These are the steps that I would take to retire in 5 years if I were starting over at zero today. now I'm 38 years old which means my new retirement date is 43. But it doesn't matter if I was 20 and wanted to retire at 25 or if I was 60 and wanted to retire at 65 because these are the same steps I would take to retire in 5 years. And you know what, They're a lot simpler than you might expect and it actually blows my mind that more people don't know about this when I think about people who say they retired at 26 or 27 or 30 years old I often think to myself, well, what are you going to do the rest of your life and the answer is, they do whatever they want.

Being retired doesn't mean you don't earn money, It doesn't necessarily mean you don't continue to work. What it really means is that you no longer have the obligation to do anything you don't want to do and that's really important. This changes the relationship that you have with the things that you do. You do things now because you choose to because you genuinely want to, and if you're doing things that you love and they earn you some money, then what could be a better retirement than that? So to fast forward retirement 5 years from today, these are the steps that I would follow, starting with number one, keeping my burn rate as low as possible.

And let me give you an example of what I mean by burn rate. we're going to jump onto the Whiteboard here and let's assume for just a moment that you're spending $5,000 a month. That's your monthly burn rate. It's your cost of living.

So what I want to do is I want to help you figure out if you're spending $5,000 a month, how much money would you need in the bank in a traditional sense in order to retire today? The way we figure this out is by using a formula. It's called the rule of 4% and we find this number by multiplying your monthly burn rate by 300. So 3 * 5 is 15. So we've got 1.5 million.

All right. So you could retire today with $1.5 million. So how would I go from zero to $1.5 million of net worth in five years? Well, I would probably need to make close to $3 million because of income taxes, which means I' would be needing to make you know hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for the next 5 years. Well, that seems like that's going to be pretty difficult.

Is there another way I can do this? Now let's look at this number again. The way this works here with 1.5 million is the rule of 4% which means you can draw 4% of this indefinitely as long as it's invested in stocks and bonds, which would give you $60,000 per year or $5,000 per month. One of the ways that I approached Finan Financial Independence was by recognizing that and I think this is something that a lot of us experienced during the pandemic. the realization that I'm actually not only okay with earning less I would love to earn less if it meant that I could live life on my own terms.

So think about how many people were on unemployment during the pandemic and said, you know what, I'd actually rather continue collecting unemployment. And yeah, I might not be making as much as I was when I was at work, but you know what? I this is actually a lot better. Well, I sort of had that same experience in my own journey to financial Independence where I realized you know I could live with less and I would be happier I found that the high monthly burn rate created this burden that really was enslaving me to that 9 to-5 grind. And if I could tell myself, listen: I don't need to drive a brand new car I don't need to have as many fancy things as the next person that that reduced my burn rate substantially.

So some of the things that I did in my early years to reduce my burn rate. Just a few examples of things that I did. These may or may not work for you, but uh, for instance, uh, instead of spending $300 a month, $3,600 a year on home heating oil, I chopped my own firewood and had a wood stove in the kitchen Now I was living in Vermont and that worked for me. Yes, Is it easier just to set the thermostat? Absolutely.

But spending a couple hours a day chopping firewood was saving me $300 a month. That was reducing my burn rate. Similarly, I realized that my homeowners insurance was quite high and I thought, well, if I increase my deductible I might be able to decrease my premium and I was. So these are little steps I took I decreased some of the subscriptions that I had.

you know Netflix Even in those days I was getting DVDs and I said well, I'm going to reduce that to just streaming and these were all things that I did. That helped me reduce the amount of money I was spending. Because now if we go back to the Whiteboard and you Chang this number and you said, well actually I only really need 2500 per month, right? 2500 per month? Well, then you can cut this in half. You need 750,000 instead of 1.5 million.

This starts to change numbers and maybe getting to 750,000 is more obtainable, but maybe there's another way we could do this. Maybe there's a different way to approach this. Yes, you have to reduce your burn rate. You have to reduce how much you're spending if you want to retire early, but there's something else you can do.

Step number two: pick up a side hustle I could do a whole episode just on side hustles and all the different things that I did or that I've heard of other people doing to make just a little extra money because this is another part of that equation you've got reducing how much you're spending and then you've got increasing how much you're bringing in. Maybe you have your 9 to5 job. Can you carve out a little bit of time where you can do a side hustle? A lot of side hustles really are exchanging time for money if you're driving Uber you're exchanging your time for money that you make or Uber GrubHub You know these types of things. it's just a trade for time and money, but there are things that you can easily add if you're willing to sacrifice that time.

