The road to part time retirement

Going against the grain

Burnout.

Something I’ve noticed, and not just about myself, is that we work incredibly hard towards a personal goal (work, promotion, investment or anything), achieve it, and no matter the outcome (mo’ money), we end up moving swiftly on to the next goal, working just as hard and the cycle repeats itself. All this just to retire and be too old to enjoy any of the fruits of our labour. Lets take it back to basics, what is the thing that most entrepreneurs strive for? Freedom and security. Somewhere during the hustle we seem to forget what our original goal was.

What I am proposing is a solution to a problem that I found in my life and from speaking to people also suspect its an issue that a lot of us face (also commonly known as “the rat race”).

The Concept.

Instead of working most of your adult life and retiring at the end, add more retirement to your life while you are young and healthy. My current plan is to take a year off every 5 years to have an adventure with my wife and kids. This could be to travel the world, take the time to learn new skills (in a sunnier location), build better habits and do projects that have nothing to do with my career but are positively impactful to the community we meet (got to stack for the afterlife too).

Setting this goal was huge for me as it has kept me focused on systemizing, investing safely and saving enough to take a year off work (comfortably)

The Homework.

Important caveat - everyone’s circumstances are different so some of this may not apply to you but hoping you get some “golden nuggets” from this to apply to your own circumstances.

For me having a partner that supports this adventure has definitely made this possible (even with two babies under two!!).

We realized that if we were to do this, we would need to have some extra support in regards to the kids, as we were moving away from the supportive family in the UK. So a place where this was possible, a Muslim country with Halal food, strong familial values and really safe environment is what our requirements were in choosing where to go.

Living in the UK and earning GBP (£) meant we could go to most places in Asia or Africa and live extremely comfortably at a fraction of the price.

We had written down a few places that we would like to travel to and take our time exploring. Egypt, Dubai, Algeria, Malaysia and Mauritius were some of the places on the list. We had calculated how much we would need (to live extremely comfortably) so that we had a specific goal to reach (figures are for a family of 4).

Egypt:

A live in maid/nanny that works almost everyday would cost around £200.

Security guard/handyman that’s always on site would cost around £250.

Rent - roughly £650 - £850 a month (3 floor villa with a pool in a private gated community)

Nursery (private with the best facilities) - £300

Food, Travel, going out - £600

Total: £2,200 PCM OR £26,400 yearly

Dubai:

Rent - £1300 monthly depending on location (apartment) OR £0 if we stay with family but is not feasible for a long time (as two kids)

Food, travel, going out - £1,500

Nursery - £1,000

Insurance - £400 approx.

Total: £50,400 yearly

Mauritius:

Rent - 0 OR £500 (by the sea)

Food, Travel, Going out - £1000 (top end)

Nanny 8h x 5days- £540 (top end)

Insurance: £60

Total: £2,100 PCM OR £25,200

Algeria:

Rent: 0

Food, Travel, Going out: £500

Insurance: 0

Nanny/nursery: £500

Cleaner: £200

Total: £1,200 PCM OR £14,400

Malaysia:

Rent: £850 - £1000

Maid/Nannay 5.5days a week: £500

Food, Going out, Travel: £1,000

Insurance: £150

Total: £2,650 PCM OR £31,800

We had two options. We either save the money, invest or a mixture of both.

The Execution.

Now that we had our goals, we now had to do the difficult part of organizing our lives to be able to have this experience with our family. My passion has always been growing wealth through sharia compliant vehicles. Prior to choosing what vehicle to choose, I had taken a look at the Risk VS ROI VS Sweat Equity factors of different vehicles and came to a number that was suitable for myself that was truly passive and meant that I would build wealth at a reasonable rate. This vehicle for me was Managed Real Estate (I haven’t heard this term anywhere so calling it MRE).

I had chosen this particular vehicle because I do not like risk at all, did not want to compromise on speed, the management company had to have a really good and long record of providing results (this company had a 16 year record of never missing a payment to an investor), and most importantly the contracts needed to be airtight.

The three types of Leveraging that we used

I had found that using leverage to fast track my growth was scary especially with some of the added risk. There were different types of leverage that I had used to fast track my growth.

The first leverage

I had taken out a loan and invested in the MRE strategy, I could have taken a profit every month and paid off the loan over the 5 year period but wanted to pay off the loan as quickly as possible so that my risk factor would only be 2.5 years. That’s how long the investment had to hold out to pay off the loan, and the next 2.5years were pure profit.

We had also considered taking out a 60% mortgage on a place we had bought in Dubai, and using the money to add more to the MRE strategy (as loan rates are 5.9% and ROI on MRE strategy was 16% - 18%).

The second type of leverage was relationships:

Being fortunate enough to be trusted by a lot of the people meant a lot people would tell me their problems/goals and “with great power comes great responsibility” (quoting French author Voltaire or more commonly Spiderman’s Uncle Ben), this meant that I was in a position to help solve people’s problems or help them fast track their growth (the hard part was asking for a super small slice of the pie upon giving them the desired result).

The third and final type of leverage I used was “stealing someone else’s 10,000 hours”:

I had used my commission from solving peoples problems to hire specialists in area’s I was not an expert in. I did this at a fraction of the price for me but for them it was like I was paying 30-50% higher than the market rate in their country. This meant I could get better results at a faster rate for my clients and ultimately have something that I can scale.

Savings

In our savings account we had to have enough to travel around, for emergencies and a nice pot for when we come back to London and are looking for work again. 15-25k was the number we had in mind before we started exploring the world. Having more money in the bank that wasn’t put to work is a waste for us at this stage in our lives.

Side note - this isn’t to mean that we didn’t enjoy the little things in everyday life or take adventures every year with our family.

Summary

In summary, this journey represents a conscious choice to break free from the conventional work-retire cycle by prioritizing family, life experiences, and financial security now, rather than waiting until retirement. Taking a year off every five years allows for deeper connections, personal growth, and shared family memories while still maintaining a sustainable career. By focusing on financial strategies that prioritize safe, steady returns, like Managed Real Estate (MRE), I’ve created a plan that balances stability and growth.

Leveraging loans, relationships, and expertise has accelerated this vision, reducing risk while maximizing returns. This approach also highlights the importance of thoughtful financial planning to enable these breaks without sacrificing long-term security. The hope is that this strategy inspires others to pursue a balanced, intentional life that doesn’t defer all joys to “someday.”