Terzel Ron, 25, earns $150,000 a year as a video producer in Los Angeles, but he’s had to work hard to get where he is today.
The child of undocumented immigrants, Ron worked throughout high school to pay for dental work his family couldn’t afford, and he hasn’t stopped hustling since.
Lauren Simmons, an entrepreneur and former Wall Street trader known as the “Wolfette on Wall Street,” is impressed with Ron’s work ethic.
Simmons calls Ron a “twin spirit,” since she comes from a similar “meager beginnings,” as she reacts to his episode of CNBC Make It’s Millennial Money series, which was published in February 2022. Simmons’s family was also unable to pay for the braces that she eventually got later in life, she says.
It’s “super motivating” that Ron is willing to work seven days a week as a full-time video producer for a large TV network, as well as a part-time production manager for a video chat app, Simmons adds. “I love working every single day, too.”
Still, she cautions that while “building an empire” can be great, it’s important to take a day off once in a while to “take a breath” and “enjoy everything that you’re building in the process.”
Simmons is also impressed by how Ron landed a scholarship to New York University, near where he grew up in the South Bronx. In high school, he enrolled in advanced placement classes and joined extracurricular activities, in addition to working three part-time jobs.
She says the sacrifice he made in high school paid off later. The experience of balancing work and school was “already preparing him for working in any kind of environment, especially when we’re talking about entertainment, hosting, writing.”
As for Ron’s monthly budget, Simmons is pleased to see that the bulk of his $8,947 in monthly expenses is going to savings and investments, and she doesn’t see much he can cut back on for expenses. Overall, “he’s doing a pretty good job,” she says.
Ron’s savings and investments total $71,000, which Simmons thinks is “amazing on his salary,” but cautions that having $45,519 of that tied up in crypto comes with a lot of risk compared to index funds or ETFs, due to its price volatility.
“I love it,” says Simmons of Ron’s goal to become a millionaire by 30. With his commitment to long-term financial goals, as well as his work ethic, “I think he absolutely will be a millionaire by 30.”
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