One morning in January 2021, Joseph Worthey woke up in his Southern California home and decided he had had enough. After more than 20 years of working at a Fortune Global 500 company, Worthey put in his two weeks' notice.
He had no other job lined up, and he was not independently wealthy, having worked his way up from receptionist to HR manager without a college degree. Then 46 years old, he had not squirreled away the $1 million-plus balances that adherents to the FIRE (financially independent, retire early) movement typically amass before leaving the workforce. But Worthey was done with the corporate life, he wanted to figure out another way to live—and he had made "two wise investments" in real estate.
