180- How Lawrence Amassed a Six Figure Net Worth and Doubled His Income to Six Figures (while still in debt)

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lawrence Gonzalez had a choice to make: should he continue falling deeper into debt or get serious and make a plan? With 6 figures of debt, Lawrence decided it was time to make a decision: to be in control of his finances.  He made the decision to not finish graduate school, get a job, and ultimately, live the life he wanted. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lawrence is a proud Haitian-American and</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">decorated veteran Sergeant of the United States Marine Corps.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">He grew up in Haiti until the age of nine and witnessed that his grandmother with six kids was able to make it work with a very low income.  </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For Lawrence it all came down to having a strategy. One of the many strategies and skills that Lawrence was able to hone was the language of resumes.  He began working on mastering his resume and went from his first job in 2012 of making $23,000 to getting a new job a year later bringing home $32,000. He saw how much a resume mattered, so 6 months later he did it again but this time managed to secure a government position and doubled his income to $64,000. Now in 2020, he is still in the same government position as an Auditor but has since been promoted and is now bringing in $109,000. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Even though Lawrence did not finish school, what helped him excel was that he knew his strengths, his passion and wanted to give back to his community.  His story also shows us that you can still have debt and reach your financial goals. Debt is something that he chooses to live with and is manageable for him because he has a strategy. Focusing on building assets and investing has allowed him to own a home, a rental property, and start a small business, which would have been impossible if he focused on paying off his debt first.  Now he is on the journey to achieving his goals of reaching a million dollar net worth in 5