Here’s our latest interview with a millionaire as we seek to learn from those who have grown their wealth to high heights.
If you’d like to be considered for an interview, drop me a note and we can chat about specifics.
Today we have Dom from Gen Y Finance Guy.
My questions are in bold italics and his responses follow in black.
Let’s get started…
OVERVIEW
How old are you (and spouse if applicable, plus how long you’ve been married)?
My wife and I are both 33 years old and have been married for eight years and some change (together for almost 15 years, which doesn’t seem possible).
Do you have kids/family (if so, how old are they)?
Yes, we have a 19-month-old human child, an Australian Shepherd Husky Mix, and a Black Lab Shepherd Mix.
We do consider our dogs part of the family.
What area of the country do you live in (and urban or rural)?
We live in Suburban Southern California.
Even though the state income taxes are high, it’s hard to imagine us living anywhere else (although I have done the analysis from a pure economic standpoint and we could save a boatload of cash if we moved to a state with no income tax).
I see us happily paying the “sun tax” for the indefinite future.
What is your current net worth?
As I type this (May 18th, 2020), our net worth currently clocks in at $1,911,820.
The oil tycoon J. Paul Getty once said: “If you can actually count your money, then you’re not a rich man.” We certainly don’t feel rich. I think a big part of that is that our “number” is about 5X our current net worth ($10M) and we also live a much smaller lifestyle than our income can support. We may not feel rich but we certainly don’t feel vulnerable and are definitively in a position of strength – as I will get into below.
What are the main assets that make up your net worth (stocks, real estate, business, home, retirement accounts, etc.) and any debt that offsets part of these?
Business – $0 (0%)
Stocks – $64,543 (3%)
Life Settlements – $98,329 (4%)
Cash – $545,515 (29%)
- CD’s $6,000
- Brokerage Accounts $227,515
- High Yield Savings $200,154
- Checking $111,846
Real Estate – $1,203,431 (63%)
- Commercial Real Estate REIT $100,497
- Hard Money Lending $252,754
- Primary Residence $463,896
- Mortgage Note $386,283
We have almost zero liabilities as we prioritize freedom from the shackles of debt – the only debt we do have is our monthly credit card balance, which is paid in full every month. I know that some may say that ours may not be the most financially optimized position, but I optimize for peace of mind rather than the highest possible rate of return. I like to sleep soundly at night and if that means my returns aren’t going to get juiced a few hundred basis points, then so be it; I’ll make it up on the income side of the equation.
We paid our mortgage off in May 2019 at the age of 32 and I can tell you it felt good making that last payment! It’s a lot easier to live life on your own terms when you don’t have debt obligations to service.
As you analyze the above asset allocation, you’re probably thinking this is one risk-averse dude. And I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t like losing money. But I also tend to build up large piles of cash before making large deployments.
A month ago, our cash position was even higher due to a liquidity event I experienced upon exiting an investment in my private employer, which was private equity-backed. I was actually levered 3:1 on that position and it paid off very well. I ended up turning $105,000 into $537,000 in just over three years.
Does it seem odd that I listed Business as a category but it’s empty??? Well, that is because I started a business last year, and have not yet included anything in my net worth for its value. Initially, this was because the business was so new. Although the business has now been generating revenue and profit for a little over a year, I’ve still remained conservative on not holding a value for it.
I do have a goal of eventually selling the business. Based on my experience in the M&A activity I’ve been involved with, I would estimate its value by taking 1-5X TTM profits. As of April 30, 2019, the TTM profit was $349,868, indicating a value range of $349,868 to $1,749,340.
The business value is currently compounding at a very rapid rate. We expect growth of 300% in 2020 vs. 2019. So, our net worth could be almost double what I’m reporting, but until I’ve sold I continue to remain conservative.
Over the years I’ve developed a philosophy of viewing investments with a risk-mitigation lens first. When evaluating investments I’m much more concerned with the return of capital rather than return on capital. I like a healthy margin of safety when entering investments.
Our stock allocation is much lower than I imagine it will be over time but that’s because the market just doesn’t make sense to us right now, in light of the pandemic damage to the economy already occurred, and still anticipated. We believe there are going to be “once in a lifetime” opportunities in the months ahead as we start processing the real damage of COVID-19. In the meantime, we sit on our hands and continue stuffing the war chest with cash!
