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Early Life

Hi, my name is Mr. Deep Pockets. I am an entrepreneur, investor, polymath, millionaire, and a family man.

But it wasn’t always this way.

The truth is that I come from a very poor family. My mom struggled to make ends meet. This struggle started when my dad lost his job. Shortly after this incident, he succumbed to depression (although he didn’t show it) and started drinking and smoking. He died at a young age of 53.

These things negatively impacted our way of life. Not having enough money was one thing, but engaging in activities that destroy willpower and good behavior was almost altogether an impossible obstacle to overcome.

Despite these things, however, I learned valuable lessons. They taught me to be frugal and prudent. From age eight onward, we never celebrated our birthdays with parties. Instead, my mom used that money for basic needs – food, water, medicine, clothing, etc. It went without saying that we lived way below our means.

I knew from a young age we were poor. We had wealthy relatives, so I had a way of comparing our lives with theirs. Despite their wealth, however, they were always kind and helpful. They were also wise and prudent. They started businesses, invested in real estate assets and other ventures.

So, although my immediate family was poor and deprived of material things, I never felt deprived of exposure to how I could become wealthy.

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Business Inclinations & Value of Connections

At age 13, one of my uncles gave me a small fish tank (12″ by 8″). It had a pair of guppies, red swordtails, and a janitor fish. I took excellent care of the fish, and it became a hobby. The guppies and swordtails quickly multiplied, and that little tank ran out of space. I told my uncle this, and he said that I should build a small pond in our backyard. He gave me some money to buy cement and waterproofing compound, and with those materials, I made a little pond in our yard. Eventually, that too became crowded.

I had to do something about it. I visited and asked the local pet shop store if I could sell my stock to them. Seeing that I was only 13 then, the pet store owner probably thought he could underestimate me. So, he gave me a low ball offer and wanted my fish almost for free.

Feeling a little mad about this, I decided to sell directly to the people I knew. Long story short, I sold my fish in volume. My prices were ~40% less than that of the local store.

With good fish sales, I then thought about making fish tanks. I went to a local glass store and asked the manager if I could shadow one of his workers in making glass products. It wasn’t easy convincing him, but when I told him that it was part of my home economics class project, which was true, he agreed.

Over a three week period, I learned the skill and eventually made tanks. I sold fish and tank combos and made $15 to $20 a month. For a youth back in 1992 – 1995, that was a lot of money!

During the summers of 1992 and 1993, I had a job working for a grain/trucking business which was owned by my classmate’s family. The way I got involved in their business was a little unique. My friend’s parents knew that I was a good kid. I didn’t drink or smoke. I didn’t engage in drugs either.

So, one day, my classmate’s parents visited and asked my mom if I could work for their company during the summers so I could be a good influence on their son who was getting into bad activities. With my mom’s permission, I took the offer. I was paid, and I had fun! I saved the money I made for school needs and gave a portion of that money to my mom.

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College

I attended a small college that had 2,500 enrollment at that time. It was not an IVY-league institution. Yet, after graduation, I managed to get a job on Wall Street. I learned then, that top schools help with brand recognition, but in the end, it’s the students’ desire that help them get to their destination.

I studied hard, received scholarships, worked part-time, did side businesses, got married, and graduated with honors. In college and as part of the business school program, my team and I started a business. We made and sold hoodie sweatshirts and imported and sold bed sheets. We only operated for a short period, but we made a decent profit and donated it to the Business School. In turn, I was awarded the Student Entrepreneur of the Year.

My wife graduated a year earlier than I did, and she found a job as an administrative assistant. Despite the low wage of $11/hour, we were able to save because we lived within our means. We made a budget and diligently followed it. We graduated with no debt. It did not come with ease. It required lots of sacrifices, but we made it!

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Professional life

I graduated from college in December 2003. We left immediately after graduation, and I accepted a job offer in New York City. It was hard at first as the NYC environment was very different from the one my wife and I were accustomed.

But our NYC experience provided us with unparalleled job experiences! I was exposed to the world of finance, on steroids. It was fascinating! I learned about derivatives with all its complexities, capital markets, investments, and how money worked. And I’m not just talking about thousands or millions of dollars here. I am talking billions of dollars circulating in the worldwide economy!

