Ezra H., Church Worker

For many years as a teenager the thought of knowing what to do after I graduated high school bothered me. The pressure from teachers, friends and family was obvious, they thought college was the only way to succeed in life. All I knew was I did not want to go to college because I disliked school and felt like I would fail if I did. 

 I was good with my hands and loved to work but when it came to memorizing, home work and all that sitting; I hated it!

Not saying college is bad because for most it can be the way to go.

I came to college in 2011 and attended one year of classes before helping the staff and building projects at the church.

Still not knowing for sure what I was going to do after college I found myself in this class. And after Dave asked this question my mind was blown and I knew what I was going to do! Talk about a relief!! Finally after years of thinking and stressing I now knew what I was meant to do! The question he asked the class was (Does anyone in here have passive income / do you earn money from anything while you sleep?) I was like YOU CAN DO THAT!??

One guy raised his hand, Dave asked if he would like to share with the class how he earned money while he slept. The guy said.. well my dad sends me money every month. ?‍♂️ Dave so nicely said no that’s money your dad works for. And he was right that’s not passive at all but he went on to explain. Passive income is produced by investments. You could invest in the stock market or in a business but the one that I thought was coolest was real estate.

Dave explained how you could buy property and rent it out to someone and make passive income. Or money while you sleep/ the coolest thing ever!

Another thing Dave mentioned in class was good debt. What!!? This guy’s crazy I thought to myself! ?  by this point I was only 19-20 years old but I knew for a fact that most the people I knew had debt on their house, debt on their car, debt on their giant tv in there living room and it wasn’t good! But Dave explained how you could borrow money as long as the investment you purchased paid for it and a little more. Now that made sense to me and I was even more in love! Having no bad debt myself, some savings from working hard and building my credit since I got my first bank account I was ready to go! 

Taking the principles that I learned in class and reading these books I got started. I bought my first investment property from a bank repo in Cincinnati Ohio where my home church is and started renovations right away. This was my first house, I have bought some more since then and plan to “retire” before age 30. For your information I am currently 26 and have four years to reach my first goal! 

Just so you’re on the same page I plan to use the income from these properties to replace my earned income as a self employed builder to not have to work a day job. From there I can continue to invest with all my time and talent. 

Let’s be real though, money isn’t the path to happiness and if you are doing it just to be rich you have missed the point. Sure money can buy you nice houses, cars or TVs but what are we here on this earth to do? It’s to reach out to the lost and see souls saved. We need more Christians sold out to God and can have time, money and free time to help his work. 

My wife and I currently serve in any ministry we can at our church but can you imagine what we could do if we didn’t have to work a job!  We could help with our time, talent and money! That’s way more affective! We could support missions to a much greater degree and see souls saved like no other. 

I hope this letter has been a encouragement and I hope you see the power in being a Christian that has the desire to live a life of great Character and use what God has given you.