Fuck. I was out of money. 

fake flossin

Fake flossin. I don’t even drink.

I was 20 years old in Hong Kong and living the Rick Ross life… BMF (blowin money fast). My first time by myself in Hong Kong meant 3 things:

1. 50% sushi dinners every night after 9 PM
2. Clubbing/nightlife in LKF almost everyday
3. Paying an old lady to do your laundry

I had extreme FOMO (fear of missing out). I kept on hearing… “You’ll never get an opportunity to travel again…” or “Make the most of your trip”. I traveled 24 hours and halfway across the world for this experience. But still… $3 bucks for coffee… Oh $10 for lunch… $15 for dinner. Shit adds up quick… REAL QUICK.

Real quick.

If you’ve gone through financial stress before, we all know that guilty feeling.

I would wake up dreading the balance left in my bank account. When statements got sent, I wouldn’t open them. The overdraft fees made me feel like I wasn’t responsible. I was out of control.

…and I hated feeling this way.

Your account is ready

Those FIVE dreaded words.

Minutes would pass by and I was hovering over my email bank statements and staring blankly into the screen. The words “oh man this is going to suck” kept replaying in my head. The truth paralyzed me and I felt guilty doing nothing about it… But whether I opened my statement or not, the numbers didn’t lie… I was in financial chaos.

And then this happened… My fourth overdraft feeFUCK!

Overdraft fee

Actual proof of me fucking up.

I was sick of this shit. I didn’t want to feel this way anymore. If I didn’t change and kept fucking up… where would I be in 10 years? 20 years? What would happen when I hit the “real world“?… or even when my parents or kids started depending on me financially?

If I didn’t start changing now… then I would never change… The change had to happen now.

I scoured through magazines, books, and blogs. There was so much shit to sift through. I read everything from budgeting to OMG EXTREME COUPONING!… But there was only so much I was willing to cut back on… I still wanted enjoy life. What I needed to do was to earn more.

Extreme couponing. TRUUUUU

Most people were raving about index funds, so I tried it. Every single month, I automatically threw in $50 every month no matter what. When I could throw more down, I did. After a few years of investing, I went from having $0 to this…

60000k

My actual Mint.com statement

The purpose of this story is NOT to be like… “OMG! U NEED TO INVEST IN INDEX FUNDS“. What really made me $60,000 was my psychology. Most of my friends said “I want to invest, but I need to figure it out first” when I was busy actually doing it. I was done settling, feeling guilty, and trying to figure out later.  I didn’t want to go back to that life of guilt.

In my mind if I didn’t do something, I was already losing. I was going to get off my ass and figure it out now. At the end of the day, we can either continue fucking up for years OR we can make a change today. 

It’s your choice.

For me later meant hurting these people…

What is one thing that you want to stop feeling guilty about?

Leave your answers below.

Kevin

PS… I bought I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi… the BEST $10 I’ve ever spent in my life. This is the best book on personal finance for millennials that I have read. It is a must read for everyone.