HOW WE PAID OFF $41,300 IN 2018

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Hey friends, welcome back to The Debt Free Journey.

As you can see, we started the year with debts of $111,222 (weird numbers), plus we also went on our 25th anniversary trip to Europe which cost us $13,000 that we cash flowed, bringing the total debts by February to $124,222.

By the beginning of this month, we're now down to $82,990 translating to total paid debts of $41,232. Not bad for our whole year of debt repayment, but, we could definitely do better.

Here are the numbers from last year through this month.

There's this great saying by the great philosopher Dave Ramsey, which goes like "there's a great place to go when you're broke - to work"; and that's what we did.

I continued my side hustle working for an accounting firm which brought an average $750/month in extra income.

I continued doing Real Estate sales and was fortunate enough to have sold 2 properties for a gross commission of almost $30,000

We continued to watch our budget, although didn't cut much of our lifestyle, that's why it looked like there wasn't much gain even though our incomes went up slightly.

I continued my Real Estate side hustle and were really Blessed to have friends who entrusted us with selling their properties below.

Deal One was a 2 bedroom condo with a view near Beverly Hills, and Deal Two was a charming 4 bedroom family home in the San Fernando Valley.

It basically took hard work and collaborating with one of our dear friends who's also a Realtor; to market, negotiate, and close these deals.

Point being, no one can succeed in the Real Estate business without networking, being accountable, having a customer-centric attitude, and not flat out hustle and grind.

I listen to podcasts and audiobooks anytime I can find downtime, whether on my breaks at work, driving, and anytime in between.

One of my favorite podcasts to listen to is The Model Health Show by Shawn Stevenson; and in one of his episodes last month, he had Jemal King of 9to5millionaire , a Chicago police officer by day and successful Real Estate entrepreneur in his spare time.

What inspired me in this particular episode was when Jemal was sharing about how hat he had a vision of what he wanted to be, who he wanted to be, and the guts to execute on his vision; ultimately resulting in multiple rental units and various other businesses all borne out of envisioning being financially free.

His story became so eye-opening and inspiring especially on the segment when he talked about the time he almost lost his life on the job trying to "protect and serve" his community.

Of how seemingly his life flashed before him, and all of a sudden he had a self-realization that a career in law enforcement, which was only earning him $1200 every other week when he was a rookie, was not going to be enough to sustain let alone take care of his family, if and when the ultimate tragedy happened while on the job.

It was then that he realized that he had to do something, and Real Estate was what he ended up dabbling on.

He talked about how in his 'downtime' he'd research how to go about buying properties, inspecting them, closing on them and renting them out.

Fast forward a few years later, he's still on the force, but he also has a multi-million dollar Real Estate empire that can sustain his family's lifestyle and then some.

A truly inspiring story; I recommend that you watch and take a listen; the link is embedded in the graphic below.

I heard of this saying once and i believe that is really true; "If you don't write goals and visions down, you're aiming for nothing"; or something to that effect.

So as i recalled that and after hearing Jemal King's story, it pushed me to dream and write my goals down for the year.

Goal #1 - Save money for a downpayment, buy a house or a multi-family home that can be rented out; so in line with this goal, I'm putting our debt-free journey on hold so we can save and purchase a property by the end of this year.

Goal #2 - Be able to earn a household income of least $200K; made steps to do it, so it's on me and my wife to execute, stay tuned.

Goal #3 - Learn a new skill, particularly Python, a programming language that's being widely used across the internet, that will help me get the salary I'd need to get close to goal 2.

There are many other goals but these are our top 3 for the year, we'll be keeping ourselves accountable and will continue sharing how we're doing on these throughout the year.

The best is yet to come 🙂

There's something about starting the new year with visions, hopes, and dreams.

Some people do resolutions, they resolve to do or not do something. I think that envisioning is more powerful and exciting than just willing ourselves to 'resolve' to change.

Seeing ourselves change into what we hope to be, can give us clarity and focus, once we decide to execute on turning the visions to reality.

Looking back at what just happened the year before gives us perspective, a measure or starting point if you will, for what it is we can improve on; and if we take it seriously, coupling it with goal setting, I know we can do better to not only improve but excel in the coming year.

I wish all of us a successful 2019 ahead, and even though we're down to just 11 months, there's a lot that could happen and if we take every positive step we can take to get to our goals and dreams, we'd be better off next January when we look back at what we've achieved this coming months ahead.

Til our next post...

Peace and Blessings to you All.