That means loads of you newly minted grads are leaving your college nests. Venturing out into the world on your own.

For many of you, this will be your first “unstructured” life phase.

No more tests.

No more professors telling you what to do.

No more credits, requirements.

For those of you lucky to land a decent job, you’ll be figuring out how to carve your path, how to make your mark, in a new environment where the “rules” are no longer clearly defined. Where your peers’ paths vs. your own start diverging, significantly and permanently. Where you start learning how to make your own rules.

While every graduate on graduation day will get a degree, everyone is starting life out from different starting lines. Some of you come from great family wealth and will take your place in the family business. Others of you leave school with a mountain of debt…armed only with your smarts and determination to pay it off, hopefully build a nest egg, and make something of yourself.

Regardless of your starting point, you’re gonna get a crash course in dealing with money pretty fast. And it’s gonna be important for you to develop good financial skills if you want to build financial security.

Colleges do a remarkably bad job teaching personal finance. You don’t learn how to manage money. Or invest it. Or shield it from taxes. Or grow it strategically.

By and large, universities do not teach:

• money or asset management
• budgeting
• investing
• retirement planning
• retirement account strategy
• taxes
• how interest rates work
• how credit scores work
• how mortgages and real estate work
• benefits and risks of debt

The consequence of this lack of financial prep is severe. The average college grad simply does not have the financial knowledge or skills to manage their debts or build financial security.

More than half of millennials say debt is their biggest financial concern, according to Wells Fargo. That’s unsurprising given the average college grad has more than $37k in student debt on graduation day and is, therefore, starting out already behind the curve. Student loan debt exceeds $1.3 trillion nationally across 44 million Americans…and is growing faster than twice the inflation rate.

This financial “drag” is amplified by graduates’ lack of financial knowledge on how to tackle it – and it just keeps dragging throughout life. More than half of Americans have zero rainy day funds, according to FINRA; only 41 percent spend less than they earn (!); 34 percent pay only the minimum amount on their credit cards each month, subjecting them to punitive credit card interest rates. No surprise that more than half of Americans have less than $10k saved for retirement; one-third have zero saved.

These outcomes have real consequences. They directly impact how your life turns out. Your career. Your health. Your retirement. (Whether you can even retire at all.)

When I graduated college, I knew nothing about building wealth, or real estate, or how to achieve financial independence.

I just thought, I’m young, ambitious, invincible, and I have dreams.

Planning about money and finances sounded boring and dry, something uninspired grown-ups did. But my lack of planning or a framework meant my financial engine sputtered for years without purposeful direction or momentum.

Now that I’m older and more experienced and realistic – and more financially knowledgeable – I think back on my lost early years when I could have been compounding more, and I cringe.

I could have shaved off years of working and accelerated retirement simply by being more strategic early on. My net worth could have easily been double what it is by now.

And I know I’m not alone.

So I wrote this post for you new college grads out there.

Robert Kiyosaki, the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, observed that “we were not taught financial literacy in school. It takes a lot of work and time to change your thinking and to become financially literate.”

Well, one of the best forms of advice that can help you on that path is to hear the wisdom of more experienced voices. Both from people who are a little bit ahead, as well as a lot ahead, of you.

So I went out and asked for graduation advice from 18 financially independent real estate investors. I wanted to know what they would tell their 22-year old selves if they could go back and do it all over again. Some of these folks have built large real estate portfolios over decades, others got into real estate a few years ago. Most now own millions of dollars worth of real estate.

I asked them all the same 3 questions:

1. What’s the craziest (or most memorable) job / side hustle you ever did to earn money?
2. What does your vision of “retirement” look like?
3. What one, most important nugget of advice would you tell your 22-year-old self if you could go back to graduation day and advise yourself?

Here is what they had to say.

1. Gino Barbaro | 675 doors
2. Eric Bowlin | 26 doors
3. Chad Carson | 55 doors
4. Andrew Cushman | 1646 doors
5. Matt Faircloth | 160 doors
6. Dmitriy Fomichenko | 30 doors
7. Brandon Hall | 6 doors
8. Charlie Kao | 20 flip deals
9. Ben Leybovich | 28 doors
10. Bill Manassero | 28 doors
11. Clayton Morris | 50+ doors
12. Joel Owens | office & retail building owner
13. Tracy Royce | 100+ deals
14. Brie Schmidt | 90+ doors
15. J Scott | 250+ deals
16. Jered Sturm | 80+ doors
17. Fat Tony | 6 doors
18. Kevin Wood | 31 doors

Gino Barbaro | Gino’s Trattoria, jakeandgino.com | 675 doors

What’s the craziest (or most memorable) job / side hustle you ever did to earn money?

