On investing, I am not the type to buy a stock and expect to become rich off of it. The only
particular thing I ever invested in was bitcoin, because I instantly saw how extremely useful it is. But it is rare to get such a possibility just popping up in front of you. And for most, despite getting this possibility, they sold out because during the long bear markets they lost hope.
I would recommend investing in safer investment vehicles. One would be bonds. But it is difficult to buy bonds that have good yields. There are funds though that are as safe as a fund can be, and have modest yields. Sorry for it being in Swedish but here is one:
https://www.avanza.se/fonder/om-fonden.html/2111/amf-rantefond-lang It is a interest fund. It invests in long term bonds and the five year yield on it is 30%, 10 year 60%. So approximately 5% a year. Notice the fees, its only 0.1% fee.
There are slightly more risky funds which require some research. These are
index funds that are based on indexes. These indexes are based on the most valuable stocks of a country. Examples: S&P 500, MSCI Europe, MSCI World etc. They are based on how good the economy is going. It is relatively easy to see when we are in a bull market and when we are in a bear market. This site:
http://www.economicprinciples.org/ explains the credit cycles and why we seem to have bull markets for approximately 5 years and then bear markets for 1-2 years following. If you put your money (money you can afford to lose) in these funds, 10% annual return is common. But make sure you know when the markets are bullish, else its easy to end up losing money. Some claim this is irrelevant over a long enough period, but I would not agree with letting your investment depreciate during bear markets. Its better to sell them off and put the money in safer vehicles until the market has returned.
So as you see even my investing philosophy I believe in hard work, because you have to acquire capital first and wait years, and do your homework in the mean time.
But retiring in your 40s should be a common thing, as long as you are thrifty. Getting kids in your 30s is a wise thing to do too, get married to a younger woman.