A retired 74 years old Without children or private pension plans, he has managed to go from a salary of 13 euros an hour to a fortune of more than three million euros in the bank. “The Lord has taken care of me,” he acknowledges in a letter he sent to MarketWatch. He has never studied at university, which made him think that “I have no special talents.” But the years have shown the opposite.
Despite not having had education or financial advice, he knew how to find a way to invest his money. The result? At his age he is already collecting his retirement and together with his wife (70 years old) they form a debt-free marriage, with two homes in their name and a high level of income which includes the payment of American Social Security and the profitability that the properties and their investment plans leave them.
“I have lived from day to day, on the go,” he says during the interview. But it has cost him work. Little by little, he has been fattening his savings account, with a first salary that was “just 13 euros an hour” but that he has known how to manage, generating an asset of millions of dollars.
“I couldn’t afford to buy a house, not even to renovate.”
During their first years of work, the couple’s joint income was 15,800 euros per year ($17,000) and with that, they decided to go to a real estate agency to buy their first home.
“We left laughing because we couldn’t find anything we could afford, not even a house to renovate,” he remembers. Then, the same agent who assisted them presented them with the opportunity to buy a 16-story building in a marginal neighborhood. That, although it was risky because at that time no one wanted to live there, “marked the beginning of my new strategy to grow the assets.”
Seeing the success, they started a new project with which they both did not agree at the beginning. “My wife hated those buildings,” he admits. But the strategy began to make them money.
They requested early retirement when they had 1.47 million euros
The couple explains in this digital medium that what defined their ability to save is knowing how to control spending. “We have always lived below what we earned” and states that “we have never resorted to regular savings instruments such as private pension plans,” which are very popular in the United States.
When they had 1.47 million euros in the bank, they requested early retirement. He was 43 years old and she was 39. “Today, we can say that our financial situation is the sum of savings and prudence.”
Among their properties and inventory they have two homes valued together at 1 million euros, one of them rented for about 2,800 euros per month, a stock portfolio of approximately 1.56 million euros, cash savings and annual income of 36,700 euros from the pension, in addition to other public benefits.
“Sometimes I wonder if we will have enough for the rest of our lives,” he admits. Now he plans to sell the home for rent and maintain a savings strategy.
A financial advisor responds: “you are an example”
The story of this 74-year-old retiree and his wife has been analyzed by a financial expert who has highlighted that “he is an example of a tireless spirit, the Lord has helped you, yes, but because he always supports those who help themselves, and you have done it.”
The exposure to the stock market, which is 39% of the total, is “adequate” but he finds it worrying that “36% of the assets remain in cash and are losing value over time.”
Despite this “you cannot run out of money, even if you think like a conservative since you have enough margin, with this capital you can easily reach 100 years.”