I was born into a family that viewed work as a necessity. My parents were both immigrants from Italy and felt blessed to come to this country. They instilled in me a work ethic and a duty to save money and spend responsibly. My most memorable job was when my father opened his restaurant, and at the age of eight years old, I would accompany him to work and sit right by his side in the kitchen peeling shrimp, washing dishes and filleting chicken breast. I thought “going to work with dad” was what every child did, and I loved working in the kitchen with him. I even got paid $2 for the entire day. This was back in 1977, and I guess things have changed a bit since then.

What does your vision of “retirement” look like?

I will never “retire.” My vision is to continue to invest in real estate and to coach individuals and businesses to achieve financial freedom and success. If you are not growing, then you are dying. I want to spend my golden years helping others achieve the level of success that I have been able to aspire to: Family, Fitness, Financial, Friends and Faith!

What one, most important nugget of advice would you tell your 22-year-old self if you could go back to graduation day and advise yourself?

One important nugget for anyone in their early 20s is to focus on any job that you love doing. Don’t worry about the money. Be passionate about what you do. Money will come. Money is not the cause. It is the effect. I do not want to see anyone having to trade time for money. I wrote an article that discusses what I would have told myself if I was 30 years old again (here).

Eric Bowlin | idealrei.com | 26 doors

What’s the craziest (or most memorable) job / side hustle you ever did to earn money?

A lot of things I’ve done could be looked at as a side hustle but I’ve never really looked at them that way. The closest thing to a true side hustle would have been when I was a real estate agent. I became an agent so I could have access to MLS and I never marketed myself, but occasionally I did take on some clients. It’s a great side hustle because it doesn’t take a lot of time but each sale earns you a ton.

What does your vision of “retirement” look like?

I think that people often think of retirement as hanging around and relaxing or always being on vacation. I look at retirement as what I’m doing now – being in a position to be able to do what you want without having to work for money. Once you’re free from the need to work, you can then focus on doing what you want to do. It could mean working or it could mean spending time with your family, growing a business, or investing. My definition is more what I’d call “financial independence.”

What one, most important nugget of advice would you tell your 22-year-old self if you could go back to graduation day and advise yourself?

I’d probably skip back to my 18-year-old self and tell him to work an extra job and take fewer student loans. I’d also tell him to make all the interest payments every year so they don’t start compounding as well. They’re all paid off now, but student loans were definitely the biggest financial yoke of my life.

Chad Carson | coachcarson.com | 55 doors

What’s the craziest (or most memorable) job / side hustle you ever did to earn money?

My most memorable side hustle was something called “house hacking.” This means instead of buying a regular house to live in like everyone else, I bought a property that I could live in AND rent out to cover all of my housing costs. For example, I bought a 4-unit building, and I lived in one unit and rented the other three out. I was actually MAKING money on my housing. But the concept also works with duplexes, triplexes, and houses with rentable basements or guest apartments. Once you’re ready to move, the house hack also transitions into a great long-term rental property.

What does your vision of “retirement” look like?

My vision of retirement has changed over the last 15 years since I graduated from college. When I started, I thought I would just arrive one day at a place financially where everything would be set. I’d make enough passive income, and then I could do whatever I wanted in life. This was like the peak of the mountain. But my vision evolved after a few years when I learned retirement was about the peak and plateaus along the way. For example, I took a 4-month mini-retirement to Spain and South America 6 years after I began. I was doing OK financially, but I wasn’t at the peak yet. But I had one of the most memorable experiences of my life without waiting for “someday” when I retired. And I’ve continued to have these experiences as I’ve moved further up the mountain – like this year I’m living in Ecuador with my family.

What one, most important nugget of advice would you tell your 22-year-old self if you could go back to graduation day and advise yourself?

My #1 advice to my 22-year old self is that YOU are your #1 asset. Investments like stocks and real estate are wonderful. But they are dwarfed by the incredible value of you. It’s you who earns money. It’s you who solves problems. And it’s you who will personally go along for this many-decade adventure called life. So, invest in yourself and care for yourself as if you were this one-of-a-kind, incredibly intelligent, and complex machine (because you are!). Feed your mind and body only the best. Exercise and keep your body fit and healthy for the long run. And prioritize relationships and experiences that will make your life rich beyond just money. The compounded rate of return is incalculable on these continuous investments in yourself – both in terms of money and happiness.

