How a 19yr old Nobody like me earned at least $8700/mth whilst in university and got to where I am today...

I have always been very proud of myself over the years of being able to earn the income & lifestyle I have today. I had no inheritance from rich parents, didn't get lucky in anyway, didn't win any lottery and certainly didn't marry some rich man's son or a rich man to be where I am today or be a mistress. 

What I did mainly was to do the only thing I have ever known... Work hard. I always believed that working hard will always be paid off and yes it has over these many years. But over the many years I learn from many others, that alone is not enough, we have to work smart and today I learnt from 2 very simple friends, Joe & Michelle, what I should have always done which could probably have put me in a much wealthier position. 

At the age of 19, I am proud to say I bought my 1st car myself with my own money, it was a brand new BMW 523i. Basically I paid the minimum deposit and took the highest loan over the longest period. That made the monthly repayments affordable. But I was also working 4 jobs and going through university, something very few people have ever known about me. I attended full-time university (paying international student fees in a top Australian University without attending most classes except for the occasional ones here & there (I studied at home when I had the chance and my mum didn't know I did that). 

My BMW 523i that I owned from the age of 19yrs old.

From 9am-5pm I was a Personal Assistant to a Director of a Public Listed Company (It was very flexible as he travelled most of the time so I could work on other stuff when I finished my work tasks). I earned $2500/mth wearing fancy corporate suit.

From 5.30pm - 12am/1am, I worked as a waitress or bartender or the bar hostess that welcomes customers and brings them to their table at very posh places like W Hotel & a really upmarket restaurant in a rich man's area, I earned $10/hour and tips. I worked very hard for the tips. Most nights my tips surpassed my actual pay, wearing work uniform and black pants and well cleaning tables and serving people all night on my feet.

From 12.30/1.30am, I drive my fancy BMW523i which has all the cleaning equipment in the car boot and go to about 3 different corporate offices to clean up their office. Wash everything pantry, clean the floors, throw all the rubbish in the bins, dust and wipe everything, vacuum the entire office & even clean toilets all alone in these huge corporate offices. Each office takes about 1hr and they are near each other and I basically run like crazy in a race to finish each office within an hour wearing my dirty pants and an old worn out tshirt. It pays $18/hr and they allocate 3hrs per office but I complete in an hour. So I earned 9hrs pay for only 3hrs work!

I am home 430am/5am, knock out and wake up 8am and do the repeat cycle daily.

On weekends I work in a restaurant & cafe in the suburbs. I do everything in there:serve, prepare food, clean, clear, wash, cashier, wait tables and sometimes when the cook is on emergency leave I end up being the chef. It was like I owned the restaurant and the owner loved me and so did all the regulars. I earn $15/hour and all my meals were covered and I kept all my tips which were lots. I also do shifts at the bar in the evenings that I work for during the week pending roster. 

So if u work it out, as 20yr old undergraduate, I was earning at least $8700 a month not including all the tips I earn & all paid cash on hand & tax free except my 9-5 full-time office job. I was earning what most senior managers were earning in big corporate firms. And I was very smart, most of my meals were covered by the places I worked at. My working overheads were very very low. 

Counting all the cash I had as a 19yr old at my best friend's house

But the main problem is because of my EGO & PRIDE & the fact that all my friends came from wealthy families, I wanted to behave like I came from a very wealthy family too. So I became extremely PENNY WISE & POUND FOOLISH! 

I spend on fancy cars, buy expensive clothes and bags, if I travel for my holidays (I take breaks on annual leaves) its business class tickets and fancy 5* hotels. Ate in fine dining restaurants etc. So in the eyes of many friends I was really well off and wealthy. Only a handful of my friends knew that I was slogging like no tomorrow to upkeep my high expenditure. 

But doing this in the long run is extremely exhausting. I could only do it for 3years and I think because of this 1st impression I had initially created, till today nearly 18years later, most friends or people that know me, think I am from a wealthy family. 

Hearing what my 2 simple friends earning a decent wage tell me how they earn, save and manage to pay for so many things made me realised that if the last 18yrs I was much smarter about money, I would probably be worth at least $10million now as I ended up running many successful businesses too. But I am too much of a penny wise, pound foolish person.

In the past 2 years, I have learnt to be smarter as having 2children as a single mother makes you think a lot about future income and savings. But after listening to the wonderful advise of Joe & Michelle, I realised that the 1 important long term goal I have not written down in my big grand life plan is to be Penny Wise & Pound Savvy. But it is never too late, tonight I am writing down my goals and working out what I should start doing to achieve them. I have always known the answers, but my pride & ego never allowed me to practice what I preach. 

Thank You Joe & Michelle. 

Today marks a great lifelong change. 

Tomorrow I shall write down how ordinary people can be extraordinarily wealthy from daily habits & share it with everyone...