Wealthy Weekends Story: Anthony Miller
Anthony Miller is 24 years old and has 11 brothers and sisters. He enjoys hanging out with friends, working out/playing basketball, listening to music/podcast and reading. Kanye West is an artist he always has in rotation, but he also loves old school artists like Switch and has recently added Wu-Tang to his playlist. As of late, he mainly listens to underground/independent artists like Nasty Nile, YvNG Wayne, YvNG Raw, Steezy Dre, Eazy 803 and Jordan Gilman.
Upon graduating from Hampton University’s Five-Year MBA Program in 2018, Anthony accepted a role in Prudential Financial, Inc.’s Finance Leadership Development Program (FLDP). While working full-time at Prudential and on his luxury streetwear fashion brand, PRSCL.T Clothiers, he soon realized he had developed a new passion…investing. Dancy With Money had the opportunity to catch-up with Anthony to discuss his passion for investing and the steps he took to successfully quit his job at 24 to pursue it full-time.
DWM: What motivated you to want to learn about investing?
Anthony: To me, the answer to this question is deeper than just wanting to learn to invest. It is not that I never wanted to learn to invest. But instead, I saw investing as a way I could push my family to the next level and a way to help the families of those around me to do the same. I grew up middle class and never went without anything I needed. My goal in life was always to have enough to do two things: pay my mother back for the sacrifices she made to provide the life I had and to push the envelope forward for my family by taking us from middle class to wealthy. Like most kids, growing up I thought sports would be the way for me to do that. As I got older and realized that would not happen, I began to think of other ways to achieve those goals. I do not have anyone in my family that has worked a corporate job, so I believed getting my MBA and having a career in finance was the way for me to do. I quickly learned it was not. After being introduced to investing in the foreign exchange market, I knew that was my “way out” and decided to put my all into maximizing what I could do within that market.
DWM: What steps did you take to pursue your passion for investing full-time?
Anthony: Sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice! When I started working FT last year, I decided that I would leave corporate in the next three years and was able to cut that time in half. I took a less traditional approach to making that happen which focused more on creating additional income than minimizing expenses. I still budgeted and saved of course, but I knew I could not save the amount needed to comfortably walk away strictly off of my salary. At this point, I already had two streams of income; my full-time job at Prudential and trading in the foreign currency market. I decided to add an additional stream by joining iMarket Academy; that decision was the key to me being able to pursue my passions FT. Overall, I do not attribute being able to do this to any specific steps but instead to a mindset. I set a goal for myself and decided to defer short term gratification to meet that goal which included sacrificing a lot of my time to develop a skill that would bring more much more income in addition to the normal steps of saving, taking a course etc. I do not think there is a formula to being successful, there are a million ways to do that, but mindset is the common denominator.
DWM: What would you say is the most difficult part of the process?
Anthony: Staying disciplined for sure. It is easy to become content when working and not having financial pressures motivating you but that is when it is most important to stay focused. For me, I had to remember my why so that I would keep pushing! I would write my goals down and have them written somewhere I would see every day.
DWM: One thing you want to tell people who are hesitant about investing.
Anthony: Just as we are told there is no better time than now to save for retirement or to get life insurance etc., the same logic applies for investing. Everyone knows that to become wealthy you need multiple streams of income and everyone would say they would want to be wealthy. If that is true, do yourself a favor and take steps toward investing today. Also, I know many people who have started investing but are not actively looking to learn about the market they are investing in which is counterproductive. One must understand the market before profiting and you can’t do that without knowledge. Our first investment should be in knowledge, next in time to learn how to apply the knowledge and then you can reap the benefits of your investment.
DWM: I have to put my coaching hat on and ask, what is your current budget allocation?
Anthony: Currently, I allocate the following way: 30% for expenses (e.g. rent, car note, debt), 40% for emergency savings, 15% misc (e.g. food, clothes shopping), and 15% for regular Savings (e.g. unexpected one time costs).
PRSCL.T Clothiers: https://prscltclothiers.com/shop
Instagram: @live_tcf