Andrew Cushman | Vantage Point Acquisitions | 1646 doors

What’s the craziest (or most memorable) job / side hustle you ever did to earn money?

As a little kid I used to walk around the golf course near my grandfather’s house and collect all the golf balls that had been lost in the woods. Then I’d clean them up, categorize them, take my little red wagon to the spot where the golfers crossed the street, and sell the balls back to the guys who had lost them. That started a long string of entrepreneurial pursuits through high school, college, and adulthood until I found real estate.

What does your vision of “retirement” look like?

When I hear the word “retirement” I think of all the old people anxiously waiting outside the dining room door in the nursing home at 3:50 PM for dinner. That just doesn’t seem like a very attractive option! Rather, I think about and work for financial freedom and being a “100 percenter.” That means 100% of my expenses and lifestyle is covered by passive income, allowing me to do what I want, when I want, with whom I want, while staying active and working on what I enjoy.

What one, most important nugget of advice would you tell your 22-year-old self if you could go back to graduation day and advise yourself?

I’d say “hey, I’m from the future. In 17 years you’re going to invent time travel and make a killing off of that, so don’t worry about anything else!” After that, I’d tell myself to skip all the other business ideas and get straight into real estate. There is no better vehicle than that for the average person to build lasting wealth and income.

Matt Faircloth | DeRosa Group | 160 doors

What’s the craziest (or most memorable) job / side hustle you ever did to earn money?

I had a bunch of wacky side jobs. I sold imitation perfume and cologne by going door to door and selling to people on the street (learned how to get over fear of rejection). I sold produce out of the back of a pickup truck for a local farmer (got a great tan and read lots of books). I worked on a landscaping crew for a summer (learned the value of hard work and also appreciated the concept of working with your back vs. working with your head). And I waited tables while in college (learned how to hustle and multi-task).

What does your vision of “retirement” look like?

I really don’t have a vision for that. Being a real estate investor, my vision is to go more and more passive with my investments, putting in fewer and fewer hours to make more money.

What one, most important nugget of advice would you tell your 22-year-old self if you could go back to graduation day and advise yourself?

I wish I had traveled more and did some fun, mindless jobs before buckling down and getting a “real” job. Backpack across Europe, bartend in Cancun, rent Kayaks in Colorado, something like that. I didn’t realize how few obligations I had at the time, and how “structured” life gets when you get older, even if you are an entrepreneur.

Dmitriy Fomichenko | Sense Financial | 30 doors

What’s the craziest (or most memorable) job / side hustle you ever did to earn money?

From my teenage years I had an entrepreneurial spirit. When I was 13, I did this crazy thing to earn money back in my hometown in Russia, which was a railroad town. During the summer months, numerous trains with vacationers headed to the Black Sea would stop at our train station. Crowds of people would get out of the train to stretch and buy food, snacks and drinks. I found a niche and sold ice cream to them. I purchased a box of ice cream cones at the store one kilometer away from the station, put some dry ice in it and then ran to the platform and sold the ice cream to the vacationers at five times the cost. On some days I was able to repeat this about a dozen times and the end result was a nice profit. The local “mafia” eventually figured this out and demanded their share, but how I dealt with them is a story for next time!

What does your vision of “retirement” look like?

I don’t really have the word “retirement” in my dictionary. Instead, I have a goal for financial independence. And my definition is to have enough passive income to cover all my living expenses and allow me to travel a couple months per year. I am on track to reach that in the next 12-24 months. After that, I will take some time to adjust my goals so I can devote more time to philanthropic work such as working with orphanages in Ukraine. I currently support a number of organizations, including Compassion International where I financially sponsor 3 young girls (in Africa and South America). But I have a desire to be personally involved in the lives of those in need. I don’t have a vision of “retirement” like most people envision it (to stop working, sit on the sofa, watch TV & read magazines). I want to continue working as long as I am able and provide value for others. I can’t just sit on the sofa and watch TV; for me that’s a waste of precious time.

What one, most important nugget of advice would you tell your 22-year-old self if you could go back to graduation day and advise yourself?

I would suggest to myself to find an experienced mentor who is willing to work with and train me. And seek wise counsel, asking multiple people with experience for advice and opinions before making serious decisions. This would have helped me avoid a number of mistakes I made that set me back in my real estate investing career. Proverbs 24:6b says: “In abundance of counselors there is victory,” which is so true!

