So, This Is Us: Shawn and Melang
(My real name is Melissa but my mom’s side of the family is Filipino and they gave me the nickname. Once Shawn found out about it, there was not turning back.)
We’ve been together since 2014, which is so crazy to think about as I’m writing this.
And in that time, we’ve moved around quite a bit in pursuit of our dreams.
Shawn’s job and my first law school took us from our college-town Cookeville, TN to his dream job as a mechanical design engineer in Holland, MI.
Then our homesickness kicked in and we decided we had to move closer to home… But also somewhere that would provide a lot of opportunity for us.
So, we finally settled on Atlanta, GA at his newest job as a sales engineer and my final stop for law school.
And along this process, we’ve also tried our hand at a lot of different businesses.
I mean, we’ve tried a drop-shipping/Shopify website that probably cost us more than we made combined on that “venture.”
Then we tried creating info-based programs… And realized neither of really had an interest in that, per se.
And for a short bit I dabbled in the dog-sitting business (loads of stories to come from that one) to help pull my weight while in law school.
And in the midsts of all of that, we also became landlords.
We house-hacked our home and bought a freaking duplex.
A lot of people judged us for house-hacking:
Don’t you feel weird having roommates?
You aren’t in college anymore, you know that, right?
I just wouldn’t want to have roommates in my first home with my fiance.
That one wasn’t so bad because we did actually see a return on the investment with the “passive” income.
(I say passive because self-managing your rental properties is NOT passive).
And we still have those rentals in Michigan to this day; we just aren’t the ones managing them any longer.
And finally, we tried creating a real estate wholesaling business. This one has taken the most patience and grit to date.
And believe it or not, we’re actually still in it!
In short:
We’ve failed a lot. But we’ve learned a lot more.
So I guess that’s kinda where this blog comes into play.
This journey hasn’t been easy. And sometimes, it’s not even fun.
Being an entrepreneur (and being in a relationship with one) is stressful and down right emotionally taxing.
There are really high highs that are followed (almost immediately) by some really low lows.
And not enough people talk about how often you find yourself just holding on and white-knuckleing your way through it.
And I’m not just talking about the business.
I’m talking about your marriage, too.
It takes two really strong people to make this lifestyle work.
And we want to share all the tips, tricks, and “hacks” we’ve learned along the way that have taught us lessons, got us money, lost us money, helped our marriage, and all the nooks and crannies in-between.
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