Millennial Cody Berman Achieves Financial Independence at 25 Through Income Growth and Expense Management
Cody Berman, author of "Retire By 30," reached financial independence by age 25, focusing on two key strategies: significantly increasing his income and meticulously managing his expenses. Over three years, Berman quadrupled his income while his spending remained largely unchanged, creating a substantial gap that he then invested. His approach involved side hustles, house hacking, and a pragmatic view of frugality, enabling him to build a financial foundation for early retirement.
Cody Berman achieved financial independence by the age of 25, primarily by focusing on two core financial levers: increasing income and controlling expenses. He is the author of "Retire by 30" and host of "The Financial Independence Show."
Berman emphasized that the most significant factor in his journey was widening the gap between his income and expenses. He reported that his income more than quadrupled within three years, while his spending remained relatively stable during the same period. The excess funds generated were then strategically invested.
His first lever involved keeping expenses low. After college, Berman lived with his parents for seven months to save on housing. Upon moving out, he split rent with roommates, paying $450 per month. He later purchased a multi-family home and utilized house hacking, transforming his housing cost into a source of cash flow by netting approximately $500 per month from rentals. This represented a shift of roughly $1,000 monthly. With low housing costs and a paid-off truck, Berman lived comfortably on about $2,000 per month between 2019 and 2021, making intentional spending choices rather than extreme frugality.
The second lever focused on increasing income through various side hustles. Berman started earning additional income in college and continued during his first corporate job in commercial real estate lending. He explored over 30 side hustles, including selling digital products, landscaping, tutoring, podcasting, freelance work, and flipping items on eBay. During his corporate stint, he lived off his side-hustle income and saved his entire salary, accumulating approximately $35,000 in savings within seven months. This provided the capital and confidence to pursue entrepreneurship full time.
His income streams eventually consolidated into three main areas: digital products, real estate, and personal-finance education. Digital products became his primary business through Gold City Ventures, offering templates, courses, and communities. In real estate, he engaged in long-term rentals, Airbnbs, flipping properties, hard-money lending, and real-estate syndications. His personal-finance education efforts included his podcast.
According to Business Insider, Berman's strategy highlights the effectiveness of simultaneously boosting income and managing spending to achieve financial independence.
