Wealthy & Authentic
Being wealthy and authentic is something we all desire and aspire for. What could be more empowering than owning your present, smiling at your future, and laughing at your past.
It is often emphasized that compounding returns, interest and dividends are the key to building substantial wealth. However, the ironic truth is many investors are too new to know by experience how this works. Too few have witnessed its awesome power to build substantial wealth.
Well, today I’m sitting down with Duane and we’re going to show you just how powerful investing in the stock market since 1996 can be! Prepare to have your mind blown.
Hey Duane! Tell us About Yourself
I am a Husband, Father of 2 daughters and 5 adopted children, 3rd child of 4 to my Parents.
I discovered at an early age that I loved being creative and working for myself. On top of this, I have always been a leader and have always sought excellence in all I have done.
When I was 11 years old, I started my first newspaper route and leveraged it so I would cover 2 areas, which was unheard of at the time.
Where did you go to school?
I graduated from Duquesne University, in Pittsburgh, Pa, in 1988 with my bachelors and began working for Westinghouse Electric Corp as an Accountant.
I worked for them for 3 years before I stopped working for others and have been pursuing my own visions ever since. I have been at the lowest points and places in life and have learned so much about myself there. I have been in the highest seats in life and have found that I was the same man there.
From these life experiences, I have concluded life is what you make it, and your follow-through is what determines how long you have it. I have built several personal businesses over the years but nothing like what I am doing now.
When you know better, you do better.
I now see a bigger picture of the world and I am less critical of people. Most people are doing the best they can with what they have.
Where did your passion for building wealth come from?
When I was 10, my grandfather told me about saving money. I started with a little bank in my bedroom but soon I opened a savings account at our local bank.
When I was 28 years old, a man who was my mentor, told me that if I got $10K he would show me how to make it $1 million by the time I was 65 in the stock market.
I gave him that $10K and he showed me a great investment that his account manager had told him would be big over the next 40 years. In 1994 We invested my money in one of the first ETF’s (SPY) and I continued to add to it for years.
This man’s advice has proven to be correct and highly beneficial for me.
What were your first years of investing like?
Investing in the mid 90’s was quite different than today. The mindset of my financial mentor was to buy and hold and he would not waver on that.
He would not look at option plays, which became more readily available during that time with the rise of the modern internet. This led me to use that same pattern. So, I dollar-cost averaged as a matter of habit.
I would invest every Tuesday and it would be in blue chip companies that were big and well known. We did well as there was not much downside to investing in blue chips at that time. You simply bought the company and held the stock.
This was great until you saw the dot.com emerge later in the 90’s. I was able to get out the gates and begin the right way for the times. I still maintain a buy and hold strategy to this day; however, I do some swing trades and will play the options here and there.
Tell us about your best trade or investment
My best investment is $SPY but it is an ETF and I have since stopped investing in it and invest in $VOO now. My best company trade was buying McDonalds in 1996. I was able to get in at a lower trend that was just turning in July 1996 when I was 29 years old. Since that time, I have been able to dollar-cost-average my way into 1649 shares, as of this month. As of December 13, 2021, these 1649 shares are worth $433,835.41
Image Caption: An example of long-term investing. Here is $100 a month invested in McDonald’s since 1996. Duane has done even better, but this shows how regular consistent investing can be very powerful.
Wait, so you own 1600 shares of MCD?
Yes, and I will continue to invest weekly in MCD because they are the best Real Estate company in the world who happens to have restaurants.
Their management team have been able to survive the health food wave, the crisis, the pandemic and so much more. This company pays a great dividend, and the stock has split so my shares have gown like crazy.
What has this large investment done for you and your family
Having an investment in MCD has allowed me to see why everyone needs to invest. I began sharing this with my children and it spread from there.
I am so convinced of the opportunities that stock investing provides that I want everyone to get the benefit.
As man of color, I see so many of my people who spend, spend, spend. I started teaching my children and now many others, that you spend where you invest.
