April 12th So there I am, finished my first week of working at my first full-time job after graduating college, just got my first apartment, first car, and excited to start living my adult life. I’m browsing through Twitter after work and see a Real Estate Wholesaler post a $60,000 check with the caption “only weeks worth of work!”
Sixty Thousand dollars from one deal, damn near my entire salary in one check. I thought I made it big making 63k right out of college. My entire view of money changed from one post. My next thoughts were “how do I make that kind of money” and “It’s time to become an entrepreneur”
I had no idea of what type of business I could start. All I had was a degree and my first job, no skills, no experience, just vibes. I went online and found the Millionaire Mindset Podcast and started listening from the beginning. Each episode had an interview with an entrepreneur in various businesses that I had never heard of. I listened on the way to work, during work, the way home from work, and when I got home. I had to find a way to make money outside of work.
So after a month of listening to the podcast, my mindset had shifted exponentially to one focused on growth and abundance. I’ve followed the social media accounts of everyone interviewed on the podcast and accidentally changed all the content that I viewed on social media from memes, anime, and video games to content on wealth building, self-development, and financial freedom. As well as executing, I found a 2-week HTML coding trial because everyone was talking about how much money there was in the tech industry. that shit was not for me, at all! this is what I ended up making
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After realizing that coding wasn’t for me, I started a dropshipping business selling AirPods cases, kimonos, thai harem pants, and silk robes. I learned everything from Youtube University, created a website on Shopify, sourced products from aliexpress, learned about copywriting and Facebook ads. But I had limited capital to put into the business. in my opinion, the business did not make me a millionaire was because of covid and the supply chain causing the dropshipping to take MONTHS
Episode 19 of the podcast is the one that changed my life. Ep. #19 – Own or be Owned with Andre Hatchett
Shout out to my friend and mentor Andre C. Hatchett. In his interview he spoke about his Notary Business and course, The 2-12 Club (Malikmoves70 for 70% off) which teaches you how to make 2k-12k per month as a notary. Prior to his episode, my grandfather told me about becoming a notary and that you could only make $5 per appointment, and why tf would I want to do that???
But Andre was talking about $150-$200 per appointment and that was VERY enticing. Especially for a business with a less than $500 start-up cost. I started doing my Googles immediately to see if it was worth getting into. His course was $1000 at the time which was half my savings at the time.
DO NOT BE LIKE ME. My job security allowed me to take that risk I legit had $1043 to my name and bills were coming soon. Not a very fun time for Malik.
I took the notary class at the beginning of August and got sworn on August 30th. My website was up on September 16th and I got my first appointment on September 21st for $362 and instantly knew that I made the right decision.
From September 2019 to March 2020 my life consisted of my 9-5 and the Notary Business from 5-9. No fun, no hanging out, and barely any video games. I was willing to make those sacrifices to get to where I am today.
I took a month off in April due to the pandemic, but people were blowing my phone UP for notary and fingerprinting appointments. I reopened in May and had my first $1000 day by having 7 appointments. I went on appointments during lunch and had meetings for my job while driving around. I knew at that point that I reached my capacity of working within my business and hired someone else to go on appointments for me.
Increasing your income and creating more streams of income is great and all but that might be your downfall if you’re financially irresponsible with all of the money.
The Financial Starter Kit is my go to book for any and all personal finance decisions that I make. Also the only book that I recommend to people who ask me about budgeting, credit, investing, retirement, and bank accounts.
After applying the methods taught I was able to save my first $10k, improve my credit, maximize my 401k and invest using my Roth Ira.
Let’s get into how I was able to accomplish those feats.
Saving my first 10k was one of the most daunting and meticulous financial decisions i’ve made, especially when its so expensive JUST TO LIVE. I started by looking at my all of my expenses to see what i could cut down on and honestly it was a lot lmao. Food is always the number 1 money eater, eating out and ordering food is just so convient and easy. Cooking was the best way to save money on food so I bought an air fryer and instant pot and got to it! I cancelled all of the subscription based services that I was paying for, stopped buying clothes and video games, and kept all travel to a minimum.
After learning how credit actually works I began using my credit cards for all purchases so that I could get reward points for buying things that I already planned on buying. I also kept my credit utilization at 15% by keeping a balance on my cards while making on time payments. I had to get a bill that was sent from collections taken off my credit report. My university didn’t even tell me that I owed money!
Contribute to your 401k if your company matches!!! It’s free money! The company that I was at matched my 401k and HSA. When I read the book I learned that I could invest with my Health Savings Account(HSA) so I took the $750 I invested, the $750 that my company matched ($1500 total), and flipped it to $6000 with a stock play. Multiplying free money that I can use for any medical-related costs 🔥🔥🔥.Â