ATLANTA — The average American retires at the age of 62 -- many times with little or no money -- and that's if they are able to retire at all.
However, Justin McCurry managed to retire comfortably when he was just 33 years old.
"Right now, we’re sitting on about $1.4 million in invested assets plus the house is paid off," McCurry said. "While it's true we don't live in the lap of luxury, we do have a lot of luxuries of pretty much the American dream."
%
%
McCurry and his wife, who have three children, started saving around 50 percent of their pay right out of college. He was an engineer and she worked in finance.
"Each year we would save in the tens of thousands -- 20 (thousand) the first year, and that ramped up to 50 or 60 thousand each year, eventually hitting probably close to $100,000 per year towards year 10 of my working career," McCurry said.
While friends and co-workers used pay increases to buy bigger homes and better cars, the McCurrys stayed the course. Choosing instead to remain in the same modest home they bought after college, which is now paid off.
McCurry said most of his wealth comes from investing in low cost index funds with Vanguard, which meant he could put his investing on auto pilot.
"I wish I knew how to play the market and get huge returns every year. Unfortunately I don’t," he explained. "Just by buying something you think would be very average actually gets you one of the top performing funds out there."
After 10 years of saving, they had a little more than $1 million. So when McCurry was unexpectedly laid off, he didn't have to worry.
"I came home thinking, ‘I was just laid off.’ [I] checked my plan out, ran some numbers, and said, ‘OK, we have enough, I'm retired now,’” McCurry said.
McCurry's wife joined him in retirement in early 2016. When asked if he was afraid the money will run out, he said they live by the 4 percent rule.
"That just refers to the withdrawal rate. So how much money do you pull out of your portfolio each year," McCurry said. "We're planning somewhere around 3 to 3-and-a-half percent of what we have each year. So if you have a million dollars, you can spend 30-35 thousand per year."
With no debt, McCurry said $35,000 is enough for them to live comfortably.
"We do a lot of traveling, our kids are schooled, we have cars that run, our house is here, we have Netflix, we have the Internet, we have phones, TVs, computers. Probably the biggest difference is we don't really go out to eat a whole lot," McCurry said.
Now he runs the website Rootofgood.com and said there are steps you can take to start getting out of debt, building wealth and saving for retirement.
"Start with baby steps to get in a position where you are at least not losing money each month, that your income covers your expenses," McCurry said. "You have to get to that point before you can start building any kind of wealth."