This is the digital nomad quest podcast with Sharon Tseung. teaching people how to build passive income, become financially free and design their best lives.

Hey guys, Sharon from digital nomad quest, and today I want to tell you guys about my financial freedom journey from making $30,000 a year to millionaire at 30. The last time I shared my story with you guys is about two years ago, when I quit my job and traveled the world for two years as a digital nomad making passive income. This time, I want to rewind a bit further back and then gay guys caught up till now just so you guys can get to know me a bit better. Now, if you guys are new to this channel, welcome. I’m all about teaching y’all how to build passive income, become financially free, and design your best live.

So if you guys are interested in that, make sure to subscribe and hit the bell button to be notified of my latest videos. I feel like my financial freedom journey to multiple income streams might have come out of nowhere, especially because I’m new here. But this process has been like 10 to 15 years in the making. So I’m going to rewind back to basically high school. And back in high school I took like five jobs as a chess teacher at five different chess schools. You know, before that when I was super young, I was actually like nationally ranked in chess, I was on TV for chess. And basically, as I grew up, I used those skills to teach. So having those five different chess teaching jobs was really awesome and helped me learn to save money.

Actually, my parents taught me to be financially savvy at a young age. So I was trying not to spend a bunch of that money and I was trying to pocket that money instead. Now after high school, I went to UC Berkeley as a Psych and music major, super random. I know, I was interested in those topics, but I just had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I didn’t really think too much about the future. But to make extra money actually worked as an event assistant, a resident assistant, and I took multiple college internships and like I mentioned, my parents were preparing me to be financially savvy. So I started contributing to a Roth IRA and investing gradually into ETFs, like QQ Q, and spy, which track the NASDAQ 100 and the s&p 500.

So like I mentioned, I wasn’t really thinking too much about what I was going to do with my life. So out of college in 2012, I actually decided to go into marketing, because I thought, you know, I have creative and analytical skills, what’s the position that would merge the two. And I figured marketing would make sense for me, I know, it’s kind of like different from psychology and music, though I feel like psychology plays a role in marketing. But it turns out that I’m really glad that I had that marketing experience, and background because I still use that knowledge to this day. So then I got my first full time position as a marketing coordinator, again at $30,000 a year. So I didn’t start with a high salary, like a lot of my peers. And again, looking back, I’m still grateful for that position, because it set me on that path with the marketing experience.

Now I remember two weeks, and I was just completely shocked, because you know, I was going to this cubicle every single day looking at the four walls of the office. And I was just like, wow, people actually spend all their lives in these offices nine to five, and a lot of these people hate their jobs like is that how I’m going to be spending the rest of my life and not only that a lot of people just spend their income completely. And then they repeat the process of working to live essentially, I remember at that job, I used to cry as sometimes my supervisors were just making me feel really bad about myself there, I realized that I was trading my time for money. And I was at the will of the supervisors, like my boss could just let me go at any second, again, I was thinking is this going to be the rest of my life. But real quick, don’t get me wrong.

As of this video, I’m actually still at a full time position. And I’m not one that I really like right now. They basically allow me to lead the marketing division. And it’s a startup super entrepreneurial environment where we’re all kind of working as a team to build this one thing. And they also really respect kind of my side hustles my interest in personal finance and financial freedom. So they let me do my own thing. I truly believe that if you’re happier, your job, then you kind of went out life. Like it’s all good if you want to work under someone as long as you are happy, because money is a tool that allows you that freedom.

For me, I feel like I have freedom. And I’m taking this job because I’m actually learning a lot from it. And I’m actually enjoying the process. So as long as you’re intentional with your life, and you’re making choices that you actually want to make, whether that is working under someone or working for yourself, like that’s all good. I’m happy for you. Now let’s get back to the story. So I switched positions multiple times after that, you know, I didn’t want to stay at a position where I felt undermined. So again, I switched positions, I was climbing up the ladder and I was trying to increase my income as much as possible, then I would be able to save and invest a lot of that income. While most of my friends were moving out to the city.

I was trying to live at home and save as much as I could. My parents actually wanted me to stay at home and they still do. It’s kind of like a traditional Asian thing. And I’m super grateful and appreciative for that. Even though I was super careful with my finances. I still had fun, but it’s more about being intentional with how you’re spending your money. Now in 2013 I actually bought my first rental property to rewind I’ve actually always been interested in real estate you know, as a kid, I would play Monopoly and I would just love having cash flowing rentals just depositing money into my bank account and that’s what I wanted to do in real life. I remember out of college, I was scouring Redfin listings a lot, especially out of state markets, because they were more affordable than the Bay Area.

