Pod Insights The $100 MBA Show How To Retire In 7 Years Starting With $0 (Proven Step-By-Step Plan) About this episode What if you had just seven years to retire and nothing prepared? Most will tell you it’s too late, lower your expectations, and settle for less. Omar knows that’s wrong. In this Q&A Wednesday episode, Omar answers a question from Vicki, a 53‑year‑old former accountant and empty nester, who is starting late but determined to retire in seven years. Instead of the usual “save harder and sacrifice more” advice, Omar shares the unconventional approach he used himself to turn zero savings into a comfortable retirement. He explains why traditional thinking won’t cut it, how to shift from defense to offense, and what really matters when time isn’t on your side. If you want to start planning your own seven‑year retirement roadmap, press play at the top of this page and learn the exact steps you can take today. MBA2750 How To Retire In 7 Years Starting With $0 (Proven Step-By-Step Plan) Recommended episode to explore:How To Make Your First Million Dollars In One Year Without Getting Lucky (No Matter Your Circumstances) Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://lm.fm/GgRPPHiSUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Today's episode is supported by Cash App. When it comes to Bitcoin, you may be surprised to learn that it was invented way back in 2008. But you still haven't made the jump to Bitcoin yet? Cash App makes it easy. When you buy Bitcoin on Cash App, they hold real Bitcoin for you, one to one, and you can withdraw it anytime. It works more like real money and less like something locked in an account. No extra steps, no restrictions, just access and control when you need it. With Cash App, you can actually do that. For a limited time, new customers can get $10 added to their balance. Just use code BITCOIN10 when you sign up. And don't forget this part: send at least $5 to a friend in the first two weeks. Terms apply. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank.
0:45 Speaker 00 Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partners. Bitcoin services provided by Block Incorporated brand. For additional information, see the Bitcoin disclosures at cash.app/legal/podcast. Small business owners, listen up. You started your business, but you can't do it alone. And that means you have to hire people to help. That's where Justworks comes in. Justworks is a payroll, benefits, and global hiring platform to unburden your brain from all the complicated small business stuff. They handle the things you can't afford to get wrong, so you don't have to worry. So you can focus on the parts of running a business that you enjoy, knowing everything else is running smoothly. You don't have to worry when it just works.
1:28 Speaker 00 I need to retire in seven years and I currently have $0 in savings. What do I do? That's a real question I got from a listener called Vicky. Vicky is 53 years old, former accountant, empty nester. She's smart, she's capable, she's disciplined, but she's starting late. And when most people hear that, the advice that comes fast and brutal all over the internet is, "It's too late. Just lower your expectations, be realistic." Is this even possible? Yes, it is possible. I know because I did it. And if I wanted to retire today, I could because I followed a very specific five-step plan that I'm going to share with you today. Now, I got to warn you, this plan is not popular with cautious, traditional thinkers. It's not going to win you any applause from most of your friends and family,
2:13 Speaker 00 who believe that retirement only comes after like working hard for 40 years and sacrificing everything. If you're starting late, saving harder and skipping lattes won't save you. The only way is something most people never consider, building an asset you can sell. Let me show you how.
2:37 Speaker 00 Welcome back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host, Omar Zenhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, to help you start, grow, and scale your business.
2:51 Speaker 00 I got a quick favor to ask. If this show has helped you in any way, leave me a quick review. You could do so wherever you listen to podcasts. This helps me and my team reach even more people who need the same no-fluff, practical business advice that you're getting from the show. It only takes a few seconds, but it makes a huge difference. Thanks for being a part of our journey to help others on their journey.
3:15 Speaker 00 Step one of five steps is build an asset, not another job. This is where most people immediately go wrong. They hear retire and they think, I gotta save harder, I gotta spend less, I gotta max out retirement accounts and hope the market just behaves and does what it's supposed to do. That works if you're starting at 25. It doesn't work if you're starting at 50. Time is not on your side. I gotta tell you the truth, you don't need another job. You need an asset. An asset is something that creates value without requiring your constant presence. It's something that can grow over time and can eventually be sold. Key point here. Some examples are like a software business, a content brand with
3:58 Speaker 00 products, a niche service that can be systemized. You don't need to be technical, you don't need to be famous, you don't need to be special in any way. You need to solve a real problem for a specific group of people with the experiences and skills you already have. That's how assets are built. For example, the Q. A. Steady's question is a former accountant. She can hire other talented people to provide the service and start to scale and grow value in her company. Step two, and that's where we get into step two, is to grow the asset to a $2 million in profit business. Notice, I didn't say $2 million in revenue, $2 million in profit, what you have left over after expenses.