We will continue to focus our attention on the income side of the equation, which has been the real engine in the growth of our net worth. I first started publicly tracking our net worth in 2015, where we started with a net worth of $181,364. In the last five years, we have increased our net worth by $1,730,456, which represents a compound annual growth rate of 55.5%. Just a few years ago I participated in the ESI scale interview when my net worth was $806,918 (I was ESI Scale Interview #33).
EARN
What is your job?
I’m the CEO of my own company. This is a fairly new role for me. Previously I occupied a C-Suite role prior to going off on my own.
My company is a software implementation and management consultancy. We implement specialty finance and accounting software.
My background is in Finance but I’m a bit more technically savvy than the average finance person.
What is your annual income?
This is a hard question to answer because my income has been growing so fast over the last five years. Last year as a household we grossed $750,000 and this year we expect to gross about $1,000,000.
Below is a chart that I update as a part of my monthly financial review process and it represents our trailing twelve month (TTM) income.
Based on our projections for the 2020 calendar year, you will notice that we are anticipating a decline in TTM income in the short term. I should also point out that a major driver of the spike this year was due to cashing out of that private equity investment where the gains became income.
Tell us about your income performance over time. What was the starting salary of your first job, how did it grow from there (and what you did to make it grow), and where are you now?
I like to believe I’m a rags to riches story in the making. I was born into poverty but luckily still in the United States of America – arguably one of the greatest countries in the world, in my opinion – it doesn’t matter where you start in life. What matters is how you play the hand you were dealt.
I’ve never been the most talented or most intelligent person – I’m no Elon Musk – but I’ve always been able to out-hustle anyone. I realized early on that most people are lazy and that I could design the life I desired through pure AMBITION if necessary. I would overcome my lack of innate talent by outworking and outlearning those more naturally gifted than me. I intuitively knew that compound effort is just as powerful as compound interest.
Like compound interest, compound effort has the ability to return exponential results over time. Most people can comprehend the idea of compound interest, but they miss the idea of compound effort. With consistency and sustained effort, the results become exponential. It is harder than it sounds because the exponential results don’t really start showing up for years.
In the beginning, there is often very little noticeable difference between the truly ambitious and the average. This causes motivation and excitement to fizzle, and many that start off strong get discouraged and let their foot off the gas peddle. They give up in the middle of the dip, right before the magic of compound effort is about to become visible.
Have you ever heard of the Latin phrase “Fortitudine Vincimus?”
It translates to “by endurance we conquer.” It’s a motto I’ve internalized while building my own career and wealth. It’s a motto I encourage everyone to adopt if they truly want to experience the magic of exponential results. It is endurance (i.e., time) that makes the power of compounding so magical!
You don’t have to be the smartest or most innately gifted to succeed. I have found that any normal person can gain an edge by outworking and outlearning the innately gifted. To me, there is no such thing as competition. Most people are pretty lazy, which means the top is never crowded.
That said, I would be lying if I didn’t acknowledge that luck always plays a role in success. I’m not talking about the kind of luck people count on when throwing away money on the lotto. I’m talking about the kind of luck you create by being prepared when an opportunity comes knocking.
With a lot of hard work (working 70-90 hours a week for the better part of a decade) and a little luck, I was able to accelerate both my career and the income that came with it.
I know that was a big divergence from the stated question, but I thought it a necessary preamble to a walk through my professional career.
Since the question specifically asks what the starting salary of my first job was, I’m going to skip everything prior to graduating college, although the numbers will be included in the table below.
May 2008 – August 2008
I initially turned down the offer from the company where I had interned at for almost two years. I actually took less money, in order to be near a girl…who eventually became my wife.
I got my start in corporate finance making $52,000 per year out of college at a biopharma company. It was in my home town and that is where my future wife was going to be.
But it wasn’t a good fit after all (the job, not the girlfriend!), so after four months I reached out to my old internship boss and asked if the offer was still on the table, and returned there.
Titles: Financial Analyst (2008)
Starting Comp: $52,000
September 2008 – May 2012
Back at the company where I interned during college (a third-generation family-owned oil company), I initially wore the traditional FP&A hat (financial planning and analysis), but I was fortunate to participate in some mergers and acquisitions.
After a few years, I transitioned into the trading group, where I helped run all the hedging activities related to the inventory we held, and traded West Coast products (gasoline and diesel fuel) and options (on the NYMEX) for profit.
I learned a lot but made a lot less than I thought I would in the trading group.