Brandon Hall | The Real Estate CPA | 6 doors

What’s the craziest (or most memorable) job / side hustle you ever did to earn money?

While I was in college, I was a huge study of finance and economics. It was an absolute obsession. I learned a ton of great things as a result at a relatively young age. I also learned how to lose money.

I picked up trading and decided I wanted to turn my $5k of savings into millions of dollars. I also told myself that I was smart enough to game the market and get to that lofty goal. The problem is that I’m a relatively impatient person, so listening to the age-old advice of putting money in the market and letting it ride for 30 years just doesn’t get me jazzed up. After a bit of research, I decided to get into trading penny stocks. I knew going in that these are primarily pump-and-dump schemes, but I figured if I monitored all of the chat rooms and forums where promoters are posting, I could ride the wave up and liquidate my holdings for a nice profit.

So here I am in the back of my college class trading stocks while a lecture is going on. I made decent money too. Over a span of 4 months, I had turned my $5k into $20k which was a lot for a college kid.

But as with any “gambling” habit, you get sucked in and trade on emotions rather than trends. I went all in on a stock, it exploded, I made around $40k in quite literally 6 hours…and then it came crashing back down. I had missed the exit and thus my holdings were now worthless.

Funny thing about penny stocks is they are traded OTC which means Over The Counter. Basically, in order to sell me shares of stock, I need an actual buyer on the other end of the transaction. Because no one buys shares of penny stocks as they are going down (which decreases demand further causing the stock to drop its price) I proudly owned 80,000 shares (worth about $0.50 total) of a penny stock up until 2016 where I declared them worthless just to get them out of my account.

What does your vision of “retirement” look like?

Retirement for me will be running some form of a venture capital or private equity firm where I’m placing money in entrepreneurs with great products, businesses, or visions to change the world. I’ll never fully retire as I’m the type of person that will get immensely bored. But I’ll definitely have a 2-3 month hiatus to travel the world each year.

What one, most important nugget of advice would you tell your 22-year-old self if you could go back to graduation day and advise yourself?

I think I’ve played my cards right, so I’m going to give this advice to any other 22-year-old out there. Work your ass off and graduate at the top of your class. Take a job with the most reputable firm / business you can possibly get into in the biggest city they are located in. Once there, network like a champ and learn about all of the possibilities out there. Then, after a few years and once your resume has a solid foundation, take a risk and start a business before you’re too tied down with family and kids in order to do so. If you want to retire when you’re 35, you have to take risks to build your net worth. Risks no one else is willing to take.

Charlie Kao | ibuyhousesmichigan.com | 20 flip deals

What’s the craziest (or most memorable) job / side hustle you ever did to earn money?

I had an alcohol delivery business where I delivered alcohol to college kids. College kids would pay top dollar for alcohol so I made upward of a thousand bucks a week. But when it started to get really big I realized I had to shut it down. I also donated plasma twice a week to pay for spring break and did human testing at Michigan State University and Jasper Clinic, which paid extremely well.

What does your vision of “retirement” look like?

Working remotely from multiple countries. I don’t think I can ever stop hustling but having the freedom to not have to hustle or choose when I will is the biggest thing for me.

What one, most important nugget of advice would you tell your 22-year-old self if you could go back to graduation day and advise yourself?

Set money aside in a Roth so you won’t spend it but then you can withdraw the money to buy your first home. I also would have used student loans to buy real estate without paying interest while in school.

Ben Leybovich | JustAskBenWhy.com | 28 doors

What’s the craziest (or most memorable) job / side hustle you ever did to earn money?

Well, I suppose it’s appropriate to note that since I’ve never had a job, everything I do to make money can be thought of as a side-hustle. As to the craziest, I tried vending machines once. What a disaster that was….

What does your vision of “retirement” look like?

I am always unsure as to how to answer this question. It’s a silly question. I do the things I enjoy, and if retiring means stopping to do those things, I fail to see the point of retirement. I love to create. To stop working would be a punishment.

What one, most important nugget of advice would you tell your 22-year-old self if you could go back to graduation day and advise yourself?

Buy property in emerging markets.

Bill Manassero | Child Hope, olddawgsreinetwork.com | 28 doors

What’s the craziest (or most memorable) job / side hustle you ever did to earn money?

