Retiring at 29: How to Grow Wealth and Reach F.I.R.E with Cody Yeh: An EOFire Classic from 2022

0:01Light that spark fire nation JLD here and welcome to entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by high level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. On today's classic episode, we'll be breaking down retiring at 29, how to grow wealth and reach FIRE, F-I-R-E, with Cody Yeah. Cody is a finance independence and retire early expert. He helps everyday people gain back financial control and reach financial freedom in less than one year's time. He has built a business that generates five-figure monthly returns through his investments and stock investing for beginners community. Check out his new podcast, High Income Earners on Fire, F-I-R-E, Financial Independence, Retire Early.

0:41And today we talk about how increase your income, save more, buy assets, how to work on getting the highest return on time and the lowest return on stress, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sparsing today's episode goes to Cody and ours. Monsters. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. Fire Nation, it's time to stop guessing and start winning with a proven playbook.

1:21Inside the Freedom Circle, you'll have access to my step-by-step systems for creating offers, building processes and driving traffic all in just 90 days. Ready for freedom? Visit freedom-circle.com to learn more. Cody, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. First of all, thanks for having me, John. To answer to that question, I'll say if I could start over again, what would exponentially increase the speed of my growth and investing journey will be hiring a good reputable coach right off the bat fire nation that was a key to my journey pre-launch entrepreneurs on fire hiring a successful business podcast host because guess what i wanted to be a successful business podcast host who better to get me there than a person who was already there and fire nation as i mentioned in the introduction we're gonna be talking about retiring at 29 How to Grow Wealth and Reach Fire, Financial Independence, Retire Early.

2:28And if you're 39, 49, 69, 99, this episode is still going to have a ton of great content for you because I want to get right into the meat and potatoes, Cody. Is it really possible to retire from, let's say, a nine to five job through stock options in real estate investing? Is that truly possible? I believe it's truly possible. I've seen people done it at age much younger than I am, which they've done it at 23. My coaches have done it when they're 24. Really, I believe if you're specializing in the things you're doing, you have a true passion for it, you continue to get better, you will surprise yourself and people around you.

3:09Now I want to talk about designing the life that we want to live because it's all good and well to say, hey, I'm retired. I'm 29 years old. I've got 50, 60, 70 years left ahead of me. Maybe more with the crazy things that are going on in the world today around Life Force with Tony Robbins. That new book that came out is fantastic, by the way, talking about anti-aging and all this crazy exciting stuff. That's a long time to be quote unquote retired. So let's talk about designing the life we want to live. What have you found to be true about this? I'm very counterintuitive in that sense. So whenever I plan a year, I write down my goals and write down my traveling because I love traveling with my partner, my girlfriend, long-term girlfriend.

3:55So we write down where we're going to go and plan out the time to put on a calendar as a placeholder. So all our business go around that, right? And that's the first step that gets my fire going. Okay, I lock in those time. Now work backwards because that was the lifestyle. When I say yay to fire, that was the goal. I'm not trying to make as much money as possible, but how can I do the type of business like real estate investing, stock options, or running my other mastermind business? How do I get the highest return on time and lowest return on stress? That was more important than the overall return.

4:36Take us to the story of you finding your number. Because correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't like the FIRE movement all about figuring out a number that you as an individual are like, you know what? I can design a life to live on this dollar amount every single month. I am free from all obligations. Talk us through that whole process for you. I'm curious about your story. I know it's very popular. People call it the 4 % rule. Some people call it a 3.33 % rules. But honestly, I never look at that. The reason for that is when I reach the fire stage, there's two different type of fire stage in my opinion.

5:15Someone who reached a fire stage and then they scale back or they reach the fire stage, but they become more efficient and they start saying a lot of no's, but focus on a few yes. And that's where I'm at. I focus on a few yes and I go double down on those. but I strategically plan my week or my life so that if I need to take a week or two weeks, a month off, I'm okay. My whole team will run everything. But that's to keep growing and the sense of achievement is what gives me that drive in life. So I'm not gonna just fire and sit on the beach because I have tried that for three days and man, I was very irritated by doing that.

5:59And I truly believe people like us who has a little bit more drive and passion and talent and just the heart, the bigger heart to help more people, we should really give back to the community because a lot more people could be helped and just reach their financial security, reach their financial freedom so they also can help more people and think that's a good karma and a good cycle going around. Let's talk specifics. I want specifics of how stock options investing in real estate investing, They work hand-to-hand to build generational wealth. Give us some specific examples of this. Let's do it.

6:37So I bought my first property, 2016,$526 ,000. Right now it's about$1.3,$1.4 million. Second property, bought it for$460 ,000. I just sold it for$1 million. So I take those money, I put it in my trading account, and I split out 1 % to 4 % per month. Again, it's on average. Some months are better, some months are worse, but average 1 % to 4 % per month. And that's what replaced my six-figure income. Now, I don't stop there because now that I get my time back and I only spend less than 30 minutes per day, a lot of my hundreds of my alumni spend less than 30 minutes per week. Wow. They can still have their full-time job.

