A man was able to leave his well-paid police job after his side hustle started raking in millions of dollars.
Paul Alex was detective in the narcotics task force for San Francisco Police, and was later assigned to the special victims unit.
He was bringing home a $133,000 salary, with additional benefits bringing his annual salary to around $272,000.
His career gave Paul financial stability, but it came at a cost.
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He 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.
"I didn't have any personal freedom," Paul 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."
The police force then paused overtime pay, which drastically affected Paul's income.
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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.
Paul considered real estate, but decided it wasn't for him because of the potential debt it would create, as well as the stress of maintaining the properties.
A colleague then suggested he invested in ATM machines and, upon researching the topic, came to realize that the business was low risk compared to others.
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After doing more homework on the matter, Paul decided to take up the side hustle in 2018.
He scouted locations he thought might be good for an ATM, and went on to purchase six machines which he dotted around different locations in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Each machine cost less than $3,000.
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.
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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.
When he moved the machines, Paul started bringing home $3,000 a month in profit. It only took six months for him to make a return on his investment.
By 2020, Paul had a total of 30 machines and, as his income continued to increase, he was eventually able to leave his police job in 2021.
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He went on to partner with an ATM provider, and Paul sold off his machines so he was able to become remote.
As per documents seen by Business Insider last year, 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 success, Paul has urged people to 'invest in yourself'.
"All this started from a friend of mine, giving me an idea, and then me taking that idea and doing my due diligence and just researching it, buying books, watching videos, reading, reading, reading to the point where I was comfortable enough to execute it on my own," he continued.
"Self-education is everything."