At Secret Entourage we want to interact with you, our readers and appreciate when you take the time to ask us a question. We try to answer all questions we receive via email, but some of the questions we receive are similar and therefore decide to post it and answer it for everyone’s benefit.
This week’s question: I am 18 years and i want to buy a car with my own money by next year, but i have no job and i am still mostly in school. I want to be very accomplished before i’m 25 years i.e have my own house an extra penthouse and a fleet of sport cars. How do i go about it?
Well, there are many questions in that one general question, so I will try to hit the core issue here first and then answer all the other questions hidden here as well. The first thing to consider is that you are 18, and that there is time for you to grow into anything you want to become. Your attitude, patience and hard work will be key to when you can have the lifestyle you desire. The fact that you have big goals is very important as you know where you want to end up. The more important goal setting strategy here is to set landmarks that you must achieve by a certain time frame in order to act as a reminder that you are on track for the bigger picture. (ie: Buy your first home within 2 years and/or buy a $20,000 car by March).
The foundation of your life: Some key elements to making sure you have the ability to grow is making sure you start setting up your foundation today. Most will tell you that you have plenty of time to worry about these things later but it is not true, you need to have a sense of urgency to make sure that the basics are set 100% percent prior to embarking on your money making journey. That foundation includes your credit, insurance and legal record. Being young is no excuse to set yourself back 10 years by making the mistakes that most older folks would expect you to make. Make sure to get a secured credit card from a Bank, not an online provider, in order to establish credit (I have written many articles on how you can go about this in our archives). Make sure to clear any wrong doing on driving record by keeping a clean and clear record going forward (as small as this may seem, it will impact your journey to the top) and finally ensure that you control your outcomes by making sure you are not involved in anything that will leave a stain on your legal record. These basic three factors won’t help get you to the top but rather help ensure nothing slows you down from getting there.
The first job: While going to school, it can be difficult to juggle school and work but it is very necessary to ensure you are cultivating your real life experience while you are getting your degree. Most people will go to school thinking that once they are out, they will make $100,000 without any experience. This proves to be highly inaccurate as experience overcomes education for 9/10 companies. Finding a relevant field to your long term goal is great but not a necessity at this point in your life. Finding a flexible environment that allows you to grow should be a priority. A simple example would be a larger company where there are many positions you can grown into over the next year or two but that is open long hours and weekends, allowing you to schedule your work around your school. Banks, supermarkets, and larger retail stores (Best Buy, Macy’s, etc)are usually a good start. You must keep in mind that despite the fact this is a temporary job for you, your goal is to get as high up the ladder as possible before your time with that company is up and you are ready to move on to bigger things. Building a strong resume, showing advancement at an early age has helped me drastically in my pursuit for success.
Why School? The only reason I ask is because your question implied that you are mostly in school (it seemed as thought you didn’t enjoy or saw a reason to be there). I’ve written many times before that school and education are an important part of anyone’s life but only if they are done with purpose, as universities are not cheap and I am a strong believer that unless you see a use for the degree you will obtain, then do not waste your time just going to school just because. Go to school and get it done with as soon as possible and get a relevant degree to what you want to do in the long run.
Your first car can be a life changing decision, as it has a very strong emotional connection with your goals in life. The concept is simple, you can buy a car for three reasons when you are selecting it. Because you “Want it” “Need it” or “Can use it”. At a very young age, you are in most cases limited to choices based on your income and therefore the cars you want may not be the ones you can attain immediately. The car you need might be a simple, reliable car to take you from point to point and your preference might be a car that consumes less gas but the purpose of that car would be to simply go and do what you must do, not what you could do. The last car which is the one “you can use” needs to be one that might mirror what your ambitions are. If the ultimate goal is to make money, then how can you select a car to help you do that. If you are skilled and can provide home services, then a Van might be the best alternative for you to carry equipment to clients home and make money on the side. So your three choices should be to either buy a more expensive car to impress those that are irrelevant, to buy a car that is reliable and cheap but yet looks clean so you can save more money while getting all you need done or to buy one ugly cargo van, make enough money with it to pay your self back for buying it. Make sure to look on Craigslist or other personals for great deals on cheap cars under $3000.
Being very accomplished by 25 is simple but by no means easy, you must first define where you want to be reasonably and set your goals and landmarks, then comes the hardest part, making the right judgment call and decisions that are aligned with your goals. You see when you ask to have such a lifestyle at such a young age, you must understand that there is a huge balance of compromise, sacrifice and dedication needed to succeed but need to remember that the one thing you can never compromise or sacrifice is getting to your goal. EVERY choice defines who you are, from the big decisions of buying your first car, to the small ones that include which friends to hang out with or even simpler choices like” how hard you should work at your job today?”
In my own pursuit of success and wealth from the age of 14, I have had to sacrifice many things along the way, from fun parties to the time spent with my friends and family and the choice to not get married till I reach my final goals. These are all sacrifices and compromises that we must learn to live with and accept if we wish to make it in an accelerated time frame. I have an equation that I will leave you with today that I believe is necessary for success:
Success is when (Hard Work+Dedication+Sense of Urgency) Meets opportunity.
In other words, sometimes we work within a routine and are working hard in the pursuit of perfection and try to identify potential opportunities that don’t always work out, but when the right one comes along, WILL YOU BE READY?
