Perry Wilson, 63, decided to set himself the milestone challenge so he can retire in three years after investing his earnings while working 80 hours a week
A grandad is well on his way to becoming a millionaire after building up an impressive property empire all while earning minimum wage. Perry Wilson, 63, has given himself the ambitious target of hitting the million-pound mark so he can enjoy a well-earned retirement in just three years, having invested diligently while putting in a gruelling 80-hour work week.
Back when he was 57 in 2018, taxi driver Perry, from Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, faced the stark realisation that retirement was looming but his financial cupboard was bare, with no savings to speak of and a £10k credit card debt hanging over his head. It was this financial wake-up call that spurred him on to set a goal for himself – initially aiming to rake in £300k to secure his future.
To kickstart his savings, Perry doubled down on his efforts, cranking up his working hours as a cabbie from 40 to an eye-watering 80 hours each week, subsisting on minimum wage. After two dedicated years, he had managed to accrue £20k in savings, which he then parlayed into a buy-to-let mortgage on a two-bedroom semi-detached property.
As his savings snowballed, Perry snapped up additional properties to rent out, thus accelerating his ability to save even more. Now, the proud owner of three rental properties, he’s got his sights firmly set on acquiring eight more by the year’s end in 2025, showing no signs of slowing down in his quest to expand his portfolio further.
Although his cash savings currently total around £25,000, Perry is confident that his burgeoning property enterprise in the northeast will enable him to achieve his ultimate objective: amassing a personal fortune of £1m by the time he bows out of the workforce at 67.
In reflecting upon his journey, the grandad-of-two shared: “At 57, I realised I’d retire with no money and decided to do something drastic. I set a goal of making £300k in ten years – but as I went along, I kept raising it until I hit £1million.
“For the first two years, I worked every day of the year to make enough to buy my first house to let out. Within three years, I owned three – and now I’m in the process of buying a further eight flats using a bank loan and angel investors.
“And this portfolio is part of a larger portfolio – there are 70 more that I plan to purchase from the same seller in the future. In July I will be seven years into my 10-year plan and it’s going well – and I’m still working 80-hour weeks too. But there has to be a work-life imbalance for a while when you’re trying to achieve something extraordinary.”
Perry, who has two adult daughters and two grandchildren, has been on a minimum wage full-time since leaving the Royal Navy in 1989. As retirement neared, he realised he lacked savings for future plans with his wife Susan Wilson, who is 64.
To finance their travel dreams post-retirement, he chose to build a property empire, doubling his working hours to 80 per week; some mornings, his alarm would sound as early as 4.15am, increasing his yearly earnings from £19,760 to £39,520 based on his £7.83 hourly wage.
He said: “Working double hours, I was paid double – so I used half to pay my bills and saved the other half. After two years I had saved about £20k and in 2021 I bought a £63k two-bed semi-detached house with a mortgage in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham.”
He kicked off his journey with a buy-to-let that netted considerable rental profits, which he squirrelled away for his next property venture. In the same year, he halved the cost of a three-bedder in Shildon with his mate, before seizing a third trio-bed property in Stockton-on-Tees.
As his buy-to-let portfolio swelled, so did his savings, but with income rates on the up in 2022, he hunted down alternatives to rentals. That’s when he stumbled upon the brainwave of ‘angel investors’ – silent individual lenders who lend a lump sum which is later paid back with interest added.
He said: “What slows you down is the time taken to generate the income to buy – unless you can get other people to give you money to pay for a deposit.”
With an eye for opportunity, Perry then set his sights on a bundle of eight flats in the north east, all under the same owner’s wing and baggable for £300k, with each needing some serious TLC. With plans to spruce them up, a surveyor friend of Perry’s estimated they’d be valued at a sweet £550k post-renovation.
His game plan? To refinance, settle the initial loan, and fill the pockets of his ‘angels’ with a 5% bonus on their investment, before hunting down an even meatier property deal.
He added: “There’s another 70-house portfolio the same seller wants to sell to me as well. We want to work out a plan for me to purchase those in the next two years as well, but we it’s hypothetical at the moment.
“I spoke to a prospective angel investor last week with £1.6million to lend – lots of people want to lend me their money for this. So now I’m feeling confident that I will surpass my goal of £1million in savings in the time I have left before turning 67.”
Perry’s family, initially puzzled by his intense work schedule, now understand that his ten-year plan is “a means to an end”.
He said: “Everything comes with a price – I don’t love working. Once I’ve made sufficient money, I’ll stop. It’s no good having money and being the loneliest bloke in the world – but money gives you freedom and choices.
“Once I’m done, I’ll do whatever I like – I’ll homeschool my grandchildren and complete my travel bucket list with my wife. We want to go on a world cruise and stay in the Nevada Desert. And I’ll be able to do it because I’ll be bringing in 5-10k a month from my properties, without doing anything.”
He further added: “I don’t believe in burnout – if your goal is strong enough, you can run through brick walls.”
