Hi everyone!
I'm Victor, a low-income ($13.15/hr) proofreader working for the classifieds section of a small company that does outsourced work for major news publications like the New York Times, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, among many others. My fellow coworkers and I are overworked, underpaid, and understaffed.
My story is not much different than most: My parents were both retail workers earning hardly over minimum wage and worked their butts off to bring food to the table for my brother, sister, and me. They did not go to college and had practically zero financial literacy and spent money on things they couldn't afford. They did their best with what they knew, but they had fit DeMarco's definition of side-walkers to a tee. When I was in high school, I developed a passion for musical composition and invested in music creating software that I worked my butt off to learn and eventually developed a near-professional competency in audio-engineering and musical composition even before going to college. The money I could have spent on purchasing a vehicle or learning how to drive, I spent on music software and digital technologies. (This will matter further down the line).
Going to college - Being the oldest son, and being the first person in my family to go to college while also nurturing my pursuit of becoming the next Mozart, I was ready to take on the world. Even though I had zero direction as far as business ventures were concerned, and I didn't realize I was digging myself into a financial hole. This is because I made it into the college of my choice, but I did not make it into the music program in that particular college. This is simply because I could not play an instrument, even though my composition abilities were and still are extraordinary. Distraught, I scrambled to ensure the $35,000 total projected investment put into this college was worthwhile, and I sought to pursue a Journalism degree instead.
Setting my musical endeavors aside, I convinced myself that I wanted to be a journalist (even though I now know I couldn't care less about that career path). But, even if I wanted to make the best out of this opportunity by partaking in off-campus internships, I did not have a vehicle, nor did I have a license, nor the "know-better" to juggle my college courses with these "extracurricular" career endeavors. Long story short, I did what I could on-campus, which wasn't much. The best thing I can say that I did for myself, is that I was The President of the Society of Professional Journalists @ Fredonia, for one semester. Which ultimately, was not very convincing to look at on a resume.
When I graduated, I was left with $35,000 in student debt, and no real tangibility as a candidate for slow lane employers. All I had was my exceptional writing and musical composition abilities, and perhaps I was better at public speaking and interacting with others on a professional level. But as far as being marketable, I didn't have the experience nor transportation independence under my belt. THAT'S RIGHT! I STILL DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO DRIVE!
When I graduated from college, I took the first job I could nab, which is the job I have now. A dead-end job. It took me 6 months to learn how to drive while I was still living with my parents at 24 years old in a tiny duplex where I had no privacy and shared the same room with my little brother. The first car I ever got I financed from CarMax, a 2015 Black Ford Fusion hybrid ($15,000.00). I was now swimming in $50,000.00 combined debt.
Fast forward to a year later, I finally got my first apartment with more than $10K in savings, both liquid (index funds) and non-liquid checkings and savings.
6 months after that, which means almost a year after I had begun living on my own, I've come to the realization (3 weeks ago from today) that I was doing everything wrong! I began reading all sorts of books from credible sources that eventually led me to DeMarco's The Millionaire Fastlane . I realize now that all of the skills that I had developed in the past, each of which I believed were not marketable, were actually Fastlane skills, and I intend to put them to use! I'm going to attempt to create a business out of these skills -- skills that, if nurtured, set me on the fast track to becoming a producer rather than a consumer.
1.) Musical Composition and audio engineering - I still have all of my amazing software
2.) Writing - I'm currently on chapter 17 of my first novel
3.) Gift of gab - I'm going to make a Youtube channel that brings fellow entrepreneurs and content creators together
Thank you all so much for reading if you've made it to this point, and I am looking forward to seeing how this new zero cost oil change will unravel as time moves on!
After all, that is the most important thing! Time! I'm glad I found this out now rather than later!
I'm Victor, a low-income ($13.15/hr) proofreader working for the classifieds section of a small company that does outsourced work for major news publications like the New York Times, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, among many others. My fellow coworkers and I are overworked, underpaid, and understaffed.
My story is not much different than most: My parents were both retail workers earning hardly over minimum wage and worked their butts off to bring food to the table for my brother, sister, and me. They did not go to college and had practically zero financial literacy and spent money on things they couldn't afford. They did their best with what they knew, but they had fit DeMarco's definition of side-walkers to a tee. When I was in high school, I developed a passion for musical composition and invested in music creating software that I worked my butt off to learn and eventually developed a near-professional competency in audio-engineering and musical composition even before going to college. The money I could have spent on purchasing a vehicle or learning how to drive, I spent on music software and digital technologies. (This will matter further down the line).
Going to college - Being the oldest son, and being the first person in my family to go to college while also nurturing my pursuit of becoming the next Mozart, I was ready to take on the world. Even though I had zero direction as far as business ventures were concerned, and I didn't realize I was digging myself into a financial hole. This is because I made it into the college of my choice, but I did not make it into the music program in that particular college. This is simply because I could not play an instrument, even though my composition abilities were and still are extraordinary. Distraught, I scrambled to ensure the $35,000 total projected investment put into this college was worthwhile, and I sought to pursue a Journalism degree instead.
Setting my musical endeavors aside, I convinced myself that I wanted to be a journalist (even though I now know I couldn't care less about that career path). But, even if I wanted to make the best out of this opportunity by partaking in off-campus internships, I did not have a vehicle, nor did I have a license, nor the "know-better" to juggle my college courses with these "extracurricular" career endeavors. Long story short, I did what I could on-campus, which wasn't much. The best thing I can say that I did for myself, is that I was The President of the Society of Professional Journalists @ Fredonia, for one semester. Which ultimately, was not very convincing to look at on a resume.
When I graduated, I was left with $35,000 in student debt, and no real tangibility as a candidate for slow lane employers. All I had was my exceptional writing and musical composition abilities, and perhaps I was better at public speaking and interacting with others on a professional level. But as far as being marketable, I didn't have the experience nor transportation independence under my belt. THAT'S RIGHT! I STILL DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO DRIVE!
When I graduated from college, I took the first job I could nab, which is the job I have now. A dead-end job. It took me 6 months to learn how to drive while I was still living with my parents at 24 years old in a tiny duplex where I had no privacy and shared the same room with my little brother. The first car I ever got I financed from CarMax, a 2015 Black Ford Fusion hybrid ($15,000.00). I was now swimming in $50,000.00 combined debt.
Fast forward to a year later, I finally got my first apartment with more than $10K in savings, both liquid (index funds) and non-liquid checkings and savings.
6 months after that, which means almost a year after I had begun living on my own, I've come to the realization (3 weeks ago from today) that I was doing everything wrong! I began reading all sorts of books from credible sources that eventually led me to DeMarco's The Millionaire Fastlane . I realize now that all of the skills that I had developed in the past, each of which I believed were not marketable, were actually Fastlane skills, and I intend to put them to use! I'm going to attempt to create a business out of these skills -- skills that, if nurtured, set me on the fast track to becoming a producer rather than a consumer.
1.) Musical Composition and audio engineering - I still have all of my amazing software
2.) Writing - I'm currently on chapter 17 of my first novel
3.) Gift of gab - I'm going to make a Youtube channel that brings fellow entrepreneurs and content creators together
Thank you all so much for reading if you've made it to this point, and I am looking forward to seeing how this new zero cost oil change will unravel as time moves on!
After all, that is the most important thing! Time! I'm glad I found this out now rather than later!
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