{"id":276255,"date":"2025-11-21T23:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T23:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/276255\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T23:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T23:18:09","slug":"couple-share-strategy-that-helped-them-retire-by-age-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/276255\/","title":{"rendered":"Couple share strategy that helped them retire by age 40"},"content":{"rendered":"

The pair say they treated saving as a game rather than a hardship as they invested thousands<\/p>\n

\""We<\/p>\n

“We drove a tiny car, lived in a two-bed flat in Basingstoke and invested everything in index funds,\u201d Alan said.<\/p>\n

Picture:
\nLBC<\/p>\n

A couple who retired at 35 and 40 say ordinary families can follow the same steps to financial freedom \u2013 even without huge salaries or inheritances.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Tom Swarbrick on LBC, Alan and Katie Donegan, co-founders of Rebel Finance School, insisted no one handed them a fortune to get started.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t start with anything. We didn\u2019t get a windfall, we didn\u2019t get a big inheritance,\u201d Katie said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were laser focused on creating a gap between what we earned and what we spent and investing that difference for our future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alan \u2013 who used to work as a landscape gardener before building his own business \u2013 said at his peak he earned nearly \u00a380,000 while the couple\u2019s best joint year was around \u00a3200,000, but they insist their real advantage wasn\u2019t income, but discipline.<\/p>\n

Read More: Retailers see unexpected slump in sales across October as Budget hits consumer confidence<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cWe kept our expenses down. We drove a tiny car, lived in a two-bed flat in Basingstoke and invested everything in index funds,\u201d Alan said.<\/p>\n

The pair say they treated saving as a game rather than a hardship.<\/p>\n

\"Katie<\/p>\n

Katie and Alan at the Tower of London receiving the British Empire Medal.<\/p>\n

Picture:
\nDonegan<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople think this is this really sad life\u2026 No,\u201d Katie added. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many ways to have fun without spending money. It wasn\u2019t this deprivation that people think it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

They even kept their heating to a minimum. \u201cSometimes, if my mum was coming round,\u201d Alan joked. <\/p>\n

Katie added: \u201cWe hoped the neighbours downstairs would put their heating on as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

In April 2025, the pair were recognised for their work when they attended the Tower of London to receive the British Empire Medal for services to financial education. <\/p>\n

They were selected in King Charles\u2019 Birthday Honours list for helping thousands of people take control of their finances for free through their Rebel Finance School and say they\u2019re determined to keep expanding that mission. <\/p>\n

The couple, who do not have children, say that raising a family isn\u2019t a barrier to achieving similar goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this myth\u2026 \u2018you\u2019re only successful because you don\u2019t have kids\u2019. What are you talking about?\u201d Alan said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf that was true, everyone who doesn\u2019t have kids would be financially independent.\u201d<\/p>\n

A key turning point was discovering index investing, after Alan previously lost his life savings in the dot-com bubble. <\/p>\n

He now swears by keeping things simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cInvest in something like Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap\u2026 and don\u2019t mess with it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A trading board at the London Stock Exchange in April.<\/p>\n

Picture:
\nGetty
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Fees, the couple warn, can quietly eat away at your savings.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see a 1% fee on your investments \u2013 that is going to destroy your pot over time,\u201d Katie said. <\/p>\n

\u201cGo and look at the fees on your investments.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple reached financial independence in 2019, when Katie was 35 and Alan was 40.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had about a million invested, which at what\u2019s called the 4% rule, you can live off 40 grand a year for the rest of your life without running out,\u201d Alan explained.<\/p>\n

And their pot didn\u2019t stop growing. \u201cSince we\u2019ve retired, our investments have gone from 1 million to 2.5 in six years, which is crazy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Their message to young listeners is simple: “Put your money in an index fund in a tax efficient way\u2026 and leave it to grow over time,\u201d Alan said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou will retire so wealthy you won\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom Swarbrick said an investment session will take place on LBC next Friday, breaking down everything announced in the Budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The pair say they treated saving as a game rather than a hardship as they invested thousands “We…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,4176,4174,4175,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-276255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-personal-finance","11":"tag-personalfinance","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}