prices were declining. I fixed up the houses, rented them out, and rode on a big wave of appreciation. However, I was able to get through college debt free in the 1980's because costs were much lower then, and college a second time in 2000-2004 by carrying credits from the previous degree, testing out of many courses, taking courses at a community college, and taking the core course through a distance learning program from a state university.)#

7
KindredWoozle•

I also sacrificed relationships and friendships for my goals. My first college funds came from an insurance settlement, from an accident that almost killed me. My business start up funds came from another insurance settlement from an accident that caused some permanent damage.

2
yvngmysterious13•

How do u buy rental homes and fix then and what degree and major did u get?

1
Thistookmedays•

Do you detract debts on the real estate?

1
KindredWoozle•

Yes, that figure is net worth, so it's assets minus liabilities. I also count the net asset value of my home because I could sell it or rent it out, and choose to travel.

1
MosseWon•

But you aren't actually Leanfiring now, are you?

Guys, let's not become the s--tshow the FI subreddit has become. We get enough of the "I'm a tech bro making $300k at 28" posts over there.

What's next, BaristaFire subreddit with people with a $500k NW at 25?

22
[deleted]•

[deleted]

7
quantum_entanglement•

I see what you're saying but 1 million is still a lot of money and I would argue it's beyond the Leanfire remit.

For example a 3%SWR for 1.1 mill is 33k but you're only spending 20k which is the equivalent of drawing from a fund with about 670k in it.

The 'Lean' aspect vs regular FIRE or Fat FIRE is why the sub exists and its about gearing yourself towards the minimum amount you can live on comfortably.

I think having a safety net of 430k (while very nice to have) is pushing those boundaries a bit back into regular FIRE.

13
interbingung•

Read the sidebar.

LeanFIRE = doing so with household expenses < $40k, or individual expenses < $20k

2
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
Eli_RenfroMODFIRE'd 4/2019 BonusNachos.com•

I see what you're saying but 1 million is still a lot of money and I would argue it's beyond the Leanfire remit.

If someone wants to use a very conservative WR, that's their prerogative. It's not up to us to decide someone else's risk tolerance. As long as their spending falls within the guidelines ($20k/yr for a single, $40k for a household), they fit here.

1
Asynchronous2e•

My husband got lucky with a startup, and I'm with you that 1M doesn't feel like I thought it would. And you're right, I'd trade that million for my husband and sons in a heartbeat. Putting $30k into a donor advised fund was my favorite thing this year - have you had the chance to try it? Congrats on the accomplishment!

18
fireduck81•

Can you elaborate on ‘donor advised fund’ and why you chose?

3
Asynchronous2e•

A donor advised fund is a trust fund for your charitable giving (basically). Three great things about them: (1) you get the tax deduction when you put the funds in, even if you don’t donate the money then; (2) the money is invested so it continues to grow until you donate it; and (3) you were going to give to charity anyway, but now you can give more because you put money in during your worst tax years (we saved thousands on our tax bill) and it grows with the market (we gave away $3k this year before our account finally dropped below the original $30k). The three discount brokerages all offer it, and the minimum contribution to each charity is only $50. Afford Anything has a full podcast about these funds. It’s one of my favorite things about FIRE - being able to extend help to others who are struggling.

9
kohilint•

Best of luck to finding spiritually fruitful relationships.

16
portrayaloflifeOP•

Thanks man! In a weird way, recently, my perspective on wealth has changed a lot. Like, theres a lot of wealth verticals. Health/fitness, family, relationships etc. a lot of other things i need to be investing in. Money just seems to be the one everyone talks about.

22
RodgersToAdams•

I think, and I don’t say this to take anything away from your success, it is easier to think and worry less about money once you’re past a certain threshold. So I think it’s quite natural for people who have money to worry more about those other things, because they’ve got the financial side covered.

10
portrayaloflifeOP•

Its true with any vertical, you worry about what you are without, moral of the story.. live a balanced life

2
R0GUEL0KI•

I like the idea of verticals. I will also argue that when your “money” vertical is comfortable full, it makes the rest a bit easier to focus on. Same is true about the others as well.

7
portrayaloflifeOP•

I'd say that's true when any of the verticles are comfortably full. I'd be poor and in love any day.

1
thegists•

Can confirm. Relatively, though on the Fire path, this is me. 20 years since we met today!

1
Krillansavillan•

Money is the only one you have to get right once. The rest of the wealth verticals require time and attention for them to remain fruitful. A lot of people say don't focus too much on wealth accumulation and that wealth won't buy happiness, but once you're done with it you can live a very rich and fulfilling life. Then again you're not promised tomorrow so it is a risky venture.

2
portrayaloflifeOP•

I totally hear you on this but id push back a little in that you don’t only have one shot. Looks at money accumulation the same way you do to maybe like a relationship. You can jump to new jobs or new careers you can start a new business, the KFC guy started it in his 60’s! Idk, i get thats its harder later but so are a lot of things. Fitness is harder later, dating is harder later. Dont let that stop you, its never too late to do anything.

1
redroom89•

You should at least take yourself out to dinner!

15
portrayaloflifeOP•

Haha i did! Well i got a steak delivered lol

16
REAL-Jesus-Christ•

This is really cool! Kinda a random question: do you have a charity or cause of choice? I got over the $250k hump in the last few months, and I'm looking forward to being able to do more for the causes i really believe in. I hope to make an impact on smaller organizations that I've known throughout the years. I'm interested to know what that looks like 'on the other side.'

12
weirdhobo•

not OP but my wife and I just reached $300k at 30 and have been donating both money and time more ever since we got our debts in order. It feels good to give and help others no matter what level you are at.

