He probably does it for fun and to maintain a social life, or something like that. Sounds like a cool guy.
I hope it's for fun. I'll be sad if he's stuck spending most of his earnings to keep pace with consumerism. I hope he's psychologically free and happy and just likes what he's doing.
I'm not yet certain if he's got the capacity, either mentally or fiscally to retire. I get the picture that he probably doesn't have a clear path outlined.
When I brought up the 5% 401k matching offered by Home Depot while sitting around the front desk. I asked a couple of the people there if they contribute. The response, "Pssssh. Uh, no."
However, I brought it up with the property guru and he looked at me aghast when I told him about the others. "BUT IT'S FREE MONEY!" he said. Yes, I know man, but you can't change people. To which we agreed.
The topic came up about retirement. He couldn't possibly be earning as much as his passive investments. He agreed that no, he couldn't. I asked him, when are you going to quit? He said, you know I have two young sons, they play hockey, it's an expensive sport. I'm still young, and it gives me something to do during the day.
I laughed, and told him he doesn't get paid enough to do what he does, and should become a full time stay at home dad :)
I made a quip about the fallacy of working past the point that your passive investment income is larger than your current living expenses. It's a case of the CREEP / What-if-itis that keeps people working. It took my dad 4 years to FINALLY accept/realize that he didn't need to go to work anymore. He could stop. And so he retired overnight.
This man has an acute case of the creep, and what-if-itis. He doesn't have the formal knowledge of what his total investments are really capable of. He hasn't done the math. I'm only 43, he said. (Like he didn't think that was old enough to retire yet... WRONG!)
I told him I had a 7-8 year plan and he looked up suddenly and blanched. Wait, you're 28 right, that puts you at 35/36? Really, you'll be able to /plan to retire that soon?
I said, I sure as hell plan on it. Whether or not it happens is circumstantial, but it's all about the F-U money. Earning the right to be free for yourself, such that you determine the next step, not someone else.
He agreed with that. This guy is inherently Mustachian, but doesn't know his true capacity.