Titles: Financial Analyst (2008-2010), Supply Analyst and West Coast Products Trader (2010-2012)
Starting Comp: $58,500 + $5,000 bonus
Ending Comp: $77,000 + $10,000 bonus
May 2012 – March 2014
Next, I left the oil industry and joined a public $2B company in action sports.
After doing a small stint in FP&A again, I weaseled my way onto the eCommerce team, where I helped launch a global analytics team to support the fast-growing $100M online business. I was then and am still fascinated with the online world because of how measurable everything is.
It looks like I took a pay cut, but since I never got the opportunity to earn that $10,000 bonus and the most I had made was $80,000, this was a lateral move.
I only stayed with this company for about 18 months before realizing they were about to experience a ton of financial pain. In the 18 months that I had been there, they had already had six major layoffs, and I could see the writing on the wall. This was not going to be the place my career would flourish.
They eventually filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Titles: Senior Financial Analyst (2012-2013), Senior Data Analyst (2013-2014)
Starting Comp: $80,000
Ending Comp: $88,000
Note: I did make about $27,000 participating in the employee stock purchase program. We were allowed to allocate up to 15% of our income every six months and we would get the lower of the price on the first or last day of the six-month time frame plus a 15% discount. I studied the 44 six-month periods of performance of this program and found that the average return was 37.5% and that there had only been one time you would have lost money – a minor 1.7% loss (all assumed that you sold every six months during the trading window). I tried very hard to convince finance and accounting folks to take advantage of this, but they didn’t most of the time. At the very least you were almost guaranteed a 15% or higher return.
2014 – 2020
Next would be my last stint in Corporate America.
I joined a consulting firm in the construction management space. I was once again back in FP&A earning $98,000 per year.
I had finally landed at the right company for me. It was entrepreneurial. It was growing. It had leadership that valued grey matter over grey hair. It was the closest thing to a meritocracy I’d ever experienced. This company was a game-changer for me.
Titles: Senior Financial Analyst (2014-2015), Director (2015-2016), Chief Business Intelligence Officer (2017-2020)
Starting Comp: $90,000 + $8,000 bonus
Ending Comp: $275,000 + $75,000 bonus
Note: I also was able to purchase equity in the company. The $105,000 I invested was cashed out for $537,000 as I mentioned above.
2019 – Present
I could have continued to do very well financially and professionally had I decided to stay with my previous employer. I had actually accepted the COO role in February of 2019 that I was to transition into by June of 2020, and it came with substantial upside in compensation and additional stock.
However, my true calling has always been to start a company of my own (links to my first annual letter to shareholders). What you don’t see in my career and salary history that I’ve shared so far is all of the side businesses and ventures I’ve had, each with varying degrees of success. You will notice a large overlap in when I started my company and when I left my previous employer. I started my company in February 2019, gave notice in June of 2019, but didn’t officially leave my previous employer until February 2020.
As a “side hustle” my new business earned me $235,671 through wages and profit distributions in 2019. I expect to earn about $500,000 in 2020 and much more as the business continues to grow. That about does it for me.
This next part for my wife will be a bit shorter but I want to also touch on her career and compensation progression.
Out of college, she started out working for a firm that specialized in reducing property taxes for large real estate holders. She started in 2008 at $35,000 per year and by the time she left five years later to work for the family business, she was earning about $75,000.
When she went to go work for the family business she strategically took a pay cut to $48,000 per year but added monthly bonus potential (with no cap). She was being groomed to take over a family business (in real estate), and she would have represented the third generation to run it. However, after seven years in the business, she isn’t so sure that is what she wants to do.
Today, she is earning a base salary of $72,000 and has earned on average about $121,000 per year for the last five years with commissions.
The above table isn’t a perfect history as I didn’t actually start tracking our income in detail until 2015. However, I was able to go to the Social Security website to capture all of our income subject to social security taxes.
Unfortunately, it misses anything else that wasn’t subject to those taxes. Also, note that I have included a line for 2020 that shows the forecast I have for all of 2020, 70% of which we have already realized through April 2020.
My first “official” job was as a junior in high school where I worked for a medical device manufacturer assembling speech aid devices for those that had a laryngectomy. I worked plenty before this but it was always cash-paying side jobs (e.g., mowing lawns, painting houses, shampooing carpets, etc.).
In high school, I also sold candy out of a shoebox earning about $60-$80 per day and that doesn’t show up in the above table. If I didn’t have documentation of the income I didn’t include it.
