I WAS a Licensed Professional (PE) Civil/Industrial Engineer, who began investing in 2009 in rainy Seattle after being a ramen-eating cheapo. Once I discovered the difference between Cashflow Investing and Appreciation Investing (i.e. gambling / speculating), by 2015 I had built a portfolio of 11 single-family rentals in Birmingham, Atlanta, Indianapolis, and Pennsylvania.

But around 2016, I started realizing that owning more rentals wasn’t necessarily the next step for me. I began selling off my single-family properties and transitioning into real estate syndications, private placements, and other alternative investments.

That transition was anything but smooth. There was a new language to learn, new people to trust, new risks to understand, and plenty of expensive growing pains along the way. I invested across multifamily apartments, RV parks, mobile homes, assisted living facilities, and other private investments while learning how this world actually worked.

Eventually, that journey gave me enough passive income to leave my engineering career and move back home to Hawaii.

More importantly, it showed me how difficult this transition can be when you’re trying to figure it out on your own.

That experience is a big reason the Wealth Elevator community exists today: to bring together other investors walking a similar path, share the lessons and relationships I wish I had when I started, and help make the next stage of wealth a little easier to navigate.