Children’s Rock Band Lead Singer. I quit my corporate business gig and went into full-time musical ministry with my Christian children’s rock band, Mister Bill. My whole family came with me and the band members as we toured the US (and other countries – Russia, Africa, etc) in our 34-foot RV, playing family concerts, music festivals, camps, church events and more. We released 3 albums, the music played on over 300 radio stations around the US and it was the craziest, most amazingly fun time of our lives.

What does your vision of “retirement” look like?

I am currently in early retirement and “living the dream” – in the middle of building up our real estate portfolio. I also host a real estate investing podcast and blog for people over 50 years old. Our goal is to own / control 1,000 units by 2020. We currently have 28 units and are looking for a 100+ unit apartment this year. Our goal is to be able to live anywhere we want, afford any healthcare needs we may have, travel where we want, when we want, pay for our kids dream weddings (we have 7 kids, of which only two are married), cover college expenses, help our kids with their first home down payments and, with the bulk of our income, help the orphans in Haiti through our non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, Child Hope International. Our prayer is to never worry about money during our retirement years and to leave a legacy to our children.

What one, most important nugget of advice would you tell your 22-year-old self if you could go back to graduation day and advise yourself?

Don’t get so obsessed with business and success. Learn to love people more and more often. Take the time to appreciate all you have and all that God has created.

Clayton Morris | Fox News, Morris Invest | 50+ doors

What’s the craziest (or most memorable) job / side hustle you ever did to earn money?

Before I reached financial freedom, I used to chase a lot of shiny objects. The worst shiny object I ever chased was the idea that I could make the perfect hoodie zip up sweatshirt. I thought, I wear them everyday. Half the time they don’t fit right. And what if I designed the perfect one that I would always want to wear? I proceeded to line up a designer, hired a manufacturer in China, and started to build zip up sweatshirts. I got prototypes mailed to me and I thought this was going be a fun side hobby. Then I spoke to my friend Scott Jordan who runs the company SCOTTeVEST and he gave me advice. He said, “Clayton this is not a hobby. This is an 80 hour a week job. To build something like this either you’re going to be all in or you’re not, but this is not a hobby.” Right after that, I said I’m not working 80 hours a week on buildings zip ups and then shut it all down. I still have one of those zip ups and I have to say it’s pretty darn awesome and it fits me perfectly.

What does your vision of “retirement” look like?

My vision of retirement is pretty straightforward. I came up with a simple formula a few years ago that changed my life. I call it my “freedom number.” People can get it at my website morrisinvest.com/freedom. But it is really the formula that changed my life. For me, I like to think of retirement as happening today. What is the number I would need to reach in order to live comfortably, where all my monthly expenses are taken care of, and I don’t ever have to worry about a paycheck ever again? How many rental properties would it take for me to achieve financial freedom and cover all my monthly expenses? For me, that’s how I see retirement. I don’t see retirement as happening when I’m 60 years old. I see it as something where you create passive income and live today as if we are currently retired, where we can enjoy the freedoms that life has to offer because we have monthly passive income coming in, monthly cash flow from our rental properties.

What one, most important nugget of advice would you tell your 22-year-old self if you could go back to graduation day and advise yourself?

My biggest piece of advice would be that you’re not going to build true wealth by working for somebody else for a paycheck, and putting money into a 401k plan, and working toward retirement. My advice to the younger version of myself would be: start acquiring cash flowing assets at a young age that will then produce monthly cash flow for you for the rest of your life. It will also help you build your net worth and truly create wealth. The other bit of advice, I would say, is to not chase shiny objects. Stick with one course of action that you know works and see it through until its completion. When you try to do five things, you’ll do five things poorly. When you try to do one thing and you pour all your heart and devotion and energy into that one thing, you’re going to do it well, if you stick with it.

Joel Owens | All World Realty | office & retail building owner

What’s the craziest (or most memorable) job / side hustle you ever did to earn money?

My first job was at Burger’s Market when I was 14 years old. I cut grass and did odd jobs before that, but that was my first full-time gig. Back then, this fell under farming jobs so technically you could work unlimited hours as a minor. (These days they have limits on the hours you can work.) I would walk over from my subdivision at 6 or 7 a.m. in the morning across the street to the fruit market.

When not in school, I would put in over 70 hours a week from dawn till dusk. We did not have machines to help us, just a 2-wheel hand truck. We would unload 18 wheelers by the handful of pine straw, wheat straw, potting soil, plants, rocks and stone, watermelons, pumpkins, food, etc. We would also water the plants, take out groceries, rotate through rotten vegetables and fruit and repackage good pieces to sell. It was a hard job but you felt good at the end of the day. When my friends had allowances of 10 bucks from their parents and I had $200-300 in my wallet, it felt pretty good! I learned from that job that everything else in front of me would be easier.