What tips do you have for others who want to grow their career-related income?
- Never stop learning and investing in yourself.
- Do whatever it takes to obtain a rare and valuable skill set.
- Use that skillset to build career capital.
- Deliver so much value that the universe can’t ignore you.
- Play a long game.
- Continually reinvent yourself to remain relevant with the times.
- Strategically cash in career capital by asking for what you have earned.
Also, remember that you can only connect the dots looking backwards.
What’s your work-life balance look like?
This has gotten better with time. I strategically hustled my way to accelerated financial and professional success.
Until we had our son in late 2018 and the ten years prior, I regularly worked 70-90 hours per week. I consciously decided to live my life like most wouldn’t for a better part of a decade in order to live the rest of my life like most never will.
Today, my workweek averages about 50 hours a week.
Do you have any sources of income besides your career? If so, can you list them, give us a feel for how much you earn with each, and offer some insight into how you developed them?
We do have some other sources of income that stem from investments and side hustles (in the “Other” column of the income table I shared above):
- $23,000/month in profit distributions from my business – this is on top of the W-2 income I earn from the business (this represents the average for Jan-Apr of 2020, but it is lumpy).
- $1,285/month from $385,000 interest-only note at 4% (although it’s currently more phantom income as it is just accruing to the back end of the loan)
- $1,250/month from a $150,000 note at 10%
- $1,000/month from notary services (my wife’s side hustle)
- $586/month from a Commercial REIT that pays a 7% dividend (although I was just notified that due to COVID-19 this has been cut to 5% and I’m taking a 30% haircut on valuation)
- $600/month from hard money lending (through PeerStreet in a self-directed IRA)
- $300/month from selling tradelines
- $200/month from my blog
- $150/month from CDs and High Yield Savings Accounts
- $100/month from dividends (in a 401K account)
Total = $28,471/month or $341,652 annually
I didn’t include income from selling investments as that is not recurring and happens opportunistically.
The real game-changer is the profit distributions that are coming from the business I started only 15 months ago. I have always had some sort of side business and the majority of them have produced income but this was the first one that turned into a real gusher.
I think everyone should have a side hustle – or many – until you find one that has the potential to turn into your main hustle.
I learned a lot of skills through my various side hustles that may not have directly earned much money but paid huge dividends in my professional career in Corporate America and that eventually led to my entry into full-time entrepreneurship.
The other streams are mostly from putting money to work or other side hustles that take minimal time.
I’ve become much more guarded with my time and will continue that trend over the coming years, so most income streams that get added from here on out will be as passive as possible. The plan was always to use a strong financial position to buy back more and more time to spend with my family and other activities as I choose.
SAVE
What is your annual spending?
As you will see in the below table, we are not part of the extreme frugality club. Instead, we practice relative frugality, so our spending is very low relative to our income.
You can see that lifestyle inflation has been a regular participant in our annual spending.
Our spending for 2020 is forecast to be down significantly; mostly due to COVID-19, we are just spending a lot less money.
What are the main categories (expenses) this spending breaks into?
In the table below, note the adjustment to spending for amortization. I mentioned above that we paid our mortgage off early and since the extra principal payments were merely a balance sheet transfer, I deduct them from the total expenses to get our true spending.
I’ve seen previous interviewees include taxes as an expense. Taxes are certainly the largest expense we have, but I don’t include them in the table above.
As an example, we ended up paying well over $200,000 in taxes in 2019…definitely…our largest expense.
Do you have a budget? If so, how do you implement it?
Yes, we have a budget, but we don’t use it to control our expenses. We use a budget to get an idea of how much income we will produce and where we are likely to be spending our money over the next year.
There is control-based budgeting and then there is allocation-based budgeting. We follow the latter.
What percentage of your gross income do you save and how has that changed over time?
We have averaged a 37% gross savings rate over the past five years.
Historically, the majority of our income has been earned (taxable) income, so it’s difficult to do much better than this. I do have a long term goal to move this closer to 50% by growing more tax-efficient income streams.
That said, we focus more on our after-tax savings rate, and our goal since 2015 has been to save 50% of our after-tax income. We don’t always hit the goal in every year, but when you average the years we are just over 50%.
We follow what I’ve dubbed the “Law of 50/50,” whereby we save 50% and spend the remaining 50% guilt-free. It’s a free pass to indulge in lifestyle inflation.
