IIT-Bombay alumnus Daniel George was 24 when he thought of getting an early retirement. He had just gotten a job at Google after a summer internship in the US and had a salary package of $265,000 (about Rs 2.2 crore) a year.
"I did the math and realised that after a couple of years of saving, I could easily go back to India and retire if I wanted to," George, who got his bachelor's degree in engineering physics from IIT Bombay in 2015, said. Now, at 29, the AI specialist has enough money to never worry about getting a salary.
Speaking to Business Insider, George revealed how he managed to accumulate the money. It all started with his plush job at Google in 2018.
"Working for Google X was my dream job. It was like working in a magical fairyland. There was unlimited food and drinks and amazing facilities, including ping-pong tables, video-game rooms, soccer fields, a gym, tennis courts, and free massages in the office," George said. "After a year at Google, I started teaching myself more about finances and taxes. I was making more money than ever before but paying nearly 50 percent in taxes."
He then learned how to optimise his retirement accounts to minimise his tax liability and began to invest as much money as possible into his retirement accounts.
"IIt," George told Business Insider. "I walked or biked to work, so I never bought a car. I ate three meals daily at Google, so I rarely paid for food. Even though housing is usually very expensive in Silicon Valley, my rent was quite low because I was splitting an apartment with my friends."
He added that although he was spending less, he was still having a great time, thanks to the perks of working from the Google office.
"Many people I knew bought expensive cars or houses, but I decided to invest most of my earnings. The more I saved early on, the longer my money had to grow and compound exponentially. I could always move to low-cost-of-living cities and buy a much nicer house later. I was still having a great time at Google and never felt like I was sacrificing my quality of life."
Eventually, he ended up investing more than $75,000 (about Rs 62 lakh) every year into the tax-advantaged accounts.
By 2020, although George had enough money to retire and return to India, if he wanted, he chose to stay back and grow his wealth more because by then he had met his future wife who was also an AI scientist with Google but was based in the US.
In June 2020, George was hired by JP Morgan to lead applied AI projects across the firm and his compensation was doubled.
"Even as my income and net worth increased, I still wasn't living extravagantly, other than eating out for every meal because I didn't want to cook. My only possessions were clothes, a mattress, a bed, and a 65-inch TV," he told the publication. "At 27, I had reached my first million dollars in savings. My stock portfolio had done well, and I'd been investing all my paychecks and the large bonuses of 70 percent of my base salary from JP Morgan."
In August 2023, at 29, George quit JP Morgan and cofounded a startup, ThirdEar AI, with some friends.
"Now that I never need to worry about earning a salary, I can afford to risk starting my own company," he said. "Eventually, when my wife and I decide to settle down and potentially have kids, I'm confident that all our investments will earn enough passive income to meet our family expenses. Because I invested early, I won't have to worry later."
Read more: Meta's AI chief lists reasons why he refused to join Google in 2002: 'Salary was low'
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