The Hedge Investor: Philosophy On Money

The Hedge Investor: Journey to Finding Freedom

I'm 21 years old, attending college and University, working 2 part time jobs and $30,000 in debt. Most of my hard earned money was spent on student loans, car loans, insurance, gas and maintenance, and the little time I had left is for studying. I basically had little to no social life and dating was out of the question because I was always broke paying off debt.I wasn't passionate about what I was studying in school and thinking about my future career didn't get me excited at all.

If You Seek You Will Find

For a while now my dad had been inviting me to attend some 'Business opportunity meeting' I had said no to for years. However, one evening I was so fed up with my current situation I figured it doesn't hurt to look at other options.
The next day while in school I had a day of complete disgust thinking about my not so promising future and replaying the testimonials I had heard from people of all walks of life having success in their home based business in Network Marketing. These people had the money and time I so desperately needed but most importantly had freedom, something I didn't even know you could have and make money at the same time! I always assumed more money meant more work.
It was in that moment I decided taking courses to become an ASL interpreter was a waste of time especially because I already knew the language, and I needed to spend time building a business that could earn me the money and freedom I heard about in the meeting last night. I literally jumped out of my seat. Left my books and never came back to University. I had made up my mind. If I was going to live my full potential. I would do it pursuing something I was passionate about.

A few weeks later I quit my jobs, was not in university and going hardcore at a business I had no experience with and bills accumulating fast. None of my friends or family wanted to join me on this business endeavour that was going to set us all up for life. Lets just say I learnt very quickly what not to do when starting out as an entrepreneur. Following the wisdom of the great late Jim Rohn I looked for a regular day job and worked full-time on my job to pay my bills and part time on my fortune. Something had happened to me that evening I attended that Business opportunity meeting. My mind had expanded and learnt about financial and time freedom. More than making money the possibility of FREEDOM had become everything to me, and even though it turned out being an entrepreneur was far much more challenging than university courses and I was going to do everything I could to get it!

5 Years Later
I spent the next 5 years learning new skills and changing my philosophies on money and associations. I networked, met successful people, got mentors who helped me develop the necessary skills to make full time income in my business. Although there are many times I wanted to quit and just fall back on my job I knew I was working for something much much bigger, my freedom. One of the hardest things I had to do was hold on to my job while making a full time income in my business. However it was discipline I had to follow through till I paid off my bad debt.

The biggest change that happened for me was to practice what I really believed in. I was still holding onto a Camaro which I bought using a loan, the maintenance was ridiculous, insurance on it was high, it was only a summer sports car, which means I needed a second car for the winter and it consumed gas faster than Cookie Monster could consume a box of cookies. I had learnt new philosophies on investing yet I never put them into action. It was during this time that my parents where looking to sell their home and downsize which meant I had to think of a place to live. This situation made it easy for me to make the decision to sell my Camaro and fortunately the same guy that offered me twice what I had bought it for a few years back, was still willing to buy it from me!

SOLD Depreciating Asset

Taste of freedom

Fast forward I ended up purchasing my first home with the money I made form my side hustle and selling my camaro, I lived in the attic and rented out all the rooms in my house to students. This paid for my mortgage and Bills. For the first time I didn't have to worry about exchanging my time for money to pay the bills. I had found something that worked for me. This gave me the flexibility to quit my full time job and work full time on my business. I became unstoppable! My second year living in this house new business opportunities came my way and I made more money that year than the cost of my house, which I bought for $235,000.00. After a few years of living expense free, I sold the house for $40,000 in profits and went on to buy more real estate and diversify my assets.

BOUGHT Appreciating Asset

For the next few years my business grew to different countries around the world and I met some incredibly smart and entreprenueral people. I loved being in control of my schedule and the ability to turn up or turn down my hustle anytime I wanted however, my biggest challenge was that I was building a book of business for another company and not building a company of my own.
I found myself intrigued into wanting to buy more assets like Real Estate and Precious Metals and so I did exactly that. I can tell you that my first purchase of buying Silver was just as much fun buying a Camaro at a young age. Its been my obligation since to empower more people to invest in precious metals and educate them on why Fiat currency is a dying monetary system. I am excited to share more on this topic in my future blogs.

(Purchasing Silver has brought me a much higher level of joy compared to the purchase of buying a sports car, there's something magical about buying precious metals)

IN 2017 another major shift happened for me. I found Crypto Currencies and learnt the power of BlockChain Technology. This is when I knew I had a lot more growing to do financially and so the birth of my brand started "The Hedge Investor". Every entrepreneur knows that the best way to secure your assets to to hedge your investments especially in this fast changed economy. My investments are diversified amongst precious metals, real estate and crypto currency. Being a Hedge Investor keeps me learning. I am constantly reading, attending events, meeting people who are successful in these areas and finding new ways to grow my investments. Blogging about my experience is a new way of learning for me. I believe the best way to learn is by teaching others..

(Meeting Mike Maloney at Cryptopulco Event. Associations are everything)

Why I Spread My Assets.

(Multiple streams of income make for a safer investment strategy)

Sky Diving is by far my favourite sport, I love how FAST & SLOW the sport is. I am excited to share more on this post in my #gilsonlifestyle posts.
Most people think the sport is very dangerous. Why yes it is to those who are not familiar with the sport and often have graphic images of people plummeting to their death. Can people die? YES! However, its a safe sport when practiced with safety. It is said that you are likely to die driving to the jump zone than in the actual dive.
I use SkyDiving as an analogy to help me understand business and investing. In sky diving you are given a main parachute and a reserve, just incase your main one doesn't open up. Having only one source of income to me is like jumping with one parachute. Having 2 or 3 leaves you worry free with a backup plan incase the first one can no longer support you. You never hope to LIVE on your second source of income and have to cut away your main source of income (parachute).
Your main source of income which is usually a job or a business, is your bread and butter. Your secondary income business supports your growing assets so you can expand that into grow into 3 or 4 or more sources of income. The above image illustrates that having multiple streams of income to me is like a SkyDiver who has multiple Parachutes.
I look forward to helping more people on this platform get their parachutes on and grow their income streams.

Let's continue promoting & inviting more people to the Steemit community. I look forward to sharing more. Don't forget to like, comment and follow for more content like this!

#TheHedgeInvestor
#GilsonLifeStyle