Cody Berman achieved financial freedom By following a simple rule: keep your expenses less than your income and invest the difference.
Amid various upheavals and entrepreneurial ventures, the gap between what he earned and what he spent widened in his early 20s. As of 2021, shortly before his 26th birthday, Berman said he has about $500,000 invested in the stock market, 13 rental units generating cash flow of about $3,700 per month, and a digital-products business earning more than $10,000 per month.
This was the time when he considered himself financially independent.
Business Insider reviewed screenshots of Berman’s Vanguard, Schwab and Empower accounts, which showed his net worth was more than $1 million as of 2026.
Using the “Lazy Way” to Build a Seven-Figure Net Worth
Like many supporters of the FIRE movement, Berman invests most of his money in low-cost index funds.
“It’s a Lazy Way to Invest Well,” author ofretire by 30Said BI. “You just set it and forget it.”
Index-fund investors don’t have to pick out individual companies or try to predict which business will perform better.
“You’re not playing a guessing game. You’re not playing the lottery,” Berman said. “You’re investing in the economy as a whole.”
He pointed out that this is an effective strategy Warren Buffett’s famous bet against a group of hedge fundsIn which the billionaire investor bet that an S&P 500 index fund would outperform a collection of actively managed funds over a 10-year period: “It’s not just me saying, ‘Pick the index because it’s easy.’ It really works too.”
Berman said he uses index funds to “make money on autopilot.” Courtesy of Cody Berman
Burman also referred A widely circulated fidelity anecdote Suggesting that some of the best-performing investors were those who forgot about their accounts – a reminder that frequent tampering can hurt returns.
“If you just set it and forget it and leave it in a low-cost index fund, that’s probably the right answer for 99.9% of people,” he said. “This stuff is not rocket science. Once you know which index funds to buy, you can set a system on autopilot.”
That approach appealed to him because it eliminated the need for immediate discipline.
“I’m a systems guy who automatically transfers a certain amount of money from my bank account to a specific index fund every month,” Berman said. “The system beats willpower every time.”
Berman said he didn’t spend much time contributing to a corporate retirement plan because his tenure in a traditional job was brief. However, since becoming an entrepreneur, he has preferred tax-advantaged accounts. He said he maxes out an IRA, a solo 401(k), and an HSA every year, while any money left over goes into a taxable brokerage account or real estate.
Real Estate Investing: From Rental to Syndication
Starting with a home hack to eliminate their housing expenses, Berman and his wife purchased 11 rental units between late 2020 and mid-2021. They put down about $200,000 for a down payment, he said, and the properties generate enough cash flow to cover their lifestyle.
They liked that the rental provided recurring monthly income.
“With the stock market, it’s not like I’m selling investments every month to make a living. But with real estate, there’s actually rent coming into our account.”
That said, he’s moving away from rentals, which can be time-consuming because of maintenance and tenant management, and A More Passive Real-Estate StrategySyndication: Syndication, which allows investors to participate in large real-estate deals without personally buying or operating the property.
“I still want exposure to real-estate, but I don’t want to just go out there and buy a 20-unit apartment building and then rent it out and figure out how to arrange all the maintenance stuff,” he said.
He described the syndication strategy as “owning rental properties without actually owning the rental properties.”
Whether it’s index funds or real-estate syndication, Berman is looking for the same thing: investments that can grow in the background while he focuses elsewhere.