They say inspiration can come from the most unlikely of places and for Naz Avo, it was a Justin Timberlake movie that lit a spark in him.
He was just 15 when he watched the sci-fi film, which features a world in which time is currency – you earn, spend and trade in minutes and if your clock hits zero, you die.
This plot made Naz realise that he just needed to give himself time to achieve his goal of financial independence and in order to do this, he would need to be very disciplined when it came to money.
His motivation held strong into his 20s and by the age of 32 he retired, leaving his colleagues dumbfounded.
So how did he do it?
Born in Ukraine in the 90s, he claims his family didn’t have much so he was accustomed to living quite frugally.
‘It’s really hard for me to spend money,’ Naz admits. ‘We didn’t have much in Ukraine, we had enough but we never splurged. I’m just wired that way.’
As such, he decided to ‘live like a student’ throughout his 20s, despite having a well-paying job as a software developer for an American company.
He opted to live in Asia while he worked instead of the US, which allowed him to have a better quality of life as the cost of living was much cheaper.
‘I figured out, living like a student, I could put away 60 to 70 percent of my salary into investments. So I lived modestly and saw my account ballooning,’ Naz, now 34, said.
He lived this way for years, only spending £1,120 to £1,500 ($1,500 to $2,000) of his salary per month, with his rent only costing £375 ($500).
During this time he saved enough money to buy a flat in Ukraine and one in Poland, both of which he rents out as Airbnbs for passive income. The rest of his money sits in funds he can forget about.
‘I invested in ETFs (exchange-traded funds), bonds, and stocks. That’s the lowest maintenance. Set and forget. It just works,’ he explains.
And it certainly did work – by 32 he’d reached his ‘magic number’, meaning he had enough savings to retire.
He handed in his notice and closed his laptop before boarding a flight to Bangkok, where he celebrated the huge moment in his life by attending a five-day festival.
‘It was kind of like this big entry into the new chapter [of my] life through a massive party,’ he recalls. ‘I felt horrible after five days. I realised I wasn’t 22 anymore. But I made good memories.’
When the partying ended, he wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself, especially now that he no longer had a regular daily routine.
‘We are creatures of habits and my work habit was destroyed all of a sudden. I didn’t have to do anything.
‘It took about three months to settle down and completely retire my brain from thinking about work.’
Eventually he got into the flow of things and now lives in a mountainside flat in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, where he enjoys slow mornings with coffee and a good book.
He also spends his time training in jiu-jitsu, surfing, scooting, running, yoga and participating in endurance events and blogs about his adventures online.
And when boredom and curiosity creep in he does occasionally do some work.
Currently he’s developing a tool that companies can use to survey their employees.
But he knows he would never properly be able to return to a job as he feels the freedom of retirement has made him ‘unemployable’.
‘I want to have control over my calendar. Which at the moment mostly [involves] scooting around the mountains, eating some food and running around the sunshine.’
He’s aware his lifestlye is a very ‘easy’ one, especially as he doesn’t have a partner or any dependants, but says is ‘very happy’ with the way he is.
And for those keen to follow in his footsteps, his advice is simple: run the numbers and stay motivated when it comes to saving.
Do you have a story to share?
Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk.