A woman has retired at the age of 35 and has racked up nearly £1 million in savings with her partner.
Katie Donegan, 37, along with her husband, Alan, 43, revealed that the secret behind her savings - and their early retirement - was to keep outgoings low.
Speaking to The Sun she said: "At 18 I went to study maths at the University of Oxford, but I struggled and left the following year.
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"Back home, I temped doing office admin for a while, earning £9 per hour, before going on a three-month volunteering project in January 2005 to Costa Rica, where I met Alan.
"After graduating in 2008, we moved in with Alan's mum in Hampshire so we could save for a house deposit, while I worked as an actuary earning £28,500 a year.
"Alan was self-employed on a variable income, teaching businesses how to do presentations."
Katie revealed that she 'ate packed lunches, drove a second-hand Skoda and invited friends over instead of going for expensive nights out'.
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She went on to say "We saved hard and in November 2010 we had enough to put down a £42,000 deposit on a £167,650 two-bedroom flat in Basingstoke.
"We married in July 2013, keeping costs as low as possible by hiring the local community hall, emailing the invites, getting a friend to do the decorations and having a BYO bar.
Katie says that she learned about investing her savings into stocks and the idea of retiring early.
She added: "By then, we had £291,000 in savings - Alan had been saving since 1996 and I began contributing after I graduated - and we set ourselves the goal of £1million in savings and investments within three years so we could retire.
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"By September 2018, we had £898,000 in savings and investments. We hadn't quite reached our goal of £1million, but we were close, and between March and April 2019 our net worth rose by £46,000 - which meant our investments were making enough for me to retire.
"Alan supported my decision to stop working, though he chose not to fully retire and still oversees his business but isn't involved in the day-to-day operation.
"We then had the freedom to rent out our flat and live a nomadic lifestyle, travelling everywhere from Thailand to Mexico, cycling, hiking and keeping fit.
Katie now runs a Rebel Finance school, which she says is 'a free 10-week online course to help people get control of their finances'.
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"I make no money from it - I just want others to understand that they can do what we did."
For more information on how to increase your income, visit Katie and Alan's website - www.alandonegan.com