Despite earning $1.2 million, this 42-year-old decided to leave his work.

Here’s how one 42-year-old walked away from his job with $1.2 million in the bank.

Francis’ solution to the question of how to take an early retirement is straightforward: don’t.

To attain FIRE, which stands for “financial independence and early retirement,” the 42-year-old went to considerable lengths for years. However, he asserts that the majority of people do not desire a life free of labor. After retiring at the age of 37 in 2017, he learned this lesson the hard way.

Francis, who wanted his last name to be suppressed for security concerns, “I believe chasing FIRE is definitely the incorrect approach.” In my opinion, most individuals do not desire early retirement. Most individuals, I believe, desire a break of some kind. Some of them are fed up with their jobs, and they want to take a long break from it all. A year or two, at the most. “

Because of his dissatisfaction, he resigned from his position as an electrical engineer, where he was making $120,000 a year in base salary plus equity and bonus payments of $30,000 to $60,000. On the other hand, Francis says that being unemployed is “very dull.” For him, he chose to turn his YouTube passion into a full-time career and now makes money from his 350,000 subscribers.

Most individuals don’t want to retire early in life. Nonetheless, most individuals, I believe, would like to take a long vacation.

Francis, a 42-year-old man,

Francis resigned from his job in 2017 after saving and investing $1.2 million. Since hearing about FIRE for the first time in 2013, he’s been putting in the time and effort necessary to make it a reality. One of the most important aspects of his approach to early retirement was to spend as little money as possible.

First and foremost, he needed to pay off his $22,000-per-year mortgage.During this time, he also sought to save money wherever he could.

I went through several hoops in order to conserve money and have my expenditures as low as possible, “Francis explains.” Cost-saving strategies included not paying for streaming services, using every food item in his fridge, and even going without mobile phone service for a brief period of time.

Going phoneless “came out not to work very well, but I believe it’s good to push a little too hard, to become a little too uncomfortable,” he adds. Francis was able to reduce his annual expenditure to under $15,000 when he paid off his residence.

With his electrical engineering knowledge, he was able to save money in the home as well. When the power went out, he replaced his own water heater and the door to his garage. In addition, he put solar panels on his roof, which produce a small amount of free electricity.

Francis explains, “I never employ a handyman because I am the handyman.” Because they never break, all of my appliances are quite old. No problem, I’ll fix it and have it working like new in no time. “

“I’m the handyman, so I don’t need a handyman.”

Francis is also an expert at racking up reward points on his credit cards. Churning is a way he makes the most of his credit card rewards, and he often has more than 20 cards open at the same time.

You need a good credit score to use these credit cards, he continues, noting that his own is 835. Many people think it’s a nuisance, but for me, it’s providing a great deal of benefits. “

Since retiring early, Francis has experienced the ennui he advises most people to feel if they leave their employment early. During his two years of early retirement, he made it a point to travel and enjoy his time off from work. His answer: getting back to work.

When Francis started uploading videos on a regular basis in 2019, he decided to go all-in on his YouTube account. From how to prepare counterfeit shark fin soup to how to conquer the popular game “2048,” he began publishing videos on the channel in 2013.

This time, Francis is going to pay more attention to his YouTube channel because he has been retired for two years now.

Changing gears, he began talking about personal finance and investing with his audience. As his popularity grew, so did his income. There are some weeks where he works virtually full-time and others where he just performs for eight hours, yet he has amassed a following of over 350,000 subscribers regardless of his erratic work schedule.

At the peak of his YouTube earnings, he may expect to make around $10,000. When it comes to spending, he hasn’t changed his $15,000 annual budget. After that, he invests the remaining money in his financial future.