40-year-old saved up to 90% of his pay and retired with $3.5 million

This story is part of CNBC Make It’s Millennial Money series, which details how people around the world earn, spend and save their money.

Jamal Robinson knew from the time he was 17 that he wanted to retire as soon as possible.

He took his first job as a church janitor at 14, and by 16 worked long shifts at Taco Bell for minimum wage while also going to school.

“I didn’t see a lot of people that were happy with work,” Robinson, now 40, tells CNBC Make It. “In my mind, I always thought that it made the most sense to compress that amount of time in my life. So at 17, I set the goal to retire early at 45, which I wound up hitting six years earlier than expected.”

Robinson continued to work through college while studying computer engineering at Tennessee Tech, then started his career working for power and energy companies. Over time, he pivoted to tech, got an MBA, earned nine certifications and climbed the career ladder at companies like Amazon, Microsoft, IBM and Intel.

By 39, Robinson was a tech leader specializing in generative AI and earned $1.1 million a year. While his peers might say his career was really taking off, Robinson decided it was time to call it quits.

In 2024, Robinson retired from his corporate career with $3.5 million in savings and investments and now lives as an American expat retiree in Dubai on around $185,000 a year.

Robinson didn’t grow up with a lot of money, and its scarcity impacted how he earned and saved it.

“I didn’t feel like I had much support in the world, and I needed to have as much money as possible in the event that if something happened, I’d be able to take care of myself,” he says.

Working at a young age taught him “the value of money” — when his friends wanted to buy $200 shoes, he realized how many hours it would take for him to make that much, and it “built into my character a lot of frugality,” Robinson says.

His first full-time job after graduating from college paid $41,000 a year, and his pay steadily increased for a few years until he made a big jump from $135,000 to $225,000. His pay then leapt to $400,000, then to $727,000, “and then after that I went to north of $1 million,” he says.

Knowing he wanted to retire early, Robinson could “never rest on my laurels” in terms of how much he earned. He rarely funneled his booming earning power into his actual spending.

Rather than buying a house or splurging on a fancy car, he was most excited to bump up his savings rate with every raise. “I went from saving 30% to 50% to 80% and up to [nearly] 90%. And that would excite me more, because I knew that that accelerated my goal to ultimately retire.”

Robinson’s retirement number has changed over time, but he ultimately decided to quit by the time he approached $3.5 million in his portfolio.

“A lot of people think that I’m crazy to leave AI at a time where it’s so important” and could command him a $1 million paycheck, if not more, he says.

However, “for me, it was always important to focus on my goal of retiring so I could focus on myself [and] make sure that I’m doing things to make the world a better place,” Robinson says.

Robinson “pays” himself from his investments using principles of the 4% rule, which states that you should be able to comfortably live off of 4% of your investments in your first year of retirement, then adjust that number each year for inflation.

Robinson currently has $3.6 million in his brokerage and checking accounts and revised his payment upwards to roughly 5%, meaning he’ll allocate at most $185,000 this year, or roughly $15,400 per month. However, he typically spends much less than that, around $9,000 to $12,000 per month.

His plan is part of an effort to repair his scarcity mindset around money. “I still, even to this day, view myself as this minimum wage guy making $5.15 an hour,” he says. “I would make a $1 million a year, and I would struggle to spend over $50 on an item.”

Part of his new perspective comes from reading the book “Die With Zero” by Bill Perkins, which encourages readers to spend and give away their money in impactful ways within their lifetimes.

“If you’re having a disciplined, responsible relationship with [money you’ve earned], then spending it on experiences to make your life easier [or] to impact other people’s lives positively — these aren’t negative things,” Robinson says.

Here’s how Robinson spent his money in December 2024.

• Housing: $4,429 for stays in a few different Airbnbs and hotels throughout the month
• Health and wellness: $2,840 for doctor’s visits, medication, gym membership and massages
• Food: $2,103 for groceries and dining out
• Discretionary: $1,549 for shopping, entertainment and gifts
• Transportation: $743 for a car service and taxis
• Insurance: $267 for medical, dental and vision coverage through Allianz
• Subscriptions: $97 for Netflix, Spotify, a podcasting service and a virtual mail service

Robinson likes to be able to move around and rents apartments for several weeks or months at a time via Airbnb. In mid-December, he moved to a two-bedroom apartment with access to the beach in a premium area for a little over $5,000 a month.

