Retiring earlier and travelling the world is an aspiration for many people, but doing it before the age of 40 is next level! We look at two successful entrepreneurs who retired early gaining financial freedom through passive income streams. Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) is a movement which is dedicated to investment and extreme savings, so that people can retire decades early. Let’s dive in...

Financial Freedom Through Passive Income Streams For Michael

Michael Quan is living the FIRE dream, retiring at 36 with 3 passive income streams keeping him and his family financially comfortable. In fact, he was able to walk away from his day job at least 2 decades early. 

Seeing his uncles achieve financial freedom at a young age spurred him on. Michael built an IT company and then sold it to a private equity firm. Subsequently, he reinvested the earnings from the sale. The three main ways Michael set out to get his passive income were:

• Real estate
• Dividends
• Blogging

His motivation for financial freedom was to spend more time with his baby daughter and his wife. Currently, Michael is 44 years old and his finances are still growing. He has achieved financial freedom through these following passive income streams:

1. Real Estate

Michael made $59,000 from real estate investments in 2020 which is almost 80% of his passive income. His real estate portfolio consists of three properties which bring in a regular monthly income. Property number three is rented out via Airbnb. Also, he is also part of a family real estate investment company in California and has a 5th property in San Antonio.

2. Investment Portfolio

In 2020 he made $13,000 from dividend payments and he owns other funds and stocks. Each year he reinvests the earnings into his investment portfolio, so it keeps increasing. This accounts for about 16% of his total passive income. 

3.  Blog Earnings

Michael’s blog helps others to reach financial freedom via passive income streams and he has written a book. With income from affiliate marketing, membership fees, ads etc, the blogging brings in about $10,000 a year.

Rachel Richards, a Champion for Women’s Financial Freedom

Rachel Richards didn’t want massive debt from student loans. Being resourceful, she managed to pay her college fees in Kentucky, USA with scholarship money and selling knives. At 28 years old Rachel retired early because she had $16,000 a month passive income. Reading and delving deep into money management, she worked out a strategy for success. It took about 8 years.

After graduating from college, she worked in finance and saved half of her annual salary of $42,000.  This was because she had no student debt and she lived simply. She was passionate about giving financial advice to others and her job led to cold calling for a number of years to expand her customer base. 

Next, she worked in real estate and later became a financial analyst earning $75,000 a year. Then after 3 years, she retired at 27 to concentrate on her passive income projects. Prior to  2017, neither her or her partner had side incomes or businesses. However, they were determined to reach financial freedom by passive income streams.

They started by investing in a $100,000 property using money they had saved. Over two years they expanded their property portfolio and bought six properties in total with 40 units. 

Rachel also earned commission from her real estate sellers as she was their agent too. They stopped buying properties in 2018 and now they earn $8,000 a month from real estate. It takes about 10 hours a week to manage.

Selling Her Book on Amazon

In the evenings after her real estate investments, Rachel focused on writing a book about financial advice. Her objective was to make personal finance accessible and easy to follow with her first book ‘Money Honey’. 

She chose to sell it on Amazon because the royalties were from 35 to 70% compared to a meagre 10 to 15% from publishing houses. Her second book brought in $4,000 a month and her 8-course she designed another $4,000 a month. 

Exceeding their targets

Rachel and her husband set themselves a target of generating a passive income of $10,000 a month but they hit $16,000 a month. They have achieved financial freedom and they travel a lot, live in a large house and spend about $8,000 a month. 

A Role-Model for Female Entrepreneurs

Rachel is an inspiration for women. Her business is focused on giving personal finance advice to women and writing books/courses to help other women gain financial freedom. Hard work, belief and reading have helped her achieve retirement at 28 years old. She has shown other women the way forward to attain multiple sources of income and financial freedom. 

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