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.
There is the legitimate and moral way to work your way up and use thrift to do it...and then there is this dirtbag.
If he is touted as the “New American Success Story”, then we might as well pack it in as a country. It seems to me he is nothing but a parasite.
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.
How to get rich in America...sponge off the taxpayers (funny, he sure did hate it when his sister sponged off him)...
"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."
Not for long weird boy. Most if your "wealth" is paper wealth tied to a house. Expect to take a 50% haircut to your net worth in the next few years...
I dunno—he’s got the right idea, though he carries it to an extreme. I know a fair amount of people who make very good money, but piss it away on things like eating out 3X a week, Starbucks every day, new cars every 2 years, and the latest crap gadgets. A lot of people also have no tracking system for their income or savings, which is a huge mistake as well.
That being said, a $40K computer job in NYC is the equivalent of making minimum wage.
I remember a story about a secretary in New York. She had the same job all her life, never lived extravagantly, saved and invested, and left behind several million dollars when she died.
My husband was just like this guy, but by the time he died at age 41, he had so many investments and a huge house without a mortgage, that I am still living comfortably all these years later. I never noticed he was cheap. We lived in the best part of town, drove Lincolns (used) and were aiming to join the local country club when he died. And our children went to private school, and any college they chose.
He scams the scammers, works a regular job, saves his cash, invests in real estate and has a blast. If that's parasitism, we need more of it.
I think he worked pretty hard for his money. He started at what age 6 with a lemonaid stand. He got meals by working. The Jerry Springer thing was stupid, but the rest of the story is inspirational to those who have doubts about making it in America.
Sorry to hear about your husband’s death at such an early age.
Most of his status is based on the possibility of selling one house at a huge profit. A lot of people have been financially ruined by such speculation.
Now that's funny.
Wow, there are a lot of envious people on this thread. Hey, the kid's got a house worth over a million and only owes $300K. He's living frugally -- not spending the equity -- and you say he could be financially ruined?
Sounds like a hard-working and pretty interesting guy. Wish I'd been more like him.
This story’s probably about as real as the one he told to get on Springer.
LBT
......
A friend of mine recently told me the horror story of a co-worker of hers, who was determined to marry a rich lawyer.
Well, she succeeded, landing a young partner in the law firm where she worked. But the guy is so stingy he makes the creep in the article look like Santa Claus. He makes $400K a year, and yet is constantly trying to con his $30K secretary into buying him lunch. Even though his new wife is pregnant, he is FORCING her to keep working to pay for “her share” of the house he recently bought on sheriff’s sale. Plus no new clothes, no gifts of jewelry, no trips.
There’s no purpose in having money, as you say, unless you can enjoy at least some of it. People like this usually never get to the point at which they can relax and spend a little—to them, they’ve never made or saved enough.
Don't balance your checkbook. You'll err on the conservative side and periodically move the excess to savings. It's real estate that's key, though, in making real money.
As to Federal housing ripoffs, lawyers have analogous ways to do the same thing. This kid's got gumption, and I wish him luck.
He is no different than the character Trina in Frank Norris’ McTeague, a novel about the crippling effect of greed. This guy certainly does sound like he parasites of his friends, which sounds like greed to me, and no, we don’t need more greed.
He sounds a lot happier in his weird lifestyle than most people I know. Oh, and he's a millionaire too........
I'm certainly in no position to judge this guy.
You missed my point. He has a million dollars IF he sells that house for a million dollars. If he tries to sell it and only gets 300,001 dollar, he has a REAL worth of $1 profit on that house, or whatever the actuals are. Such speculation led to the housing crash of the 1920’s.
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