GOAL AND PURPOSE OF PHASE ONE

The largest difference (and obstacle) to a normal person becoming a successful polymath like Bruce Wayne is the wealth aspect. The average person doesn’t come close to Wayne’s access to resources and people. This means that most of their time is spent trying to earn a living, rather than working on projects they care about or training. Phase One aims at gathering up an investment portfolio large enough to support an individual in their pursuits, without them having to worry about finances too much. The main strategy that encompasses all of the smaller supporting strategies is FIRE – Financial Independence, Retired Early.

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FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE RETIRE EARLY

On a basic level, my plan is to amass an investment portfolio of at least $1,250,000 USD by the time I’m 30. At the time of writing this, I’m 22, giving me a little more than 7 years to accomplish this feat. At face value, this seems to be a ludicrous idea. However, with the smaller supporting strategies, this goal becomes much more realistic. Many of these strategies can be split into either of two strategies: those that lower my expenses and those that raise my income.

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SET-UP OF FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS

The first step in getting my finances in order was setting up all the accounts I needed. I already had a brokerage account set up, but needed a Roth IRA, 529, and HYSA. After setting up my accounts I then needed to make a strategy and order of importance of investing capital. A more comprehensive write-up can be found here: https://projectwayne.com/setting-up-financial-accounts/

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OVEREMPLOYMENT

Overemployment is essentially having more that one job, preferably remote jobs that can be done at the same time. This is an extension of what I currently do with working as a security guard. While on the clock collecting $22.66 an hour, I study for the CPA or in todays case, work on other aspects of the project, such as developing the site. Overemployment is popular among software engineers and IT professionals, but can also be done by accountants. My original plan was to return from my couple month stint training with the army and collect multiple remote entry level accounting jobs (I talk about why this might change later further down). With 2-3 of these entry level jobs, I could be collecting between $100,000-200,000 taxable income yearly from accounting alone. While preparing to leave for training, one of my mentors told me that I could collect BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing) from the army while away on orders. This is essentially a flat rate based off of your home of record’s zip code that compensates you for housing costs related to having a mortgage or lease while away. This is untaxed and since it’s a flat rate, can result in a profit if you have a cheaper place or have multiple roommates. In some expensive areas, BAH easily reach an extra $40K untaxed per year. This gave me the idea to look further into the potential for higher income via the Army National Guard.

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GUARD – BUMMING

Guard bumming is someone who is in the National Guard that volunteers for orders or deployments, hopping from one assignment to the next. This allows for greater flexibility than Active Duty, while also allowing for the most possible deployments in one’s career, as the Guard has the easiest time filling empty deployment slots from other missions. Not only does this mean collecting untaxed BAH as discussed before, but also your base pay, and the possibility for extra incentive pay bonuses from deployments. Although this does result in quite a bit of income coming in, it’s usually equal or less than similar civilian pay. However, because of many of these payments being untaxed, the military side usually comes out on top, not to mention that all of your living expenses are paid for, further lowering your expenses while boosting up your income. This is where the strategy becomes even more complex.

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DIFFERENTIAL PAY

Some jobs offer differential pay, meaning that they’ll pay the difference between your higher civilian salary and your assumed lower military pay while on orders. For example, if I make $75K yearly from my civilian job, but only $50K yearly while on orders, my civilian job will pay the $25k differential. The beauty of this is that extra incentives such as BAH are not included in this calculation, meaning that if I receive $40K from BAH plus a base salary of $50K, my civilian job will only base my differential pay on my base pay. This means collecting $40K BAH + $50K base pay + $25K differential pay = $115K, of which at least $40K is untaxed. These benefits are incredible for a Guard bum hopping from orders to orders.

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP

While away on orders and on deployments, I plan on finishing study for the CPA and continue working on my business and any ideas for new ventures in any available downtime. This is part of why I chose to pursue a CPA. Not only does it allow me to work in a field that is easily overemployable, allow me to work for myself, understand the tax implications of doing certain things, but also understand more how to run and set up a profitable business. I also plan to spend downtime working on logistics and planning, such as how I’ve planned all of this out.

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REAL ESTATE

As my portfolio grows, I plan on getting into investment property real estate. I plan on using my VA loan upon returning from my first deployment to help fund my first rental property. This will this be bought in a strategic location that will allow me to write off trips to the area while working on the property as business expenses. I plan to work up my real estate portfolio to the point where, should I choose to manage the properties myself, I can qualify as a Real Estate Professional under IRS codes by working at least 750 hours/yr and meeting other requirements. By qualifying as a professional, this will allow me to write off my losses, such as from depreciation against my W-2 income, allowing me to raise my income by lowering my taxable income. I should also be a licensed real estate salesperson by this time, allowing me to represent myself while buying properties to lower my expenses lost to commissions. Speaking of lowering expenses, I’d also like to go over the strategies I plan and do use to lower my living expenses, allowing my to invest more, and allowing for when I do retire, for my investments to last longer and grow larger simultaneously.

Further discussion on my Real Estate endeavors can be found here: https://projectwayne.com/real-estate/comment-page-1/#comment-46

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VANLIFE

I plan on purchasing a Class B RV upon returning from training. Coupled with a light motorcycle attached to the back, I’ll be living out of this for any time I spend not on orders. I’m still working on the logistics of overemployment civilian side vs. guard bumming, so it’s still up in the air for how often I’ll be living in this. The main purpose of this is to further lower my living expenses. Not only that, but living in an RV will allow me to travel around, much like Bruce did during his 7 year sabbatical, meeting and training under various mentors. With my first home being an investment acquired with a VA loan, rather than a primary residence, my investment portfolio will exponentially increase. The RV will serve as a home I can move around for longer stays, with the motorcycle being my primary means of transportation within the area, cutting down on fuel costs. I learned to ride in Year One of the project and am just waiting until I return from army training to purchase the bike.

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SOUTH DAKOTA

South Dakota has no state income tax. Even better, it allows full time RV folk to become residents after a one-night stay among other benefits. If I choose to lean heavily into the Guard Bum route, I’ll eventually change my residency and license to SD and register the RV and motorcycle there, as they are very friendly towards full-time travelers, offering services such as Dakota Post, which forward mail to you, among other services. The only downside here is that BAH will be much lower in SD, so I’ll have to get most of my deployments and orders out of my system before making the switch over.

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MINIMALISM

With living in an RV comes the problem of not being able to have as much stuff as one would have with a house. However, with minimalism, this isn’t an issue. The idea is to not have unnecessary possessions, not only saving you money, but also making mobility easier, perfect with living in an RV. Since returning home from college, I’ve sold off around 70-80% of my possessions. Most of what I own now is essential items that I use everyday that help me improve, such as workout equipment, books, supplements, a computer, etc.

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TAKEAWAYS

Realistically, I expect this phase to consume most of the next 7 years, with progression speeding up exponentially as the timeline runs out. Should everything execute to plan, or close to it, this should set me up for life, with however much oversight I want to give at the age of 30 and beyond. With finances out of the way, I can begin to shift focus onto Phase Two, travelling and learning from different mentors, and pursuing other higher education.