#186: How We Retired at Age 30 and 29, with Mike and Lauren

Mike and Lauren reached financial independence at age 30 and 29, respectively.

But their story begins a dozen years earlier.

Mike and Lauren started dating high school. Mike worked as a restaurant server in high school, earning $19,000 per year. He built his first net worth tracking spreadsheet in December 2005 as a high school student. He had a net worth of $416.

In 2007, Mike dropped out of college to start a commercial cleaning company. He made $76,000 that year. As history would have it, that was the couple’s second-highest-earning year ever.

They married in 2008, when Lauren was 20 and Mike was 21. Two years later, they moved to New York, paid $18,000 in cash for Lauren to enroll in a gemology training program, and earned a combined income of $55,000.

Their income peaked the following year, at $82,000 combined. That’s the highest combined income they’ve ever earned, to date. The following year, their combined income dropped to $61,000, and the year after that, $55,000.

In 2012, they moved back to Florida. Mike took a job at a church, making $36,000 per year. Lauren took a job at a jewelry store, earning $14 per hour. Between the two of them, they earned a combined income of $55,000. Their earnings, effectively, “stabilized” at that rate (so to speak).

Over the last 12 years, they’ve made an average income of $56,000 per year.

They’ve saved at least 50 percent of their income. At their savings rate peak, they saved between 60 to 75 percent of their income.

Today, their net worth is more than $500,000, and they’re generating all the passive income that they need to live.

How did Mike and Lauren reach financial independence by age 30 and 29?

How did they grow a $500,000 net worth on a $56,000 income?

And what lessons can we learn from their story?

Tune into this episode for a peek inside Mike and Lauren’s fun and fascinating life.

Resources Mentioned:

• How Mike and Lauren Retired at 30 (YouTube video)
• MikeandLauren.com

 

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