In today’s episode, Cody and Justin bring you the dynamic duo of Mike and Lauren. You may know them from their fantastic DIY YouTube videos or hearing about their huge European travels.

These two have had some interesting jobs: experimental marketing, gemologist, commercial real estate, and YouTube guru to name a few. They’ve never had a typical desk-job but that hasn’t stopped them from being retired by age 30!

Oh, and did I forget to mention they have two kids which they gave birth to in Costa Rica? Trust me there’s a lot to unfold her so you’ll want to listen for sure.

Met when 12

Dated at 15

Married at 19 and 21

Never had a desk job but have been employed a couple times

Started a commercial cleaning company in college in 2007

Got successful so he dropped out of college

She moved to New York City and became a gemologist

They lived with family while she was getting her gemologist certification

She now stays home with her two kids

She started making $50k after her 6 months of schooling

He then got into this experiential marketing gig where one of his jobs was to create a mobile quicksand booth

He talks about the hardest part of starting his cleaning his business was going door to door and getting told no so many times as he tried to get the word out

They got their first big contract was through word of mouth but they underbid by a large margin

They initially bid $10k per month and then quickly realized they needed to increase to $24k per month and their client was totally cool with it

She worked at Saks 5th Avenue and Tiffany’s

They loved NYC but it was just too cold for them after 3 years there

He did some lighting and production for a church and she worked at a friends Jewelry store when they moved back to Florida

They both worked at those for 4 years and quit

She quit to have their first son and he quit to go full time on YouTube in 2016

His first year on YouTube he made $20k

His second year that jumped to $68k

They did a 10 week trip for two across Europe for $10k which spurred the idea of doing YouTube travel videos

They jump into how they still continue to travel even with kids including a 7-week backpacking trip to Europe

They recommend traveling a little slower with kids and not bouncing from city to city every couple days but maybe every week

After seeing some success from their YouTube channel they started making online courses

They gave birth to both kids in Costa Rica

They did so to get dual citizenship and avoid a lot of health care costs

U.S. healthcare wouldn’t give them exact quotes while Costa Rica gave them a specific menu

They gained full citizenship and their children gained dual citizenship to Costa Rica

They had the affordable care act plans which allowed them to have really low cost of insurance due to their low income when covered

They pay $50 per month to be a part of Costa Rica’s universal health care system as a fall back plan

They retired when he was 30 and now just blog, YouTube and travel

They’re cash flow FI vs the traditional large nest egg FI

They completed the purchase of a warehouse were the cash-flow comes from through owner financing