EPISODE 7. SZABOLCS TAKÁCS

How To Retire In The Age Of 30?

Estela: Welcome everyone on Freedom Experience. And I am truly grateful to have Szabi with us here today. Here at freedom experience a lot is asking him for a short interview as he had an amazing talk yesterday with a “kid group” with about a hundred people, but it was in Hungarian, so I love to share what he was sharing yesterday in his talk with our online audience.  So great to have you here Szabi.

Szabi: Thank you so much

Estela: and so many can relate to your story, so you are an investor, and your goal was to retire at the age of thirty, is that right?

Szabi: Almost.. It wasn’t my goal to retire at thirty, but I still manages to do it. I had a very good career, mainly in investment banking, and after a time, let’s say ten years, I started not to enjoy it anymore. The first ten years perfect, I really loved it, but after that, I got bored. I switched jobs, I tried another company, but I realized that what I was longing for was freedom, and I couldn’t find a company that could give the freedom I was longing for. I was constantly searching for more, more, more, and more freedom. After a while it got more difficult and difficult. And then I resigned again. I started a year without a job. Sabbatical, I think it’s called. During my sabbatical, I started to do the math, and then I realized that my savings are already enough to get along, for my whole lifetime, I think. When I resigned in my last job, I was thirty four, and I was thirty five when I started my blog about early retirement, as I managed to get into early retirement at thirty four, and I’ve been doing this for 1 ½ year now, and it was April, about half a year ago when I started my blog, and since then, that’s the reason I’m here.

Estela: That’s awesome! And Szabi can you share with us, so you said that you retired at the age of thirty four, how does your life look like, what are the things that you do, like what is that that you do for work, and how does your day looked like?

Szabi: The main point is that the income from my savings, and my savings are mostly invested in stocks, global stocks, and also I have a flat that I rent, so this makes my income, and this is already enough to get along. But being in an early retirement doesn’t mean to me being absolutely busted, on the contrary I am very active, but I am only taking on projects which are interesting enough for me. I would say these are hobbies, and some of these hobbies are still paid. Like I do some consultations, I teach yoga, I drive a truck sometimes, all the things which are fun to me. Usually, I get up at 6 in the morning, I do approximately 3 hours of yoga, not only physical poses, not only asana, but also meditation, contemplation, all exercises. After that, from 9-10, let’s say, I cook and I eat breakfast. From time of 12, I usually read, sometimes press, sometimes part of reports of company I own, of course, I monitor my investments regularly, monitoring my investments takes approximately 2-3 hours per week. And after 12 to 2 in the afternoon, I usually cook my meal and also eat again. From 2-5 let’s say, I do my paid projects, or any other project which are not necessary paid, for instance writing my blog. After 5, the usual stuff, I’m with my partner, we go to cinema, or something like that. I usually go to bed at night at 9 in the evening. And from 9-11 I read again, and sometimes from 11, I fall asleep, and the next day, it start again at 6 o’clock.

Estela: Yeah, that’s pretty much we have a fine schedule, so your schedule is somehow you put together 24/7, so that’s what freedom means to you, to be able to schedule different activities, the way that you’re gonna do that every day.

Szabi: I wouldn’t say that what I just mentioned is a small package, for example, 2 weeks ago, I was driving a truck for a week, and I go up every morning at 4 o’clock and I finished driving at 8 o’clock in the evening. So that was not a typical week and of course, what I just mentioned my daily routine is more of an average, so that doesn’t mean that I do the same every day, but usually this is the guideline.

Estela: Yeah, of course. And then what is the most important for you in your day, how you manage your life, what are the most important aspect that is for yourself, for family, for sport, or kind of like just giving a certain amounts of to each of your life, and how does it feel for you to have a job that has a free life?

Szabi: I feel very grateful. I really, really enjoyed it. I’m not saying that I will do this forever, I really don’t know how long this will last, I don’t know what will happen to my investments, if you have an investments, you’ll never know what will happen, and I think generally in life, you’ll never know what will happen. Maybe 2-3 months from now, maybe someone will approach me with a job offer which I will fall in love with, and maybe I’ll take on again, or I have to find job, or anything can happen, but for the time being, I really enjoyed just to do it my way, just put together my own routine.

Estela: Very well said. Like now where do you live, how much is the location in your apartment, how much is it important for you to be flexible, and do you do move locations or do you travel?

Szabi: It’s very, very important for me to be flexible, that’s the reason why I did not buy my own property, at least not the property I’m living in. So I bought a flat which is easy to rent out, and this is an investment for me, but the flat I live in I still rent, but for freedom point of view this is very important for me, because I can change anytime, I can move to another part of Hungary, or another part of the world. But to answer your question more precisely, I’m location independent I would say, but I am not travelling that much, I travel 1-2 months a year, maximum, most of my time I spent in Budapest, but I also spent most of my time in Lake Balaton here in Hungary which is a beautiful home, which I really love, my family loved it here. I also spent time at my parent’s house which is a very nice and quiet place on the countryside, it is near the wine region of Szekszárd, and it’s really a perfect place, I also spent a lot of time there. So these are the three places, but most in Budapest.

Estela:  Great! So why is that, do you like travelling but right now it is very comfortable and is really good to be in Hungary, or how do you feel about Hungary and Budapest?

Szabi: I think Hungary and Budapest are both perfect places, I think freedom is not important if you are in Budapest, or either in Germany, Australia, and its freedom is here. And I love to travel so don’t misunderstand me, but inner freedom is important for me than physical freedom, like travelling the world.

Estela: That’s alright and you have talked about what freedom means to us, to different places and how you feel about it. So thank you so much Szabi for the interview, it’s awesome to have met you. And if you guys is to be checking Szabi more, then you’ll gonna be able to inquire via link to Szabi’s work. Awesome to have you in Freedom experience.

Szabi: Thank you so much

Estela: Thank you.