7:18They still have building their own business, but now they have a cash flow coming in. So real estate is helping me to generate my net worth. I take that money, whether I refinance it or whether I sell the property, I put it in my trading account and I speed up the process and beat the inflation and come up to the next down payment or design the lifestyle I want. And I take those proceeds and go back and buy more real estate. So it's not just one vehicle. It's real estate, stock option, right? And then my active business. So all three of them are generating cash and it keeps throwing and buying more asset, right?

7:54That's what really gets you ahead of this inflationary world we're in. Let's talk about specifics. Now, when I mean specifics on this exact example, how did you get that first$526 ,000 to invest in that first property? Because I think a lot of my listeners are like, well, man, I'd love to be in a place where I'm using the profits from one investment to invest into another. I get how once that ball's rolling, that the ball can keep rolling. But how do I make that very first step? I'm going to be very honest. At first, I was grinding really hard. Coming out of school as an engineer, I work a lot of overtime as a project manager at Honda, which is an automotive company.

8:40So I work a lot of overtime. I was clocking 400 to 800 hours of overtime. That's where I get my six-figure job, six-figure salary. But I was living in the bedroom that I pay 600 bucks per month. I was living like that up to 2019. And people don't know that. And just saying, yeah, Cody, you make it. But I was doing a lot of those sacrifice. And I was doing a lot of studying at night when people are partying on Friday night. I was literally reading books, going to real estate seminars, studying the market and all of that. So I do a lot of that. And at the tail end of the hockey stick, that's when I start grabbing more attention of people.

9:19That's when I already have all those track records set up. to get it going. So if some of your audience are in that stage, you know, do whatever you do, increase your income, save more, and then buy assets, right? Very soon, because like in real estate, like assets is leveraged three to five times, as you know, so your money is working a lot faster for you. And at certain stage, I take out those money and then put it in my trading account of stock option that generates one to 4%, then that replaced my six figure income. And from there, I am free and I have more passion and more time to do the things I want to do.

9:55Fire Nation, getting that initial ball rolling, it is going to take hard work. You know, very few people are handed$100 ,000,$300 ,000,$500 ,000 to buy a property or put money down on a property. That's just not the norm. And so that is the case for a lot of people like Cody, like myself. I mean, for Entrepreneurs on Fire, I was putting in those 60, 70, 80-hour weeks, the first few years of my business that now allow me to do five or six days per month. And that's the business that I have now. So there is upfront time and sweat equity involved. And we have a lot more specifics on all these details when we get back from thanking our sponsors.

10:35Fire Nation, let me ask you a question. What if you could stop guessing your way through entrepreneurship and start following a proven playbook? That's exactly why I created the Freedom Circle. Over the years, I built multiple businesses and helped countless entrepreneurs build theirs, and I learned one powerful truth. Success doesn't come from grinding harder. It comes from building the right systems, systems that attract the right customers, systems that automate the busy work, systems that create freedom instead of more stress. Inside the Freedom Circle, I hand you my exact playbook. No fluff, no overwhelm, just the step-by-step blueprints I've used to grow my own companies.

11:11From building your irresistible offer to creating a streamlined process to driving consistent traffic, you'll know exactly what to do and in what order. Pair that with a community of entrepreneurs who've got your back. You've got everything you need to finally create income freedom and time freedom in just 90 days. So Fire Nation, stop reinventing the wheel. Start following the proven path. Visit freedom-circle.com to learn more. That's freedom-circle.com. Okay, let's talk about a platform that's completely changing how entrepreneurs are running their business, and they are also our featured partner, HighLevel.

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12:59High level. Cody, you believe the highest return on time. And the lowest return on stress is more important than the overall ROI, the return on investments. Talk to us about this and give us some examples of choices you have made along these lines. Going back to the story where I was working a lot of overtime, I don't mind sharing my dollar amount. I was making, I think,$33 to, before I quit,$39 per hour. Working overtime gave me to pay 1.5 to two times. right so i was working my butt off getting to that six figure but when i look back and divided by the tax i pay i am not really making that much and i don't see a light at the end of the tunnel because i have to keep doing this keep doing this right so that's when i realized i have to put the money i make to work and buy assets a leverage assets or a stock option to eventually replace my income so I can do bigger things.

13:58So that's really how I started. And now when I look at a project I'm going to work on, what a business I'm going to work on, or like say my master program I'm going to work on, is how can I help people achieve that as well? Instead of like me when I was day trading for two years, I was sticking in front of my computer for five, six hours as my second job, which is not very efficient. Yes, I can make a good return, but it takes away my health, I don't have time for relationship, I don't have time for exercise, and I'm not living the life I want. So really, now the program I'm teaching or the mastermind I'm teaching for stock options is helping people only spend 30 minutes per day, if not 30 minutes per week, so they can get more time back to spend it on their family, their health, their relationship, or their other business.

