Mike Rosehart is self-acclaimed to be the youngest Canadian retiree at the age of 24. At the age of 17, he decided to change his life around and went from growing up poor, raised by a single parent, and managed to take his family from living below the Canadian poverty line to achieving financial freedom at 24. He will be sharing his incredible yet very relatable story with you during this interview. He will also talk about what that journey was like and what his next plans are as a young retiree.

He is a strong believer that you can absolutely retire no matter your age.

Why Mike Joined The F.I.R.E Movement

Rosehart did not hold back on what triggered him into joining the F.I.R.E movement. Growing up with a single mother and a younger brother, and struggling below the Canadian poverty line, Mike at 17 years old, decided that life could be more blissful if only you had enough money to live on. So he went on researching away and soon found a small community of people who were keen on retiring early and also financially independent.

He stated:

“…Money is supposed to make you happy right? It’s supposed to be like oil in your engine to keep things running smoothly and I think a lot of what Jacob wrote about on his blog earlyretirementextreme resonated really well with me”

Reaction From Friends & Family

After lots of research and reading F.I.R.E blogs, Mike was very shocked as to why all his family and friends were not interested in retiring early and why they were not jumping at the idea of financial independence because to him, it all looked so easy to achieve. At 17, he first told his college roommate of a possibility for him(Mike) to retire at the age of 29 and his roommate’s response was:

“what? No, what is this? This is a joke”.

However, this did not stop him at embracing the idea of F.I.R.E and running with it as fast as he could. He kept on telling his relatives and even lecturers about the possibility of leaving the workforce at an earlier age than the generally accepted retirement age and being in control of your time but got a range of reactions, which were mostly negative and discouraging. Mike talked about his grandmother who was one of the first people who supported his F.I.R.E vision by contributing financially towards his tuition.

“That was definitely good,” he said.

Savings & Investment Strategies

The F.I.R.E community is all about saving more than 50% of your income and investing those savings into assets that can inevitably yield enough dividends to sustain your lifestyle. Following this message very religiously, Mike took a full-time job while in college at the age of 21, worked as hard as he could and invested all the income from that job into rental properties.

Seeing that he could achieve financial independence a lot faster if he sort for help, Rosehart, converted his wife, then girlfriend into the same F.I.R.E beliefs and went even further by taking a loan from the bank. Taking advantage of his good line of credit, he invested heavily into astute equities & real-estate.

When asked about his savings hacks, Mike gave practical tips and detailed down how he managed to save 100% of his income and reinvest the money into the Real Estate which ultimately gave him more than enough to retire with.

Self Acclaimed Earliest Retiree

Claiming to be the youngest retiree in North America certainly came with its own baggage. Mike talked about the ton of criticism and support he has received due to this very claim. However, he explained that the only qualifier for this claim is the fact that he achieved his financial independence and early retirement through frugality and the core message embedded in the F.I.R.E community.

He continued to say:

‘’So I retired at 24 and the first thing people say is like; Did you win a lottery? Did you just get lucky? Uhmm, or maybe you had some great returns in your portfolio, you probably just came from money, it’s not possible you are only 24... ’’

According to Rosehart, most people just are skeptical about the ideology and just won’t believe it’s real. Despite showing his bank statements and portfolio online to some of his critics, they simply do not want to entertain the possibility.

He went on to state:

“The thing that is unique about me is that I worked really hard. During that time from 17 to 25, I worked a hundred hours a week, most people work thirty-five. So I have put in fifteen years of work in like seven years. I probably put like 20 years of work…”

In his opinion, most of his hard critics were from the older generation who are just hating because they cannot turn back the hand of time and make smarter financial decisions. He was not too worried about the few “haters” because, for every negative criticism that came his way, he received about ten encouraging support from those who are eager to turn their financial situations around and aim at duplicating what he did to achieve his.

After F.I.R.E, What Next?

Since FIRING, Mike keeps himself busy by blogging and vlogging on his youtube channel about the tricks and hacks he discovered along the way. He also owns an investment company that is focused on bringing a better quality of life to both the people who work for him as well as his clients. Through his youtube channel, Mike practically gives coaching lessons to those aiming at retiring early no matter the age. He stated that most millennials are too concerned about buying the next big thing or living ever so lavishly and way out of their means. So that is why his aim is to touch as many lives as possible through the simple lessons from F.I.R.E. To help them understand the concept of saving diligently, spending frugally, and investing wisely.

Rosehart does not intend to stop at just achieving his financial independence dreams and retiring early, but will continue to better himself in other ways regarding investments. He would also like to travel more, but can only do that as soon as his daughter grows a bit older.

All throughout the interview, Mike Rosehart gave a lot of insights into F.I.R.E and how he safely navigated through the seemingly impossible waters very successfully. He opened up about his childhood, growing up in poverty, building up his wealth, healthcare and tax plan and a lot more. So don’t forget to check out his blog 25andfree for more savings and investment strategies. If he can achieve financial freedom and early retirement at the age of twenty-four, so can you.