I was interviewed for a podcast about retiring at 25, check it out

[MyEyeIsOpen]

Jason and Justin over at Techzing just posted the interview I did with them on the topic of my retirement at 25 years old, which seems to be interesting people.

Pete Michaud Techzing Interview >>

I talk about the details of my business and how it happened, and my strategies and life outlook.

Click through to hear the podcast. I'm planning to have a transcript made too, but that'll take at least a couple weeks. Hope you enjoy it

Pete Michaud Techzing Interview >>

[roxyruby]

Retired at 25 that is awesome! I'm so happy for you

[Zach M]

If you’re going to survive that period, you have to have a nest egg, or a partner who can support you.

Yeah, this is where I'm stuck. Congratulations for you, though.

[Zach M]

Nice website by the way. I just finished reading Life as a Geoboard.

[roxyruby]

Listening to your podcast, Love it I met my partner online too

This podcast is so encouraging for me, it was just what I needed right now

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you.

[roxyruby]

Philanthropy and changing the world, me too.

Animal rights, yes yes yes, me too. I was surprised when you said those things cause I thought...wow...that is just what I want to do too!

[MyEyeIsOpen]

@Roxy, I'm glad you enjoyed it. You'll do fine, it just takes patience.

@Zach, I've been kicking around a silly idea for a match making service for people who want to connect for like a year and do this using the buddy system. It requires so much trust though, and you'll have to actually put up with someone for a year, hah. Are you interested in how something like that would play out? Could you see it working for you?

[TheOptimist]

awesome talking pete - really liked it - you have a lot of great ideas will try to keep following you in the future - thanks mate

[Zach M]

Originally Posted by MyEyeIsOpen

@Zach, I've been kicking around a silly idea for a match making service for people who want to connect for like a year and do this using the buddy system. It requires so much trust though, and you'll have to actually put up with someone for a year, hah. Are you interested in how something like that would play out? Could you see it working for you?

Sorry for taking so long to respond. It's an interesting idea, but I'd need to understand it more before answering your question. Meanwhile, I'll keep reading your website when I get the change.

[mattinglot]

Awesome interview! Good work Pete - I actually made it through the whole thing which is rare for me with audio casts.

I'm really impressed with your turnaround from software dev to author and forward-looking vision to see how $25->$50->$100 could eventually make good income. I ran a personal blog for a while (planning on restarting it soon) that took exactly that path to the point that I was actually making nice side income. I only stopped because at that point my business and going to university at the same time were taking up all the time I could give up (and while I had some great hits, including a post that hit #1 on Digg, I also really felt there was a lack of direction). I found the metrics ARE important like you said, even when the blog numbers are insignificant. It's a matter of taking those next incremental steps to double the traffic base next month. Then next month. And again and so on.

I had an experience knowing someone else that started a blog, actually wrote better content than me, was a harder worker than me, whose blog never took off. The difference was that this person never looked at the metrics, and never put in the footwork each month to take the next steps to increase their exposure and traffic.

Good work, congrats on the "retirement".

[MyEyeIsOpen]

@Zach. The idea is that, for example, a house husband could have the time to work on a project if his wife pays the bills for a year or so while he builds passive income.

Your issue is that you have to pay the bills AND build the project.

So my idea is to put people together, not to be husband and wife, but to be platonic living/business partners. The basic setup would be one person bringing home the bacon, and paying for both peoples' bills, while the other builds the passive income.

After a set period of time or set milestone, the partnership stops, and the income from the business as it exists to that point is split 50/50 in perpetuity.

After that, whatever the two people build separately belongs to that person individually. The idea is just to get both past the hump of paying bills.

The obvious issue is trusting the person who is building the project to actually succeed, as opposed to just freeloading for a year. Also, the easiest living arrangement would be room mates, to minimize costs for the "breadwinner" partner, but not everyone gets along in close quarters.

What I'm saying is that idea intrigues me, but there are issues that make it thorny to execute.


@Matt - I'm glad you enjoyed it, and you're exactly right--know your metrics, track your metrics, and work on your metrics. Otherwise you're just jerking off.

[rabbitfur]

Originally Posted by MyEyeIsOpen

..... put people together, not to be husband and wife, but to be platonic living/business partners. The basic setup would be one person bringing home the bacon, and paying for both peoples' bills, while the other builds the passive income.

