I didn't like the thought of putting money aside that I couldn't touch.
I wanted to be able to invest everything and have it be tangible.
But through, like, the advice of my siblings and my CPA, I do contribute about $1,500 a month to my self-directed IRA, which I am able to invest and still have control over.
My name is Sahil Mehta.
I'm 25 years old.
I make around $515,000 a year and I live in Berkeley, California.
I work as an executive assistant for Herman Chan at Golden Gate Sotheby's and my day-to-day really can be largely unpredictable.
I make a commission on every deal that we close.
And fortunately, you know, the real estate market here in the San Francisco Bay Area has has not slowed down.
It has only increased year over year since I've started.
And a lot of it has to do with market timing.
So I was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland.
My dad was a practicing physician and my mom was a business owner.
My family sort of lost a lot of what they worked so hard to earn in the market crash of 2000 and 2008.
And so at an early age, I learned the importance of managing money and managing risk, which really accelerated my timeline.
I had different side hustles in middle school.
I was selling snacks in between classes, which really created a sense of urgency for me to be able to learn about financial freedom and being able to provide that to my parents as quickly as possible so I could leave them from the pressures that they were putting on themselves to support us.
That forced me to learn about money and managing.
Our parents never wanted us to be stressed or pressured, but, you know, inadvertently us seeing, like, what they were doing to provide for us was a lot of pressure and it always created a sense of urgency in me.
I don't pay any rent right now.
I live in a building that I own and I try to keep it that way.
Elon Musk, like to many, is like a pretty big role model to me.
I ended up buying a Tesla Model X.
It was my dream car and I just feel so fortunate to be able to buy it, but then also just use it.
At the end of last year, I found out that there was a way that I could buy the car and write off the entire amount if it weighed more than a certain amount.
And so I discovered that the Model X qualified.
So there's definitely moments where I will splurge on, you know, looking good and eating good because I have a membership at Equinox.
Sometimes I don't make the best use out of it.
And I know it looks that way, but I do try to go to the gym.
So the goal is to try to save as much as possible and sometimes, you know, it turns out to be very little just because of the natural expenses that come with property management and property improvement that we do.
Prior to owning the real estate investments, I probably was saving upwards of 99% of what I was making.
That is largely what led to being able to buy and invest in real estate so early on is because I was able to save like a significant portion of what I made.
He inspired and motivated me to be able to move to Berkeley.
While attending my senior year at Berkeley High School, I discovered that there was an option to take concurrent enrollment for classes that transferred to UC Berkeley at a discounted rate or completely free.
And so I aggressively took as many courses as I could to transfer.
So graduating high school, I enrolled into Berkeley as a junior instead of a freshman.
It was a little to no cost investment to experiment with the idea of being a real estate agent.
And so I worked on getting my license simultaneous to all the other things that I was working on, primarily getting into Berkeley.
When I got into real estate, I just wanted to graduate and get it done with and then just focus as much as I could on learning about real estate.
My brother and I own five properties now in close proximity to Berkeley campus.
We bought half of our portfolio last year, more than half of our portfolio just in one year.
Doing all this while working as an executive assistant, it does give me a little more enjoyment because of the control.
I'm not told what to do or anything.
And so part of that is definitely better.
Sometimes I could wipe out entirely what I made in a month, but generally I like to save more than half of what I make in a month.
More if possible.
But sometimes, you know, expenses that come with property ownership, it sometimes can be very unpredictable and I have no control over that.
And so sometimes if I have to replace an unexpected leaking pipe or old roof or something, for the most part, I have anticipated expenses for property maintenance.
But oftentimes, there are unpredictable expenses.
The way that I've handled my taxes year-over-year has changed dramatically.
Just because of the amount that I've made has changed.
I created an LLC just so I could have some tax liability.
I really don't know as much as my CPA.
I sort of hand it off.
Golf is a big escape for me.
When I have time, I'm able to get out there and play some golf.
Watch basketball and, you know, especially with my brother on the court.
It's like now even more meaningful to watch the games.
Traveling is one of the things that I really, really enjoy.
I wasn't ever able to really travel as much as I would have liked to.
But I mean, every year my family drops sort of what they're doing and we're able to squeeze out one week out of the year to be together in Hawaii.
We go to Hawaii every year.
Like a different island.
And it's just the most, most beautiful experience.
There's not really a particular number that I'm going after.
I just want to keep pushing as high as I possibly can go.
With the combined effort of my siblings and I, we were so fortunate to stay true to our mission of helping our parents and providing to them like they did to us.
And so we were able to have them retire entirely and they are now living close to us.
What's theirs was ours growing up until, like, now what's mine is like I feel like is theirs.
The most important lesson I've learned about money is to be patient.
The money that I make doesn't really change my why.
It just proves that when you have your reason and a really grounded mission, the sky's the limit.