6
Millennial_26M/80%/NW:$360k•

Great accomplishments and what are your plans for leanfire? Also do you have an exit strategy for your business?

11
portrayaloflifeOP•

These are great questions. Right now im turning my focus into growing the team to the extent where I can not be as needed. But man is that a hard task lol

11
reasonb4belief•

That makes sense. Most important thing is to find the right people (easier said than done).

Any idea what you’ll do if you have excess income once you’re done growing the team? We are in our early 30’s and hope to FIRE in a few years. Then, if we still have higher income than expenses we may donate the excess to charity each year.

Btw, have you seen this XKCD? The start of your story reminded me of it.

https://xkcd.com/125/

6
R0GUEL0KI•

I’d like to add that it’s important to find the right people, and TREAT THEM RIGHT. So many companies are so stagnant because they get great people who leave for better treatment and compensation. Company I’m at right now is the exact opposite. It’s a revolving door around here and the culture is practically non-existent. But their pay and benefits are below the industry and they are slow to pay attention to what people need to be effective. They’re going to fail eventually if they can’t hold on to people. It’s already nearly barebones and people are still leaving.

7
[deleted]•

[deleted]

5
nightfalldevil22 and making compound int my bitch•

Congrats! Now it will be nice to focus more on the important things in life now that money is stable.

6
soccer_dude123•

Kudos bro

5
catsmom63•

Wow!!!

Congrats!

5
fireduck81•

Yeah, well done. I also hit the 1MM mark last year, and posted here because I didn’t have any real people in my life I could tell. people treat you differently when they know you have money, and I didn’t want to add that complication to the mix.

Question from my side is, since you’re Pretty close to freedom, what are you gonna do with it? For the record, I hit my first million at 39, so obviously at a different life stage. But finding the freedom surprisingly hard on an existential level

5
Asynchronous2e•

I think it gets easier as time goes by? Adjusting to FIRE is a change, from saving like crazy living frugally to just... living frugally.

3
agency-man•

Nice and congrats. I made my money in a similar fashion, running a small digital marketing agency.

4
Dr_Peuss•

May I ask if you were self-taught? I’m going this route in order to make a living online rather than my local service business that pretty much died when covid hit. Do you have any tips, books, etc for someone entering the field? ✌🏽

3
agency-man•

I'm all self taught, I learn best by just trail and error. My original career for a couple of years was IT, but web design was a hobby. Then I moved countries and tried to do web design, but couldn't get any clients. That put me on the path to learning SEO and digital marketing so I could acquire new clients, then of course the clients wanted to know how I ranked so well etc., the retainers from digital marketing are great. I still do websites, but the retainer agreements provide reliable monthly income.

Most of the ad platforms (Google Ads, Facebook Ads) have good free training resources. For SEO, there is a lot of free information out there in various guides, so I don't think it's necessary to read books or do courses. The main thing is just doing it, if you don't have a client or family/friend with a business, setup a hobby site and learn from experimenting on that.

It took me about 2 years to build my business up, once you do good work and build a relationship with one client, often they will refer you to others, that's what really grew my business over the years.

4
Dr_Peuss•

Damn, thanks for such a thorough answer!! I feel like I’m on the right path - your advice is much appreciated.

2
R0GUEL0KI•

Any simple breakdown kind of guides for someone outside thinking of looking into it that you’d recommend? My girlfriend does social media stuff for a small company, so I was thinking maybe we should look at teaming up on digital marketing. I have less experience but tend to bounce ideas well, she’ll often ask for input on wording and imagery.

2
agency-man•

Take a look at my comment above. If your gf is already doing it, that's a good start, if she can do content creation/planning, and manage social media advertisement campaigns, it's a big chunk of the services my agency provides as nearly every business needs help with this these days. I'd take a look into Google Ads https://skillshop.withgoogle.com/ they have many training resources and you can take exams for free to become certified which can help when talking to potential clients.

It's bit of a slow grind, there is a lot of competition, but if you build good relationships with your clients, word of mouth referrals from your clients is very powerful.

2
R0GUEL0KI•

Thanks. I actually think she’s already done the google ones and currently she’s mostly been working on Facebook ads and content creation for Instagram so she’s pretty familiar with those platforms also. She’s done some descriptive writing too. Just that all these things have paid so little for the time/effort she’s put in that I haven’t stepped up to get on her level. I’ve been thinking of getting into IT security. All of my major career/education choice haven’t had stellar results, so I’ve been really hesitate to try and change it up all over again.

1
agency-man•

IT security should be a good career path, could see it being in demand with all the ransomware, data leaks and what not going on. As with anything though, there is little to gain without some risk, and things don’t happen over night. I built my business over the last 10+ years, with the first 2 just making enough to pay the bills really.

2
RedditF1shBlueF1sh•

Congrats! What's the plan to RE?

4
DLTMIAR•

Yeah this post has nothing to do with RE let alone leanRE

4
AirlineVegetable3112•

You don't think saving is a big part of RE?

4
RedditF1shBlueF1sh•

I mean it is related to leanfire, but I'm curious if at 29 with 1M and business that can be sold if they plan on exiting or what

3
Me69yearsfromnow•

Can you clarify those etfs. Starting my lean fire journey and researching etfs to invest in. Congratulations are in order

4
portrayaloflifeOP•

VOO, VO, QQQ, QQQJ, Schwab small and larg caps, ARKK, ARKX

3
Me69yearsfromnow•

Thanks for responding , I've found them. Have a nice week

2
thecatgoesmoo•

Damn you went with week instead of day - thats some extra level kindness there.

2
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1