What is your favorite thing to spend money on/your secret splurge?
I wouldn’t call it a secret but I love spending money on really good food with really good friends.
Prior to COVID-19 a large percentage of our spending was in the “Food & Dining” category, which you can see in the table I shared above.
Travel is another area where we really enjoy spending money.
It’s hard to tell in the chart above, but that is because I’ve had a habit of credit card churning which has offset our actual travel costs by $5,000 to $10,000 per year.
INVEST
What is your investment philosophy/plan?
Invest with a risk mitigation lens first. I’m constantly looking for investments that have a huge margin of safety in terms of downside protection before our money is at risk of loss. Another way to put it is that I focus more on the return of capital over the return on capital.
I tend to hold way more cash than most but then deploy large chunks when I find something I really like.
I’m not really too concerned with inflation eating away at the value of dollars sitting in the bank because we’re talking about months to maybe a year of building up cash before deploying it.
I only need to earn 5-6% on my money in order to reach my “number,” which I’ll dive into below. This assumes that I can keep the income machine in full production mode.
What has been your best investment?
The $267.42 I invested to start my business. The business has been self-funded since then and has become a cash cow.
To date, it has earned me $387,119 ($206,000 of which has been distributions) – that’s a 1,447X return! The business has only been around for approximately 15 months, so this is going to get even better with time and continued growth. In its first 15 months, it has produced $832,605 in revenue.
We are currently on pace to grow 300% in 2020 vs. 2019. I’m currently projecting about $300,000 in profit distributions and $210,000 in wages from the business in 2020.
What has been your worst investment?
When I was still in college I got into investing in the stock market during a time (2007ish) when all you had to do was buy and prices magically increased – I naively thought it was that easy.
I also soon discovered “margin” and quickly realized that I could turn my then $8,000 of seed capital into $16,000 with borrowed money on margin. I somehow managed to grow my equity from $8,000 to $20,000 with no skill or talent for investing at all. AND…I now had buying power of $40,000 – what could go wrong?
I don’t remember the ticker but I remember I was using a trading platform called Zecco and it was a low-cost brokerage with no bells or whistles. I was convinced that I had found the holy grail of stocks. It was a pharma company that had been developing a cancer drug that was close to being tested for statistical significance in its ability to fight cancer. I was sure it was going to the moon.
Needless to say, this one-trick pony failed to show the statistical significance and the company failed…as in it went to zero. I ended up losing all my gains and half my seed capital with a total loss of $14,000.
Oh, and I almost forgot, I also bought a house with someone my brother introduced me to as his “money partner” at around the same time. It was 100% financed with a “stated income” loan. I won’t get into the details, but it turns out the guy I partnered with was a crook and so was his mortgage broker. All said I lost about $14,000 on the stock loss and another $35,000 (over a few years before letting the property go to foreclosure) on the real estate.
With the benefit of hindsight and an additional 13 years of maturity, experience and wisdom, I now see how young and dumb I was. That said, these costly lessons led me down a path that eventually built a very solid financial foundation. I’m happy that it happened when I really didn’t have much to lose.
What’s been your overall return?
I have absolutely no clue what my overall return on my investments have been. I’m more concerned with the compounding rate of our net worth.
From January of 2015 to April of 2020, our net worth has compounded by 55.5% per year ($181,364 to $1,911,819).
My guess is that at least 50% of that growth has been fueled by our ability to continue increasing our income substantially (through pure savings and paying off debt like our mortgage). Over the same time period our income has compounded at 48.6% per year ($178,000 to $1,288,551).
The compounding rates are a little higher than this if I go back further in time (our careers started in 2008 when we graduated college), but 2015 is a line in the sand when we really started to focus on building our wealth.
How often do you monitor/review your portfolio?
I review our entire financial position once a month when I write a detailed financial report on my blog.
NET WORTH
How did you accumulate your net worth?
I think by now I’ve made it pretty obvious that the majority of our net worth has been achieved through our ability to earn a high and increasing income. (If you read my origin story, you’ll see how far I was from inheriting my “fortune!”)
I’ve always had a preference to focus on maximizing income rather than investment returns because I’m of the opinion that you have more control on what you can earn and little control over the rate of return on your investments.
I also really like the income-focused approach early on in one’s financial journey because it takes a good decade before you really start seeing the power of compounding get to work – when small numbers start turning into very large numbers.
