
$200K/Year & Early Retirement in 10 Years by Being a "Lazy" Investor
12/06/24 • 35 min
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Dion McNeeley retired in just ten years after starting from not just zero but NEGATIVE. He was forty years old with $89,000 in debt, had no assets, a low-paying job, and zero investing experience. Thanks to his “lazy” method of building wealth, he was able to amass millions of dollars in assets, create over $200,000 per year in passive income streams, and retire just ten years after starting his journey to FIRE. Can you do it, too, even in today’s markets? Yes!
Dion did what most people aren’t willing to: lower your cost of living, spend less, save more, and yes...house hack. He built a small real estate portfolio just by house hacking alone. Still, thanks to the compounding effect of real estate, Dion’s passive income from the rentals began to overtake his monthly expenses. Now, he rakes in four to five times more than he could ever spend. Who wouldn’t want a $200,000 per year income stream in retirement?!
But it’s NOT too late to copy Dion’s exact strategy. In fact, Dion is sharing why NOW is one of the best times ever to get into real estate investing and how you, too, in ten years or less, could be making major passive income and enjoying early retirement!
In This Episode We Cover
How to explode your passive income by slowly investing in real estate
Dion’s journey from $89,000 in debt and low-paying jobs to financial freedom
Why Dion encourages you to IGNORE what everyone is saying about the housing market
A $1,000,000 mistake that Dion made that you should NOT repeat (DON’T pay off your house!)
Why Dion doesn’t care about growing a big real estate portfolio (and you shouldn’t either!)
And So Much More!
Links from the Show
Listen to All Your Favorite BiggerPockets Podcasts in One Place
Email Mindy: [email protected]
Email Scott: [email protected]
BiggerPockets Money Facebook Group
Find an Investor-Friendly Agent in Your Area
The Lazy Person’s Guide to Financial Freedom in Less Than 10 Years with Dion Mcneeley
(00:00) Intro
(01:00) $89K of BAD Debt
(07:00) Do This NOW!
(10:58) Great News for Landlords
(13:43) Dion's $1,000,000 Mistake
(16:19) No Stocks, No Bonds...Just Rentals?
(18:15) "Reverse Budgeting"
(19:58) Emergency Reserves and Current Portfolio
(22:13) Working 2 Hours a MONTH!
(23:49) Dion's FIRE Advice
(27:39) Connect with Dion!
Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/money-587
Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email
Dion McNeeley retired in just ten years after starting from not just zero but NEGATIVE. He was forty years old with $89,000 in debt, had no assets, a low-paying job, and zero investing experience. Thanks to his “lazy” method of building wealth, he was able to amass millions of dollars in assets, create over $200,000 per year in passive income streams, and retire just ten years after starting his journey to FIRE. Can you do it, too, even in today’s markets? Yes!
Dion did what most people aren’t willing to: lower your cost of living, spend less, save more, and yes...house hack. He built a small real estate portfolio just by house hacking alone. Still, thanks to the compounding effect of real estate, Dion’s passive income from the rentals began to overtake his monthly expenses. Now, he rakes in four to five times more than he could ever spend. Who wouldn’t want a $200,000 per year income stream in retirement?!
But it’s NOT too late to copy Dion’s exact strategy. In fact, Dion is sharing why NOW is one of the best times ever to get into real estate investing and how you, too, in ten years or less, could be making major passive income and enjoying early retirement!
In This Episode We Cover
How to explode your passive income by slowly investing in real estate
Dion’s journey from $89,000 in debt and low-paying jobs to financial freedom
Why Dion encourages you to IGNORE what everyone is saying about the housing market
A $1,000,000 mistake that Dion made that you should NOT repeat (DON’T pay off your house!)
Why Dion doesn’t care about growing a big real estate portfolio (and you shouldn’t either!)
And So Much More!
Links from the Show
Listen to All Your Favorite BiggerPockets Podcasts in One Place
Email Mindy: [email protected]
Email Scott: [email protected]
BiggerPockets Money Facebook Group
Find an Investor-Friendly Agent in Your Area
The Lazy Person’s Guide to Financial Freedom in Less Than 10 Years with Dion Mcneeley
(00:00) Intro
(01:00) $89K of BAD Debt
(07:00) Do This NOW!
