Corey - A million bucks by 30: how to overcome a crap job, stingy parents, and a useless degree to become a millionaire before (or after) turning thirty

Contents

This amazingly awesome book is dedicated to my parents, Nancy and Larry. Mom, dont worry, there shouldnt be any embarrassing grammar mistakes. Dad, thanks for buying this before it hits the bargain bin.

Just to be clear, this amazingly awesome book is not dedicated to my sister, Jill.

Introduction

OKAY , heres me in a nutshell: Coming out of college, I was scared of the opposite sex, I hated where I lived, I had no viable skills, and the worst of it, I was flat broke. Maybe right now you are better off than I was, maybe worse, but I was in a place where I wanted a change. To change everything. I wanted something better. It wasnt peachy being a newly sprung college grad with a crappy day job, trying to get by in my suburban hometown living in my moms basement among abandoned exercise equipment and slowly leaking beanbag chairs. It didnt take me long to figure out that wasnt the way I wanted to livethat is, on someone elses terms and schedule, with a limited social calendar, and, not to mention, under financial constraints. So, at the age of twenty-two, I happened upon an idea so crazy I thought it just might work: I would become a millionaire by the time I was thirty.

Of course, I wasnt the first person to set this goal, but Im not sure how many people actually accomplish it, and my guess is that those who have probably went about it differently than I did.

You see, Im just a plain ol gravelly voiced dude with no special talents. I didnt become an investment banker or a high-powered lawyer, and my familys not loaded. When I decided to be a millionaire by thirty, I had just accepted a job in a new town, leaving behind a ridiculous comfort zone of familiar surroundings and friends. And, of course, my moms weekly Chore Wheel. I left that all behind to make $40,000 a year as a technical-support guy in one of the most expensive cities in the world. I definitely didnt know what I was getting into, but I was excited about it.

I embarked on my new life with a freshly printed college diploma and $10,000 to my name. Thats a lot of money for a twenty-two-year-old. But because I made some solid financial decisions before and during college, I was leaving school ahead of my friends, financially speaking. I went to a university that offered me a full scholarship, and I kept it all four years. (That doesnt mean Im smart; it just means my college had loose standards.) It wasnt the school of my dreams, but I knew I could make it work. It took me a semester or two, but I eventually found a way to balance my studies and keg stands (both required someone shouting Hurry! Before the girls/cops get here!).

Another chunk of that ten grand came from money I had been saving since sixth grade. My mother, in an effort to make me interested in personal finance, had promised to double any amount of money I deposited into my savings account. Looking back on it now, it made no sense for her to teach me the value of money by giving me free money. But I took her offer as lesson number one in personal finance: Refusing free money is stupid. My $20 weekly allowance for mowing the lawn quickly became a $40-a-week bank deposit. Same with the money I was earning from mowing my neighbors lawns. And their neighbors lawns. After a few months of crazy lawn-mowing binges, my mom reneged on her deal (teaching me another lesson about free money: It aint forever). She thought I was taking advantage of her offer, but Id like to think I was just being opportunistic (something Ill get into in more detail later in the book). Regardless of the lost matching contributions, I kept adding to my savings account throughout middle school and high school. My job dressing up as the Chuck E. Cheeses rat earned me a regular paycheck, as did occasional lifeguarding and coaching duties at the local YMCA. And even in high school, I kept mowing all those lawns. Twenty dollars for an hours work is hard to pass up, especially to someone with a limited skill set like me.

Like most, I continued working in college. I still lifeguarded for a bit, waited tables, and bartended. I even earned a big payday by becoming an accidental entrepreneur. My roommate Jeff and I wanted to throw the biggest party possible in the field next to our house. We rented generators and Porta Pottis, hired bands, advertised on radio stations and in newspapers, and bought fifteen kegs for the party. It was a bit risky and definitely a lot of work, but we each invested a sizable portion of our savings to do it. At a minimum, we just wanted to recoup our expenses. So we had to charge $5 a head. It paid off, though: We had generated so much buzz among all the students that more than six hundred people came! Jeff and I made over $2,000 in unforeseen profit. It was an amazing feeling seeing that much cash on our living room table. If it were sitting in a suitcase, I would have sworn we had done something illegal. Okay, full disclosure: Considering that I was twenty, I was doing something illegal. But it was a memorable and profitable night due to our foresight of securing party permits and observing noise ordinances. Memorable and profitable mainly because for once it didnt require yelling Hurry, before the cops get here!

Anyway, that was then, and this is now. With $10,000 in savings and a dream, I did become a millionaire by the time I was thirty. The point of this book is to let you know that you can too.

In the following chapters, Ill break down exactly how I made a million bucks, and the strategies and steps I took along the way. None of them involves selling kidneys from a Las Vegas bathtub, but, you know, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, especially if its your sold-off kidney. But they do involve key financial decisions that I made: my journey from fledgling real-estate investor, to landlord, to seven-figure flipper, and the gory details about my life as (according to most of the people Ive dated) one of the biggest cheapskates on the planet.

At the end of every chapter, Ill show you how Im doing with a running tally of exactly how much cash Ive got to my name, as well as a final Alan Corey 101. Throughout the book youll see boldfaced financial terms. Simply turn to the glossary for an explanation of what they mean.

Read the book any way you want. Read it from start to finish; read just the lessons, tips, and box scores; or, if you dont really like me yet, read it from back to front and watch me go from a millionaire to being broke.

My hope is that youll see that there is no magic secret to being a millionaire, but, instead, that with focus, dedication, creativity, and sacrifice, you can earn a big payday just like me. Not everything I did will apply to your circumstances or appeal to your lifestyle. (Eating ramen every day for three months may be one of them.) But Im confident that many of my strategies will work, or, at the very least, will serve as the inspiration for you to come up with your own creative financial solutions. Hopefully, legal, conscience-friendly solutions (or at least kidney-friendly ones). Regardless, the basic principles that got me rich are universal, and the best news is that putting them into action is absolutely free.

In short: If I can do it, so can you. Good luck on your path to creating your very own million, and, most of all, have fun! I sure did.