It wasn’t a high income by itself that got us to where we are. It was a high income paired with a high savings rate. It’s a very simple path to wealth: spend less than you earn and invest the difference wisely.
What would you say is your greatest strength in the ESI wealth-building model (Earn, Save or Invest) and why would you say it’s tops?
In order of strength I would say Earn, Save, and then Invest.
Earning money has always been easy and natural for me. So, over time I’ve doubled, tripled, and quadrupled down on that strength.
I also believe that we live in the best time in history in terms of low barriers to high earnings.
What are you currently doing to maintain/grow your net worth?
I’m super focused on growing my business, as I think it will add millions to my family’s net worth.
I continue to be hyper-focused on income growth (both passive and active income).
My goal has always been to get richer every year regardless of the performance of my investments.
Do you have a target net worth you are trying to attain?
Yes, my target net worth is $10,000,000. That’s what I term “Financial Freedom.”
A lot of people use financial independence and financial freedom synonymously, but I differentiate between the two.
Our “Financial Independence” number is around $3,000,000.
How old were you when you made your first million and have you had any significant behavior shifts since then?
I was 32. My wife and I started our “adult” lives in 2008 when we graduated college and from that point it took 10 years to accumulate our first $1,000,000 in net worth.
What’s crazy is that we are on track to accumulate our second $1,000,000 in under two years from the first! I suspect that each incremental million will be attained in increasingly less time.
Our mindset started to shift about six months after hitting our first million mark, which coincided with us paying off our mortgage. We actually started to feel well-off.
As we approach $2,000,000 in net worth and with the success of the business we are starting to begin feeling wealthy.
What money mistakes have you made along the way that others can learn from?
My early mistakes were due to trying to chase the easy money.
Do your due diligence. If something sounds too good to be true, run in the other direction – I’ve learned there is no such thing as easy money, and that “too good to be true” actually is!
Also, figure out what your risk tolerance is and commit to a financial plan that works best for you and your goals. There is no one size fits all strategy. There are, however, underlying fundamentals that are universal.
What advice do you have for ESI Money readers on how to become wealthy?
I said it earlier and I will say it again the golden rule to building wealth is to spend less than you earn and to invest the difference wisely. The bigger the “gap” between earning and spending, the more powerful the invest component becomes.
You get to choose how you operate in that framework. Personal finance is like an “all you can eat” buffet where you can pick and choose what to put on your (financial) plate.
I truly believe – which explains where I have focused my efforts – that a high income paired with a high savings rate is the fastest path to financial freedom. I chose this path due to my preference for relative frugality over extreme frugality.
It’s not rocket science!
FUTURE
What are your plans for the future regarding lifestyle?
Wealth building for me and my family is all about optionality. We are working towards our $10,000,000 net worth goal because that is the number where money is no object and we are confident we can both live well and give well.
We have been using our growing wealth as leverage to continue designing our desired lifestyle.
We are working towards what I’ve dubbed the 3-6-3 lifestyle, where we spend three months at the beach, six months at our home base, and three months in a foreign country.
What are your retirement plans?
I don’t ever plan to fully retire. Early retirement is also of no interest to me.
I like working and being productive and I’m not ashamed to admit that I LOVE making money – it’s a game to me.
So my definition of FIRE is Financial Independence Recreational Employment.
MISCELLANEOUS
Do you have any favorite money books you like/recommend? If so, can you share with us your top three and why you like them?
The book that I have recommended and gifted the most is The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. I have the following graphic from the book blown up and hanging on the wall right above my computer monitor as a daily reminder to embrace the path of the 5%.
This book has had such an influence in my life and is the only book I’ve read more than once (seven times + three times via audio).
I love it because it takes the concept of compounding and shows you how this magical force can work in all aspects of life, not just your finances.
As humans it is very hard for us to think in exponential terms because we are innately wired to think in linear terms. This ends up holding people back from realizing their full potential as they adopt self-limiting beliefs.
If you adopt The Slight Edge philosophy I promise you that your life will be better than even your wildest dreams. You will not only accomplish but crush your goals.
The last chart I want to share with you before I sign off is the best graphic I could come up with to share with those I mentor on what living The Slight Edge philosophy really looks like.
I hope you have found this interview entertaining at the least and I thank our amazing host for this series and allowing me to make my contribution to it.
Onward & Upward!
Jason MI#1 says
Thanks for the write up Mr Gen-Y Finance guy!
Dom @ Gen Y Finance Guy says
My pleasure!
