$0 to Mortgage Free: A 15 year journey
I wanted to make time to post to Blossom this weekend. Iāve been working 60hrs/week since February and barely have 30mins to myself anymore!
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Itāll all be worth it, though. Iām trying to collect as much money as possible right now.
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If it were easy, everyone would do it.
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I wanted to post my timeline, particularly how I went from $0 to mortgage-free at 29.
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14 years old: Started working my first job at a textile warehouse with my dad. I worked full-time during summer and holiday periods. From memory, I remember my mom telling me how I was making a couple thousand dollars a year and how that was pretty good for a young teen.
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15-19 years old: I kept working at the warehouse. while on holiday from school. I also started working other part-time jobs across multiple industries. At this point, I remember graduating high school with around $30,000. I wasnāt investing yet, just working and saving.
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20 years old: This was a defining moment of my life. The son of the owner of the textile warehouse I worked at gifted me Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. I write about this book a lot, itās changed a lot of peoples lives. This book needs to be disseminated and implemented into the school system curriculum. Robert Kiyosaki is a real estate investor so I wanted to copy his investing style and success.
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20-22 years old: I finished trade school and got my first adult job working in IT. I was lucky that the job offered overtime, I gobbled up as much of that as I could. I kept on working and saving, and had $60,000 at the time. I bought my first rental property with a $30,000 down payment.
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22-24 years old: I saved my first $100,000 by working and saving aggressively so I decided to buy a 2ndĀ rental property with a $62,000 down payment.
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24-27 years old: I continued to work and save and moved into my 2ndĀ rental in between these years (which is my current primary residence.) The mortgage on my first rental property was up for renewal. The market value of that property had almost doubled from when I had bought it so I decided to sell. I bought my 1stĀ rental for $153,000 and sold it for $278,000.
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29 years old: The mortgage on my primary residence was up for renewal so I used the proceeds of sale to pay off the $150,000 balance on the mortgage.
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Looking back, the prices of real estate seem unrealistic. The rental properties I bought were condos. The market was a lot different pre-pandemic versus today. I live in a 1 bedroom condo. Itās all I need. My north star has always been ownership of my time over material possessions.
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30 years old: Iām working 60hrs/week, and have less than $300/month fixed expenses (excluding food.) Iāve invested $131,904.66 ($15,000 borrowed) since February 2026. I calculate my net worth every 6 months, last I checked in June it was $532,629.06.
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I guess I can be considered a āsuccessā, but trust me Iām still figuring things out. Although I have freedom via low expenses and high income, I'm still very much stuck in the rat race trying to define what freedom looks like for me. I'm still young, and feel as though I should still be working, sacrificing and investing for my future more than anything else right now.
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What can you learn from this?
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What I did right:
I was consistent at maximizing my earnings and lowering my expenses. I saved a lot and invested modestly (in my opinion and knowing what I know now.)
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What I did wrong:
I sat on a lot of cash throughout my 20s. That couldāve been invested instead of sitting idle. I was also āin and outā of sector concentrated ETFs and single stocks. Thatās a waste of time. Just index and chill.
I like to read about other peoples timelines, and the progression of their net worth at certain points in their journey. This was mine!
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Iām holding an in-person personal finance meetup this Wednesday September 16thĀ in Montreal. Join my Facebook group (link in bio) for details!š
