I wish I still had my first house, it was super cool.
I'd started saving for it when I was 12, I just didn't realize it at the time but it wasn't long until I figured it out.

I was buying bicycles, fixing them up and selling them, I went through dozens. I quickly graduated to motorcycles.
My parents encouraged me to buy US savings bonds with my earnings.

By the time I was 15 it was cars.

It was 1973 when I bought my first one, I'd cashed in a savings bond to buy it, I though my dad was gonna kill me.
It was a 1965 Mustang fastback, it looked like hell but it was just dirty from sitting under some trees, I paid 25 dollars for it.

I cleaned it up and sold it, you had to be 16 to get a license so I never got to drive it..illegally.

It wasn't long until my parents front yard looked like a used car lot.
They had to be muscle cars, the 60s was the era, there were a lot around in the mid 70s that sold for cheap.

By the time I was 18 it was inevitable, it'd be houses.

My bank sold me my first foreclosure, I'd never had a job but I had plenty in savings by then for a down payment.
My go to teller at the bank when I'd opened my first account there at 12 was now the banks vice president, we had a working relationship.

He set my loan up so my first payment wasn't due for 12 months.
It was a older home that sat under some big oak trees on a double lot that had a killer view looking over Tampa bay in what was then the sleepy little town of Safety Harbor.

I fixed it up and sold it in six months so I never even made the first payment.

I went through two to three houses a year after that, all of them being beat up POS.

I lived in a lot of places where only one room would be livable, if you consider room for a bed, a couple boxes of clothing and tools and room for a Coleman stove livable, a working bathroom was often a luxury.

It was 1980 before I had a home that sold in the 6 digit bracket.
After that there was no looking back, it was game on.
I'd still never had a job in the traditional sense.

Now, in 2021 the only things that have changed is the numbers.
I've paused for a few years at a time here and there, even worked a couple part time, seasonal jobs but seem to always get back into it.
I just can't pass up a deal where there is easy money to be made.

I guess the moral of my story is if you are willing to work hard and forgo some comfort and luxury, there isn't any reason you can't flip a few houses until you own one outright inside of 3 to 5 years.

I know the supposedly American Dream is the job, wife, house, family scenario.
It can also be viewed as a rut the bulk of people willingly trap themselves in so they can spend endless years working their way out of it.

A couple months a year off to hunt a few different states and a few weeks here and there in the summer for fishing, camping and traveling has been rather sweet, I suppose it's not everyone's cup of tea.