Awhina and Alex Donovan have started investing in property and hope it will help them retire by the time they are 40. (Source: Supplied)
A New Zealand couple who tripled their wages after moving to Australia have shared how they are planning to retire by the time they are 40. More workers are questioning the traditional idea of working until their 60s and are keen to escape the rat race as early as they can.
Alex and Awhina Donovan currently have a property portfolio worth between $1.6 and $1.8 million, and are working towards building it further to create “financial freedom” for themselves and their young son. The New Zealand couple relocated to Perth in 2021 in search of higher wages and to create a future for themselves.
Alex, 29, works as a heavy diesel mechanic, while Awhina, 30, works in mining technology. With the higher wages they are earning in Australia, the couple told Yahoo Finance they were able to save up a deposit and buy their first home for $520,000 about a year after moving across the ditch.
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“It was a lifelong goal and a proud moment but once the excitement settled, I found myself asking, what is next?” Alex said.
“If the formula for becoming wealthy was simply going to school, getting a good job, buying a house and paying it off, then everyone would be rich. Clearly, that is not how it works.
“That realisation sparked something in me. I did not just want to own a home. I wanted real financial freedom.”
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The couple want to escape the rat race and have more time to take things slow and spend time with their son and travel. (Source: Supplied)
The couple now have a goal to retire by the time they are 40. They’ve calculated that they will need to generate an annual income of $300,000 a year from investments to achieve this.
“Time with my husband and my son is more important to me than slaving away,” Awhina said.
“We thought if we wanted to hopefully retire by 40, or have the option by 40, we’ll still be in our prime years to spend all this time with our son while he’s still young.”
Alex said early retirement was about giving them “choice” and being able to do what they want without financial stress and without relying on a weekly paycheck.
“We would love to split our time between Perth, the Cook Islands, Japan or wherever our son is in the future. Travel more. Slow down. Live on island time. Experience life rather than rush through it,” he said.
The desire to retire early led the couple to start researching property investing, which Alex said felt like a more “tangible” and “straightforward” investment that they could understand and build step-by-step.
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They purchased their first investment property, a house in Perth, for $650,000 in 2024 using the equity generated from their first home. It generated $150,000 in equity within a year and is currently rented out for $750 a week.
Alex said it was “surreal” to see $150,000 in equity being generated within such a short space of time.
“There was also a part of me that felt slightly sick thinking about how long it would take and how much I would have to sacrifice to earn that kind of money through my job alone,” he said.
The couple are about to settle on a second investment property, a $760,000 house in Melbourne, which they will also rent out.
They have used the property investment firm OpenCorp to help them make researched investment decisions.
Awhina said the couple hadn’t had to make any major sacrifices to save up, and they still try to travel locally or overseas once a year. However, she said they kept their lifestyle fairly simple.
While they still have some way to go, the plan is to keep building their investments to get to the point where the income generated can replace their work salaries.
“We’ll just continue building that portfolio and then possibly looking at other diversifying investments, not just restricting ourselves to property investing,” Awhina said.
The couple are among a growing number of Aussies who are rethinking traditional retirements and don’t want to wait until the pension age of 67.
The FIRE movement (financial independence, retire early) has been growing in popularity, which promotes reducing your spending and investing the surplus while still working. The goal is to build your investments up to the point where you can get enough passive income to retire.
Your Future Strategy director Gareth Croy previously told Yahoo Finance he’d noticed people were becoming a lot more “active” and “aware” with their retirement plans, including people actively looking to retire early.
“Historically, we would see people get into their 50s, and in some cases their early 60s, and only start asking the question then about whether they are actually in a position to retire,” he said.
Now, Croy said people were questioning whether their superannuation was where it needed to be, and whether they had ancillary investments that would support them if they left the workforce before they could access their super.
The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia estimates that homeowners will need $77,375 annually for a comfortable retirement as a couple, and $54,840 for a single.
As a lump sum, couples would need $730,000 in their super, while singles would need $630,000 for a comfortable retirement.
Alex and Awhina said it was worth speaking to experts to understand your goals and make a plan to help you achieve them.
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