Thanks for reading.
Dom
Gary says
Great post, thanks for sharing!
How do you go about getting started and learning more about these interest-only notes? Same q with selling tradelines?
Dom @ Gen Y Finance Guy says
Hey Gary,
The interest only notes are something I have access to through my private network. I do hard money lending both privately and on PeerStreet – although I’m in the process of liquidating my after-tax account with PeerStreet as the loans get paid back as it is not the most tax efficient based on our marginal tax rate…and the deal flow has significantly declined since COVID.
You can check out Tradelinessupply.com if you are interested in finding out more about selling tradelines. I also recommend that you do go to The Wealthy Accountant’s website and find the article he wrote a couple years ago, which is how I got started.
Cheers,
Dom
Millionaire73 says
Really enjoyed hearing your story, congratulations on what you have achieved so far and very impressive.
I especially liked the “compounding effort” as had never heard that phase before and think it is spot on and also in the same vein of the Atomic Habits (which is the book of the month in Millionaire Mentors) and what is that saying “It takes 20 years to make an overnight success” (although in your case maybe that should be 10 years)
Also liked the 3-6-3 plan as also haven’t seen much mention and liked the idea.
Best of luck in Year 2 of your venture.
M73
https://esimoney.com/millionaire-interview-73/
Dom @ Gen Y Finance Guy says
Thanks, M73!
Your millionaire interview was a big inspiration to me back in June of 2018 when I was first contemplating hanging up my C-Suite role in Corporate and going off on my own.
After reading your story, I asked myself “why not me”. And here we are.
So…THANK YOU!!!
I’m a big believer in that quote of it taking 10-20 years to become an overnight success – most people never see the years of discipline and focused effort to achieve massive results. All of a sudden you look like an overnight success.
Cheers,
Dom
ET says
“We actually started to feel well off.”
…Umm, I hope so.
Very motivating for me. Thank you for the detailed post
Dom @ Gen Y Finance Guy says
Thanks, ET!
I’m glad you found this motivating.
I know my comment probably seems off but was just being honest 🙂
duke33 says
Great story, thanks for sharing. Did you create all your own spreadsheets and graphs? Do you use a program to automate those or do you manually input? Are you able to share such a spreadsheet/graph program with others to input their own data?
Thanks again
Dom @ Gen Y Finance Guy says
Hey Duke33,
I did/do create all my own spreadsheets and graphs. Some are automated and linked up to an export I run monthly from Personal Capital.
I do share some that I’ve created on my blog when people subscribe to the email list – that’s the best way to get them.
Dom
JayCeezy says
Big Baller! You got more moves than Bekins!
Always enjoy your writing, you make the concept easy to understand and visualize while combining with compelling personal examples. You are also humble about your amazing achievements, which makes it easy to root for you!
Dom @ Gen Y Finance Guy says
Thanks, JayCeezy!
It’s been a wild and whacky ride. It’s people like you that have tuned in and provided such great conversation in the comments of each post.
Can you believe it’s been almost six years since you and I first crossed paths on Financial Samurai?
I always look forward to your comments and appreciate your support.
Dom
Alex says
Hi Dom,
Great write up. Similar background (trading/hedge funds –> FP&A + fitness fanatic as well (not sure I can wear that moniker now:) ) but your progress is exceptional. Huge congrats. Well deserved.
If you have time to connect, let me know please. Would love to chat about business, finance and sports. Would be happy to share my email with you.
Thanks,
Alex
Dom @ Gen Y Finance Guy says
Hey Alex,
I’d love the opportunity to connect.
Shoot me an email at [email protected].
Looking forward to it.
Dom
Jon W says
This was a great interview, congrats on all your success. I have a question for you (or anyone else who is knowledgeable). I currently live in NYS with high tax rate but moving to another state with lower taxes is a challenge do due to my ownership in business (that provides professional services) and the tax benefits it provides. What is the best way for me to determine potential savings if I were to relocate?
Dom @ Gen Y Finance Guy says
Hey Jon,
Sorry for the delayed reply.
I would suggest speaking to a really good CPA.
Dom
DK says
Enjoyed the writeup and the book suggestion. I had a similar career background. Are you willing to share more details on your business?
Jon W says
DK, My firm is an S Corp providing engineering services.
Dom @ Gen Y Finance Guy says
Like Jon W, my company is also an S Corp providing professional services (outsourced finance/business intelligence and software implementation).