After a set period of time or set milestone, the partnership stops, and the income from the business as it exists to that point is split 50/50 in perpetuity.

After that, whatever the two people build separately belongs to that person individually. The idea is just to get both past the hump of paying bills..

I think this is flipping $#@****#@!!! BRILIANT and is gold. You put elegantly into words what a few people have done and it opens it up for others , it sure does for me. Thanks.

[jacknick]

Thanks Pete, I read your website, however, wasn't able to load the interview for some reason. And I have to say, in the past I have suffered from creativitus immensely! I've written a book, only to have made billions of changes. I've written songs, and poems, only to change my mood and not like them. I've shot movies, only to be frustrated when I don't like the editing or how ONE word is said. I have to admit though, it's an awesome 'disease' to have, because once we are cured: watch out!

Best of wishes to you and your wife.
And yes, the eyepatch ****ing rocks

[Manomanman]

Unbelievable Interview.

A+++

I added your site to my blogroll.

-Jesse

[Zach M]

Originally Posted by MyEyeIsOpen

@Zach. The idea is that, for example, a house husband could have the time to work on a project if his wife pays the bills for a year or so while he builds passive income.

Your issue is that you have to pay the bills AND build the project.

So my idea is to put people together, not to be husband and wife, but to be platonic living/business partners. The basic setup would be one person bringing home the bacon, and paying for both peoples' bills, while the other builds the passive income.

After a set period of time or set milestone, the partnership stops, and the income from the business as it exists to that point is split 50/50 in perpetuity.

After that, whatever the two people build separately belongs to that person individually. The idea is just to get both past the hump of paying bills.

The obvious issue is trusting the person who is building the project to actually succeed, as opposed to just freeloading for a year. Also, the easiest living arrangement would be room mates, to minimize costs for the "breadwinner" partner, but not everyone gets along in close quarters.

What I'm saying is that idea intrigues me, but there are issues that make it thorny to execute.

Great idea!

[ssandra]

Just wanted to say that I LOVE your blog and the way you are writing...

Tnx for sharing and being successful so other people can follow your example!

[Canadian]

Awesome podcast!

If you can manage to set up that matchmaking service sometime, that, too, would be awesome.

[MyEyeIsOpen]

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone!

As promised, I just released a transcript of the interview for those of you who don't have 2 hours to spend. There's a handy table of contents at the top, so it's scannable.

Here it is, enjoy!

[LoneW0LF]

Great podcast. The "retire at 25" is a bit misleading but good for marketing I suppose!

[MyEyeIsOpen]

Misleading in what way, LoneWolf?

[LoneW0LF]

Originally Posted by Dictionary

re·tire
v. re·tired, re·tir·ing, re·tires
To withdraw from one's occupation, business, or office; stop working.

I take it from your podcast that you still work and not just play golf or do the gardening all day!?

[MyEyeIsOpen]

Fair enough! Here's an excerpt from the part where I talked about that:

Justin Vincent: One thing I just want to say is, the use of the term “retired,” is a pretty loose use of that term because, truth is, you’re not actually retiring because you are going to keep on trying to build your publishing empire and you are going to keep trying to building revenue. But it’s just that it’s not really, really hard work like it might be running a start up or something like that.

Pete Michaud: Yeah, I think that’s accurate. I think what retired in the sense means is that I could stop working. I could just let it be a lifestyle business and work if I want on a couple of hours a month. I thought a lot about this before I published my “How I Retired at 25,” because I knew it would be kind of inflammatory and some people would question my definition of retire. But I really reflected on what constitutes retirement. Is it a large nest egg? And if so, does that rule out pensioners and people who rely on a fixed income from Social Security and Medicaid, or what have you? I’d say no, those people are retired because they have enough money to cover their expenses and they don’t have to work.

And the other aspect is how secure is this stuff? And from the outside, you know, a few e-books and some blogs sounds extraordinarily insecure. And I realize that, but I’m quite confident that it’s not because we don’t have a single point of failure. Our websites rollover onto a different server, should the first one go down, so web traffic isn’t a problem. We get a spread of traffic from various search engines, not just Google. We make a substantial portion of our revenue through—what I should say is our revenue streams are very diversified. So there’s no revenue stream that makes more say 20%.