Former minimum-wage worker retired at 39 with $3.5M nest egg — now he’s an expat in Dubai living on $185K/year

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Jamal Robinson didn’t come from money. He started at the bottom, working as a church janitor at 14 before landing a minimum-wage job at Taco Bell, working long shifts while also going to school.

Today, at 40, he’s an American expat living among the glittering skyscrapers of Dubai.  He has a $3.5 million nest egg and is pulling in $185,000 a year using the 4% retirement income rule. His secret? Relentless saving, aggressive investing, and a laser focus on financial freedom.

“I didn’t see a lot of people that were happy with work,” Robinson told CNBC. “In my mind, I always thought that it made the most sense to compress that amount of time in my life. So at 17, I set the goal to retire early at 45, which I wound up hitting six years earlier than expected.”

Robinson’s journey from minimum-wage worker to multimillionaire retiree is an extraordinary anecdote of the FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early). Advocates of this approach make a ruthless commitment to saving and investing so that they can retire as young as possible.

After high school, Robinson hustled through college, earning a computer engineering degree at Tennessee Tech on a full-ride scholarship while working at the same time. Over time, with an MBA, nine certifications, and expertise in generative AI, he eventually reached an income of $1.1 million per year.

But instead of chasing the next promotion, he chose financial freedom. Old habits die hard: As he progressed in the tech industry, Robinson banked huge sums — at one point socking away nearly 90% of his income. Then, in 2024, at just 39 years of age, he retired with $3.5 million in savings and investments. He now produces music and DJs in his spare time. He’s also writing a book and producing a podcast.

Robinson’s hard-earned success may be an outlier, but it’s also a blueprint anyone can follow: finding a way to save small amounts while spending can also help boost your retirement portfolio.

While saving a few cents might not seem like much, thanks to the powers of compounding, you could save a sizable amount over time. For instance, investing just $3 each day can result in over $1,000 in a year — and that’s investment earnings.

If you want to diversify your portfolio further and invest in individual stocks, jargon-free expert advice from Moby might be beneficial.

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Read more: Rich, young Americans are ditching the stormy stock market — here are the alternative assets they’re banking on instead

Jamal Robinson proved that directing extra income into investments can shave decades off your working years. The more you save now, the faster your money can work for you.

Another crucial tip followed by most financial gurus is to not keep all your eggs in one basket. Especially in a volatile market, allocating a portion of your portfolio to tried-and-true assets that have withstood the test of time could help you secure your financial future.

Gold has historically been one of the most popular safe-haven assets. Amid rising market volatility due to both recession concerns and escalating geopolitical tensions, gold prices hit a record high of $3,000 on March 13. The US stock market, on the other hand, has entered correction territory, losing $5 trillion in value in the last three weeks.

So, adding gold to your portfolio can not only keep you safe but also add value.

One way to invest in gold that also provides significant tax advantages is to open a gold IRA with the help of Thor Metals.

Gold IRAs allow investors to hold physical gold or gold-related assets within a retirement account, which combines the tax advantages of an IRA with the protective benefits of investing in gold, making it an attractive option for those looking to potentially hedge their retirement funds against economic uncertainties.

To learn more, you can get a free information guide that includes details on how to get up to $20,000 in free metals on qualifying purchases.

Real estate investments could also be a lucrative way to diversify your portfolio, and new investing platforms are making it easier than ever to tap into tthis market.

For accredited investors, Homeshares gives access to the $36 trillion U.S. home equity market, which has historically been the exclusive playground of institutional investors.

With a minimum investment of $25,000, investors can gain direct exposure to hundreds of owner-occupied homes in top U.S. cities through their U.S. Home Equity Fund — without the headaches of buying, owning or managing property.

With risk-adjusted target returns ranging from 14% to 17%, this approach provides an effective, hands-off way to invest in owner-occupied residential properties across regional markets.

Another option is a platform like Arrived that lets you buy stakes in rental properties, earn dividends, and skip the responsibilities of property management.

Backed by world class investors like Jeff Bezos, Arrived’s easy-to-use platform offers SEC-qualified investments such as rental homes and vacation rentals for as little as $100. Their flexible investment options allow both accredited and non-accredited investors to benefit from this inflation-hedging asset class with ease. You start by browsing vetted properties, then you simply select a property and choose the number of shares to buy.

Alternative assets like art could also be valuable additions to your portfolio. Art has historically been negatively correlated with stocks — meaning they go up in value during a market downturn.

For decades, blue chip art was only accessible to the ultra-wealthy. In 2024, elite investors allocated as much as 25% of their total portfolios to art collections. But Masterworks is changing that. You can invest in fractional shares of works from artists like Banksy, Picasso, and Basquiat.

From their 23 exits so far, Masterworks investors have realized representative annualized net returns like +17.6%, +17.8%, and +21.5% among assets held longer than a year.

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This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.