I persuaded my new wife to move to California. She bought the
idea and...to the land of opportunity we went.
We stayed for several months with my cousin Jim, who was the
closest thing to rich I ever knew. He had a beautiful home and
family.
He was by no means wealthy in the way we think of wealth today,
but he was sooooo much better off than anyone I knew that I was
going to tap his brain.
He worked for the City…the government….an "always evil" in my
life since I was old enough to remember. But it was for the
Parks and Recreation Department in Fullerton, so it wasn't like
the taxing government…it was the nice place to go in the
afternoon government.
And he owned apartments.
That was an idea I had never thought of. 22 years old and I
never thought of owning a rental property.
I went with him to his apartments, watched him fix air
conditioners (at that moment I knew I was screwed. I couldn't
fix my glasses when they broke). But I got the idea. Buy stuff,
rent it out, collect the difference between expense and income.
Math: good
Fix: bad
The Church we went to…the Seventh Day Adventist Church in
Orange, took a likin' to the kids from Minnesota.
The Pastor liked us and we were at every Bible study there was.
We got invited to people's homes and saw that people had
swimming pools and beautiful places in the sun.
We'd go back to our apartment at the end of Sabbath. The black
and white TV sat on a cardboard box. I kid you not. You already
know about the aluminum foil on the antenna…
Make a Plan for Wealth...Start Small
….once back in Minnesota (did you know that it costs a LOT to
live in Southern California?!) it was back to work and reading
and dreaming of a future.
I determined that before we were going to put a child on this
planet, we'd be out of debt. That was like taking a shovel to
Mt. Everest. Three years of no eating out, no going out, no
nothing. Library with a capital "L". We spent a lot of time at
the library.
And I read Waitley and Ziglar and Tracy and company.
I continued to invest everything we earned into debt, food, the
rent or seminars.
I told Katie, "We're gonna launch enough rockets that one of
'em is gonna make it to the moon." George Bailey was going to
lasso the moon in, "It's a Wonderful Life." I was going to land
there.
I don't know if she ever believed it was possible. But she let
me play the game of life.
The dream became intense.
How to make a dream become reality...turn the page.
