An American tech expert named Jamal Robinson has revealed how he went from being paid $5.15 an hour at Taco Bell to retiring at age 39.
Speaking to CNBC, 40-year-old Robinson explained that he made it his cause to retire at a certain age when he was only a teenager, and strategically planning his life has contributed to where he is now.
‘In my mind, I always thought it made the most sense to compress that amount of time in my life,’ Robinson said.
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‘So at 17, I set the goal to retire early at 45, which I wound up hitting six years earlier than expected’, he added.
Since his retirement, Robinson has been living comfortably in Dubai off his $3.5 million nest egg.
He revealed the secrets to his success as being deliberate in saving, investing, and focusing on maintaining financial freedom.
The American tech expert added that getting comfortable did not come easy in any way as he began his early days earning $5.15 an hour at Taco Bell.
The 40-year-old said his upbringing came without financial stability and that pushed him to save his earnings.
‘I didn’t feel like I had much support in the world, and I needed to have as much money as possible in the event that if something happened, I’d be able to take care of myself,’ he revealed.
Striving to make ends meet helped him learn the ‘value of money’ at a young age as he got his first job at 14 as a church janitor.
At 16 years old, Robinson started working long shifts at Taco Bell while he attended school.
The 40-year-old enrolled at Tennessee Tech on a full-ride scholarship, where he went on to earn computer engineering and mathematics degrees.
After he graduated, the American tech expert started working his first full-time job, which paid $41,000 annually, and after a steady increase, turned into $225,000.
After many months, his pay rose to $400,000, $727,000, and eventually $1 million, as per reports.
Robinson then decided to balance work and school, going on to earn nine post-grad business and technology certifications and an MBA.
The American tech expert worked with companies like Amazon, Microsoft, IBM and Intel prior to his retirement and became a data science professor at UC Berkeley.
Nonetheless, even when his salary and resume were higher than ever, he didn’t put himself out as a luxurious person.
‘I still, even to this day, view myself as this minimum wage guy making $5.15 an hour,’ Robinson admitted.
‘I would make $1 million a year, and I would struggle to spend over $50 on an item.’
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Instead of spending his earnings on expensive items, Robinson kept saving his money, knowing it would just bring him closer to retirement.
‘I went from saving 30 percent to 50 percent to 80 percent and up to [nearly] 90 percent,’ Robinson said.
‘And that would excite me more, because I knew that that accelerated my goal to ultimately retire.’
As he worked as a tech leader specializing in generative AI, Robinson reportedly quit once his portfolio reached $3.5 million though he made $1.1 million a year.
‘A lot of people think that I’m crazy to leave AI at a time where it’s so important,’ Robinson said.
‘For me, it was always important to focus on my goal of retiring so I could focus on myself [and’ make sure that I’m doing things to make the world a better place.’
After he retired, Robinson began using a four percent retirement income rule, which helped him earn $185,000 a year.
This sum equals about $15,400 a month, yet Jamal Robinson only spends around $9,000 to $12,000 during that period.
‘If you’re having a disciplined, responsible relationship with [money you’ve earned], then spending it on experiences to make your life easier [or] to impact other people’s lives positively – these aren’t negative things,’ he said.
Robinson settled nicely in Dubai, which he said is not more expensive than living in major US cities he’s been to.
‘If I spend the same amount of money here, I typically get a much better experience. Or if I spend less money, I can get the equivalent experience,’ he said.
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Robinson added that he would not pay taxes in Dubai but would pay the IRS since he is an American living abroad.
The 40-year-old is working to rebalance his investment portfolio, which consists of several tech stocks.
Now, he also enjoys DJing and is writing a book while producing a podcast. ‘I want to focus on myself [and my] spiritual growth,’ he said.
