Posted on 12/29/2007 5:48:14 AM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
He fibbed his way onto the Jerry Springer Show, just to wangle a free trip to Chicago for spring break.
And right there on stage, in front of millions of TV viewers, his long dreadlocks flapping wildly like dirty-blond ropes, he got into the obligatory fight with three of his best friends from the University of Georgia.
Fists flew. Blows landed. Chairs were slung before the bouncers grabbed the flailing foursome.
Alan Corey and his friends — all warily in on the charade — were gleeful.
Sure, they'd made "total fools" out of themselves on national TV, but they'd finagled exactly what Corey wanted — a free trip to someplace other than Florida — and red-carpet treatment fit for stars, complete with a stretch limo, expensive steaks, a wad of cash and a fine hotel.
The former Walton High basketball star in east Cobb and University of Georgia graduate has always been jazzed by seemingly impossible challenges.
His first goal after college was to get a job in New York.
It took a couple of months.
His second: to become a millionaire by age 30.
He did it at 28.
His third, to write a book. He's done that, too.
The Random House title: "A Million Bucks by 30: How to Overcome a Crap Job, Stingy Parents and a Useless Degree to Become a Millionaire Before (Or After) Turning 30."
Here's how he did it.
For years, though he lived in tony east Cobb, he compulsively saved money.
He opened a 10-cent lemonade stand at 5.
"The biggest challenge, there, was my sister taking half the profits when I was doing all the work," he says.
But that taught him a lesson. And maybe it's why in the front of his book, after dedicating it to his parents, he adds on a separate page: "Just to be clear, this amazingly awesome book is not dedicated to my sister, Jill."
He learned that when it comes to money, details need to be worked out ahead of time.
Then, he started making a little more, mowing lawns for $20 a pop. And those customers recommended others. So by the time he graduated with a computer degree from UGA, he had $10,000.
"I have obsessive compulsive disorder when it comes to money," he says.
After living a couple of months in his mom's basement, he got an offer — $40,000 a year at a computer company in New York.
He flew to New York and rented a 30th-floor apartment in a federally subsidized housing project in Spanish Harlem, where he could see uptown to the lights of Yankee Stadium.
"I ate ramen noodles for more than three months, found furniture on the streets, bought huge cans of peanut butter, didn't pay for entertainment, but still had fun," he says. "I didn't hide it. I'd brag about how I could get into places."
He started doing a little stand-up comedy for free, getting drinks and some food, gratis.
"It was my entertainment, my fun," he says. "I developed a financial book fetish, reading every one I could get my hands on. I saved all I could, even opening a second savings account way across town that was too inconvenient to get there."
Within a few years, he had a substantial chunk of change, in addition to savings in 401(k) and IRA accounts.
And, oh, he also figured he could get a little help from his friends back in Georgia.
"He had the guts to take the risks in order to achieve his lofty goals," says friend Matthew Hake, who also attended Walton. "He asked to borrow $10,000 from me, promising that he would pay me back in a year with 10 percent interest."
"At the time, it was just about all I had in savings, but since he was my best friend, I couldn't say no," he said. "Not only did he pay me back six months ahead of schedule, with interest, he also made the right decision with the money and ended up making a killing on the profit of the sale of the building. Of course, I'm still waiting on a huge 'thank-you' check, but that's another story."
So, Corey became a real estate tycoon. First he bought an apartment, and remodeled it into a two-bedroom. Then a two-family townhouse in Brooklyn.
"I've sold everything except for my two-family house," he says. "I still live there with three roomies. I live in the crappiest room with no windows. The second floor is rented to random tenants. My mortgage is $2,300 a month. My rental income is $4,300 a month, so I get paid $2,000 a month for living in my own house. As long as I don't spend more than $2,000 in one month, I don't ever have to work again."
Corey's no more shy about sharing the details of his wealth than he was about peddling lemonade.
"My only house I have now can be sold for $1,175,000, and I owe $380,000 on it," Corey says. "Equity is $795,000."
He has $213,370.35 in stocks, savings and checking and $30,000 in equity in a bar. His total equity, he says, is $1,038,370.35, not counting his salary from that computer job and his rental income — more than enough to put him among the richest 2 percent of American adults.
One of his tenants is another friend from Walton, Andrew Wright, who's trying to make it as a comedian.
"Seeing as this guy was a class clown, and I was voted most likely to succeed in high school, you'd think he'd be paying rent to me instead of the other way around," Wright says.
So far, though he's lived in some rough areas, the "scariest and funniest" situation he's faced happened late one night when "I fought with some dude over a cab, and then he threw me out and yelled, 'Maybe if you could afford to live in Manhattan, you wouldn't need a cab home."
Corey laughs:
"I was 24 and owned two properties at the time."
