I retired at the age of 36 – the two simple rules I followed to get there and it works for everyone

RETIREMENT may sound a long way off for a young professional, but it’s never too early to start thinking about the golden years.

So says a personal finance expert who was able to retire at the ripe old age of 36 by following his own two rules.

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Jeremy Schneider is the founder of the Personal Finance Club.

It’s an online forum that teaches people how to invest wisely and how to spend most of their time tailoring these days.

However, he recently shared his best advice for getting rich on CNBC: “Live below your means and invest early and often.”

He said living by those golden rules, along with being able to sell his first company — a startup called RentLinx — helped him retire in his mid-thirties.

Schneider told CNBC he has a good foundation when it comes to cutting spending.

How he did it

During his studies he had part-time jobs and thanks to the help of his parents and scholarship money he was able to complete his studies without student debt.

That’s an achievement since more than one in five Americans has student debt, according to the Washington Post. That’s about 45 million Americans.

After graduating, the personal finance expert made a risky decision.

Instead of accepting a full-time job offer at Microsoft and throwing himself into the grind, he decided to become his own boss.

He decided to start his own business as an entrepreneur.

That meant he had to tighten his belt in his 20s, he revealed.

He told CNBC he lives a very modest lifestyle, paying himself an annual salary of just $36,000 – far below what he would have earned at Microsoft.

At the same time, he followed his parents’ advice and continued to invest as he had since he was 16 – by investing in low-cost index funds within a Roth IRA.

While these strategies helped him accumulate wealth, being able to sell his startup for $5 million in 2015 – at the tender age of 34 – helped him on his way to retirement

Schneider then pocketed more than $2 million and worked for the same company for a short time before deciding to take some time off.

The self-made millionaire then did what many young millennials do with their free time. He started playing video games and traveling.

He did all of this while continuing to make his investments work for him as he remained heavily invested in market-following index funds.

This increased his fortune even further.

After a year’s absence, he founded the Personal Finance Club, which now has more than 408,000 followers on Instagram.

All because he touted his simple two-step plan.

He offers free information on the website.

Everything from investing in index funds to tips on how to pay off your credit card debt is included, and includes net worth comparisons that compare those who follow his tips and those who don’t.

If you choose to invest, remember that you are not guaranteed to make money and your assets may even fall in value.

This means it is important never to invest more than you can afford to lose.

How to live under your means

Many financial experts and advisors agree that there are simple things you can do to stay on budget and increase your savings:

To get you started, here are eight tips to help you live below your means

Here’s more on why an increase in the cost of living could cost you in the future.

You’ll also learn more about how a TikTok user made up to $55,000 a week with a part-time job that became her permanent gig.