How They Retired at 27 & 28 (Replay) | James and Emily Lowery

Retiring early is certainly not a race, but the guests we have today are one of the fastest we’ve ever seen to do it. James and Emily retired in less than 2 years from the day they began making moves towards early retirement. They both had frugal habits with James coming from an especially low-income background. They met at a local community college and were both able to graduate college debt-free through a mix of financial aid and a little help from parents. Emily would take a job starting at $60k and James was at $35k per year in Huntsville, Alabama. Even though they were in an affordable area with $95k of income, they weren’t saving a dime. In 2016, James was at work and someone said they came across a website that changed their life. The website was Mr. Money Mustache. James immediately dove into this site as well then came home adjusting water heaters and spitting out all the things they were going to cut from their lives…probably too aggressively he’ll admit. They estimate they cut their expenses down to $35k the next year after discovering the topic. After cutting their expenses down as low as they could they looked to accelerate their path even more through real estate investing. They bought their first property in the Summer of 2017 and quickly scaled to 11 properties. Most of these units were purchased for under $50k, and all of them bring in over 1% of the cost back via rent. Example: A $50k house that brings in $500 is bringing in 1% every month All of the homes were bought using traditional mortgages and when they retired, they had enough money cash flowing every month to cover over 2x their expenses. If you enjoyed this episode, check out the links below for more content, and don’t forget to share this podcast with a friend! Links From the Episode James’ and Emily’s Website Follow them on Instagram Their Short-Term Rental Course All Their Free Resources Join the Community We’d love to hear your comments and questions about this week’s episode. Here are some of the best ways to stay in touch and get involved in The FI Show community! Grab the Ultimate FI Spreadsheet Join our Facebook Group Leave us a voicemail Send an email to contact [at] TheFiShow [dot] com If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating/review ! >> You can do that by clicking here << Learn More About Your Hosts CodyDBerman.com (Cody’s Blog) Saving-Sherpa (Justin’s blog)