4:43 Speaker 00 This is where clarity matters. You don't need a billion dollar company, a unicorn startup of some sort, no. You don't need a massive team. You don't need millions of followers on social media. You need a business that can produce results. And by results, I mean $400,000 to $500,000 in profit each year. Over the course of four to five years, that can slowly grow to become $2 million in profit. And that's very achievable if you have a high margin offer, one clear core product or offering, tight operations, you're very thrifty when it comes to costs, and you focus on execution, on delivering on your promises. Now, most people never reach a stage, not because it's impossible, but because they get distracted. Too many ideas, too many platforms, too many pivots.
5:27 Speaker 00 Focus beats brilliance every single time. As they say, most businesses die of indigestion and not starvation. Too many ideas! By the way, if this kind of thinking is resonating with you, make sure you subscribe to the show, because we have an upcoming episode that I'm working on that's called "Five Realistic Side Hustles For People Who Are Over 50 That Require No New Skills." Even if you just need a few thousand dollars more each month on the side so that you can retire comfortably, this episode will show you how. Hit subscribe so you don't miss that episode once it comes out. Step three, sell the asset. This is the part people avoid talking about, because they fall in love with their business. They see it being so profitable and it's growing.
6:12 Speaker 00 But listen carefully. You don't build a business just to run it forever. Okay, you can't, because you will die, right? You build it to create options for yourself. Remember, we're doing this as a means to an end, because you've got seven years to retire. Selling your business is not quitting, it's graduating.
6:31 Speaker 00 And the thing about selling anything is you need to sell it when it's on the up, right? When it's valuable, when it's promising. It's really hard to sell a business when it's really doing well. I get it. But that's the best time to sell because it's really hard to sell a business when it's on the way down or even plateauing. You want to be in a position of leverage. If you build a clean, profitable, well-run asset, buyers will pay you a premium, especially if they see growth year after year. They will pay 3X to 6X annual profit, sometimes more, but these are the averages for buying a business that has these types of profits. If you're making $2 million in profit, that's really impressive. That means if your business is earning $2 million in profit,
7:16 Speaker 00 you could sell your business for $6 to $12 million. That's not theory. That's how exits work. I know, because I experienced it. And that lump sum becomes the fuel for your next chapter and leans us into step four. Today's episode is supported by Rosetta Stone. I absolutely love Rosetta Stone because it's helping me learn Italian faster than I can ever imagine. Why do I want to learn Italian? Well, who doesn't love Italy? But of course, Nicole's family is Italian and I love to have some quick Italian conversations with her mom. And Rosetta Stone just came out with Rosetta Stone Sapphire, their biggest launch in over a decade. One of the coolest features is chat missions,
7:59 Speaker 00 which turns conversation practice into a game. With chat missions, you're put in interactive scenarios and given three objectives. A mission to accomplish, like asking how much something costs, ordering a cold brew coffee, or getting a wifi password. Along the way, you get real-time corrections and feedback to help you sound more natural and confident. It's a supportive way to build confidence before putting your language skills to use in real life. I've been using Rosetta Stone for over two years and I actually can have some small Italian conversations with Nicole's mom now. Just the other day, she asked me, "When are you traveling?" And I said, "Dopo domani mattina," which means "after tomorrow morning." She was incredibly impressed I was able to answer in Italian. How could you put a price tag on a happy
8:40 Speaker 00 If you want to take your language skills to the next level, don't wait to try Rosetta Stone Sapphire. The $100 on BGA show listeners can get 20% off the Rosetta Stone Sapphire subscription when they sign up today. This gets you access to Rosetta Stone Sapphire in 25 languages. Support for today's episode comes from Square. You probably know Square is the thing you tap your card on at your favorite coffee shop, restaurant, salon, or local store. But for the person running that business, Square is a whole lot more than a way to get paid. Square brings the tools you need to run and grow your business together in one system. From payments on appointments, to staff, inventory, sales, and customer relationships. Whether you're selling lattes, cutting hair, detailing cars, running a restaurant, or starting something new.