14:46If not, that's totally fine as well, but they get the highest return on their time. A lot of my alumni told me that the hourly pay, instead of$30,$50, whatever, they get in like$400 to$1 ,000 per hour. If they really calculate how much time they put in, what's the return they're getting? So that's really the true goal for me. It's not the overall return. Because we want to make money, but we want to live it as well. Absolutely, Fire Nation. I mean, that's one thing that I like to talk about a lot on this show is, are you looking to end your life with just piles and piles and piles of money, but like no experiences, no freedom, no joy, none of that?

15:26Of course not. Like you're working hard now so you can create a life so you can enjoy the trips and the family time and the freedom and the relaxation and the focusing on health and wellness and things that really make this world worthwhile. Now, Fire Nation does, Cody, like speed. So how can high income earners reach fire sooner? Talk to us about that. Yeah. So if it's high income earners, they could, you know, if they're making multiple six figures, they are in a very good shoes to start buying assets they'll appreciate. Now, the biggest concern for them is they're so busy, they're so focused on their business as a high-income earner, so they don't have time.

16:12So they can work with someone like myself or other people who are active partners in buying real estate or full-time investors who specialize in this, put most of their time in this and understand the market, and they can partner with those people and they can speed up their process instead of just letting their money sit in the bank or sit in more conservative funds that generate not enough return to really get them to where they want to be. And sometimes not even enough return to keep up with inflation. I mean, with inflation, they just posted at 7 % this year. I mean, everybody's like, oh yeah, I made 6 % on my investments last year.

16:55Okay, well, that's like a negative 1 % net. So you actually lost money with that quote unquote investment. So you have a new podcast, High Income Earners on Fire. Talk to us about this. We are in the banking episode stage right now. Since I've been on quite a lot of podcasts in Canada and US, so I'm inviting a lot of great people like yourself to come on and share their journey as a high income earners. We're truly focusing on helping already high income earners and help them to achieve their financial freedom. A lot of people say, Cody, are you crazy? They're high-income earners. But John, you can probably echo to this.

17:35A lot of high-income earners are actually working a lot harder, putting in more hours just to achieve the high income. So true. So we're really trying to help those people. If they want to do it themselves, no problem. I have a mastermind program for them. But if they say, Cody, I love what you're doing. I would like to do it with you and your team. Again, we have a done for you kind of fund that we're preparing right now that can help out people and achieving that. If they just say, you know what, Cody, I trust you. I don't want a mind of it, right, on that. So we're preparing that again. It's brewing in the background.

18:11Give us one takeaway that you really want to make sure Fire Nation gets from everything we talked about. We talked about a lot of different themes throughout the entire day today. What's the one core thing you want to make sure Fire Nation really gets from our conversation? I just want to say, believe it and it's totally possible. You have to be open mind to it and take action. And like I said, the first sentence I said is hire a reputable coach because it will save you a lot, a lot of time and save you a lot of sweat, save you a lot of tears and blood and money loss. you will get to where you want to be a lot faster and a good coach will push you out of your comfort zone and keep holding you accountable and you will be amazed by how much speed of generational, of wealth growing you can get from that.

19:01So besides checking out your podcast, High Income Earners on Fire, how do you want Fire Nation to connect with you? Any call to action or giveaway you have? Share that now. I have a Facebook group talking about stock option. Most of them are real estate investor. with more than 4 ,000 members in there. It's called Stock Investing for Beginners, Canada and US. I believe you'll put that links in the show notes. So join there. I run Facebook Live every Sunday, 7 p.m. Eastern time. And I let people vote about the topics and then I talk about it. And there's a lot more vlogs in there, my YouTube videos in there and just a good community to share on that.

19:42And if you wanna find me on YouTube for some free content, type in Cody Yeh investing, C-O-D-Y space Y-E-H space investing. You can find me there. We're starting back up the channel again, just give a lot of free content. And you can also follow me on Instagram, right? Cody underscore underscore Y-E-H. I post a lot of content there just to help out people like yourself, your audience as well. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And you've been hanging out with C-Y and J-L-D today. So keep up the heat and head over to eofire.com type Cody C O D Y in the search bar.

20:20His show notes page will pop up with everything that we've talked about here today. And Cody, I want to say thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with fire nation today for that. We salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Sounds good. Thanks for having me, John. Hey, fire nation. Today's value bomb content was brought to you by Cody and successful entrepreneurs accomplish big goals. That's why I created the Freedom Journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal in 100 days. And we're talking step by step. So visit thefreedomjournal.com. And I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side.

20:55Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white label your own software, say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. Fire Nation, it's time to stop guessing and start winning with a proven playbook. Inside the Freedom Circle, you'll have access to my step-by-step systems for creating offers, building processes, and driving traffic all in just 90 days. Ready for freedom? Visit freedom-circle.com to learn more.