Now, one of the things that's really important early on in your goal to retire is the sooner you are able to start saving and putting money away, the sooner you're going to be on that path to real. Financial Independence Because making more money is important, but if you're just spending it, it's not going to help you get to retirement. What you need to do is you need to have that side hustle that's bringing in a little bit more money. I Recently met someone who as a kid he went into a store with his mom when he I think he say was 12 years old.

He went into a store with his mom. He saw a pair of sneakers that he wanted to buy. He knew he wanted them but they weren't his size but they were for sale for I think $75 and he said Mom I could sell these on eBay for 200 bucks even though they're not my size I could flip them and she said okay and he did and he made $125 He then took that money and he eventually got shoes that were his own size. but in that he realized that he could do this and he actually built a business at the age of 12 and started flipping things on.

eBay Now you hear people doing this all the time. If you are able to fix things, you can buy things, fix things up, and resell them. If you're able to build things, you can build things and sell them. You've got marketplaces like Etsy for all these handmade Goods You've got obviously Facebook Marketplace where people buy things and sell things you've got Craigslist And then you've got the marketplace Arbitrage where people buy things from one place and then they sell them somewhere else at a premium.

These are side hustles that are a little bit more skilled than maybe driving for Uber but you know it. It takes time to ascend to that level because it requires some degree of expertise within a niche. But if you have something that you're already passionate about, you should be asking yourself, what are other people doing in this space that's making them some side hustle money because there may be a business opportunity somewhere in there. Okay, so step number one was reducing your burn rate.

Step number two is bringing on a side hustle to increase your cash flow. You know what step number three is. Step Number three is save Like crazy. Save like crazy.

Your first goal is to save $5,000 Your second goal is to save $10,000 and you know what you want to do with that money. Once you've saved it, you don't just leave it sitting in an account. You you leave it sitting in an account for a period of time and then you invest it. Now, investing is so important.

The reason it's important is because it allows you to grow that nest egg that small seed into something bigger. And a lot of people talk about real estate. Here's the problem with real estate. There's a lot of things that are awesome about it and I don't need to tell you that because you probably know them, but there's some problems with it.

Real estate didn't work for me because when I was at the point where I was considering that I didn't have a regular W2 paycheck anymore I was already not employed. and when you're not employed, it's really hard to get approved for a mortgage. So as much as you'd like to get a mortgage and you think oh, this would work I could you know buy this property and it's a duplex and I could rent out one set. Well, if you don't have a W2 that's not going to happen.

so the barrier to entry on real estate is a little bit higher. You need a stable paycheck, you need decent credit, and so if you don't have that, then what are your other Alternatives The other alternative to me is the stock market, and with the stock market, you can put that $5,000 in $10,000 in and you can start growing it. Now this is something that no doubt is again something that requires skill. but investing is how you take the nest egg and you grow it.

So whether you're going to grow your Investments by buying an ETF like the S&P 500 spy ETF, that's a great way to get yourself into the market. It also comes with downside risk. Right now, short-term treasuries are yielding really respectable amounts, so you could put the money there if you want to use that money as a down payment on something like a property. If you think that's going to be something you could do within the next few years, the reason you wouldn't want to put that money into an index is because if it dropped 30% or 40% that's going to be such a big hit.

it's better just to have it in treasuries because then at least you're growing before you you go and make that down payment. But if you're not planning on buying a real piece of real estate and you don't need that money in the next couple of years, then you just want to put it away, put it away, and do cost averaging where you're just adding a little bit more into that money market account that investment account each month. So you're just putting away all the savings into that account. Step Number five: Build a business.

Building a business is going to be the fastest way that you can grow wealth. Working a 9 to-5 job, you're limited side hustles. Yep, you can do it. And there are definitely people who retire within five years through a combination of being super Frugal saving 70% 80% of their paycheck.

And there's there's an equation there where if you save 80% of your paycheck and you do that for seven eight years, and you're going to live within that amount from that point forward, you know you can do that. But you've got to be willing to live live really frugally, And not everyone's willing to make that kind of sacrifice when you live frugally like that. It also puts you in a mindset psychologically of scarcity, and when you get into that mindset, it's really hard to break out of it. So step number five is building a business.

One of the things with building a business is that you it doesn't have to be a business that is going to become like you know. you're creating a Facebook or an app or a big Tech startup. You're going to have lots of employees. It could be something as simple as what's something that you know a lot about.

