Thread: 2000-2009

So the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close. How has your life changed over the last 10 years? What about your life is better, what is something you want to fix?

In 2000 I was operating a one man chassis shop. I was working 16 hours a day 6-7 days a week, burning out. I loved the work, hated the hours. Closed the shop. Became a teacher. Began to learn how to make money without relying on my sweat and blood. Learned how much of a kick I get out of teaching kids.

What about you?

In 2000, I was working my way up as top notch IT consultant. I was a corporation slave for 6 years. I was making good money by sacrificing my health and family time.

I have never learned a thing about investing my talents for my own good. In 2006, I quited my slave job and went on 7 months backpacking tour. That was the best time in my life.

I am still trying different things and start finding the direction. Now I am getting back to good shape and plan to travel around the world starting 2020.

In 2000 I was only a second grader.

Fast forward 4 years, and my whole life changed when I saw a Murcielago. I became interested in business, stocks, and investing. (Details will be in my Success Story )

Then from 2004-2009 I have been constantly learning and discovering the key elements to wealth and the fastlane. In 2008 I found this forum and 2009 I joined.

Now as 2009 comes to a close, I have: many lessons learned from my "expeditions" and mistakes, my first patent, and I am building the foundation of my first business.

Lets Go Everyone!! Let's make 2010 one helluva year!

When I was in high school, I remember thinking that I'd never live to see the year 2000. It is hard to believe that happened nearly 10 years ago!

Ten years ago, I was working for the same company I am now. It is a GREAT company, and I love doing what I'm doing, so I'm happy with that. In fact, 2009 was our best year by far. We grew in employee count, sales volume and profit during one of the toughest years most of us have seen. All that in the hard-hit construction field. I'm proud to be a part of that.

In my personal life, I'm now a grandpa. My son is married to the love of his life -- and he dated her from 7th grade until college finished. My D-I-L is a super gal, and she is a great fit for my son.

My son has gone on to become a police officer -- a goal he set for himself on graduating from high school. He's polite, self-sufficient, and excels at police work despite being 150 pounds soaking wet. I could not be prouder.

I've learned to build websites, even though I'm not making a living at it. I run several sites, and have had some decent sales on them though, but I still have a ways to go on that.

After coming to the very first Rich Dad gathering held by most of this group, I purchased a couple of rental properties. I now own and operate nine apartment units. In the current climate, I'm not sure it is the best position to be in, but the properties cash flowed when I bought them, so things are good there.

With all that, I don't really feel I've lived up to my own expectations. I always feel like I should be in a better financial position. I wanted to have helped far more people than I did. I wanted so much more with my life. But I'm happy enough to feel that it was a hell of a decade.

Oh...and I want World Peace!

For my events 2000-2006 go read my intro called Another Story. Details there. 2006 until now has been a rebuild, and rebuild we did.

Every day is better than the one before.
Is it perfect? No, but that is life. Do I struggle? All the time, but it is my attitude that flourished and my drive continues to increase.

Back (sometime between 2000 and 2006) when I was 40 (a great year in my life besides what I was going through) I felt I had learned SO much and thought how awesome it would have been to have that knowledge back at 18. Since then I have grown even more and there is no sign that it will stop. That is MY choice and I will not only survive my life, I will thrive.

I am married to the love of my life and best friend. My children have grown (22,20 and my youngest is almost 14), are strong, healthy, very intelligent, and have all become young men.

During the next decade, I would like to increase my application of grace and mercy and I hope that my actions will impact others positively.

I am completely satisfied with what I have and who I have become but that does not deter me from wanting and striving for - and to become - more.

So the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close. How has your life changed over the last 10 years? What about your life is better, what is something you want to fix?

A great question.

In 2000, I was at the top of my game in the custom electronics world. My work had been published in every big newspaper and magazine I had ever wanted to be in (NY Times, Wall St Journal, This Old House magazine, Arch Digest, Home, Met Home, Better Homes and Gardens, Architectural Record, etc). I had just completed a project for Disney that was (back then) the 3rd most popular attraction at Innoventions in Epcot. I was also a columnist for 3 major industry magazines (2 consumer, 1 trade).

And I had a flourishing "S" business that I knew I wanted to leave.

