A 45-year-old who retired at 36 shares the 5 money habits that allowed him to ditch his job decades early

• Michael Quan began saving and investing for retirement when he was 22 years old.
• He read personal finance books, automated his savings, and bought assets for his retirement fund.
• He believes the hardest part is getting started and removing mindset limitations.

Michael Quan retired before most people his age were able to.

In 2013, at the age of 36, he threw in the towel on the 9-to-5 work life, walking away with a net worth of $1.28 million, along with an additional $110,000 in cash that came from the remainder of the sale of his IT consulting firm. 

Selling his company allowed him to walk away from his job. However, the bulk of his net worth, which made it possible to retire, was a result of years of saving and investing any money he could.