A young mum anticipates being able to retire by the time she's 35 after building up an extraordinary investment portfolio worth $2million.
Michelle Ives, 29, from NSW's Central Coast, is planning to retire within the next six years and live off between $70,000 to $100,000 a year with her husband Andy and one-year-old son with the money they've made from investing.
The devoted mother and her husband invest up to 80 per cent of their earnings each month into property, shares and stocks, making superannuation contributions and investing in bonds and commodities.
Ms Ives claims her family only buys things that bring them joy and avoid mindless splurging on shopping, eating out, beauty treatments and high-tech gadgets.
Michelle Ives, 29, from New South Wales' Central Coast, is planning to retire within the next six years and live off between $70,000 to $100,000 a year with her husband and one-year-old son with the money they've made from investing
The mother owns her own copywriting business and runs her own blog which promotes her belief in FIRE - which stands for Financial Independence Retire Early.
On the blog she shares tips and tricks for saving and investing and encourages other families to start planning for their retirement much earlier than they previously thought possible.
'The fear for me is sitting at a desk for 60 years and lining someone else's pockets and being at the beck and call of a boss or corporation and relying on them for security - that scares the s**t out of me,' she told News.com.au.
Ms Ives has been working since she was 14 and previously had a job as a journalist.
But she said she was never excited by a future of slaving away in an office until she was in her 60s or 70s.
The 29-year-old said the theory behind the FIRE movement was to take disposable income and save as much of it as possible and put it into investments.
She and her husband try to save as much of their earnings as they can and make regular investments to ensure they have a substantial nest egg set up.
Ms Ives runs her own copywriting business and also has a blog where she encourages other savers to invest for an early retirement
'It brings forward the retirement age by decades than people can otherwise realistically do. For some people it's 40 and for some people, 30 is increasingly becoming the age they can retire,' Ms Ives said.
The family contribute regularly to low and moderate index funds while also contributing the maximum amount to their super funds so they end up paying less tax.
They invest roughly 50 per cent into property, 25 per cent into shares, another 20 per cent into superannuation and five per cent is used to offset their mortgage.