Not because I hated what I was doing (I totally loved it, and got paid silly amounts of money). But because I wanted to change my life from the happy go lucky single guy to (eventually) a family man with less of a jet-set lifestyle.

Had to find the right lady to do that with, first. Went out w/some really great ones, but none seemed to be the right fit (I'm an oddball, what can I say!)

2000 was an interesting year. I was doing so well that I took 3 months off to do a road trip w/my best buddy (we've known each other since we were babies-- have pics of the two of us, at 1 year old-- sitting on a snow bank). Took a train from Michigan (where he lived) to CA (where I lived). Rented a mustang convertible and drove Route 66 and Hwy 1. Had an awesome time-- and didn't really have any deadlines, save for my writing work. That was pretty cool-- at the beginning of our trip, I wrote and submitted one of my columns. By the time we reached my home in Napa, the last week of our trip, that article was on the store shelves. My buddy couldn't believe it!

Writing had been a goal of mine-- and I remember telling my buddy this when we were roommates in the 1980s. When he held that magazine, and saw my face on the top of the column, he said, "You know, when you first told me you wanted to be a writer, I thought you were full of sh*t. But you really did it!" Then he laughed and handed the mag back to me.

2000 was also a good year for me, biz wise. My self employed biz brought in over $500K (I had no employees). I owned 2 houses (both in the Napa Valley), and was just about finished remodeling one of them (the other was mostly done, but still needed a few tweaks to really make it nice).

I rang in the millenium (2000--2001) at Disneyworld, w/my gf at the time. Had a special place in my heart, since I'd achieved that long-time dream of working w/Disney. Working side by side w/the imagineeers-- and being at the top of the credits for the exhibit-- that was a thrill. A real accomplishment.

The Disney exhibit was originally slated for a 3 year run (their technical things have short lifespans). But it was so popular, the extended it for another 4 years. They even got Roger Ebert in the studio to narrate the intro.

2001 highlights: One of my clients flew me to Paris and Budapest to study the Opera Houses (he wanted me to design a miniature version on his property). Budget was $2,000,000.

When I got back from Budapest, the stock he owned had fallen A LOT (his co was bought out by Nortel, and he had a million shares-- no, not making that up-- 1 million shares of Nortel).

When I left for the Paris trip, Nortel was around 80. By the end of that year, Nortel was less than a third of that price. He cut his project back severely.

I also had another client in 2001 that was a Nortel millionaire. He had to cut back big time, too.

2001 was the year I turned 40, and it was the first time I felt like "Ugh-- I'm getting old-- what am I doing w/my life!?". So I decided to celebrate the entire year. Had multiple birthday parties.

Still couldn't find the right gal.

I flew a lot back then. Mostly first class because I had so many air miles, they gave me free upgrades. I got back from an international conference at 2 am, Sept 11, 2001 (5 am New York time). I fell into bed, exhausted after a long day of travel.

A few hours later, my phone started ringing--- friends from all over were calling to make sure I was OK. I had no idea what they were talking about.

One of my closest industry friends and colleagues had been on United Flight 93 on Sept 11. He'd changed his flight at the last minute, and was on a different plane when Flight 93 crashed and the FAA ordered all of the planes out of the sky. He was stranded in Canada, where his plane landed. He was very, very freaked out over his luck changing flights.

I would have been, too.

That week was interesting. I remember walking out of my house, walking through the vineyards, and looking up in the sky, knowing there were no airplanes up there. Very spooky, as you can almost always see contrails here (hundreds of flights every day to San Francisco and nearby airports).

A lady I was just getting to know totally freaked out. Her parents were traveling in Italy and she pretty much went unglued. Told me she couldn't talk to anyone right now-- and would not for the foreseeable future. Don't call, don't write. Leave me alone. Goodbye. As I said, 9/11 really freaked her out.

She did call me 3 months later, but by then . . .

I understood her feelings, but felt very different myself. For years, I'd traveled the world, and had pretty much come to grips with the fact that I could be sitting in a cafe in Paris and it might just go <BOOM>. Stuff like that happened in other parts of the world. I traveled knowing this. I embraced it-- it was either live life to the fullest, or stay in my bedroom afraid to go outside.

