This just came up talking about passive income with an English speaker who wanted me to lay out the specifics of how they could retire 40 years early:

1. Take a $9000, 40-hour-per-week in-person ESL job.

2. Live on $1000 very comfortably abroad, invest the other $8000 at 5%; index funds are a good option and often outperform 5% returns.

3. After one year, you have $96000 invested, returning 4800 indefinitely, $400 USD per month.

That’s enough to live in dozens of countries in a private bedroom with utilities/wifi and afford groceries and data.

4. After two years, your return will rise to $9600 per year at 5%, $800 USD per month.

That’s enough passive income to live in most of the world in a private house/condo/apartment with utilities/wifi included with $400 left over for food and entertainment.

If you want to work 20 hours a week instead of 40, it takes 4 years instead of 2, working 10 hours a week takes 8 years.

8 years might sound like a long time, but it’s a lot shorter than 30 or 40 years and you only work 10 hours a week.

You can also blitz 40-hour workweeks 2 months of the year and work 10-hour weeks the rest of the year, there’s a lot of customization to be had.