128: How I Invested My First $500K (And What I'd Do Different Today)

A few years ago, I stood at a crossroads with my portfolio.
Option one: do what most people do—dump it all into index funds and ETFs, hope the market performs, and wait 30 years.
Option two: deploy capital like the wealthy do—across multiple asset classes, focused on income, with strategic allocations that actually pay you now.
I chose option two.
While still working in tech, I built an income-focused portfolio with $530,000 across 9 investments, and it generated $57,000 in annual income. That portfolio became the foundation for what now brings in over $200,000/year in passive income.
But here’s the real value of this video—I’m not just showing you what I did. I’m breaking down what I’d do differently today if I were starting over with the same $500K.
This isn’t theory. These are hard-earned lessons from millions deployed, simplified into a refined framework that anyone can follow—without needing to be a real estate expert, financial advisor, or full-time investor.
In this video, I walk through:
- What I originally invested in (with numbers)
- What worked, what didn’t, and why
- The 5-part framework I’d follow today to generate more income with less stress
- How I went from complexity to a scalable, boring machine that prints income
If you’re sitting on $500,000 or more and want to build a portfolio that pays you to live—not 30 years from now, but today—this video will walk you through the exact strategy I’d use.