Tyler Wright increased his day job income from $30,000 a year to $250,000 in six years. He saved and invested most of his money, up to 80%, in the stock market and real estate. At 29, he’s worth over $1 million, owns three properties, and quit his job to run his own business. Tyler Wright’s first job out of college paid far below the national average wage of $53,000.
“My starting salary was $30,000, with not really a promise of a dollar more unless you perform,” he told Insider of his commission-based job in Florida. He was working as a recruiter for a company that did healthcare staffing.
Wright realized pretty quickly that he didn’t want to work a 9-to-5 job forever. He wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted to do instead, but started reading personal finance books to learn everything he possibly could about money — how to earn more, invest effectively, and build wealth.
Over the next six years, between 2015 and 2021, he increased his income to $250,000 a year and saved and invested up to 80% of that, he said. Today, at 29, he’s worth over $1 million and owns three properties, according to documents viewed by Insider. He quit his day job in March 2022 to build his personal finance brand, Defining Wealth, and continue expanding his real estate portfolio.
Here’s how Wright went from making $30,000 a year to building a seven-figure net worth before 30.
Increasing his income from $30,000 a year to $250,000 Wright started working in college — he worked in the kitchen at two different restaurants and bartended — to cover living expenses as a student and avoid racking up credit card debt. His tuition at the University of Central Florida was covered by two academic scholarships, meaning he graduated without loans in 2015.
During his senior year, he interned at a company that did healthcare staffing. He decided to stay on after college and was hired full-time in 2016 as a recruiter, which involved finding jobs for travel nurses.
Wright graduated debt-free from UCF in 2015. Courtesy of Tyler Wright He did recruiting for a year — his base salary was $30,000, plus he earned about $25,000 in commissions by the end of the year — and then transitioned into more of a client-facing role as an account manager. The promotion came with a raise and the opportunity to earn more commissions, he said. His next two years with the company, he earned $90,000 and then $150,000.
“If everybody else is working 9-to-5, to take a step ahead, you either have to be working way more efficiently than everyone else or you have to be working more — or both,” said Wright. “I tried to do my best on a day-to-day basis to work more efficiently.”
He also did “all the cliche things,” he added. “From day one, I showed up early and I stayed late; when things were happening and the company was growing, I asked for promotions; I dressed for the job I wanted, not the job I had. I put myself in the position where I would be someone I wanted to promote.”
In 2019, he was promoted again, this time to sales manager. That’s when his income increased exponentially.
“I was managing the entire sales team, so I was making a portion of what everybody under me made,” explained Wright. “And I was still running my own desk, so I was making commission as a salesperson.” Plus, his base salary continued to increase each year. “Over time, it just slowly builds.”
Between his base and commissions, he said he earned $200,000 in 2019, and $250,000 in 2020 and 2021.
If you want to move up the ladder and ultimately earn more at your 9-to-5, identify a co-worker or employee who is successful that you want to emulate, advised Wright: “I talked to the people at my company who I wanted to be like and asked them how they got there. Try to find mentors that can lead you in the right direction.”
Building a seven-figure portfolio by investing in the stock market and real estateThe more Wright earned, the more he could save and invest.
“I was funneling pretty much every single dollar I made into the stock market in 2015, 2016, and 2017,” he said.
He kept a high savings rate, up to 80%, by keeping his living expenses low. His first two years out of college, he didn’t have to pay for housing. His fraternity selects an alum to live in the house each year to supervise, similar to what a “resident assistant” does, and Wright was that alum for two years in a row.
He didn’t have to pay rent or utilities, plus he earned a stipend for living in the fraternity house. “Food was about the only thing that I was spending money on at the time,” said Wright. “There were cons, for sure, but it was worth it financially.”
His company offered a retirement plan, but he chose to invest most of his savings into a taxable brokerage account. He wanted the flexibility to use that money whenever, rather than stashing it in a 401(k) plan, where you can’t withdraw your funds before age 59 ½ without owing a fee.
“The idea of holding my money there until I was 59 or older when I was trying to ideally retire before 35 just didn’t make much sense to me,” said Wright. “It’s a personal question. I’m not saying using a 401(k) is wrong — I just felt like it didn’t align completely with where I saw myself and what my goals were.”
Wright also had real estate investing on the mind, which requires upfront cash.
He bought his first property, where he and his wife currently live, in December 2018. They’d been renting an apartment together after Wright moved out of the fraternity house and wanted a bigger space. Plus, after reading so much about personal finance, Wright was convinced that real estate investing was an effective way to build wealth. It was a $400,000 home that he financed with a conventional loan. He put 10% down, or about $40,000.
Less than half a year later, in June 2019, Wright bought his first investment property: a $145,000 triplex that he paid for in cash. In October 2019, he expanded his portfolio and purchased a fourplex for $175,000.
Wright got married in March 2022. Courtesy of Tyler Wright Between the seven rental units across his two properties, he brings in about $7,500 a month in rents (before expenses), he said.
He pays a property manager rather than handling the tasks that come with being a landlord, like finding tenants and collecting rent. It’s completely worth the price, said Wright: “You pay the property manager 8% per month of the rent and they do 99% of the work. Everything goes through him, so I can just focus on running my business, looking for new properties, and living my life.”
Between his stock market investments, which have been compounding since 2015, and his real estate holdings, Wright has a net worth of $1.28 million, as of May 2020. He also invests a small portion of his money in cryptocurrency.
Stocks and crypto account for about $515,000 of his net worth. It’s dropped by over $200,000 in the last month, he noted: “It’s always crazy for me to see these kind of drops but with all the volatility these days, I’ve become pretty used to seeing that figure fluctuate.” His three properties are worth about $1.26 million, with liabilities of $725,000 — meaning he has a little over $500,000 in equity. He also has about $220,000 in his savings account.
Quitting his day job and running his own businessIn 2020, Wright started posting about his financial independence journey online. His account, “Defining Wealth,” has grown to more than 125,000 followers across various social platforms , including Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter.
It’s evolved into another revenue stream — he makes money from brand partnerships and an online real estate course he created — and his full-time gig. He quit his sales job in March 2022 to focus on growing his brand and real estate business. He has four employees helping out with day-to-day operations so he can spend most of his time creating content and looking for properties. For his next investment, he wants to buy some sort of commercial property, which is essentially anything that is five units or more, he explained.
In addition to his rental and social media income, he makes money selling covered calls, which “could be a couple thousand a month and sometimes even more,” he said. It’s a way to make income from the stock holdings that you already have. “Essentially, if you have 100 shares of anything, you’re able to sell what’s called a covered call on that holding. You’re basically selling a contract for someone to buy your shares at a price way over what it is.”
Wright estimates that between his purely passive income streams — his rental income and stock investments — he could live without working for a couple of decades: “Theoretically, I could just sit on a couch for 20 to 30 years, depending on the market.” But he enjoys building his social media brand, which he considers his active income, and doesn’t plan on “retiring” anytime soon.
If you want to master your finances and make work optional, “you have to make it a big part of your life,” said Wright. “It’s like exercise. If you want your body to be in really good shape, you have to work out every single day. There’s almost no other way around it. You have to put in the time and the effort on a consistent basis.”
With money, that means being very close to your finances, he said: “You need to know what your net worth is, know what your income is, know what your expenses are, and know what your cash flow is. Understand where your money is going as it comes in and continually try to learn more and more about finance.”