My next job was at K-Mart and it was air conditioned inside and you stood at the end of the aisle waiting for customers to check out. I remember the other teenagers complaining about having to work. I told them this was “easy street” and they had no idea!

What does your vision of “retirement” look like?

Retirement to me is not really about retirement. If you love what you do, there is never really a retirement. Throughout businesses and careers, you have ebbs and flows where you might go all out, then take the foot off of the gas pedal some as you get up in age.

My uncle invented “Goof Off,” the paint removal cleaner. He sold his company eventually to an as-seen-on-TV conglomerate. He took a year off (retirement) and became bored and started inventing again. Money is just one part of success. There is spiritual, monetary, physical, family, etc. If you are highly successful in one field but not balanced in others then you are not reaching your full potential.

Eventually, I might slow down when I reach my 50’s (I am 42 now). I will still work but help newer commercial brokers and investors more. Just remember that an investment that takes up your full time is not an investment, but a job. If you cannot replicate and grow it, then you do not want to own it, or else it will own your time.

What one, most important nugget of advice would you tell your 22-year-old self if you could go back to graduation day and advise yourself?

I would tell my 22-year-old self that money will not solve all of life’s problems. People think when they have money then they will never encounter problems anymore. Stress does not go away. It just changes to other things. Instead of wondering how to get food to eat, you think about paying the littlest amount of taxes possible to the IRS. As you age, money is not the most important thing. TIME is. When money is not a concern, you worry about health as you age and managing the estate for your heirs.

As a teenager and in my early 20s, time seemed to move slow. Now it seems in my 40s that the years are going by faster and faster. I know plenty of people with 8-9 figure wealth. What is most precious to them is time. Time to enjoy life and create memories. The lives of people we have impacted in a positive way and have helped and the things we have created that we are proud of are the treasures we take with us. Some very wealthy people later on in years have told me that, instead of having $100 million and working all the time to get there, they would gladly go back to $40 million and get those decades of time back to enjoy life more when they were younger and could move around better.

Tracy Royce | Royce Of Real Estate | 100+ deals

What’s the craziest (or most memorable) job / side hustle you ever did to earn money?

Ever seen that episode of “Friends” where Monica takes a job in a diner dressing up and dancing to YMCA? I can relate. Before I started working in real estate, I was still working a side hustle in the service industry. It was such a great way to earn cash, have fun and work during “off” hours. One of the places I worked had just opened and wanted to showcase the cocktail waitresses in scanty uniforms and somehow I got pegged with a pink and purple shimmery cavewoman outfit (yep, you read that right). Luckily, the other girls’ uniforms were equally comical and the place had a fun energy in general. It was especially hilarious arriving home to my boyfriend’s house one night when I hadn’t changed back into my civilian clothes again, only to realize a group of our friends and him were still hanging out when I walked in. Seeing me in my tribal, shimmering garb in all its glory earned uproarious laughter and they never let me live that down. So anytime I may be having a hard day in real estate, I can say: “It beats serving shots in a cavewoman outfit” – but then admittedly, sometimes it’s not as exciting!

What does your vision of “retirement” look like?

For me, retirement has an amorphous notion of having the ability to do what I prefer without the restriction of imposition. By that I mean, there won’t be a conflict between doing what I’m expected to do (to earn money, keep a position, etc) and giving back and creating in a way that I see fit. When you’re not beholden to debt, a title, or someone else’s schedule, your energy shifts to a completely different mindset. I’m not sure if I’ll ever retire, though, so much as evolve my practices, but I do know I won’t wait until three-quarters of my life is over in order to have that allowance.

What one, most important nugget of advice would you tell your 22-year-old self if you could go back to graduation day and advise yourself?

If you want my advice for other 22-year-olds that are graduating, it would be that regardless of how big your dreams are, you need to take and keep taking steps to get there. Grit really does make a difference and no one can stop you if you’re righteous in your purpose. Believe in yourself! The one person that will usually limit you is yourself. When doubt creeps up, get quiet with yourself, get out of your head, get active and fall forward. No one’s going to do this shit for you, so dig in and push past any limiting beliefs you’ve adopted. In fact, obstacles are the universe’s way of providing challenges for you to grow, stagnate, or give up. How you handle them will determine your future.

