William D King: How I Made My First Million with a Small Blog & How You Can Do the Same

I’ve always been good with money. I started working at the age of 16 and by 19 I was already giving financial advice to my friends and family explains William D King.

“Start saving early and take advantage of compound interest. Don’t touch your nest egg and never stop learning about the stock market.” says William D King.

Simple advice but so many people simply can’t resist temptation. Spending money instead of investing it is something that just seems to come naturally to us as humans, at least initially. I was lucky enough to have parents who taught me the value of a dollar and for this reason I enjoy watching my net worth grow with time as opposed to diminish as most other 20 something’s my age experience. That said, if you’re reading this article then odds are you aren’t like most 20 something’s and understand the importance of becoming financially literate and taking control of your financial future by investing early on in your life.

Fortunately, the Internet has made it easier than ever to become financially literate through online courses, videos and articles that can teach us just about anything we would like to know. The only problem is finding the right resource for you.

Trading in Stocks Made Simple

This book is excellent for anyone who wants to learn more about investment but doesn’t have the time or patience required to read through a 100-page financial report. It’s designed so even children can understand it (though I wouldn’t recommend letting them). I read this back when I was 18 and found it perfect for someone with little investing experience from babajitone.com.

Hands down my favorite personal finance blog of all time JL Collins does an amazing job of explaining finance in ways anyone can understand. For free, he puts out weekly articles on stocks, bonds, and real estate that are some of the best resources I’ve found to further my education. He also has two amazing books (which I own) that detail how to get started with investing;   The Simple Path to Wealth and   More Wealth without Risk.

The Penny Hoarder:

This is an awesome blog for people who want to earn extra money without needing a lot of startup capital or years of experience. You can find great advice here about anything from finding odd jobs online, taking paid surveys, participating in mystery shopping assignments, selling your old cell phones and so much more!

My Journey towards Financial Freedom

I remember when I was young I use to go to the library with my mom and pretend like I could read all of these books that were stored within its walls. As you can probably imagine, I quickly grew out of that kind of thing and found more interest in playing video games on my PlayStation 2. With time though, I began to teach myself about saving and investing but wasn’t really motivating enough to get a start right away. As a matter of fact, it took me until 2012 to finally get serious about personal finance and start putting together a plan for myself.

Back then there wasn’t too much information available on the subject so I had more or less pieced together everything from what little resources were available at the time (mostly articles) and made up the rest through trial and error.

The first thing I did was open a Roth IRA with Vanguard (this is when I started investing) and transfer whatever money I had in my savings account over to it. After that, I went ahead and opened up a regular brokerage account so I could buy shares of individual stocks.  I also decided it would be prudent to try out some mutual funds as well but after losing $300 on Blackrock’s Euro pacific Growth Fund within the first 3 months of owning it, decided against buying any more and simply stuck with penny stocks and individual companies for quite some time.

Soon after that, in early 2013, I launched this blog in order to share what I was learning along the way and document my journey towards financial freedom. That’s when things really started to come together for me.

By September 2013 I had managed to save enough money so that my dividends were cutting into my living expenses each month; so much so, in fact, that I decided it would be best to quit my job and go down the entrepreneurship path instead of climbing the corporate ladder. It was also around this time that I joined a local investment club so I could network with other like-minded people who shared the same curiosities about personal finance as I did.

Conclusion:

It took me a little over a year to go from having no money to invest. To quitting my job and becoming completely financially independent. While this may not be the case for everyone. I believe it’s definitely possible for anyone who is willing to put in the time and effort required. To reach their personal goals.

So what are you waiting for?

Remember; don’t let your dreams become just another thing on your bucket list. Make them come true! Says William D King.