Featured Finalist – Ryan


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Featured Finalist – Ryan

As Ryan says: “Here it is [my first post] , now can you show me how the paint the fence?”

Well, the fence can wait … in the meantime, here’s Ryan’s post …

Growing up in a small town in Pennsylvania we never had much money. It wasn’t a sad life, we just had to do without a lot of things. Besides, HAVING money meant you were evil and destined for problems, right?
At least that’s what I was always taught. Maybe not intentionally, but it was always being subliminally reinforced, “filthy rich”, “dirty money”, etc.

Not to take any blame away from me as an individual, but was it any surprise that when I moved to California I sunk myself into a hole of debt. Student loans, car loan, credit card debt, the works. To make matters worse, my salary was anemic at best.

I was working at a non-profit that assisted the blind and visually impaired, and feeling really good about my contribution to society. I didn’t have to work that hard and I was helping those in need, what more could I ask for?

I probably would have gone on like this for the rest of my life. Eeking out an existence, living paycheck to paycheck, and going without much of what I wanted to have and do. Luckily for me, I met my beautiful wife. When I realized I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, I knew right away that I didn’t want to live THAT life. I wanted to be able to support my family, give them the best, travel with them, retire early so I can be with them, etc. I needed to get my act together!

I set a goal to get more educated, financially, and get out from all that debt. The get out of debt gurus helped a little with this, but when I started focusing on increasing my income instead of paying debt down, things really started to take off. I have now increased my income from 35k to 250k+, and I’m debt free!

As I began to seek out the next round of educational materials to help me with my financial goals (now drastically increased to 10million in 10years!) I’ve come to realize there is a gap in educational materials available for those not in debt and wanting to retire on more than one million dollars. Enter 7million7years.

I’ve applied to this program not because I don’t think I can reach my goals without ajc, but because I know it will be A LOT easier with his advice.

Since applying there have been several tasks to complete while the contestants are whittled down. In the drumming up web traffic portion of the “elimination round” I have focused on getting my personal and business contacts to go to my site through email links I have sent them, as well as posting a few strategic links on message boards. Robert Kiyosaki, aka “Rich Dad”, has a site that markets his coaching services. It’s not him coaching mind you, but his minions, and at a hefty price. So I’ve placed several posts on his site directing others to look at 7m7y’s FREE coaching. I’ve also posted questions on networthIQ asking others advice on this experiment both to hear their feedback, and to direct traffic. (I’ve since removed the questions for the site so as not to rough up the feathers of the community we will be utilizing greatly for the MIT program.)

So what will I do with the money you say? That’s easy, retire, spend time with my family traveling and enjoying life the way it should be enjoyed. And give back. While I was at the non profit organization I really liked the feeling of helping others. With this program I feel as though I can utilize my given talents to achieve my financial goals and Then REALLY help others in BIG ways.

Thanks for the opportunity 7m7y!

No, thank you, Ryan!
-Ryan

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Reader Comments

A new day, a new dollar! So tell us, Ryan, how did you go from $35K to $250K? Sounds like you went the “for profit” route, but also were able to translate your skillset from the non-profit world to the for-profit world. Were you doing fundraising and switched into sales or marketing? That sounds like a story worth hearing as well!

I’m with Di, spill on the 35k to 250k! I managed a much more meager increase – 25k to 75k. Ehhh well, you are in Cali so I suppose the wage disparity isn’t as much as it would seem!

Ryan you have shared a very intersting story. Thank you. I always like to hear what others have done and are doing. It motivates me to be some day to be able to motivate others in the same fashion.

Di- I did go the for profit route, but was not involved in fundraising. I was in charge of an outreach program that helped people who had recently lost their sight. When I realized I needed to make more money I didn’t want to half a%# it. I saught out people that were making the kind of money I wanted to make and asked them how they did it. I found that without going to school for many, many more years I would have to go into sales. Medical Device sales in particular really interested me. So, based on the advice of the individuals that were already doing it, I got a job as an entry level copier salesman. It sucked! But I’m really glad I did it because it built character in me that I would otherwise not have found. I also was able to parlay my experience/success (I ended up specializing in selling copiers to doctors and hospitals) into a Medical Device job and am now starting a distributorship.

Heidi – You’re right, California living is VERY expensive and $250K doesn’t go nearly as far as I had hoped!

Lee – My pleasure!

[…] Ryan (who is one of the Final 15 in my 7 Millionaires … In Training! ‘grand experiment’) sent the link to me saying: About 6 months ago I did a similar exercise to determine how much I would need to “retire” and live the kind of life I wanted to (travel, philanthropy, golf, bigger house,activities, etc.). Although it seemed like a stretch to even write down, I settled on $10 million in 10 years. After watching a show on cnbc, in particular this clip, http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=768292103 , I think it’s time to revise my estimate!!! And to think that a couple of years ago I thought if you had a million dollars you could do anything you wanted. […]