Brie Schmidt | 90+ doors

What’s the craziest (or most memorable) job / side hustle you ever did to earn money?

I really don’t have a crazy job I did, but I have been working since I was 15 and living on my own and financially independent from my parents since the day I graduated high school. I moved into my own place at 18 and sometimes had to work 3 jobs to make ends meet. So there were some crazy times when I had to work two different jobs in the same day and change clothes in my car when I was rushing from one job to another.

What does your vision of “retirement” look like?

I technically retired almost 3 years ago by having enough cash flow from real estate to support my lifestyle, but it lasted only a few months before I was bored out of my mind and I started another business. So I am not sure I will ever not work, but doing what you love everyday still feels like retirement. Last year I took 11 weeks of vacation and got to visit 28 cities in 9 countries. I am planning a 6 month around the world trip for next year, too. So to me retirement is still working but with the freedom to wake up every day and be able to decide what I want to do and take vacations and explore the world.

What one, most important nugget of advice would you tell your 22-year-old self if you could go back to graduation day and advise yourself?

Life is about memories and experiences; you need to make the time to enjoy it. It is OK to work 60 hours to make someone else money, as long as doing that is contributing to your long term goals. You will grow as a person and so will your goals, so always be reevaluating and reflecting on yourself and where you want to be in life. Also, do not get married before you turn 30.

J Scott | 1-2-3 Flip | 250+ deals

What’s the craziest (or most memorable) job / side hustle you ever did to earn money?

I’m a computer engineer by education and I used to play semi-professional poker. Back in the early 2000s, when online poker was just getting big, a friend of mine and I programmed a poker bot (essentially a computer app) to play online poker. The bot was good enough to beat the real low stakes games on its own, and because it could play MANY tables at once, it was able to generate a decent amount of income with essentially no on-going work. Unfortunately, the players got better and the online poker sites started to crack down on bots, so it wasn’t a long-lived venture, but it was certainly different…and pretty cool.

What does your vision of “retirement” look like?

I plan to keep the same lifestyle I currently have now for as long as I can. Basically, by automating my businesses and using passive income streams, I’m able to have a completely flexible schedule. My top priority is spending time with the family, and I do work around family obligations. Some weeks I work 40-60 hours, other weeks I work under 5. I’ve arranged my businesses and my life to allow me the freedom to prioritize what I consider to be the most important thing – my family.

What one, most important nugget of advice would you tell your 22-year-old self if you could go back to graduation day and advise yourself?

Create passive income streams! If I had it to do over again, I would have been buying rental property, writing books, creating automated businesses, etc., when I was much younger. The nice thing about a passive income stream is that it doesn’t stop working even if you do. Put in the work once, and then with a little maintenance, it will pay off for a long time to come. There are so many different types of passive income streams that anyone should be able to find several that work for them. I wish I would have realized the power of passive income a long time ago.

Jered Sturm | SNS Capital | 80+ doors

What’s the craziest (or most memorable) job / side hustle you ever did to earn money?

Wow, well since I was a kid, I loved the game of capitalism. Around 5 or 6 years old, I sold rocks from a nearby creek. I washed the dirt off, drew on them with colored pencils, and sold them as paper weights door to door on my street. By 10 I had a paper route and was cutting grass. By 14, I worked in a little mom-and-pop Greek restaurant. So for years I have been hustling to find things that make money and keep me intrigued.

Out of all of them, I would have to say the craziest and most memorable is the journey I am on now in building a real estate investment company from scratch. We started about 5 years ago buying the dirtiest, nastiest houses and renovating them to be attractive homes again. I will never forget the early years of waking up before the sun had risen, putting on my dirty work jeans and going into a house with no heat in the middle of an Ohio winter to work 15-hour days.

There was one house in particular that will always stand out. We bought the house at an auction for $8500 without ever seeing the inside. We knew it was bad, but ended up doing about $100k in renovations to the home: it was 6 months of tearing out walls, garbage and floors with snakes, hornets nests, raccoons, squirrels, and all kinds of nasty everywhere. That specific house is the most memorable thing I did for money. I learned so much and don’t regret a minute of it.

What does your vision of “retirement” look like?

Retirement to me does not mean not working; it simply means working when I want to while never actually needing to. I love what I do: it is my hobby, and the bonus is that it also pays me pretty well. I am very fortunate that, at an early age, I am very close to that point already, thanks to the fact that my business buys cash flowing rental real estate. So while the average person views retirement like saving up water bottles to take a long trip to the desert, I instead find a way to build a steady stream to the desert. I am focused on building my stream big enough so that I can live off it the rest of my life, and then anything extra will allow me to use the money to do good.