But this kind of thing hadn't happened in the US, so I saw lots of friends really get messed up. Their world view changed-- they felt unsafe, vulnerable for the first time in their lives. Me, I had grown up in Detroit during the race riots, and now I lived in CA earthquake country-- and had survived a few whoppers. So I'd already had to deal w/the "my life could be over in an eyeblink" kind of thing, both home and abroad.

The same week as 9/11, I got an email from a gal who lived about an hour and a half from me. She'd seen my profile online (I was listed on match.com), and wanted to get together. We wrote a few times, then had a really long phone call. I was amazed that she pretty much felt the same way I did-- that life was precious, but little had changed. Her prep for this was different-- both her dad and big brother were firefighters. So for her entire life, she knew that one -- or both-- of them might not come home. It was something that was a part of her life.

She moved in with me a few months after that, and we married a year and a half later. We buried her mom just 10 months after I met her. And we buried her dad just 3 years after that. Both cancer. Both very fast. It was not fun.

But I was glad that I was in her life, to help her through those times.

We bought our first houses in 2003, and later that same year, bought a B&B a few blocks away.

Over the next few years, we bought an apt building, and 3 more houses. Sold 4 of our other houses. Remodeled them into another B&B (20 rooms). As you all know-- we just finished that a few weeks ago.

And after lots of trying (and thanks to IVF), we had a beautiful daughter, who just turned 3 a few months ago.

To recap: Started out this decade single, world-famous for my craft, and wanting to have a family and do something different with my life. Net worth about $300K.

Ending this decade happily married, no longer famous (never was important to me), w/an incredible daughter that really puts my life in perspective. Own a lot of property w/my wife/best friend/business partner. We're probably worth between 5 and 7 million, after paying off all the debt.

So has my life changed for the better over the last 10 years?

Yep.

-Russ H.

C'mon guys and gals-- let's hear what happened to you these past 10 years!

-Russ H.

Originally Posted by Brootal

AWESOME post Russ. I honestly did not want to stop reading and was bummed it was so short.

I couldnt find any posts about how you made the switch into real estate. If you wouldn't mind sharing (or pointing me to where you already have) I would really appreciate it.

Look up any posts I've done using keywords "cashflow game leverage".

Let me know if you can't find 'em-- I'll do a quickie search and bump one up for you now.

-Russ H.

3000 registered members, 200-300 members that actually post. Only 9 short stories about how life has changed over the last 10 years? Are you kidding me? Come on, we want to hear.

In 2000, I was in the midst of college studying Chemical Engineering. Didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life other than "get a good job and live within my means" as I had been brought up to do.

I graduated in 2002 and received the highest salary offer in my class. "Get a good job" was checked off the list. Went to work for a major oil company and proceeded to have a good time in a totally new city with the intention of someday becoming CEO.

Then I read RDPD and my view on money and career was forever altered. While I think Kiyosaki has become a bit of a sell-out lately, I've got to say that he provided me with the entrepreneurial bug....that book certainly altered my life!

I started talking to friends about business and real estate and found a buddy with similar interests. On November 12, 2005, we bought a little POS duplex together and figured we could cover the mortgage and expenses if we had to even if it sat vacant. We had read the books, discussed various scenarios, studied lots of markets and finally decided "what the hell, let's just buy something." Best decision we could have made because without that deal, we would have never done the next 20!

In May of 2007 I married the love of my life. She's pretty damn good looking too...I lucked out! Look forward to introducing her to you all in a couple months!

My biz partner and I have built a pretty solid cash-flowing rental portfolio as well as a construction and property management company. I've made great contacts with several money partners and have solid backing if I need it for a BIG deal. Time has flown because I'm having so much fun!

My properties haven't allowed me to retire, but are providing for real wealth accumulation. I'm currently working several internet marketing ideas to generate "Now Cash." I think the "several" is part of the problem and that I need to get more focused on one or two....there are just so many ways to make money that I feel like a kid in a candy store.

Looking forward to 2010 and beyond as I continue to learn internet marketing, buy real estate, and make many more great friends. Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all....let's hit a home run in the New Year!

Lets see in 2000 I was still a kid, 15 and in highschool.

Now I'm 24 and a builder.


Just need to find the right girl and I'm all set.

bump