I was on the trading floor of a major investment bank on Park Avenue. Our group traded exotic derivative products – swaps, swaptions, straddles, strangles, inflation-linked, etc. just to name a few. It was a challenging job! It was very stressful!

Not only do you need to be thinking on your feet, but you also need to act quickly and with precision to detail as small changes in decimal numbers have a significant impact on your profit and loss calculations.

My wife and I both worked since we didn’t have any kids at the time. It was easy to save (my wife ultimately stopped working after eight months due to health reasons and pregnancy). Despite the money we made, we still lived prudently and managed to live on only my income.

As our savings grew, we started investing on the side. We invested in stocks, real estate, and other ventures. Admittedly, we made mistakes along the way. But, we view these errors as part of the learning process. Hence, we lost money on some investments. On others, we made good returns. Overall and long-term, our investments have paid off nicely.

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Business School and Beyond

After nearly five years in NYC, we decided that it was time to leave the big city for business school. I applied for b-school in 2007 at the height of the stock market, and some had asked me why did I want to leave when the market was so good?.

I told them it was always a lifelong goal to get a graduate degree. We left NYC in June 2008, just right before the credit crisis. In hindsight, I felt fortunate and blessed to have applied for graduate school when the market was good and before the crash. I felt my timing was impeccable!

In September 2008, when the crash finally hit bottom, and financial havoc raged across Wall Street, I was back in school learning new things. It was great as it provided a break from professional life.

When I graduated in 2010, the market showed signs of strength again, especially in the energy industry. I accepted a job offer from a start-up energy consulting/investment firm in Houston, Texas. I rode one of the big waves in the energy markets where oil prices went from sub $50 per barrel to over $100 per barrel. Our firm went from $0 revenues to $60 million in 3.5 years. I was part of that growth and was compensated handsomely for it. It was amazing!

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Personal Investing

I also got involved in some real estate deals as it was a hot market in the Southwest. A couple of partners and I pooled our money and invested in real estate deals. We partnered with a trustworthy operations person. He was also a broker. At one point, my partners and I owned three to four homes, and we churned them every 4 to 6 months’ time. We made anywhere from 22% to 30% annualized internal rate of return.

I have invested in several start-ups also. Investing in start-ups is not easy. You have to do a calculated risk assessment and perform due diligence. Admittedly, I lost money in two of the deals, but it is not money I would lose sleep over. On others, I made 2x to 5x my original investments. Some are still baking in the oven. I am sure that there will be losses in the future, but I am hoping that my gains will more than compensate for the losses.

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Wholesome Net Wealth & Worth

My wife and I hit our first million dollar net worth in 2014 at age 36 (we were born in the same year, and as of 2016, we are 38). It feels good to hit that number, although I hear others are reaching that number at a much earlier age. For us, we think this was the right time. We are not comparing ourselves to others. It’s hard to compare this number as we are all different in our life’s journey. Some individuals are single, some are married, some have student loans, etc. It’s not about where you are now, but it is about what you do from now that will make the difference.

Also, my wife and I tried to reach our first million without depriving ourselves of opportunities. We don’t want to be too frugal that we miss out on certain experiences. With proper budgeting plans, we traveled, explored places, and treated ourselves with memorable experiences.

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Purpose on Earth

Ok, back to the timeline. At the height of the oil bull market in 2013, I had to undergo a major surgery which made me disabled for roughly six months. It required this long for my bones to heal fully. During this time, we utilized some of our savings and passive income. Financially, I was not worried at all as we had plenty of liquidity.

But one thing is sure, as we went through major life-altering events like the death of our first child in 2005 and major surgery that rendered me incapacitated, I began to realize FULLY that there is more to life than what I was previously doing. I decided to change course and left investment banking/private equity for good.

I now have a corporate job. My financial compensation is relatively lower than my i-banking/private equity compensations, but the quality of our life is so much better! I get to spend more time with my wife and kids. This is true happiness for me. My time now has more value than money.

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The Blog Journey

So, this is my story. I feel my story fits the “rags to riches” type, but I believe that from the very beginning, I have been blessed with so many opportunities, and the adversities I experienced were all part of my development and made me who I am today.

We all face challenges, the question is, how do we respond to them? As obstacles or as opportunities?

I love the saying: “Your alarm clock… is it a friend or a foe?”

You are welcome to browse through my blog. All of these topics are well thought out and researched.

Mr. Deep Pockets

 

 

 

 

 

 

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