What one, most important nugget of advice would you tell your 22-year-old self if you could go back to graduation day and advise yourself?

Something I have always been very adamant about but want other 22-year-olds coming out of college to know is they should be more concerned with their character than their reputation, because your character is who you are, while your reputation is merely what others think of you. The true test of a man is what he does when no one is watching. Because of this, always uphold your character to the highest standard before any desire, any goal, any money. Because regardless of whether you get those things, if you achieve them, but sacrifice your character to do so, you may have something but you are nothing. Be the type of man you are proud to be.

Fat Tony | photographer, fattonybmx.com | 6 doors

What’s the craziest (or most memorable) job / side hustle you ever did to earn money?

I’ve been a freelance photographer and video producer for more than five years now, and there was a time during 2016 when my work was slow and I was looking for income that was more consistent and reliable. I replied to a Craigslist ad that was looking for a “Secret Agent Product Tester.” It was a tech startup looking for someone to work with them to collect data from Uber, Lyft, and food delivery services like Postmates. For about eight months I drove around this company’s electric cars, pretending to be someone that wanted to drive for these services just so I could help analyze income patterns and other things like tipping behaviors of customers. I basically had to lie to every passenger about why I was an Uber driver, which was always annoying. And honestly, I didn’t really like driving people or food around, but for some reason I got some satisfaction knowing I was helping a tech startup. A few months after my role there was done the company folded.

What does your vision of “retirement” look like?

A lot like how my life looks right now, really…. Since I’m a freelancer, I can travel when I want, go to the beach on a Tuesday if I want, and hang out with my wife and dog when I want. It’s a really great lifestyle! But of course, if I do those things too often without looking for work, then I’ll be broke pretty quick! For my retirement, I still envision myself doing cool and fun personal projects because I enjoy them as a creative outlet. However, my first child is due in about a month, so I have no idea what my life will look like after she is born or how having a kid will affect my mindset or the way I live my life.

What one, most important nugget of advice would you tell your 22-year-old self if you could go back to graduation day and advise yourself?

Your mindset is not permanent! If you decide to change your mindset, you can change the direction of your life. Read “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind” by T. Harv Eker immediately so you can think about money in a different way, and start managing your money today!

Kevin Wood | Google, WoodBaker | 31 doors

What’s the craziest (or most memorable) job / side hustle you ever did to earn money?

In college around 2001-2002 I was in a finance class. The professor went on a long explanation about market inefficiencies and arbitrage. If you have a market with inefficient information (all parties don’t have the same information) and differences in price, then you can make a lot of money. I immediately thought about a card game called “Magic: The Gathering” where players buy and sell cards to make decks. Each store was a micro economy. Buyers of cards didn’t always have cash and shop owners weren’t willing to trade. I wanted to test the arbitrage theory and invested $150 in 15 new cards that I thought would become popular. We drove to various shops and even different cities trading these 15 cards. Within 6 weekends we had a $9,000 collection that we ended up selling for about $5,000 in cash. All using hustle.

The other one that comes to mind is playing poker shortly after this in college. I read a ton of books on how to play and started organizing large on-campus poker tournaments. I developed my skill enough to where I was earning $16 per hour playing $20 buy-in games. I quit once I got into grad school, but I had made somewhere around $6,000 in pocket money.

What does your vision of “retirement” look like?

Originally I thought it meant doing nothing all day, but as I’ve grown older I’ve realized I don’t want that. I enjoy pursuing curiosity, and curiosity is what keeps life interesting. When you stop growing you start dying. I enjoy spending time with family and friends. Retirement maybe will mean that I spend less time at the office, and more time at home and sharing great experiences with people I care about. Right now, I’m working full time and running several side projects to create wealth. I don’t know if this clip is consistent long term, but so far I’m enjoying it!

What one, most important nugget of advice would you tell your 22-year-old self if you could go back to graduation day and advise yourself?

If I was speaking to my 22-year-old self in today’s world, it would be this: The world is changing. You no longer need permission to do anything. Read, experiment, fail, assess, repeat.

Related: Interested in building massive wealth with real estate?

Then be sure to check out my real estate house hacking posts, which explain step by step how we’re creating real estate wealth by having others pay our mortgage on multi-million dollar real estate.

Discussion: What insights surprised you? What resonated? Leave a comment below and let us know!

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