The $42,500 trap (and how I escaped)

Let me take you back to 2016

I was 25 years old

Working as a CPA at a management consulting firm

Making $42,500 a year

Which sounds decent until you realize I was working 60+ hours a week

That's less than $14 an hour when you do the math

I had three degrees

Two professional designations

And I was making less per hour than some of my friends who worked retail

But here's the worst part...

I was trapped

I had student loans to pay

Rent to cover

A car payment

All the usual stuff

And every month, after all the bills were paid...

There was barely anything left

I remember sitting at my desk one night

It was like 9pm

Everyone else had gone home

And I was still there, grinding away on some spreadsheet that didn't matter

And I just thought...

"Is this it?"

"Is this what I went to school for?"

"Is this what the next 40 years of my life looks like?"

The answer was yes

Unless I did something different

That's when I started looking for a way out

I tried freelancing… but hated working with clients

I tried dropshipping… but couldn't figure out the marketing

I tried Amazon FBA… but it required too much upfront capital

And then I found YouTube

I remember watching this guy talk about how he made thousands of dollars a month from simple whiteboard videos

And I thought...

"If he can do it, I can do it"

So I started

$100 a month became $500

$500 became $1,000

$1,000 became $5,000

And eventually, I was making more from YouTube than I was from my "real" job

And it all started with a decision

I'm telling you this because I know you're in a similar spot

Maybe not the exact same situation

But that feeling of being trapped?

That feeling of knowing there has to be more or watching your life slip by one paycheck at a time?

I know that feeling…

And I know the way out

Until next time, 

Adam