(10:58) Great News for Landlords
(13:43) Dion's $1,000,000 Mistake
(16:19) No Stocks, No Bonds...Just Rentals?
(18:15) "Reverse Budgeting"
(19:58) Emergency Reserves and Current Portfolio
(22:13) Working 2 Hours a MONTH!
(23:49) Dion's FIRE Advice
(27:39) Connect with Dion!
Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/money-587
Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email
Previous Episode

Average Net Worth by Age (How Do You Compare?)
Are you beating the average American in personal finances? Today, we’re sharing the average net worth by age to see where exactly you stack up. Whether you’re in your twenties, thirties, forties, or fifties, we have the data showing whether you’re behind (or ahead of) the norm. What do you do if you feel like you’re falling behind? Don’t worry; we’re also giving tips on how every age bracket can improve its net worth.
Don’t know how to calculate your net worth? It’s easy, and you can do it in minutes after (or even during) this episode. Once you know your net worth, it’s time to decide your next move. Do you need to make more money so you can invest faster? Are you close enough to FIRE that you can let your foot off the gas a bit? Should you buy that new boat? No! Don’t ever buy a boat.
We’re also sharing our own net worth journeys and the money moves we made that skyrocketed our wealth to millionaire status. You can’t go back in time and copy everything we did, but you CAN copy some of our same strategies to boost your net worth!
In This Episode We Cover
The average net worth for Americans in their twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties
How the rich invest differently than most of us (and what they’re buying)
How to calculate your net worth and whether primary residence equity is included or not
What everyone in their twenties should be doing with their money to secure a comfortable retirement
Why you DON’T need to be a mega-high income earner to become a millionaire
The reason Scott thinks YOU should be starting a business to FIRE faster
And So Much More!
Links
BiggerPockets Money 35 - Hacking Your Life to Live for (Almost) Free with Craig Curelop
BiggerPockets Money 416 - Codie Sanchez: These “Boring Businesses” Will Make You Rich
Visual Capitalist Composition of Wealth
Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/money-586
Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Next Episode

The 5 Biggest Money Fears Keeping You from FIRE (and How to Overcome Them)
Many people struggle with money anxiety, even those in the FIRE community. Your money fears could keep you on the sidelines, or it could have the opposite effect, making you ultra-conservative with your retirement savings. Today, we’re diving into five of the most common financial fears, whether they’re worth fretting about, and what to do about them!
Welcome back to the BiggerPockets Money podcast! Do you ever worry about your finances? You’re not alone! Maybe you’re concerned about your FIRE number being too low and running out of money in retirement. Maybe you’ve wondered whether you’ll ever be able to afford a house or if the “grind” to financial independence is even worth it. We’ve pulled the most common concerns about money and are going to respond to each of them in today’s show!
Tune in to learn how much money you actually need to comfortably retire, how to deal with burnout on the journey to FIRE, and if you’re “missing out on life” by practicing frugality in your youth. Scott and Mindy will even debate whether the returns from real estate investing are worth the trouble of managing rental properties!
In This Episode We Cover
How much money you actually need to retire (and if the four-percent rule still works)
Renting versus buying a house amidst today’s high home prices and interest rates
Whether the “grind” to early retirement is worth it (and what you should do if it’s not!)
Active versus passive real estate investing (and which delivers the highest returns)
Whether you “miss out on life” by living frugally and racing toward retirement
And So Much More!
Links from the Show
Listen to All Your Favorite BiggerPockets Podcasts in One Place
Email Mindy: [email protected]
Email Scott: [email protected]
BiggerPockets Money Facebook Group
BiggerPockets Money 455 – REITs: How to Make Real Estate Money WITHOUT Owning Rentals
The Passive Real Estate Investing Show
“Determining Withdrawal Rates Using Historical Data”
Try Baselane, the One Platform for All Your Property Banking & Finances
Buy Scott and Mindy’s Book, “First-Time Home Buyer”
Find an Investor-Friendly Agent in Your Area
(00:00) Intro
(01:27) “Missing Out” on Life<...
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