Griffin Speaks

FIVE HUNDRED RENTAL HOUSES

My close friends are aware of my goal to own five hundred rental houses. Reaching this goal is requiring great sacrifices on the part of my entire immediate family. There is no extra money to waste. Every extra dime available goes to the purchase of real estate. 

A few days ago Debra and I purchased a beautiful garden home in east Montgomery. The home is already rented out. This brought us one house closer to our goal of five hundred rental homes. When people ask us how close we are to reaching our goal. We tell them that we have enough rental property to be as my dad says “peculiar!” 

Like a lot of people these days, building real wealth is a definite goal of mine. I am very disturbed at the amount of money African-African Americans waste. We are huge consumers of junk. We buy expensive clothes and expensive cars and leave very little inheritance. In fact many black folks still walk around talking about “If I die.” 

I always tell Debra that you can’t tell a white person’s wealth by their job. A white person may have inherited a fortune from Aunt Sue or Grandpa Henry and still be working in a low paying job while living a lifestyle comparable with their inherited wealth. Black folks leave very little wealth behind even when they had great jobs during their lifetime. 

If you ride around in Montgomery you would soon wonder where do these homeowners get the money to purchase these gigantic homes. The truth is many of these homeowners have inherited money throughout the years. Some are northern transplants, but most are the recipient of inherited money. 

Somebody has to make the initial sacrifices to build wealth. I had a close friend to tell me that I should enjoy my money now. He said that Greg Jr., Alexis and Chris would just throw it away one day. I looked at him and told him that “if they have as much fun throwing it away as I had making it, so be it.” 

In a few weeks people will go out and throw thousands of dollars away on Christmas gifts. This is done every year and people still wonder why they can’t get ahead. Extravagant Christmas shopping is the reason why most people are not financially secure. If you want to be rich then do what rich people do. They purchase their luxuries last. 

I am in no way Greg Calhoun rich, but I am well on my way. This is how I plan to get there: 1.) Every morning I recite out loud that I intend to own five hundred rental houses. 2.) In order to acquire these houses I will not waste money by purchasing expensive cars and clothes. 3.) I will reach this goal before the age of sixty. 4.) I will establish a great relationship with a bank. 5.) I will recite my plan of action twice daily. 

A testament to how well my plan has been working toward reaching my goal occurred the other night when Debra while resting on the sofa looked up and asked me “ How many houses do we own?” I replied, “Darling enough to be peculiar!” 

In the words of my dad, Dr. Melvin J. Griffin Sr. “If you don’t have money at least have class!”

Greg Griffin is a free lance writer. You can read his previous articles by visiting his web page at www.greggriffin.com