A young man who managed to do the impossible by retiring at the age of 24 thanks to his hard work has spoken out and revealed his secrets to early retirement.
While most of us have to save for decades to come up with enough savings to retire, now-27-year-old Mike Rosehart managed to save USD 500,000 by the time he reached 24.
After investing his savings into properties that provide him with passive income, Mike retired together with his 28-year-old wife Alyse with whom he has two children.
As Mike claimed, anyone can retire at an early age by following his simple steps.
“The secret to retiring early is: spend less, earn more and maximize the returns on the difference. The hard part is executing it,” he said.
“Most of us can’t resist the Starbucks, the trip abroad or the new cellphone. Delayed gratification is the secret to FIRE [Financial Independence and Retire Early].”
According to the 27-year-old, he was drawn to the idea of early retirement while attending Ivey Business School in Ontario, Canada.
“I realized that what makes you happy is freedom and the ability to do what you want in your life,” he said.
“I grew up really poor with a single mother on the poverty line so I didn’t have family money to rely on. I got scholarships to go to college. When I first started going after FIRE, I was working at Tim Hortons, earning slightly above minimum wage.
“I got a better job the following summer at border services. I saved aggressively. In my second year of university, I rented a bedroom for US $262 when the market rent would have been US $415. It was 7ft by 8.5ft but it was perfect for me. I just needed a place to sleep.”
From there on, Mike and Alyse continued to save until they could afford a tiny cottage in London.
“We put down US $29,600 – half of that was money we had saved and half of it was our student line of credit. We rented every room in it and so it was earning money for us,” he added.
“We had four other roommates. The guy in our basement apartment was paying our mortgage. We graduated debt-free and with money in the bank.”
Following their successful model, the couple continued to invest in properties until they acquired a total of 10 homes. After selling all of them, Mike said he knew it was time to retire because he saved 25 times the amount of money he spends in one year.
“I knew I needed US $485,000 to retire and I had, in equity of my property, just under US $760,000. I went into my boss’s office and he told me that my job would be there when I came back in six months time. He thought I was having a quarter-life crisis,” Mike added.
However, the young man never had to return to his old job.
Nowadays, in his free time, Mike teaches the FIRE model to his followers via his YouTube channel. He is also determined to start a mentorship program.
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