He Retired at 25 With a $2,000/Month Budget — Here's How

What would change if work became optional — not at 65, but decades earlier?

In this episode, Matt sits down with Cody Berman — entrepreneur, author of Retire by Thirty, and founder of Gold City Ventures — to break down exactly how he reached financial independence at 25 with no inheritance and no shortcuts. In three years, Cody grew his income from $96K to $198K to $403K, kept his expenses at $2,000 a month, and invested the difference into real estate, index funds, and digital products until work became fully optional.

This one is packed with practical frameworks you can apply no matter where you're starting from.

What you'll learn:

• The "Financial Freedom Sprint" — why working aggressively for 2-3 years beats chasing passive income too early
• The Gap: the single most important metric on your path to financial freedom (and how Cody used it to retire at 25)
• Type 1 vs Type 2 side hustles — and how to transition from trading time for money to scalable income
• The two paths to financial independence: Cash Flow FI vs. the Nest Egg Method (and why Cody recommends a hybrid)
• How to get started selling digital products on Etsy with zero audience and zero marketing budget
• The Big Three expenses (housing, transportation, food) — how optimizing these creates thousands in monthly savings
• House hacking: how Cody turned his housing cost from an expense into income
• Why skills are "future currency" — and why they're the one thing nobody can take from you
• The 4% rule explained simply — and how to calculate your own financial freedom number

Connect with Cody Berman:
🌐 Website: CodyBerman.com
🎙️ Podcast: The Financial Independence Show
📦 Digital Products: GoldCityVentures.com
📚 Book: RetireByThirtyBook.com (available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, and everywhere books are sold)
📸 Social: @CodyDBerman on all platforms