By the time I was 25, I had already saved up over $100,000. I would consistently invest 75% of it or more in the stock market. While I wasn't a genius equities trader, I knew enough to be dangerous and make some decent returns; nothing crazy.
I finally decided to truly study real estate investing. That became my obsession. After work, at work, on weekends, that became my second job: teaching myself real estate investing strategies by reading books on tax law, real estate investing, and listening to audiobooks on the subject.
After I bought my second property, I quit my job at age 28. After five years of being a consistent top producer, I felt confident that I no longer needed to work for someone else. For the last two years of my 20s, I bought and sold more properties, becoming a millionaire by 30. Now, I'm self-employed with a healthy investment portfolio and my own recruitment business, DG Recruit.
If you don't learn to invest and invest as much as humanly possible when you're young, you're missing out of a lot of opportunities to increase your net worth. Study and master debt instruments, the positive qualities of debt, and don't be afraid of leveraging debt.
Long story short
I achieved such fast net worth growth in a relatively short period of time by combining and maximizing multiple strategies at the same time in a concentrated, focused manner: earning, saving, and investing as much as I could.
I continued to educate myself outside of work and school, and executed my plan without being afraid of decisions, timing, and risks. My most important advice is to take action while you still have the chance to take risks. Don't overthink things. Analysis paralysis kills so many great opportunities. Instead, be decisive and go for it. The worst that could happen is you'll learn something new along your journey.
Dandan Zhu is a headhunter, investor, and entrepreneur who coaches, trains, and recruits top talent in recruitment and sales positions. As an immigrant coming from humble beginnings, Dandan struggled through culture shock and difficult family dynamics until her early 20s, when she realized she wanted more from life. She went from being a waitress at 22 to a millionaire by 30 through her recruitment and investment career and now shares her methods through her businesses and advice on DG Recruit, Dandan Global, and her daily posts. Tune into her podcasts DG Recruit and Daily DANDAN for more insight, guidance, and coaching on anything related to careers, success, and recruitment.