My Life Story, Part 2: From a Million in Debt to Eight Figures — My Decade of Turning Things Around

If this is your first time reading this series, I'd suggest starting with My Life Story, Part 1: How a Single-Parent Home and a Poor Childhood Shaped My View of Money.

In that part I told the full story of how I grew up —

a single-parent home, a poor childhood, and the survival mode of “knowing early that you can't rely on anyone.”

This part continues from there, into adult life.

It isn't an inspirational story; it's a very real account of turning things around.

Rock bottom: debt, borrowing money and a pack of noodles

When I finished my military service, I had just NT$30,000 in savings.

At the same time, I owed nearly NT$500,000 in student loans.

I started adult life in debt.

In my first year in insurance, there was a month I earned only NT$3,000 (about US$100).

But my student loan payment was NT$5,000 a month.

During that time I often borrowed money from my mom to get by.

Worse, in my second year, when my income improved a little, I got ahead of myself.

I decided I “should be able to buy a car now.”

So I bought a new domestic-brand car with a NT$600,000 loan.

More than NT$10,000 a month in car payments, plus the student loan,

pushed me straight into the abyss.

Even asking to borrow money felt humiliating

One time, I really couldn't hold on any longer.

I couldn't bring myself to ask my mom again, so I asked a coworker.

I said:

“Could you lend me NT$200 so I can eat until payday next month?”

He paused, looked at me and said:

“Huh? You don't even have 200? That's so sad.”

He didn't mean anything by it; we were actually good friends.

But as I took the NT$200 and rode away on my scooter, the tears kept coming.

I felt useless.

With that NT$200 (about US$6) I bought a big pack of Guanmiao noodles and a bottle of soy sauce,

and lived on them for a week.

Back then I had seven or eight bank accounts,

each with only a few dozen or a few hundred NT dollars in it.

I did something that still amazes me when I think about it:

I transferred everything from all of them into one account

just to scrape together a single NT$1,000 bill to last the week.

At that time I had only one thought:

survive.

Age 29: the year my debt passed a million

The year I turned 29,

my car loan plus student loans officially passed NT$1 million.

Every day I felt stuck in a swamp; however hard I struggled, I couldn't climb out.

Then one day I went to a class reunion.

One sentence woke me up completely

Chatting, I found out that one classmate's stock portfolio was already over NT$10 million.

I was stunned.

Not with envy — but with the realization that

the gap between us wasn't effort; it was choices.

I asked him whether I should sell my car.

He answered with one sentence:

“Definitely sell it. A car is a liability, and you can't afford to keep one right now.”

A week later, I really did sell it.

Starting over: tracking expenses put my life back on its feet

After selling the car, I started tracking my expenses every day.

Not now and then — every day.

I've kept it up for thirteen years now.

Three years later, at 32,

I'd paid off all my student loans, and my net worth was back to zero.

It was the first time in my life I stood at the real starting line.

My first million, and the start of real estate

At 34, I saved my first NT$1 million (about US$30,000).

I'd always been interested in property,

so I started viewing homes and taking courses.

I even took the same foreclosure-auction course twice,

because the first time I was so tired I kept nodding off.

The second time, I still nodded off.

But I stuck with it.

My first property was a court-auctioned home — a partial share, sold without handover of possession.

Over the next few years I bought a townhouse, an apartment, older homes and pre-sale units.

Not because I was brilliant,

but because property in Kaohsiung really was still cheap at the time.

Hard work lets luck find you

I viewed more than a hundred properties.

I had more than a hundred real estate agents and sales reps in my LINE contacts.

I read more than twenty books on the subject.

During the pandemic, when the market was at its quietest,

I went out viewing homes.

At one sales center, four or five reps were serving just me.

Then TSMC announced it was coming to Nanzih, in Kaohsiung,

and Kaohsiung property prices took off.

At 41, my net worth officially passed NT$10 million (after mortgages and taxes).

As the Roman philosopher Seneca said:

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

Times don't repeat, so strategy has to change

I know very well

that copying this path again today would be almost impossible.

So I started rebalancing:

selling the townhouse, which was costly to manage,

and moving the money into more liquid assets like ETFs and bonds.

Not because I'm pessimistic about property,

but because I don't need to push so hard anymore.

What I want you to take away

If you're still in debt, or still can't save,

please remember one thing:

In the early stage, what matters most isn't investing — it's your main job.

If your capital is tiny, even a high rate of return means little.

I'd encourage young people to try a sales job —

not because it's easy, but because it quickly raises the ceiling on what you can do.

But whatever work you do,

it all comes back to one formula:

Ability − desire = freedom

Once you keep your desires in check,

your life starts to have choices.

Closing: not a shortcut to paradise, but a very long road

From a million in debt to an eight-figure net worth,

there were no miracles — only choices, adding up over a long time.

In the next part, I'll talk about something more real, and more brutal:

once you have money, does happiness really follow?

Next: My Life Story, Part 3: What I Only Understood About Happiness After Financial Freedom

Listen to the episode (in Mandarin): #32 Doug's life story, part 2: Waking up to money