Tons of grads from UGA and Georgia Tech live in New York, and they get together often at bars, including one where Corey's college chum Jeff Palmiotti, 29, pours libations.
Palmiotti is the guy who, with Corey, convinced the Jerry Springer Show they had a sexy story to tell.
They recruited two reluctant female friends.
"The story was, Alan was dating one, and I was dating her best friend, but I was having sex with both of them," Palmiotti says. "Springer springs the story out on the show, and Alan tried to make himself cry and got so worked up he punched me. One of the girls slapped me in the face. It was ridiculous, surreal."
Corey routinely "got dumped" by women who didn't relish eating boiled noodles.
Says mom, Nancy, a school teacher: "I'm proud of him. He's still stingy. He doesn't act like a millionaire."
But if she wants to go to a Broadway show, she has to take a friend from home.
Corey concedes he may have to alter his cheapskate ways, at least a little.
He's got a "serious" girlfriend now, Sadia Perveen, 27, of London.
"We pretty much split everything, actually," she says. "And instead of buying me flowers, he bought me a big plant that has flowers all year 'round."
He hasn't popped the question yet, but doubts it'll be long, and she knows why.
"He found out I have a friend in London with an uncle in India who can get a diamond really cheap," she says.
I know! My son makes about this, no degree to pay for but trained and certified by the industry, and he lives in HAWAII.
He’s had this job since he was 19, had his own computer business from 15-18.
He’ll be 21 soon, and I expect great things for him.
I want him to be frugal, but not obsessive.
and what good did that do her?
I’m sorry to hear about your husband’s early death, but thankful he provided for you all.
A lot of us are “millionaires” if you count our home equity and retirement savings, value of home furnishings, life insurance, etc.
To me, a real millionaire is someone who has that in easily liquidated funds.
There are some people on this thread who really need to take a few deep breaths and relax.
This guy is the epitome of the American Dream. Ok, so he’s stingy as hell, but I imagine that’s a trait shared by the majority of the richest people in this country. And some of you seem to imply that he came by his wealth dishonestly. Did you conveniently choose to ignore that the guy remodeled houses? As stingy as he is, do you think he sat in some ivory tower and directed minions to do his bidding? I doubt it. He was probably chipping paint, sanding floors, and pounding nails himself at odd hours of the night and morning (he was working full time, remember?).
I see comments that amount to “he didn’t make his money by working hard,” or “he scammed his way into wealth.” That just tells me two things about the commenters: they are green with envy and they live in a fairy tale world. If any of you think that working hard alone will make you wealthy, you are delusional. If you think you can get wealthy by working a day job for someone else, you are either mentally retarded or completely insane.
Yeah, $1M ain’t what it used to be. However, consider that most people have almost no savings and lots of debt (and I’m talking credit card debt—not mortgage debt). Given that, he’s doing pretty good.
"No risk, no reward." Yet this guy gets hammered because he's opened himself up to risk (uncertain real estate values). A lot of these critics don't have the guts to take risks and face potential failure themselves, so they snipe at those who do.
Only two things limit a mans wealth.His choice of a wife and his health.
Merry Christmas-Happy New Year!
True! Whether they are divorced, or still married. I love my wife but can't keep her out of Nieman Marcus.
-ccm
The end of the scene is the man ripping up the floor to reveals millions of dollars, gems, gold and jewelry crying out,
"HERE! Damn you ... HERE is the damned money ! "
“Sure, he has a lot of money but what good is it?”
My little brother has done the same thing, simple jobs and now a small roofing business, but he saves everything, thinks about money all the time and owns a number of houses (all bought with lump sum cash).
He has a huge amount of cash in the bank but is far short of his goal, he says that when he retires he needs X amount of income per month, my question to him is, after being such a tight fisted tightwad all his life, does he really think that at an advanced age he is going to all of a sudden be the kind of person that needs thousands of dollars a month in disposable income?
He never owned a VCR, no stereo system, he has never seen a DVD play on his old TV, no digital camera, no computer, no collections or hobbies, no BBQ cooker, only one pistol with only twenty rounds of ammunition, yet he keeps amassing the wealth for some imagined future of being a red blooded, robust man of generous proportions, living a life of grace and comfort surrounded by a warm social life of new friends, (something that he doesn’t have the time for now, but that will evidently appear when he is in his 60s).
Bump
“There are a million men out there that would be financially stable had they never married.”
There are millions more of us that would never have thought about money if we never married.
Many males only care about stuff like that when they have a female to draw them to the financial accumulation aspect of life.
I’m sure his book deal and appearance fees will more than make up for the paper loss on the home.
Now that the local housing insector knows, you'll want to move soon. A room without a window cannot be live in, legally.
bump
So do you think he lied at the time to qualify for the place or that he doesn't deserve the place because he is white?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.