How to retire young: Canadian 24-year-old who amassed fortune of more than $1 million shares secrets – 7NEWS.com.au

Mike Rosehart, 27, enjoys a life of leisure. Having amassed a fortune of more than AU$1 million, he has been retired since the tender age of 24.

The former IT business analyst saved aggressively, lived frugally, and bought his first home when he was just 19 years old.

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Now a dad of two and married to wife, Alyse, 28, the money-maker is convinced anyone can achieve financial independence and retire early - otherwise known as FIRE - with a little financial wizardry.

'Most of us cant resist the Starbucks, the trip abroad or the new cellphone.'

The secret to retiring early is: spend less, earn more and maximize the returns on the difference," Mike, who is Canadian, says.

The hard part is executing it. Most of us cant resist the Starbucks, the trip abroad or the new cellphone.

Delayed gratification is the secret to FIRE.

Mike hit upon the idea of retiring early when he was studying at the Ivey Business School in Ontario, Canada, in 2010.

He came across Early Retirement Extreme, a book about becoming financially independent on a median salary by Danish astrophysicist Jacob Lund Fisker.

I was in my first year at university and I was working on a project about the psychology of happiness," he explains. "I went deep into a wormhole on the internet and I came across Jacob Lund Fisker. He started the spark for me.

'I realised that what makes you happy is freedom and the ability to do what you want in your life'

His thesis was that anyone can retire in five years. I thought: Hey, Im 17, Im young and eager.

I realised that what makes you happy is freedom and the ability to do what you want in your life.

Mike had a hard time persuading his girlfriend and future wife, Alyse, to share his early retirement ambition.

I wouldnt say shes a crazy spender but she likes her Starbucks," he says. She wanted to have kids young so I explained that if we were able to retire early we could be there for our kids. I told her we just had to cut our spending in half.

It took me over a year to get her on board. Every time she bought Starbucks, I said: That cost us two more days away from our kids.

Throughout university, Mike worked full time while also studying full time.

He said: I grew up really poor with a single mother on the poverty line so I didnt have family money to rely on. I got scholarships to go to college.

When I first started going after FIRE, I was working at Tim Hortons, earning slightly above minimum wage. I got a better job the following summer at border services. I saved aggressively.

In my second year of university, I rented a bedroom for AU$330 [299 CAD] when the market rent would have been AU$607 [550 CAD].

It was 7ft by 8.5ft but it was perfect for me. I just needed a place to sleep. Then I got a tiny apartment with my girlfriend for just AU$663 [600 CAD] a month.

We even shared the internet with the neighbors and gave them AU$5.50 [5 CAD] a month. I cycled everywhere instead of getting a vehicle. I found a bike that someone was giving away on the Craigslist of Canada.

'We graduated debt-free and with money in the bank'

At 19, Mike bought a AU$221,000 [200,000 CAD] cottage with Alyse.

It was a tiny little cottage, the cheapest house I could find in London. We put down AU$43,000 [39,000 CAD] - half of that was money we had saved and half of it was our student line of credit. We rented every room in it and so it was earning money for us. We had four other roommates. The guy in our basement apartment was paying our mortgage.

We graduated debt-free and with money in the bank.

The couple married in 2014 and were keen to keep wedding costs down, with the big day setting them back AU$5500 [5,000 CAD].

We found a venue that were offering a deal where you could have the wedding for free as long as you invited enough guests," Mike explains. Initially we wanted 150 guests but to keep costs down we whittled our guest list to just 80 people.

People give a gift when they come to a wedding and so we actually made a profit on our wedding if you think about it like that.

For our honeymoon, I used the points on my credit card to go to Brazil so it didnt cost anything. We had a friend who hosted us in Brazil so our accommodation was free.

'I got off work at 6pm and Id bike over to my property and Id do it up until midnight'

After college, Mike took a AU$60k-a-year [55,000 CAD] job in consulting. Alyse, who had graduated a year before, in 2013, took a graphic designer job, making AU$39,000-a-year [35,000 CAD].

Mike adds: My salary was not exorbitantly high but I took the proceeds from that salary and bought rental properties and reinvested the rent. I was able to convince the bank to lend me 80 per cent of a house price.

I got off work at 6pm and Id bike over to my property and Id do it up until midnight. We lived on slightly less than half of Alyses salary.

We were saving 100 per cent of my salary, every single dollar. I kept reinvesting every profit from rental property. It kept snowballing."

The frugal approach allowed the pair to buy ten properties in three years. In 2017, Mike was able to hand in his notice and Alyse also retired later that year.