Millennial millionaire who retired at age 30 explains the sacrifices he gave to get there

When he achieved financial independence at the age of 30 in 2015, Grant Sabatier knew his story was extreme.

The now 34-year-old had saved more than $ 1 million in just five years – after starting with a $ 2.26 balance in his bank account.

"I'm a publisher," Sabatier told FOX Business. "I am the exception to the rule."

Sabatier is a successor to F.I.R.E. Movement ̵[ads1]1; which stands for financial independence, retires early. However, he is still working and making money by writing financial advice for his blog, Millennial Money and by talking about the engagements and sales of his book, Financial Freedom.

way we talk about it now, "Sabatier said. "All that means to me is that when I became financially independent as a 30-year-old, I started pairing all the things in my life that I didn't like to do, and started focusing my life around the things I really wanted to do. " [19659003] "I still work very hard, [but] it is mission-driven work as opposed to making money," he added.

Grant Sabatier (pictured) saved more than $ 1 million in just five years and became financially independent. (Cory Vanderploeg; Courtesy of Grant Sabatier)

The most important thing is that Sabatier does the things that make his life richer – but not in the financial sense.

"Ultimately, only money matters if it helps you live a life you love," Sabatier said. “Do you design your life in a way that your work and your money support it? And do you enjoy your life? That's the most important thing. It's not about millions of dollars, or when can you traditionally withdraw. "

After saving for five years, Sabatier started a personal finance blog called Millennial Money and wrote a book called Financial Freedom. (Houston Bass; Courtesy of Grant Sabatier)

However, this mindset was around money not how Sabatier looked at financial independence when he got started in 2010.

That year he had moved in again with his parents after he was fired from the job, saying he was "ashamed" because his parents had invested so much in him and he felt he had let go of them – and himself -.

So he decided to set the “extremely arbitrary” goal of saving $ 1 million as quickly as he could, as he realized about two and a half years in, would be about enough to live on for the rest of his life.

Although he was still technically working, Sabatier said that for him, "retirement" meant only that he stopped doing the things he didn't enjoyed. "I believe is this idea of ​​work, the idea of ​​retirement, all these things are so fluid now, "he told FOX Business (Courtesy of Grant Sabatier)

At that point he decided to save $ 1 million over of five years – but that was the only thing he did for the next two and a half years.

"I just stopped doing everything," he said. "All I did was make money and save money … I was just uniquely focused on that goal."

Although Sabatier still earns money on his blog, book and voice assignments, he told FOX Business that he donates or invests most of it to other people and projects to "keep my taxable income as low as possible," he said. (Courtesy of Grant Sabatier)

However, it came at its own price. In the few years he said he almost broke up with his girlfriend, who is now his wife, that he was not taking good care of his health – gained 50 pounds – and he lost several friendships along the way as well.

Although excited to meet his goal, he admitted that "he had made far more sacrifices than in hindsight I probably would have done." However, the experience was a "net positive" whole because he can now do what he does. want.

"But certainly I should have just relaxed," he said.

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"I realized later that it wasn't about a million dollars or about becoming financially independent. What I really wanted was just more tranquility in my life and more space and time and the ability to take a deep breath, ”explained Sabatier. "I also didn't realize that as much of the freedom as I wanted, I already had access to so much earlier."

"Most things that make me happiest in life are pretty cheap or even free," he added. "And then, as I began to design my life around how to make more time doing it, I realized that I needed a lot less money than I ever thought I would."

"I think the personal finance world and the money world, they always ask how much money you need, how much money do you spend, how much money do you make, how much money do you want? When the first question should be, what kind of life you want (Courtesy of Grant Sabatier)

Now Sabatier's goal is to pass that message on to other people in the FIRE movement, including with one of the founders, Vicki Robin, who co-wrote the book "Your Money or Your Life."

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"If something doesn't make your life better or richer, you should reject it," Sabatier said. pursuing FIRE can only become money addiction in another form. People are so religious about the spreadsheets and the savings pot is that it just ends up being just like any form of money addiction. "

" A lot of the work that I do or try to do in the movement is to humanize it a little more, "he added." Let's make sure it's always life before money. It's always life before money. That's all based on Vicki's work. "