A San Francisco man was granted the luxury of leaving his well-paid job after making millions from an unexpected side hustle.
Paul Alex had been working as a detective in the narcotics task force for San Francisco Police before becoming involved with the special victims unit.
While stressful, Paul did bring in an annual salary of $133,000, with additional bonuses launching him bring home pay to a whopping $272,000.
Yes, the police job gave Paul financial stability, but he was left mentally drained.
Paul found he was working between 60 to 100 hours a week, meaning he wasn't able to spend as much time with his family as he wanted.
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"I didn't have any personal freedom," the former detective told Business Insider.
"I was neglecting my personal life. I wasn't hanging around my family, who I love. I'm a big family guy. And at the end of the day, I realized, this can't be life."
Paul's pay was cut big time when the police force decided to pause overtime cash.
It was then that he decided he wanted to invest in cash-flowing assets, in the hopes of giving him more financial security - especially on those months his salary was lower than usual.
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Many options were on the cards, including real estate - but Paul quickly came to the conclusion that would not be for him because of the debt involved and the management of properties that would be required.
A colleague then suggested he invested in ATM machines and, upon researching the topic, Paul came to realize that the business was low risk compared to others.
After doing more homework, Paul decided to take up the side hustle in 2018.
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He scouted locations he thought might be good for an ATM, and went on to purchase six machines - costing less than $3,000 each - dotted around different locations in the San Francisco Bay Area.
A decent minimum return on each machine is $200 a month from its surcharges, according to Paul, and some of his best-placed machines were bringing in anywhere between $250 - $500.
Paul went on to move the machines that weren't bringing in as much revenue and sought out the help of a mentor over Facebook.
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When he moved the machines, Paul started bringing home $3,000 a month in profit.
And he managed to make a return on his investment after just six months, truly impressive stuff.
By 2020, Paul had a total of 30 machines, and as his income continued to increase, he was able to call it quits on the police job in 2021.
He went on to partner with an ATM provider, and Paul sold off his machines so he was able to become remote.
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As per documents seen by Business Insider, Paul's profit and loss statements showed a total sales amount of $12 million and a net profit of about $3.5 million for his company ATMTogether, a provider of ATM machines and services.
In light of his massive successes, Paul has urged people to 'invest in yourself'.
Callum Jones