Now my first real property was an hour away from where I live. And my parents actually knew this agent who pass along this deal. And my parents were like, do you want to invest in this one? And I was like, yeah, so I put in my cash for the downpayment, but actually split that with my brother, because first of all, it was during my first position, I didn’t have enough saved up yet. But also lenders usually look for two years of job income proof. And I didn’t have that yet. So my brother and I put both of our names down, we both put 50-50 of the payment, and then I slowly paid him back over time. And now that property is fully under my name. He was just being an awesome brother and helping me out now in 2014. I remember I went on this solo Europe trip, it was a month long, and I met people of all walks of life. And I was just mind blown and met so many passionate people who are chasing their dreams, at the time actually had a music youtube channel that I was building up and I was making these music videos and stuff like that.

And to see people just chasing after it was really exciting to me, people were just so present and in the moment, and it made me realize there’s so much life that I hadn’t seen yet, I was just stuck in this bubble. I had been living in the Bay Area, like all my life, and it made me realize I needed to make this a reality where I could travel when I wanted to have that freedom where I don’t need to be stuck at the nine to five if I don’t want to be. So once I came back from that trip, I started going to a bunch of real estate meetups and I started studying a lot of books and blogs, I shifted my focus from real estate to online side hustles because I started studying like how to create a website, how to build a money making blog and all these different things.

So then I went ahead and made a blog and then actually stumbled across this term, the digital nomad. And that’s basically someone who travels and works location independently from the comfort of their laptops. And I was like, Oh my God, I want to make this my reality. I’m watching all these YouTube videos of people enjoying their lives while they are building their businesses. And I was like, That’s the dream. I didn’t want to spend all my money on travel and then come back start from zero and have to work my way up again, in order to live the life I desired. Instead, I wanted to make money work for me. And that’s when I started coming across like Tim Ferriss Four Hour Workweek Robert Kiyosaki Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and it was really like in line with what I wanted to do.

So then I started building a blog and I started making an Etsy shop, I started writing Kindle books under a pen name. Once I started making 50 to $100 a month in passive income. I know it’s not much, but in my head, I was like, Oh, my God, this is all possible. I started making my first dollars online. And it just opened my world of possibilities. So then on actually booked a one way ticket to Stockholm six months out, and I was like, This is my deadline, I’m going to figure this out, I’m going to start building these passive income streams, I’m actually going to take part time remote positions. So I actually went on Craigslist, and found a position I got referred to by a friend. And now I had two part time remote positions where I’m making paid ads for one client and then managing ads for another client. So I had built my nest egg even more by taking multiple positions while building my passive income streams.

So think on that I was actually you know, working full time, taking two part time remote positions, building my passive income streams. And then when I quit my job, my full time position became another part time remote positions. So I had those three positions. While I was transitioning to passive income full time working on my own side hustles full time so I did it. I actually quit my job, right. I traveled a month in Greece, a month in Romania a month in Portugal, I visited London and Berlin, I did a month in Korea, Taiwan, like all these different places, I saw the world but I was also going to cafes every single day like working on my side hustles and meeting other digital nomads as well. So we could all work on our own businesses. I learned a lot on this trip.

So when I was in Greece, you know, I met someone making like $600 a month and that was the average salary there $1,000 A month in Romania was kind of the average as well, for a computer engineer that made me realize I was super privileged, I am very fortunate with the background that I have. And coming from the US you get a lot of opportunities, being able to build side hustles online, like it’s easier to get into things like merch by Amazon, as well as building money making blog. Like it’s easier when you’re from here. So I realized I need to be way more appreciative. I’m super fortunate. It definitely opened my eyes. And another thing that opened my eyes was that these people seemed a lot happier, though, then a lot of people back home, I found that the Bay Area’s like, all about chasing success.

Whereas when I was traveling and meeting all these people, they were more about being present, being passionate about life. And it just made me realize that there’s no one way to live. You know, if you are happy with your life, then you’re winning. It’s not about how much money you make. It’s about living a life. That’s true to yourself. And that’s what a lot of these people were doing. So traveling really gave me a lot more perspective and made me a lot more open minded, a lot more appreciative.

