Probably first Bolivian member here.

[StartToday]

Hey guys, my name is Claudio, I'm 24 years old and from Bolivia.

Decided to join the forum after reading The Millionaire Fastlane since I figured I could connect with people who see life in a similar way as I do.

Oh, I still remember the moment I realized the world had a system in which I didn't belong. It happened about 3 years ago when I took my first job as a paralegal for a corporate law firm (I'm a soon to be lawyer btw). I thought to myself "is this really all there is to life? working for someone else, spending 8 hours in an office with other people wearing fancy clothes, then spend another two hours commuting, leaving me with only about 4 hours to do things I truly enjoy before going to bed and start the grindfest tomorrow again".

Naturally, and only one week on the job, I started googling stuff like "how to retire early" and came across Mr. Money Mustache. His philosophy is basically saving over 50% of your salary and investing it in passive income such as real estate or index funds in order to become financially independent and retire after putting in 7 to 10 years of work for someone else. And you know, for a while this approach helped me deal with the recently discovered reality of being a caught up in a system. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I quit that job after a month by the the way. I was earning less than minimum wage and my grades were taking serious damage due to lack of time. I also wanted to enjoy the little time I had left before I was forced to work again.

A year passed, and I decided to take another job as a paralegal for one of the biggest law firms in my country. It was a good opportunity, right? I was being paid minimum wage but I was learning a lot from top lawyers. They made me a lot of promises, too. They said I would be able to become a junior associate after 15 months if I proved my worth (this was part of the program they presented to me when I was first hired). Do you know what happened? They saw I was capable of doing a junior associate's work so I was doing such work but I was still getting paid the minimum wage. They refused to raise my salary because I didn't have my law degree yet, even though I was making good money for them. I was putting in about 60 - 70 billable hours a week for them, I was one of the few people capable of working in English but they didn't give a rat's behind. My work wasn't being valued while other colleagues were getting paid more and working less. And I wasn't going to get my law degree until March 2018 so I quit in December 2016.

A lot of people said I threw away a good opportunity, that I only had to be a little more patient. But I felt betrayed by the firm - for two years I gave them my blood and soul, all my free time and they gave me nothing in return.

I used all the money I earned from that job to pay my student loan so I was left with nothing but at least I was debt free.

Anyway, I don't want to make this too long. I already finished school and took another job at a law firm. Yes, I'll be making minimum wage at least until March 2018 and even then my salary will be miserable. To put things in perspective, $300 is the minimum wage.

So here, I am. With $0 in my bank account, starting this new job on Monday and making $300 a month once again...

But I came across The Millionaire Fastlane and I'm ready to take on this challenge. I can't let the system carry me any longer. It's time to take control of my own life.

I know I don't have it easy since I don't have any money and I would love to start an e-commerce business in the US (e-commerce is almost non-existent in Bolivia, there's no Amazon or eBay. Facebook may be the only decent platform for e-commerce) but first I need some capital to get me started so that will be my first objective.

I've been thinking about importing a certain product from the US and sell it here in Bolivia. It may not be a fastlane business but I need to raise capital. I have other ideas which I'll share with you soon.

Sorry for the long post. Maybe I said a lot of unnecessary stuff but I felt the need to let it all out so thank you for reading it.

Regards,
Claudio

 

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