Daniel Walsh was a sparkie then a train driver. Now he's a supercar-owning multi-millionaire. Here's the secret of how he did it - and how you can avoid being a 'modern slave' as well

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The author of a new book wants to help people of any age change their mindset so they can accumulate wealth and retire early, mainly through 'rentvesting'.

Daniel Walsh, 33, originally from Picton, in Sydney's south-west was able to leave his job as a freight train driver and accumulate assets worth $20million.

The successful investor started writing '6 Principles to Retire Younger and Richer' two years ago to share his passion about wealth creation to help the lower and middle classes have better lives.

After starting his career as an auto-electrician, he became a freight train driver to earn more money with the sole intention of saving enough so he could start investing in assets.

'Everyone can identify if their pay is not making them rich and do something about it,' he said.

'Fix it. Upskill. Learn. Pivot.

'I knew my tradie job wasn't going to get me where I wanted to be, so I became a train driver.

'The goal was to acquire enough assets to leave train driving.' 

Daniel Walsh (pictured with wife Sophie) was able to leave his job as a freight train driver and accumulate assets worth $20million

The successful investor started writing '6 Principles to Retire Younger and Richer' two years ago to share his passion about wealth creation to help the lower and middle classes become richer

After just 10 years, he was able to quit train driving and focus full-time on his buyers agency business. He is able to retire today  - but doesn't want to. 

The 33-year-old, who just employed three more staff members in May, has recently purchased his dream $6million home in Sydney's Northern Beaches and has upgraded his tinny - a boat called 'Realescape'.

Even better, he helped his parents retire mid-last year.

'I used to work for dad as an apprentice. It was a good feeling to tell him to hang up the boots,' he said.

Mr Walsh believed it became possible for him by changing his mentality on how he sees himself, investments, asking questions and seeking the answers.

'We tell ourselves where we belong, whether we're wealthy or poor,' he said.

'You must believe you can become it.'

The real estate investor's other mindset shift was how he viewed property ownership - something he thinks all Aussies need to do to get ahead.

'The game has changed. Peoples' first home isn't their dream home anymore,' he said.

'People have to 'rentvest' just to get their foot in the door. Most people do it for five to ten years before getting their first house - I did for over ten years.'

The savvy investor explained that rentvesting is when someone buys their first property to have as a rental - to either keep costs down by renting a room or live in a smaller property.

'My first eight houses I was still living in a garage,' he said. 

'The goal is to help you get ahead in life, to own a house one day to live in.

'Start small. Don't try and buy a house for a million dollars.

'Everyone is saying everywhere is unaffordable - no, where they're looking is unaffordable.' 

The investor said Aussies don't have to live in the property - that could be in another state - and said he once bought a home in an Adelaide suburb that people told him was a 'dodgy' area for $180,000, that went up in value to $480,000. 

He then leveraged this property to buy another home and kept doing this until he made enough money to buy his multi-million dollar home.

For Aussies doing it tough with the cost of living, he wanted them to know that he did it tough and struggled - and that there are no shortcuts initially, but the strategy will pay off down the road.

'What people have to realise is you have to sacrifice to get ahead. Once your foot is in the door your asset will do the heavy lifting,' he said.

'We have no choice - no-one is coming to save us.'

Rentvesting has become so popular, the investor finds it bemusing when people 'bag' out landlords.

'A lot are renting and struggling themselves. They're just doing it so they can have a good life one day,' he said.

At a young age, the author was curious why the people around him didn't have any money but people in other suburbs did.

'I used to look at people from Sydney's eastern suburbs or north shore and wonder what they were doing that my family wasn't,' he said.

'You only know what you are taught, by the community you're in.

'Every single year we would take our caravan to Sydney's northern beaches and would take out our tinnie.

'We would look at all the waterfront houses and I wondered what did those people do? How is it possible?'

Changing his mindset to not just believe he could one day own one of those homes, but deciding to study the successful people who own them, was crucial. 

'Mindset is absolutely everything,' he said. 'Your brain doesn't know what is reality, which makes it easy to manifest. 

'You need to be reverse-engineering how you're going to get there. Then you can start executing. It creates a map in your mind.' 

After becoming successful, Mr Walsh mixed with people who knew about wealth accumulation and would often think: 'I wish my family had known that.

'The typical middle class mindset was "life is a struggle, be happy with what you have and go to work".

'Whereas rich people are focusing on shifting their earnt income into assets and they've been doing it for generations.'  

Mr Walsh now owns his $6million dream house and motor yacht called 'Realescape' (pictured Daniel, wife Sophie, their one-year-old son and his parents who he helped retire early)

The buyers agent and former tradie believes the lower and middle classes have become 'slaves'

The former tradie also said the financial system is geared towards keeping the masses from accumulating wealth. 

'The modern-day slave is getting a pay rise equal to inflation,' he said. 

The young investor said the financial system is about devaluing money each year, so it makes sense for people to put their money to work in assets, rather than cash.

'The assets go up because the dollar is devalued.

'The rich only have saved money to protect their assets and cushion them. They are mainly moving their money around to work for them.'

Daniel's other mindset change was changing how he looked at debt - which he says is vital for Aussies to do to become wealthy.

'We are led to believe all debt is bad and we have an old-school mentality of paying off debt. Whereas the wealthy look at how to control it,' he said.

Once he looked at debt differently he had the freedom and knowledge to leverage investments and start accumulating wealth. 

He likens living by his six principles to a sheet finally being lifted from a person's head, as the middle class have traditionally been kept in the dark about how to accumulate and build wealth. 

However, the savvy investor said people have must have a long-term mentality.

'Delayed gratification has been lost for our generation. 

'They want everything now to show everyone they're doing well.

'I drove a $1,500 car and lived in a converted granny flat because it was the cheapest rent I could find but I had a $1million in equity at 25 years old.

'I stayed in the granny flat until I was 28 when I had $3.5million - $4million in my portfolio.'

He said he knows saving for your first deposit is the hardest part, but the struggle is worth it.

'Everyone has the ability to exit the middle-class mindset,' he said.

'Get out the box and you have a chance to be wealthy.

'You have to start getting financially educated. If you're in your 40's or 50s you can still change where you are now and what your retirement will look like.

'Instead of retiring at 70 on the pension, you could retire at 60 and off the pension.

'Younger and richer is a mindset, not an age.'