Moses Lin once played guitar at a coffee shop and ended his set with $3 in tips.

Now, the Southern California-based wedding guitarist travels the world, charges up to $15,000 to play weddings and coaches other musicians to build their own successful businesses.

Lin pours earnings from his day job into real estate. He bought his first properties in Little Rock, Arkansas, in May 2020 and now has eight buildings in his portfolio, in addition to owning his own home in California.

When CNBC Make It spoke with Lin two years ago, he made it a goal to grow his net worth to $1 million by the time he hit 30.

A few weeks before his 31st birthday in May, he realized he hit that milestone. Here's how.

Earning up to $70,000 a month as a traveling wedding guitarist

As a wedding guitarist, Lin customizes his services based on when and how long couples want him to play, whether it's for the ceremony, cocktail hour, reception or a mix of events.

He charges between $6,000 for simpler packages up to $15,000 for something more elaborate.

Couples pay to cover Lin's travel alongside his wedding crew, which consists of a sound engineer and a production assistant who films his work for social media.

Lin says it's important to invest in team members who help him look and sound his best, which leads to future bookings. "Without my team, I would definitely not be able to charge what I charge, and so I really try to take care of them," he says.

In June 2023, Lin checked off one of his goals to work in Italy when he was flown out to play weddings in Lake Como and Milan.

April 2024 brought another milestone when he brought in $70,794 for the month between final payments for seven weddings he played as well as deposits for four future bookings. "It was crazy," Lin says.

So far, Lin has brought in roughly $275,000 from weddings and real estate in 2024, and he's on track to bring in $500,000 by the end of the year.

Building a coaching side hustle

Over the years, Lin has gotten requests from musicians around the world with one main question: Could he teach them how to build and scale their own businesses?

He decided to give business coaching a shot to fulfill a role he wishes he had while coming up in the music scene. "When I started doing this, I felt very alone because no one was doing what I was doing, and there's no one to look up to," he says.

Wedding photographers can find experts and influencers to gain inspiration and pick up business tips, Lin explains, but he never saw other guitarists and traveling musicians working in the wedding space.

At first, he charged around $150 for a coaching session, but realized the demand was more than he can handle; he's since scaled up his fee to $1,500 for an hour-long session.

Lin has coached musicians worldwide from places including Ireland, Dubai, Singapore, Chicago, New York and more. He sees coaching as a side business, and says he'll never give up playing live events.

"I think a lot of people in the speaking space don't necessarily do the thing anymore. They just coach or teach, and [their advice is] a little dated," Lin says. "I'm still 100% doing weddings — I'm never going to transition out of that. I feel like if I ever transition out, no one's going to trust me to teach them anything."

Managing rental properties: 'It's so minimal that I don't even consider it work'

The majority of Lin's $1 million net worth is tied up in real estate. He bought his first property in 2020 as a "pandemic pivot" while weddings were on pause, which is "one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life," he says.

He chose to buy in Little Rock, where real estate prices are lower and rent is stable, he says.

Lin bought a portfolio of three houses in March 2023, then another building in February 2024. The biggest difference in buying his more recent properties is that interest rates are much higher than when he first bought and locked in historically low rates around 3%.

To make it more worth his while, Lin put down close to 50% for the down payment on his portfolio purchase in 2023, then bought his eighth property in 2024 in cash.

Lin's rental income is about $2,500 per month across his eight properties after mortgage payments, taxes and other homeownership expenses. It's not enough to cover his everyday expenses with passive income; instead, Lin is in real estate for the long-term investment of seeing his properties appreciate in value over time.

Real estate takes up a lot of Lin's time when he's actively searching for a new place to buy, or when he's dealing with tenant turnover. But for the most part, he estimates he spends "less than an hour a week" on his rental properties: "It's so minimal that I don't even consider it work. It's like a friend texts you and you say, 'OK, thanks. Thumbs up.'"

Lin relies on a property manager, who's paid 10% of gross rent, to handle everything on the ground. He also has a network of bankers, agents, a project manager for renovations and repairs, appraisers and inspectors for other needs.

"I want to focus 100% on my music business where I'm making the money, and then I try to make the real estate as passive as possible," Lin says.

Lin says the biggest challenge of owning rental buildings is being an ethical landlord. "Yes we're in this for profits, but we're also trying to not be shitty people that can't look themselves in the mirror," he says. "How do we balance things where it's a good financial choice, but you're also not building an empire off taking advantage of people?"

Lin says he makes those considerations when addressing tenant applications, turnover and instituting minimal rent increases.

The case for going public with your goals

Lin has hit a number of his professional and financial goals since speaking to CNBC Make It two years ago.

He says a big contributing factor was announcing his goals to the public. "I've always been a fan of: make a crazy goal, tell everyone what your goal is and then you have to make it," he says.

Getting other people involved in your goal-setting builds a sense of accountability. Plus, since a lot of his work is referral-driven, repeating his goals out loud helps him get connected with people who can help make them happen.

Ultimately, he says, "If I'm always thinking about this one thing and I dedicate incredible amounts of brain space to the idea that I have to hit this goal, then my mind is trying to always look for opportunities."

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