Learning how to "financial hustle" has been one of the most important developments of my 30's.

I believe the financial hustle is analogous to plate theory, and that is:

Do not invest 100% of your time in any job, and expect great success doing so.

Time is the one resource, that no one can create more of. Therefore, to maximize your hustle you need to devote a certain amount of time to it.

Up until the age of 30 I was a 100% dedicated company man. I did my job, punched in, served my clients and assumed that salary raises, bonuses, etc. would come my way. I was a corporate nice guy.

When I was downsized around the age of 30, I realized that I need to diversify my income stream. This job loss exposed a major single point of failure in my life. I was 30, wife and two kids with less than $5000 in the bank. This was my first taste of real fear. Me going hungry is one thing, my 6mo and 2-year olds? No fucking way. I wanted to get paid multiple different ways. After six months or so I got that new 100% job, and everything was OK again - but something was different this time.

During the six months I was without a job - I had been doing work for my old clients directly. I fired up an LLC and I was a 1099 contractor for them. I invoiced them, and they paid. But it wasn't always on time, 30 days to pay invoices, etc. I couldn't rely on it for a steady stream of income, but at the same time I had bills to pay and kids to feed, so I did what I had to.

Once I got my new 100% job, I debated for a week or so about telling my clients I would no longer have the time to service them. Then I thought - that is silly…why give that income up? Why can't I do both? So that is what I did. Some may say that this is where my "moral compass" broke, or was readjusted. I have certainly heard that argument from many people.

But red-sfpplus - how can you do that? How can you work a main job, then do a side hustle like that - it is unethical. Whatever bro, you do you. I decided to work my 8-5 job and still take care of my clients on the side.

As time passed, my clients who I did work for just went away by attrition. Nothing anyone did, they either went out of business, sold or whatever. But during this time, I was still working my 100% job, but I was taking that "side money" and spending it on things. I still was not making my money work for me. We were taking vacations, buying stuff, etc. The one thing I did not do was ever get "used" to the money. I never took on any additional debt during this process. It was play money.

After the attrition happened, I was down to my one job. And I was bored and underutilized. I had choice - I can surf reddit all day, or you know what? I am in IT - I can do a 40 hour per week job in 20 hours or less. I have excellent time and expectation management skills. I am very good at making myself appear busy. I always deliver on time, and rarely procrastinate on things.

I decided that I would see if I could get a second full time job doing something similar to what I was doing now. However, I did not want the exact same job - I wanted an easier one. If I made 100K at my main job - I wanted my second job to only pay in the 60K range. This was a strategic move to manage expectations. If I got two high demand, high performing jobs - it would likely be too much. I needed one high, and one low expectation job. So that is what I did.

I was an Architect at Company 1, and an Engineer at Company 2. People at job 2 thought I was greatly overqualified for the job, but they didn't care. I blasted out the work. They probably thought - What is this guy working this job for?

So here I was - I had two jobs. I worked them both remote, neither knew about the other and life was OK. But it still wasn't enough. There was something burning in the back of my mind…

I eventually came to realize, that I was not diversified. All my eggs were still in the IT basket. I still had to GET UP and do work, use my own cycles to generate that income. I wanted income coming from another source completely and I wanted it to come in passively. What happened next, was nothing more than an error turned into luck. I got into real estate by accident. I was getting close to 35 right now and we moved from our hometown to Dallas to start a new life. We could not sell our house back home to save our lives, so I said fuck it - and I rented it out.

I had no idea what I was doing, all I know is that I had to figure it out. I had the house rented out in less than 2 weeks and we moved to Dallas. A year later I read the book "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor" and learned about leverage of assets. This book, changed my life as much as The Rational Male provided clarity.

Real Estate has always fascinated me. People are programmed from the time they are kids to "buy a house, get married and have kids" - why should I not exploit that line of thinking? I do not need to sell them on the idea of home ownership, that has already happened. So that is what I did.

So now, a year later at 36 or so we have moved - I have my two IT jobs, and now I have a revenue stream coming from our home we own back home. What is next? LEVERAGE. Leverage the equity you have.

And this is when it has gone from 20mph to 100mph. In the last few years I have dedicated my time to learning about financial investment, and leverage of assets. It takes less capital than you think - you just have to be willing to lose it all. But that is OK because I have my pyramid and multiple points of fall back. No one will go hungry.

How many of you are sitting on 50K in equity in your home? What if you took that 50K and purchased another home to rent out? Now you have two assets generating income, someone else is paying your mortgage, you buy a homeowner's warranty policy to cover shit that breaks, and you just chill? What if I said that is exactly what my next move was?

I continue to grow my financial hustle. I continue to learn and grow my skill set. I have learned that the only person that gets 100% of me - is me. How many people go all out at that job they have - they put 100% of themselves into it. The only one benefiting from that relationship is your employer.

Now I take the opposite approach. I purposefully do not try to "max" myself out at any single employer. I specifically look for the job that does not max out my capabilities and skill set, I look at each one with a different lens and see what value I can extract from them to fuel my mission. All I want from these people is "X" amount of money or benefits. Nothing else. I do not expect them to ever be an LTE (Long Term Employer). Would you rather have one main job that pays you $150K a year, or two? One that pays $110K and another at $60K? Which combination is easier to get? Which one maximizes your time and abilities? Which scenario gives you a fall back in case of unexpected unemployment?

So, as I come full circle - what I learned at the age of 30, is that there is ZERO, and I mean ZERO corporate loyalty anymore. If you think that showing up 40 hours a week, punching a clock and putting 6% into your 401K is a good plan, well friend you have some things to think about.

I structure my hustle like a pyramid. My main "job" is my base. It covers all my expenses, provides benefits, etc. It is a job that is pretty close to what I would want, if I only had one job. My secondary job, I really do not care about. It gets little time and attention, other than what is necessary to "do the job." It is probably 50% or less of my actual abilities. If it last 12-24 months, then great. There are more out there.

Real Estate is my first passive income stream. I have two families that go to work, and pay my mortgage payment, plus a little more AND I own the assets. I can use THEIR equity they pay me, to leverage into other things that make me money. This is the power of leverage as you begin to understand it. It is a very powerful concept, and one that is hard to appreciate until you experience it for yourself.

Financial investing is my "passive aggressive" income stream. It takes as much time as my main job as I am still learning, but also carries the most risk/reward. I am new to this. It started about a year ago and it is so far doing OK. But we will see.

When you add up all these things, you get to the 100% of my financial hustle capacity. Even if I lose my base job - Job #1 - it is OK because I have a lifestyle that can easily be retracted if needed.

We talk about books a lot here, so I will add some of my favorites:

Total Money Makeover

The Millionaire Next Door

The Millionaire Real Estate Investor

The Power of Habit

All of these books, have been instrumental in me learning how to leverage the money I make with my TIME into more money, thus freeing up more time to do other interesting things.

When I explain this to people, people kind of look at me sideways. There was no grand plan on any of this, in fact quite the opposite. You could say it has almost been one fuck up after another. Most people shit their pants when they have a house they can't sell. Meh, turn that shit into a positive. Move on with life and grow.

I have made a personal goal, that my "retirement career" will be different than my "youth career" I do not want to be in IT when I am 50. I do not want to have 2 IT jobs at 50. Ideally 0 IT jobs at 50 would be great.

But, only time will tell…