9:23 Speaker 00 Square keeps your business tools working together so you can focus less on managing the moving parts and more on what's next. And right now, listeners can get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/mba. That's S-Q-U-A-R-E.com/go/mba. Visit Square to get started because running a business is complicated enough. Your tools don't have to be.
9:49 Speaker 00 Now, before you start blowing all that cash, we're going to be smart. We're going to lower expenses and be intentional as you prepare for retirement. This isn't about deprivation. It's about clarity. It's about you knowing what you can live off comfortably and in a way that feels good, okay? When you know exactly how much it costs to live well, and I don't talk about being extravagant, but just feeling comfortable and feeling like, hey, you're retiring in your own style. Like, for example, if your lifestyle requires you to spend like a million dollars a year, retirement feels impossible. But if your retirement is like more like, I'm going to spend $200,000 a year or $300,000 a year, it's very possible. Now you're playing a game that you can win.
10:34 Speaker 00 You're in a position of power, okay? Now that you know, okay, this is my budget for retirement, how much I can pay for my expenses and live well, if I stick to this budget, even if it's just a little bit over the budget, I'll be okay. Now, step five, invest in cash flow assets. Only now does traditional advice finally make sense because now you have some money to invest. After selling your asset, you want to move your capital into conservative income-producing investments, dividend-paying investments, boring predictable cash flow vehicles. Okay, I know this sounds a lot of jargon, and by the way, this is not financial advice. Speak to an accountant or a lawyer, right? I'm just giving you something for education purposes, okay? So that you can wrap your head around how this is possible.
11:19 Speaker 00 At this stage, the goal isn't growth. The goal is income without effort because you're retired, right? You're not working anymore. So you're going to try to find assets like real estate that can generate rent, like, you know, putting money in the stock market and taking a dividend that can actually give you cash flow positive returns and meet your financial goals. Now, one of the things I highly recommend is to invest in a financial advisor or a financial expert. I highly recommend you shop around because I shopped around a lot until I found a great one. Why? Because it's money well spent. These people are definitely well-versed in how to invest money and they know how to get you to your goals. So you could say, hey, this is how much money I need every year to live comfortably.
12:02 Speaker 00 Here's my lump sum from my sale of my business. How do I invest this money so that I can have that reoccurring income? Now, I highly recommend when you're looking for a financial advisor, find somebody with a fixed fee. These people don't have a dog in the game. When they take some sort of percentage of your returns, then, you know, it can be kind of skewed. I kind of like the fact that when they have a fixed fee, because when they have a fixed fee, they're going to do everything they can to help you out and they're not biased. They're not going to try to convince you to do something that you're not comfortable with so that they can make more money. At least that's my experience. So why does this work? And why do most people never do this? Most people try to retire by playing defense, by saving leftovers, right? By avoiding risk.
12:47 Speaker 00 But when you have a limited time, when you have seven years to retire, this plan has to be all offense. It requires you to, you know, brush up your skills and develop some Business skills, focus up, right? You're going to have some short-term discomfort for the next seven years, but you're going to have a long-term comfort and long-term thinking of, hey, oh, in seven years, I'm going to retire. Everything's going to be smooth sailing from there. Once I sell my asset and it works because you're not relying on time or luck or markets behavior. You're actually taking control of the situation. You're relying on value creation and value always gets paid. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Everybody who's listening, Vicky, who asked today's question.
13:30 Speaker 00 If you're listening, yes, it is possible, but not with the old rules, not with fear, not with excuses. Seven years are going to pass away like this, right? Snap of the fingers. The only question is, will you still be asking, is it too late? Or will you be living a life that finally feels like yours? You're going to need to invest to earn that life. You need to invest these next seven years. It's going to be a little bit harder than the last seven years, but you're going to take control and make it happen. If this episode clicked for you, then you're going to want to check out one of our previous episodes that we published called, how to make your first million dollars in one year without getting lucky, no matter what your circumstances are. I'm not saying it's easy, but I'm giving you a game plan
14:15 Speaker 00 and it will help you understand what to build and why this plan will actually work for you.
14:23 Speaker 00 If you found today's episode helpful and you want more practical business lessons to help you start, grow and scale your business, the best thing you could do is subscribe to this podcast. Hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app, the one that you're using right now, whether it's Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. By hitting subscribe, you get our next episode automatically and it's the best way to support the show. It's absolutely free and it's a way for you to commit to growing your business. And now that you've subscribed, I'll check you in the next episode.
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