I invested most of my salary for 7 years and had enough to retire at 29. My best tips: start young, take risks and don't settle in expensive cities.

• Daniel George worked at Google X and then as a VP for JP Morgan after receiving his Ph.D. in 2018.
• That year, he started investing most of his income and was living off 2% of his investments by 2023.
• Daniel shares five things that were key to achieving financial freedom and quitting his job at 29.  

This is an as-told-to essay based on a transcribed conversation with Daniel George, the cofounder of ThirdEar AI. Daniel George provided documents to verify his finances. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

At the age of 29, I reached financial independence to retire early.