Young Accomplishments
I bought & sold a house, bought another house, & paid off my student loans, all before turning 30
At 23 years old I sat down, signed a stack of papers, and was handed the keys to my first house. They were on a paper clip and the house needed a lot of work. But it didn’t matter, it was mine.
When I was 28 I sold that house, selling it for nearly double what I bought it for. I made a huge profit and made a great investment.
Then, I reinvested the money into a new home. A home in a new community, a home that I was the first to live in. A house with granite countertops, a true sign of success.
Days after signing the paperwork and moving in I sat at the new dining room table, pulled up the Navient website, and made one final payment. Goodbye student loans, free from the shackles.
Then I said goodbye to the other debts attached to my name.
A car accident when I was 12 years old made it all possible.
Out of the worst can come good
My mom’s car had been hit by a drag racer and I had ended up trapped in the backseat, with my legs running parallel to my ears.
The accident destroyed the car and left significant damage on my life.
I broke five bones — inner pubic, outer pubic, right pelvic, left pelvic, and tailbone.
I was on bed rest until I could sit. I was in a wheelchair until I learned how to walk and could actually do it… again. I used a portable toilet in the family room and a bench in the shower as someone bathed me.
I missed a lot of the eighth grade and when I was able to sit in a chair I was put in the homebound program. A teacher would come to my house after school to go over all the lessons I missed.
Eventually, I made it back to school and became known as the girl in the wheelchair.
On Halloween, my dad pushed me up hills and kept me from taking off down the other side, while my brother rang the doorbells for the two of us.
The driver, who lost the race, was sentenced to time in jail over the holiday season. He was also responsible for damages caused to me.
It was a good chunk of change that went into the bank. Untouchable by anyone but my parents until I turned 18. The money was invested, spread across stocks and shares, all to give me an upper hand in my future and it did.
You’ll be able to buy a condo
The plan was to let the money grow and when I turned 18 I could choose to spend it how I wanted, my dad advising that I could buy a condo when I graduated college.
I didn’t buy a condo. But, I did pay my first year and a half of student loans off while still in school.
Then, 11 months after graduation made a downpayment on my first house.
I was 23 and bought a house.
The house was old, it needed work — like scrapping off the lead paint from the exterior — and updates, the dryer was in the garage, and the lawn hadn’t been mowed in months, but it was mine.
Those damages, the investments, allowed me to make those two major life moves.
They allowed me to put 20% down on my first home and have a mortgage payment of just over a thousand dollars.
Property Investments
Five years after I bought the house I sold it. It was time to move on.
The house was still a piece of work, but the appliances were new, the dryer was now stacked with the washer, the door was repainted, stairs fixed, rooms painted, and a chalkboard wall added to the kitchen.
It had its charm, and honestly, its dangers… like the back deck.
It sold.
It sold for almost double what I paid for it. I invested a lot to fix my fixer-upper up, and in the end, made well more than the amount that I had put into the house.
I turned around, the same day, using the investment from my first home, and made a new 20% down payment on my next house.
It was a new build in a new neighborhood. It has granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, a yard still trying to grow grass, and is in a neighborhood with sidewalks. It has a stone exterior with a red door. It is everything I could want.
I am the first person to own this home. The first person to paint the walls. The first person to hang up photos. The first person to add a chalkboard wall to the kitchen.
Payoffs
The stocks and shares were still out there, gaining interest and growing. That somewhat depleted stockpile from the accident still existed.
A few days after moving into my new home I sat down at my new dining room table, logged into the Navient website, and made my final payment.
Over the next few days, final payments were made and other debts were paid off.
My advantage
Each of those major life events was only possible because of someone’s careless actions. Because of a major life event when I was 12.
The one where someone took away my mobility and challenged me to learn how to walk for the second time in my life.
Buying a home, then buying another home, paying off my student loans, and the other debts were all possible because someone hit the car I was heading home in.
They hit it so hard it came off its axle, landed lanes over, and left me pinned in the backseat needing to be airlifted to help.
Everything was possible because I was in that car accident. An accident that left me on bed rest, in a wheelchair, and forced me to learn how to walk again.
The pain and suffering when I was 12 years old allowed me to accomplish amazing things just over 10 years later. All before turning 30.
