Miriam wants to retire by age 55, and she thinks she’d need at least $1 million in savings to do so comfortably. At age 43, she’s confident her financial strategies will get her to that milestone.
Miriam’s retirement savings journey began around 2007 — when she said she had nearly nothing in savings and started contributing to a 401(k) for the first time. By 2014, her savings had grown to about $50,000, according to a document viewed by Business Insider.
It was around this time that Miriam, who said she makes roughly $80,000 a year working as an associate director at Georgetown University’s financial services office, began to get even more serious about boosting her finances. She said she started learning about the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) movement and sought out every personal finance book and blog she could find.
“I got really motivated to save and invest more in my retirement accounts,” Miriam, who asked for her last name to be excluded for privacy reasons, told BI via email.
The strategies she’s adopted over the past decade have started to pay off: She’s grown her savings from about $50,000 in 2014 to nearly $375,000 as of July. If she continues to save at the same rate (as much as $1,000 a month) and sees similar stock market returns, she’ll reach her $1 million goal over the next decade, according to her calculations — before her target retirement age of 55.
“Once I reached over $300,000, I knew I had the capability to reach my goal,” she said.
While many Americans are having trouble saving for retirement, some are putting themselves in a position to stop working ahead of schedule. Many of these people consider themselves members of the FIRE community, but they’ve used a wide variety of savings and investment strategies to grow their wealth — including taking on side hustles, investing in real estate, and finding creative ways to reduce their living expenses.
Miriam shared her top savings and investment tips that have been key to growing her wealth — and that she hopes will help her reach her retirement goal.
“Trimming” purchases and paying down debt have boosted her wealth
When Miriam was a teenager, she worked as a waitress and earned $2.65 an hour plus tips, she said. It was during these years that she developed a desire for the “sweet taste of freedom” that having her own money provided.
She hasn’t always known the best way to fulfill this desire, but over the years, she’s developed a financial approach that works for her.
One of Miriam’s top strategies for boosting her savings and investments is “trimming” purchases. When she plans to make a significant purchase, she said she estimates roughly how much it will cost — and then tries to reduce or “trim” that number by 10%.
“If a trip costs $2,000, then I reduce costs by $200 to $1,800 and invest the difference, she said. “It’s a simple way to invest more.”
Focusing on reducing her debt levels has also gone a long way. Miriam said paying off her $450 monthly car payment 15 years ago was one of the biggest developments that helped grow her wealth. She took the money she was putting toward her car and started investing it in the stock market — she said she hasn’t had a car payment since.
Miriam also began taking advantage of her employer’s 401(k) match — “you can’t beat free money” — cutting back on subscriptions, and started a personal finance blog that has helped hold herself accountable, she said.
To develop her savings goals, Miriam experimented with various online retirement calculators, which helped her find the right number.
When it comes to investing her money, Miriam said she tends to gravitate toward diversified investment funds, though she’s also made individual investments in companies such as Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, and Nvidia.
To be sure, the stock market is notoriously difficult to forecast, and Miriam knows that she can’t bank on her prior investment success continuing in the years to come.
This is among the reasons that, despite her savings success, she hasn’t stopped seeking out financial advice. She said she regularly reads books by personal finance authors such as Suze Orman and the autobiographies of wealthy people, like Mark Cuban.
“I feel like if you want to be wealthy, your house should look like a Barnes & Noble,” she said.
While she’s disciplined about sticking to her savings plans, Miriam said she tries to splurge from time to time on things like trips, restaurants, and concert tickets — she was thrilled to score tickets for Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour last year.
“When I hit money milestones, I like to go on adventures and reward myself for maintaining my focus,” she said.
Additionally, while she tries to invest much of her savings, she said she also tries to ensure she has a sufficient emergency savings fund.
Overall, Miriam credits her financial success to the personal finance knowledge she’s accumulated over the years.
“Becoming financially literate was my secret weapon against debt and to instead build wealth,” she said.
Have your savings and wealth grown significantly in recent years? Are you willing to share your top financial strategies? Reach out to this reporter at jzinkula@businessinsider.com.
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