Hi, I am Elisa Zhang. I am an owner principal of over 3,500 apartment units, an educator, an artist and a mother of two beautiful children. I am on a mission to help corporate individuals exit their nine-to-five in style. How do I know that I have the blueprint that works? Because it’s the exact one I used to replace my corporate income of over $200K with a passive income stream.
Why am I sharing this with you?
It took me 10 years of a lot of trial and error to figure this out on my own. You can learn from my mistakes and reach Financial Independence faster. It’s my way of giving back and showing gratitude.
Life was not comfortable for me growing up in China with my Aunt’s family. There were four of us in an 86 sq ft studio apartment. We shared the same bed and had to go to the bathroom in an urn because having a toilet was a luxury.
My dad was my role model growing up. He had a post-doctoral degree in engineering and lived in a three bedroom house in rural Canada. It was engrained in me that studying hard and getting a good job was the only path to get ahead in this world.
So I followed that path, studied hard, went to a good college, became a computer engineer and moved to Seattle for my first job with a Fortune 500 company.
Life was good for a short while. I followed Suze Orman’s program, paid off credit cards and saved some money. I bought my first rental, a condo unit, in 2009. I had a goal to save up to purchase seven properties, pay them off and retire on that income. I maxed out my 401k contribution and subscribed to an Employee Stock Purchase Plan. After a a few more single family home purchases, my savings ran out. My 401k didn’t look any bigger. My daydream of being Financially Independent was still 30 years ahead. Nothing seemed fast about that. And I was still stuck in this loop.
Then my daughter was born. My daughter’s birth turned my world upside down. Overnight, my priorities in life changed. I dreaded the day that I had to go back to work and leave her behind. Every day, right after I had to drop her off at the daycare, she screamed and cried for me. It broke my heart.
Some days, I spent more time in my car during my commute than with my infant daughter. I started to ask myself deep, important life questions. “Do I really want to miss all my daughter’s important life moments until she is old enough to leave home? Do I really want to be stuck in this 9-5 job until I am too old to enjoy life? Do I really want to spend the majority of my work time dealing with silly politics to climb the corporate ladder?” I didn’t even like my boss’s job! There had be a better way to reach Financial Independence faster. And there was. It was right in front of me the whole time.
I was faced with a choice, continue to follow the same path as my dad and the rest of society. That is, continue working for someone else, trading hours of my life for the minimum number of dollars, saving those dollars until retirement, and then save some more.
Or consider taking a path less travelled toward Financial Independence by being my own boss. Remember the Matrix? Of course you do. Once you swallow that red pill, you can never go back.
I committed myself to Financial Independence faster to exit the rat race. I could not imagine the stress I would have to endure had I not planned for my freedom from the W2.
I finally had my financial freedom after 10 years of working my plan! Ironically, that was also the year my dad retired at age 68.
I came from nothing.
Over the course of 10 years, I was the only income for our family of four and I had two beautiful babies.
Over the course of 10 years, I built a real estate business that included small multiplexes and large apartment buildings. I became Principal of more than 1,000 apartment units in AZ, TX and WA. I passively invested in notes and other apartment syndication projects and I built a rewarding network of investors, vendors and partners.
Over the course of 10 years, I reached my Fat Financial Independence!
You can do this, too. I know it. I believe it. And I can help.
