BiggerPockets Money Podcast · Tuesday, July 14, 2026
Carl, who retired in April 2017 at age 42, shares his experience of the past decade. He describes retirement as fantastic and not something he'd trade for any amount of money, stating he works harder than ever but on his own terms. He's currently involved in personal projects like building a house and installing solar panels.
“It's been great. Uh, you have to work at retirement, just like you have to work at your job. Uh, a great life just won't come to you. You have to build it for yourself, but it's fantastic. I would not trade it for anything. There's no amount of money that would make me go back to conventional work.”
“So I tell people I work harder than ever, but I do work on my own terms and it's things I really want to do. Like right now I'm building a house and I just installed the hydronic floor system and a water heater. So.”
“I'm putting up solar panels now because I'm cheap and don't want to pay a big electric bill. All the data centers are coming online, so I'm just going to nip that one in the bud.”