Millennial Retired Early by Investing in Real Estate and Index Funds

Todd Baldwin, a millennial from Seattle, retired early by combining real estate investing with index fund holdings. He bought his first property at 23 using a house hacking strategy, putting $19,000 down on a $506,000 home and renting out rooms. By 25 his net worth exceeded $1 million, and by 28 he was a multimillionaire. He later invested over $1 million in Vanguard's S&P 500 ETF (VOO), which gained about $800,000 in five years. Baldwin sold both his properties, including a duplex that generated about $1 million in total value from a $90,000 down payment. He advocates for house hacking as a beginner-friendly strategy and notes that index funds offer passive growth with less effort than active real estate management.