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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.
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“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.
How Jamal did it
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.
Strategies to make anyone financially free
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. For instance, with Acorns, you can automatically invest spare change from everyday purchases into a smart investment portfolio of ETFs.
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.
Get started with a $20 bonus investment when you sign up with Acorns today.
If you want to diversify your portfolio further and invest in individual stocks, jargon-free expert advice from Moby might be beneficial.
Run by a team of former hedge fund analysts, Moby’s stock picks have outperformed the benchmark S&P 500 index by an average of 11.95% per year in the last four years. Plus, more than 75 stock recommendations from Moby have generated returns of over 100%.
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Read more: Want an extra $1,300,000 when you retire? Dave Ramsey says this 7-step plan ‘works every single time’ to kill debt, get rich in America — and that ‘anyone’ can do it
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.
With a gold IRA, you can directly invest in physical gold without having to worry about authenticity or storage.
Priority Gold is an industry leader in precious metals, offering physical delivery of gold and silver. Plus, they have an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and a 5-star rating from Trust Link.
If you’d like to convert an existing IRA into a gold IRA, Priority Gold offers 100% free rollover, as well as free shipping, and free storage for up to five years. Qualifying purchases will also receive up to $10,000 in free silver.
To learn more about how Priority Gold can help you reduce inflation’s impact on your nest egg, download their free 2025 gold investor bundle.
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.
If you’re not an accredited investor, crowdfunding platforms like Arrived allow you to enter the real estate market for as little as $100.
Arrived offers you access to shares of SEC-qualified investments in rental homes and vacation rentals, curated and vetted for their appreciation and income potential.
Backed by world-class investors like Jeff Bezos, Arrived makes it easy to fit these properties into your investment portfolio regardless of your income level. Their flexible investment amounts and simplified process allows accredited and non-accredited investors to take advantage of this inflation-hedging asset class without any extra work on your part.
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.
Get priority access and start investing in fine art within minutes.
- See important Regulation A disclosures at Masterworks.com/cd
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This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