Robinson’s second-highest spending category for December was health and wellness, though it was higher than usual due to some doctor’s visits and prescriptions. Generally, he prioritizes his wellness by staying active and keeping a regular gym membership, as well as hitting the spa for massages.

“If you don’t have your health, then what else do you have?” he says.

Robinson spends roughly $2,000 per month on food, which he splits between groceries and dining out at high-end establishments. It’s a luxury he’s happy to indulge in — he grew up with several allergies and health concerns, so eating healthfully is important to him.

It’s another reminder of how far he’s come: “When I was in college, I used to go to Wendy’s all the time” and order from the $0.99 menu. “I told myself, after I graduate, after I get money, I want to be in a position where I’m not having to cheap out on food.”

Robinson says the math didn’t make sense for him to own a car in Dubai when accounting for insurance, gas, parking and other fees, so he relies on car services and taxis to get around.

Robinson won’t pay taxes in Dubai, but will continue to pay his share to the Internal Revenue Service as an American living abroad. The 2024 tax year will be his first owing money based on investment withdrawals, and he is prepared to file in the coming months.

People often ask him if it’s more expensive to live in Dubai than in other U.S. cities he’s lived in, like Seattle and San Francisco.

“I would say yes and no,” he says. “Yes, if you want to live the life that you’ve seen on TV.” Think: a helicopter landing pad on a 100,000-square-foot house and a speedboat to get to a private island. “That’s probably going to be very expensive.”

“Dubai definitely can cater to that,” Robinson continues, “but those are more like billionaire lifestyles. There’s a whole other side of Dubai.”

In his case, “Dubai is actually much cheaper for me than living in most of the major American cities I’ve been in,” he says. “If I spend the same amount of money here, I typically get a much better experience. Or if I spend less money, I can get the equivalent experience.”

Growing up with parents in the military, Robinson says moving around a lot as a kid influenced him to keep doing so as an adult.

“I realize the value of meeting different people [and] being able to assimilate into different cultures,” he says. “I actually feel a little bit uncomfortable if I’m not moving around and bouncing from country to country.”

In recent years, he lived in Mexico City and Paris before settling in Dubai in April 2024.

“I’m much happier living in Dubai than the U.S.,” he says, which he says is a great place for retirees and people looking for creative activities and environments. In addition to rooftop lounges and Michelin-starred restaurants, Dubai has numerous attractions like aquariums and indoor skiing.

“It also is extremely multicultural,” Robinson says, noting that he’s made friends with people from Egypt, the Netherlands and Syria in recent weeks.

His culture shock has been positive. “People are very accepting,” Robinson says. “I would say that I was shocked because living in America, the portrayal of predominantly Muslim countries, especially after 9/11, has not been that favorable. But I receive almost exclusively love and care from most people that I’ve interacted with.”

As far as his finances are concerned, Robinson plans to rebalance his aggressive investment portfolio, which is heavily comprised of tech stocks, to “focus on security over rapid growth and acceleration, because I have all the money that I need.”

Robinson feels confident that he can rely on his skills and work ethic to find new work if he must, but for now, he’s focused on investing in his hobbies, like DJ-ing, producing music, writing a book, continuing to produce his podcast and possibly going back to school to study film.

“I want to focus on myself [and my] spiritual growth,” he says. “When people ask me what’s next, I’m really focused on being more present and not trying to think and calculate about the future.”

Robinson is currently in Dubai on a work visa until July 2025 through his last employer. From there, he’s excited to move onto the next chapter.

He doesn’t think he’ll stay in Dubai, which has a desert climate, forever. “At some point I probably will look for another place that can give me more biodiversity, and I can go through the range of four different seasons and just feel like I’m more one with nature.”

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