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This story is part of CNBC Make It's Millennial Money series, which details how people around the world earn, spend and save their money. Sebastian Marquez was in high school when he took his now wife out on their first date to a local junior league hockey game. After the date, he asked if she wanted to stop by his house. She said sure, expecting a family home — not a small, rundown house, gutted and "in absolute shambles," Sebastian, now 28, tells CNBC Make It. "I thought I was going to get murdered in the basement," his wife Julia, 26, says. The house — the second smallest in his town of Hanover, Ontario — was an investment property he had purchased with help from his mom. At 16, Sebastian was balancing school with stocking shelves at Walmart, working on a chicken farm and remodeling the home with the goal of selling it for a profit, he says. Today, the couple has built a net worth of just over $1 million — largely from real estate and cryptocurrency investments, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. All figures have been converted from CAD to USD. Neither Sebastian nor Julia have ever held jobs that have individually paid over six figures, Sebastian says. This year, Sebastian expects to earn about $57,500 from his day job as a business advisor at a local bank, and Julia, a nurse, will bring home around $64,500. The couple also expects to make $14,500 off of a rental property they own, bringing their total projected household income for 2025 to approximately $136,500. Catching the house flipping bug Originally, Sebastian didn't really want to buy a house at 16. He had around $8,000 saved from working various minimum wage jobs, and his heart was set on buying himself his first car, he says. When his mom suggested he would be better off spending that money on flipping a rundown house, he was initially confused. Then he did some research and realized flipping a home was probably going to be a better investment, he says. In 2013, Sebastian says his mom used all his savings and covered the remainder to make a $9,800 down payment on a $48,800 home. His mom also contributed another $14,000 toward the remodel, he says. Other than hiring specialists for plumbing and electrical work, Sebastian says he remodeled the house entirely on his own, using YouTube to teach himself tasks like putting in flooring and installing a toilet. Six months later, the pair sold the home for $82,200, and from there, Sebastian says he caught the house flipping bug. After paying his mom back for her expenses, he used the profit from his first home to purchase and flip another. From 2013 to 2022, Sebastian says he flipped a total of nine properties, totaling an estimated $343,700 in profit, all while working at Walmart and attending college. Today, the couple still owns two properties: his current home — the eleventh home he's bought — and a rental property with two units. 'Walmart always came first' In 2022, Sebastian stopped flipping houses after accepting an offer from Walmart to manage a larger store in London, Ontario, which required him to move about two hours south of his hometown to Strathroy, Ontario, he says. He left his role as an assistant store manager in March, after nearly 13 years at Walmart, for a more stable 9-to-5 job advising small businesses. When he started at Walmart, he says he was earning $7.62 an hour. By last year, his salary had grown to $43,000. "Walmart has seen every side of me from when I was a young teen," Sebastian says, so much so that he even jokes with his wife that "Walmart always came first." Despite his modest income, Sebastian, who has always had a "geekish, nerdish passion" for spreadsheets, says he was able grow his savings through frugal, diligent budgeting and the houses he flipped in his early 20s. He has kept a budget spreadsheet since 2018. He has a spreadsheet to track his net worth, one for how much he spends on fuel and one that tracks his health. He even remembers creating a spreadsheet to track how much the couple spent on dates before they were married — just to make sure everything was equitable, he says. "It's just fun for me," Sebastian says. "Most of the time, my wife will find me on the couch, on my laptop, fidgeting around with spreadsheets." Investing in crypto was a gamble that 'definitely paid off' Just under half of Sebastian and Julia's total net worth comes from their crypto investments, worth about $400,000 as of Sept. 30. The rest comes from investment accounts, their properties and two cars the couple own. In 2019, Sebastian was looking to diversify his assets, so he invested around $25,000 in bitcoin and ethereum — about 10% of his net worth at the time — on yet another one of his mom's suggestions. Because cryptocurrencies are highly volatile, that was the amount he was comfortable risking and willing to hold onto for the long term, he says. "It was a gamble that we had taken at the time, and it's definitely paid off, fortunately," Sebastian says. Between May 2019, when Sebastian says he made his first investments, and the end of September 2025, bitcoin's value in Canadian dollars has grown by around 2,000% and ethereum's has grown by around 2,500%. The couple's spending today In September, Sebastian and Julia brought in a total of $9,500 — $7,900 from their day jobs and $1,400 in rental income. They also receive $180 a month from the Canadian government to help cover expenses for their 6-month-old daughter, most of which they invest in an account set aside for her future. Sebastian and Julia combined their finances in 2020 before getting married in 2022, and they sit down about once a month to talk through their budget and track their net worth, Sebastian says. He says the couple currently puts 15% of their income into index funds. "At the end of the day, we're working on the same goal," Sebastian says. "We're very similar minded when it comes to spending money." Here's a look at how Sebastian and Julia spent their money in September 2025: Annual insurance payments: $4,279 for their rental property and primary home Housing and utilities: $2,276 on their mortgage, phone, internet, water and other utilities Savings and investments: $1,478 toward various savings and investment accounts Rental unit expenses: $928 for the mortgage, landscaping and electricity Discretionary: $875 on personal care, recreation, entertainment, toys for their daughter and supplies for their dog Food: $772 from groceries and eating out Transportation: $420 on gas, car repairs and a speeding ticket Subscriptions and memberships: $130 on nine subscriptions including SleepWatch Premium, Netflix, iCloud and Google Nest for home security cameras Life insurance: $18 monthly payment The couple's September spending was higher than average largely due to two insurance payments he prefers to pay annually, Sebastian says. In a typical month, Sebastian says his family spends closer to $4,300 to $5,700 on personal expenses, while setting some of their income aside to prepare for these large annual payments. The couple doesn't have any outstanding debt other than their two mortgages. Saving for the future Sebastian estimates he could probably afford to retire around 35 due to his early and consistent investments. However, "I don't really like to think of it as retirement, but more so as financial independence," he says. He may jump back into real estate in the "near future," but for now, he says he's focused on enjoying time with his family. "It'd be nice to obviously make more money," Sebastian says. "However, at the end of the day, I think it has to do with what you do with your money." All amounts are in U.S. dollars, converted from Canadian Dollars at the OANDA exchange rate of 1 CAD to 0.71824 USD on Sept. 30, 2025. What's your budget breakdown? 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