I love McDonalds fries, milk shakes, and burgers. Over the years, I had no issue when I went there because I owned some of the company.
It was the same way with Pizza Hut, so I bought Pepsico, who owned it.
I believe in investing, and I believe in living wealthy. I teach and train others to do what I have been blessed to do over the years. My family gets to know what to do. I lead a Wealth accumulation business and my family is a part of it. We believe this works and want others to benefit from it.
Tell us about investing through bear markets
When I invested my first $10K, I was told that the game could only be won if I invested no matter what. I was told there would be down days, weeks, and months, but if I stayed the course, I would get my millions.
I believe what I was told and put it into practice. In 2008 it was hard to see what happened. There was so much uncertainty, but I stayed on the course and watched all that I lost come back in less than 3 years plus an increase. Since then, it has been a killer market and I continue to win.
Tell us about your online brand of products
I have a very thorough stock investing masterclass that has a 58 page booklet and 10 videos where I teach the forces that affect the stock market as well as how to understand the ratios and fundamental and technical analysis.
This class can be purchased with a link on my twitter account or my website bewealthy2.com.
I also lead a community of people who are pursuing a wealthy life.
To me, living wealthy means you get out of bad debt and use good debt to build wealth, you establish good credit that you leverage to build wealth, you invest in stocks, bonds, crypto, real estate, art and the like, while living an authentic life.
I have a team that I work with to help people develop and grow into that definition of wealthy. This community is called Wealthy Life Masters and can be joined from my twitter account bio or my website bewealthy2.com or my Patreon, Duane Youngblood at Bewealthy 2.
Talk to us about the importance of mentorship
Let me first say that as a black man I see the need to teach my people what I know about investing. My heart hurts for the numbers of young Black men who sit in prisons around the nation and who got there following the mentors they had in the neighborhood. Many of these young men were raised in poor families and wanted to fit in with the kids who had the shoes and the clothes.
I have stepped into classrooms where these at-risk young men were. I have taught my stock classes to 100’s of them in prison and through my business. My heart would hurt but get great joy every time I saw one of them get it. I can’t tell you the numbers of times I have been told thank-you for showing a young black man a better way.
I know my people can do better. I know they are smart, creative, business minded and if given the right tools, will rise and do exceptionally well.
My daily passion is to provide them and anyone who wants a chance to live wealthy, with the tools to get there. The reason wealthy involves your debt, credit, investments, and authenticity, is you cannot sustain money without a whole life approach.
People get money and then bad habits take it.
On our discord server we talk about being healthy, so you live long enough to enjoy your financial wealth. We are just launching the server and are therefore promoting and growing it, but my big vision is to help 30 million people live wealthy.
I know this will be attained and the 100’s I have helped before, who write me, call me, and email me to tell me of their continued success encourage me to continue with the vision. Today I am beginning to see the vision take shape.
I run a YouTube channel, a LinkedIn page, the Discord server, and my twitter account to help share the wealth. I feel so blessed to be where I am today. I have had major setbacks, but I have been so blessed to recover and come back fighting.
Lastly, I know my approach works because it has worked for me. Also, seeing 100’s of others embrace it and experience the life change it brought them, helps me know that it works.
I hurt, at times, when I see the get rich quick mindset on people.
I know this way leads to bad decisions.
I teach and model a consistent journey to wealthy.
This wealth is a life that, when embraced, will impact generations, and allow millions to leave legacies that generations to come will benefit from.
Conclusion
Duane, thank you so much for stopping by, sharing your story, and imparting your valuable wisdom for how we can all build a wealthy and authentic future for ourselves and our families.
It truly was a pleasure, and I learned so much from your story and example.
If you don’t already follow Duane on Twitter, stop by, and click that follow button. He is one of the best guys out here, building wealth for his clients.
He’s authentic and he’s the real deal.
I would also love to hear from you too, so don’t hesitate to follow me on Twitter @StephenWealthy_ and drop me a DM. I love hearing from you all and helping you build wealth and passive income.
Until next week.
