How to Retire in Your 20s -No Gimmicks or Inheritance.

Yes, you read that right. Something amazing happened the other day, the authors of Quit Like a Millionaire and the blog Millennial Revolution decided to do my reader case & promote my blog.

I sent our financial situation to them 2+ months ago and honestly totally forgot about it. I just went to their blog like normal, started reading their newest post, then saw my face! The crazy thing is, they “MATHED SHIT UP” like they do for all of their reader cases, and according to their projections & math, Brandon and I can “retire” in just 5-11 years… at 27-36 years old. I already knew this, but seeing it confirmed by prominent people in the FIRE community that I look up to and bought their book almost 2 years ago in Barnes & Noble, made my head explode.

They retired at 31 & 33 years old, with six figure, computer engineer, incomes, but even they asked us, how did we do this?? On just office admin & sandwich shop manager salaries??

Well, Here’s How:

1. Stop buying stuff, for the love of god. You don’t need a new car, a new iPhone, that décor from target, etc. Pump the brakes. Pause and ask yourself before you buy ANYTHING. Put it back on the shelf. This includes traveling & home remodeling. Only buy what you NEED, I mean what you would literally die without, food, water, etc. and buy what you can secondhand. We are not perfect with this & have wasted SO much money over the last couple years, it’s insane. So, you don’t need to be perfect, but you need to do better. Here is my post on how to drastically cut your spending. Also, stop wasting your money on drugs, alcohol, nicotine products, and/or gambling. It’s expensive AND bad for your health.
2. We didn’t go into any student debt & got moderate paying jobs instead. I did get a 2 year associates degree at a local tech school. This saved us tens of thousands of dollars & while others were in school for 4 years, we just worked our way up at our jobs for 4 years. How I got my degree debt-free.
3. Honestly, don’t even bother with buying a house, for the most part, they’re money pits. Something always breaks. Also it’s not just the mortgage you have to pay for, there is insurance, taxes, repairs, etc. It racks up quick. If we never bought a house, we’d already be financially independent, no joke. I could quit my job today and never work again, at 23 years old..
4. Just avoid debt like the plague, it’s not worth it, nearly ever. Save up & pay cash for everything. If you have debt, pay it off before you worry about anything else, at least, if you want to retire ASAP. Sell your cars and buy a cheaper one, sell your house, bike, do whatever you possibly can to minimize debt.
5. To do all of these things, you need to be disciplined. Discipline is key, without it none of this will work. Do you want a new car or to retire in 10 years instead of 40? that’s up to you. Every penny counts. With that being said, so many people are penny wise, but dollar stupid. They try to buy things on sale, use coupons, flush less, but then go out and buy a new car.. come on dude..

If you want to be average and retire at 67, then ignore all of this advice & you keep doing you.

It’s really that simple, don’t go into debt, don’t buy a house, stop buying stuff/paying for non-necessities, that’s it. We bought a house, went into debt for cars, went on trips, & bought non-necessities & are still on track because we decided about 2 years ago we were done with all of that. Use all of your extra income, to save, pay down debt, & invest. I make $3,000/month and my husband makes $2,400/month after taxes, we do not make a lot of money at all. We are currently 23 & 24 years old, and are on track to retire by 30. If we can do it, you can to. I believe in you.

If you are beyond your 20s, you can follow this path to retire in approximately 10 years, depending upon your financial situation.

For more details & advice, you can check out the following:

• Our Monthly Financial Updates Tab
• Financial Advice Tab
• Helpful Resources Tab
• Betterment Investing -Your first $5,000 in assets managed for FREE.
• BetterHelp Therapy -A free week for you & me.
• Back Market -My referral code: 6888f588d6f85083 -$10 off your order! Refurbished Tech! My sister & I both got “new” phones from there. They’re awesome, great quality, so much cheaper than buying new (by up to 70%), came super fast, was super easy to buy, AND we saved 123 pounds of carbon emissions, each!

As always, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the bit of tough love in today’s post.

-Meghan

My Links:

• ThriftBooks -I LOVE them as a company & order all of my books from them now! They ship super fast, great service, books always show up as described, super cheap, & good for the planet because they’re second-hand, but you get to choose the quality!
• BetterHelp -A week of Therapy for FREE!
• Betterment -Invest your first $5,000 for FREE!
• Back Market -My referral code: 6888f588d6f85083 -$10 off your order! Refurbished Tech! My sister & I both got “new” phones from there. They’re awesome, great quality, so much cheaper than buying new (by up to 70%), came super fast, was super easy to buy, AND we saved 123 pounds of carbon emissions, each!