Dalton Ng and Joella Lum are not your average young couple.
For one thing, they live together – and pay rent – in a comfortable condominium just a stone’s throw from Orchard Road.
On the other hand, they are both self-made millionaires. That’s right, they’re worth between $ 2 million and $ 3 million each, tells us Dalton, who has just turned 20.
19-year-old Joella admits they lead unconventional lives but says they both share the same extremely independent character and grew up with an entrepreneurial mindset.
“Do you know the people in elementary school who buy six packs of erasers and sell each one individually? We are such people, ”she laughs.
Indeed, while most people their age struggle with their part-time appearances at the minimum wage, the two comfortably make $ 70,000 to $ 150,000 a month from their various businesses and investments.
Dalton runs two startups: Glance.sg, a hyper-local platform for freelancers, and ContainerPay, a payment processing system for the shipping industry.
Joella runs several stores on the Shopify e-commerce platform. She also takes care of the couple’s stocks and cryptocurrency investments.
The effort seems to have paid off for them – when Joella was only 18 and Dalton 19, they were able to move out of their families’ homes. Not to mention, they have more than enough cash to buy designer clothes and custom PCs.
Here are her top tips for other young people starting out on growing up.
Start early
The couple didn’t just get rich one day. Rather, they owe their financial freedom to hard work since secondary school and to saving and reinvesting their income, they tell us.
Joella started the game of entrepreneurship reselling clothes she bought from H&M and Cotton On on Carousell and made thousands in revenue by the time she entered secondary school.
Dalton, on the other hand, started programming and developing apps in high school and earned around $ 10,000 for each project.
When he first made money, he confessed that he spent most of it.
“I thought damn it, new iPhone, new MacBook. But after about two or three months, I started saving and collecting and reinvesting most of the money I made.”
Even when their businesses aren’t doing well, they try to invest at least $ 30,000 a month, Dalton says, explaining that they consider this to be “buying more income.”
“We put luxury – things like designer clothes or fancy dinners – as the last thing we spend each month on. The first would be our basic equipment like rent, basic food, basic transportation costs and then our dog’s upkeep, followed by investments. “
Pampering is okay, but do it responsibly
It would definitely be a temptation for anyone who makes as much money as they do to waste money living high living, but Dalton and Joella say that spending responsibly is key.
Dalton says one rule he lived by was to invest as much as he spends.
“Whenever I buy something from a company, like buying an iPhone, I put the same amount into Apple stock. That way, I’ll somehow make the money back over time.”
Another way he and Joella are capping their spending is to multiply the price of the item they have in mind by three.
“If this price is painful, it’s too expensive for us to buy. If it doesn’t feel painful, we can easily afford it. It’s okay to buy it.
“We also consider things like reselling the item, especially when it comes to things like some of my bags,” says Joella, who has a penchant for Hermes bags.
Some, like Birkin and Kelly, can hold in value or “even outperform the stock market,” she adds.
Do your research and never invest more than you can afford to lose
Are you tempted to invest money in stocks after watching a YouTube video or two? Dalton and Joella both warn against this and stress the importance of doing your own research.
“You shouldn’t be investing in things you don’t understand, including cryptocurrencies. I played around with Bitcoin for many, many years before I even bought any, all the way back to high school,” recalls Dalton.
“So I didn’t see it on the news and then I bought it.”
Joella agrees and warns that trading can be an emotional roller coaster ride for those who are just getting started.
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“It’s pretty bad sometimes because you can be really hit by the highs and you don’t know how bad the lows can be,” she says, adding that her portfolio has had some “very bloody days” over the past few months .
In some cases, it’s best to stay calm and reduce your losses, says Joella.
Aside from investing only an amount that you can afford to lose, if you are just starting out and are more risk averse, you can put your money in the Standard and Poor’s 500 or an exchange traded fund.
Even if you can’t afford to invest large sums of money, consistency is key, advises Dalton.
“You have to remember that you are in for the long term. Even if you only invest $ 100, it gets more every month.
“And if you work hard every month, you will have made a considerable amount of money by the age of 30.”
Look out for our upcoming Leaving Home function with Dalton and Joella, in which they talk all about moving out and dealing with difficult landlords.
Leaving Home is an original AsiaOne series in which we talk to young people who have dared to move out of their parents’ home. Who said you have to wait until you get married or until you are 35? They share exactly what it takes to have a space that you can call your own.
kimberlylim@asiaone.com
