#BreakingBarriers! Talk about the sky being the starting point.
Philadelphia native Ayesha Selden has always loved money, right from childhood she had always been huge on saving, but growing up and working in a bank opened up her eyes to limitless opportunities, teaching her a valuable lifelong lesson – be more than a saver, be an investor!
Today it’s lesson well learnt, with a super impressive portfolio, amassing a billion dollar estate by age 30, with over 40 rental properties, Selden’s inspiring story is touching lives and she’s contributing by helping even more people build their wealth to 7+ figures.
“Condition yourself as a saver first,” Selden shares during a podcast interview. “There are steps to this game. You can’t go from one end of the process all the way to a disciplined investor and think that everything is going to be gravy. I always say that someone who hasn’t mastered the art of being a saver first…how are you going to be a landlord if you don’t have any money saved? If you can’t figure out how to save reserve money, you are going to lose your house and destroy your credit. Figure out how to be a saver first, then investor, and then a disciplined investor.”
Her beginings wasn’t rosy: raised by a single mom in a less than affluent community in South Philly, at age 18 her family moved to a better area. But, Selden had the belief that the area she left would turnaround and that her mom’s property would become valuable one day. It held true.
“I told her not to sell our house and that she should rent it,” Selden shares with Shoppe Black. “She was nervous about being able to find a tenant and sold it in 1997 for $35,000. Within 10 years of her selling, that house was worth 10 times what she sold it for and today, it’s probably worth around $500k to $600k.” That was the ultimate lesson which inspired her to become a competent investor.
Ayesha Selden began her real estate journey at age 24 when she bought foreclosure in Philly for $67,000 using her personal savings. She revamped the place, moved in, and got a roommate. Due to house hacking, Selden was able to save more money. She invested in equities and bought a rental property two years later. In 2011, she used the equity from her first house to buy and rehab more properties.
Multi-million dollar real estate portfolio or not, she still works as a Private Wealth Advisor to help others.
“As a kid, money just always made sense to me,” Selden shared during her podcast interview as she talked about growing up poor in Philly. “I could always save a buck. If you gave me a $10 allowance, I would have that same $10 six weeks later. ”
But it wasn’t until she landed a job at a bank that she started to expand her view of money. “I started seeing real money. People started coming in with millions.”
She realized that the customers did not work. They were investing in stocks, mutual funds, and other assets that worked for them and keyed in on being not just a saver but an investor.