It made me realize that there’s so much for me to learn and I didn’t know much but also after two years of travel, I’d actually stayed in Chiang Mai Thailand for about three months or so. And at the time, I was making like four to 5000 a month and passive income in Chiang Mai was only spending like $600 a month in expenses. And that’s like eating out every day, like having a good time. And throughout my trip, I actually spent only $1,400 a month on average. And that’s including accommodations, flights, entertainment, food, everything. And I was eating out every single day having a good time. I wanted to prove that travel didn’t have to break the bank. So I was actually recording every single one of my expenses to really show for that. But anyway, getting back to the point, as you can see, my income was exceeding my expenses, I realized that I was actually increasing my nest egg the entire time I was traveling, I was investing in things like crypto, I was investing in stocks, I was putting more of my money into my business and then growing my income streams.

And technically I felt like I could have retired while digital nomad thing, because essentially, my income was exceeding my expenses as you guys see, and I was building my nest egg. However, I found that throughout the journey, I was basically so focused on how much money I was making. And I just kept wanting to increase that increase that but it wasn’t fulfilling. I wasn’t learning anything anymore. I had learned all these different income streams, and I was just trying out products on Etsy, churning out products on merch by Amazon churning out products on Amazon FBA, I was working on all these different ways to make money, but I wasn’t building anything impactful to help people I wasn’t learning anymore. It made me realize that I was too young to kind of chill. It felt like a lot of people around me in Chiang Mai, Thailand, like a lot of the digital nomads, were just trying to make enough income to cover the expenses, and they just wanted to chill.

It wasn’t the type of life that I wanted. At the time, I felt like I was too young and I wanted to still grow and build. So I decided to come home after two years of travel. So I came back to the Bay Area, California, I wanted to learn and master skills, I wanted to build a brand that helps people. So I decided to take a full time position as a marketing manager. And now I’m a general manager at that company, actually. And I’ve learned a lot and I’m still learning from that position, which is what I actually wanted. You know, after coming back from building those passive income streams, it’s like now I can pick a position that actually makes me happy versus being desperate for a job. Another thing like I said, I wanted to build a brand that helped people. So I started my YouTube channel, people thought my strengths were video. So I was like, Okay, let me try to make a YouTube channel that teaches people how to build that financial freedom and everything I’ve learned from this process. And it’s not like I’m a master at it. But it’s more like let me document and keep growing with you guys and keep sharing what I know. And then I started investing more in real estate again.

So when I came back actually started going to meetups. I remember in like 2018, I was going to real estate meetups, sending a bunch of books and blogs and listening to podcasts again, trying to get back into it. I also met my now fiance in 2019. He’s had experience with investing stay with flipping and a bunch of other things like that in real estate, which was really something I admired and respected and his motivation and guidance actually helped me jumpstart my out of state investing. So now I actually have 16 units under my name out of those 16. Five of them are with my fiance and if you total our two portfolios, we have 23 units together with what I’m currently doing now with real estate and building a brand. I’m actually super fulfilled because back in the day, like I mentioned, I was so focused on the money now I’m not really focused on the money I’m more focused on learning and growing and building something that helps people and I find that when I’m doing all these things, the money will come anyway.

But to me the fulfilling thing is like one of my passions is really creating so I’m making stuff that actually is helping people like I’m getting messages where people are like, you know, you have helped me in so much in my financial freedom journey. I started this side hustle, I started doing Etsy I invested in my first rental property like It’s so fulfilling, you know, helping people with those problems that I used to struggle with, right, so now I get to create and teach people how to build passive income and become financially free and design their best lives. And again, I’ve always been passionate about real estate, I love seeing the transformation of homes when you fix them up. I love owning cash flowing around properties. I’m hoping to you know, invest all around the world, which would be awesome.

Like that’s one of my goals to own Airbnb is overseas everywhere and be able to stay at those places if I wanted to. But also learning is one of my goals for real estate. So I’ve been immersing myself so much in real estate and my current goal with real estate I feel like is just continually learning there’s so much that I’m learning and implementing right now that it’s so exciting. My friend once said that the day stop learning is when you’re inching closer and closer to death and actually can kind of see what that means because the more I learned the more I feel fulfilled and the more excited I am about life. And again, with my YouTube channel and brand I’m really trying to document everything I’m doing share my experiences with things I’ve done in the past and kind of spread my knowledge to you guys. We’re all growing together. So I’m happy you guys are along the journey with me. So I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Please make sure to rate review and subscribe. It really helps our podcast grow. And thanks again. I’ll see you guys in the next one.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai