Journey To Become A Multi-Millionaire

My wealth has grown exponentially after reaching my first million in 2018. It only took me 3 years to double it.
I allocated over 50% of my portfolio to a single asset class. Concentration has great impact upon investment returns.
The profit earned on short-term trades in the stock market during my parental leave has helped me add wealth quickly.

Net Investable Assets Growth Chart

The graph demonstrates consistent linear growth over the first 8 years. Exponential growth occurred after my NIA crossed the one million mark. My first million was accumulated through years of earning and saving, whereas my second million was mostly made through aggressive investing. I have grown my wealth much faster by using money to make more money. The accelerating power of compounding is the real game changer.

Gross Income Growth Chart

Beginning 2020, the income from stock trading is included and reported as 1099-B.

Over the past few years, I have invested across many different types of alternative assets through Reg D 506(c) platforms: personal loans through a peer-to-peer lending marketplace, small business loans through a hedge fund, and hard money loans and bridge loans through real estate crowdfunding platforms. In more recent years, I focused on aggressive capital growth by investing heavily in litigation finance. My passive income has grown slowly over time. Concentration provides a path to get rich, diversification provides a path to stay rich.

Money Affects My Behavior and Beliefs

My thought process has changed throughout the course of my financial success. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that we often leave people behind as we move up the ladder. Change is an inevitable part of our growth. The mindset shift affected my whole perspective on my social relationships.

Phonebook: I change my phone number every time I change my job or my smartphone. It is the easiest way to stop recruiters from bothering me. It also helps cleaning up my smartphone address book, which is always up-to-date. My contact list keeps shrinking as I make progress in life. I have only one person left on my list outside business. I even removed a childhood friend who I had known for over decades. I just disappeared one day without a word.
Email: I change my email address once in a while. It is less frequent than changing my phone number because updating the primary email address is not easy. I just deleted one email address that I had been using for everything over the past decade.
Skype: I closed all my personal and business accounts to cut the cord. I opened a new account only to talk with few people who still actively use Skype.
Community: Discord is a cloud-based secure team collaboration service for gamers that works on web, mobile, and desktop. I use it as a primary communication tool to manage my private investor group.
LinkedIn: My current job will likely last until retirement. I closed my LinkedIn account along with Monster, Dice, and other online profiles. I do not need to build a professional online presence if I will never look for another job.
Facebook: A data breach at Facebook affected 50 million users. I deleted my Facebook account right after the hack. There has never been a better time to get rid of social media altogether.
Friends & Family: People who often get jealous or angry toward success of others should be avoided. They see wealth creation as a zero-sum game. While I have lost many friends through attrition over time, it is good to know the people who stay in touch will not stab me in the back.

We gradually lose our ability to empathize with others as we raise our socioeconomic status. When having a conversation with people, our body language would show that we have zero interest in their lives. Disengagement behaviors are useless and only give negative impression. We should at least try to show respect and gratitude when we connect with people.

Personal Relationships

I have invested so much time in self-education rather than relationship-building. Over time, I became disconnected from society and experienced a total lack of interest in anyone with a different mindset. I realized that the people I feel excited to meet or hang out with, always have something that I can learn or something I can teach. This is the main motivation for the time spent together. Over the years, I have learned to ignore what others say until they earn my trust. Everyone has strong beliefs, but only a few have real results. Trust is earned when actions meet words.

Corporate Life

My focus has shifted away from being a top-tier performer. It is very difficult to stay motivated when my full-time income moves only a small fraction of my net worth. Climbing the corporate ladder for an extra few percent pay raise is a total waste of time if I have to take on greater responsibilities, work longer hours, or manage unpredictable schedules. Careers are rounding errors in the long term. The corporate Kool-Aid like “Passion” and “Love What You Do” will never make anyone rich.

Life Gets Harder When Your Financial Stress Disappear

Life changes when we choose time over money and value over price. Being stressed out is a choice after we reach our financial goals and realize the point of diminishing returns. Water is more valuable when we are thirsty. It is meaningless to build wealth beyond a certain point where it makes only small differences in life when we could use our time, effort, or energy to pursue what matters more than money.