When Alan Corey moved out of his mother's Atlanta basement at 22 to face the real world, his goals were both clear and clearly preposterous: Have fun, hustle and become a millionaire by 30 in New York City.
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He made it with two years to spare, thanks to some savvy real estate timing in the Brooklyn revitalization, an unlikely run of appearances on reality TV shows such as "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," and what he calls "extreme cheapskate strategies" that enabled him to bank and invest more than 60 percent of his $40,000 salary.
In "A Million Bucks by 30," Corey does his own well-earned end-zone dance. Here's how he shrewdly borrowed his way into the seven-figures club.
 You played a lot of defense (saving) before you could afford to play offense (buying and investing). Which of your penny-pinching techniques proved the most effective?
 Ooh, I love sports analogies! I believed "defense wins championships" and still do. It's the combination of all the techniques that make it effective. Saving in one area and not in another is like the ol' yacht racing folly of having two holes in your dinghy and just plugging one.
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How did you manage to ignore the siren song of credit cards? |
If
I couldn't pay off the balance in full, I wouldn't
eat. It was a pretty motivating factor. I would suggest
one of two approaches: 1) use it for everything, earn
money back, and pay the balance in full each month,
or 2) never use it.
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