What's something that you're an expert in. If you're if you're someone that knows a lot about the stock market like I do you can start making videos on YouTube right? This can become a business if you if you have something that you know a lot about, something that you're passionate about. there are so many ways that you can translate that into some passive income. like that is the best way I Think to grow wealth because because then it can scale up.

you know you can't really scale up driving. Uber You can scale up some of these side hustles like buying and selling on a Marketplace. You know you could build an Amazon store, but a lot of side hustles. there's a real limit to scalability.

If you can build a small business for yourself, that's going to create that cash flow where now all of a sudden you're generating $1,000 $22,000 a month in cash flow. And back to the Whiteboard If you're generating $2500 a month in cash flow from your business, that's the equivalent of having a $750,000 retirement account. Why By the time you're generating $5,000 a month, it's the equivalent of having a $1.5 million trust investment account retirement account. You know you don't want to underestimate how far that cash flow can take you if you're generating it through a business.

So my five steps to retiring in five years if I was starting over at zero. Number One: Keeping my burn rate as low as possible adding inside hustles. so I'm making significantly more than I'm spending I want to be spending half of what I'm making If I can be saving half. That's incredible.

If I'm saving 25% that's good 10% That's tough. But the more you can save. Number three: Save like crazy. Put that money away.

Step four: Invest. You're saving. Whether you want to invest in real estate, you want to invest in stocks, you want to just invest in treasuries. It depends on what your outlook is, depends on your credit, depends on your income.

But invest. really? That's like a big one. And then number five is: build a business. Build a business.

And if you want to use some of that money to invest in yourself, that makes sense. but only once youve first proven that you have a profitable business model and that you're a better investment than just putting that money in treasuries or in the S&P 500 or something like that. Now one of the last things I want to talk about is debt. There's a difference between good debt and bad debt.

I Was talking to someone recently who said they they don't use any debt. They're afraid of debt. and they've known people who got burned with debt and they just they don't want to touch it. But there's also the reality that wealthy people use debt in a way to leverage and grow their net worth at astonishing rates.

So what's the difference between good debt, bad debt, safe debt, and risky debt? The The: The common understanding among people in the finance space is that you want to be really careful with unsecured debt, which is credit card debt. Credit card debt is high interest and if you're using credit card debt to pay your cost of living to cover your monthly burn rate, that is a problem that is a major problem that's not going to work You really? Credit card should only be a tool where you're paying off the balance each month. And you need credit cards because you need to build a history of being credit worthy. That's how you build your credit rating.

So credit cards are important, but you want to pay down the balance each month. Similarly, car loans are important because it establishes a track record of you paying the bill on time. So I even myself use car loans I could pay cash but I pay for most of the car in cash and I keep a small loan because I always want to keep building my credit and keeping my credit worthiness as high as possible. So if I have a point where I say oh wow, there's an apartment building that I want to buy I need to take out a loan for it.

Now the bank looks and they say wow, Not only does he have a good credit score, he has a long history of lending and being a responsible responsible with credit. So mortgages are secured credit. But the dangerous thing with mortgages are the adjustable rate mortgages as rates go up. If it's an adjustable rate mortgage, your mortgage payments go up.

So the really important thing with mortgages is using a fixed rate. Now the reality right now is the rates are crazy crazy high and this is not a good time to be borrowing money because the cost of borrowing money is so much higher than it was three or four years ago. The these are Cycles So right now we're in a cycle where the cost of borrowing is higher and getting into real estate therefore is more difficult. But the fact is, if you found a property where the numbers made sense, where your tenants are going to be paying the mortgage on that building even at the higher rate, then that makes a tremendous amount of sense Because now with a down payment of 20% or depending on what you're borrowing for and if it's a firsttime loan and things like that, you could even get it lower.

But let's just say you put down 10% or 20% Now you have tenants who are paying down the mortgage and with that 10% you Now have control over this large asset. So that's how you use credit responsibly to grow your net worth. But you've got to be really careful with unsecured debt because there is such a thing as bad debt. and there's definitely predatory lenders and that can get you into a lot of trouble.

So yes, think about debt. Use debt. Build your credit score up as high as you can. But be very careful with unsecured debt.

I Hope you found these steps interesting. If you have questions, any questions, please leave them in the comments down below. Maybe your idea will turn into a video that will be coming here on YouTube real soon. Thanks always for tuning in.