I retired at 30 with $540,000 in the bank and ‘I don't have any regrets'—3 moves that helped me get there

When Purple's partner first told her about the FIRE movement — which stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early — in 2013, she wasn't convinced. 

"The first thing I said was, 'What do I even do with all that time? Why would I want to retire early?'" she says. "I was like, 'I just need to find my dream job, and then I'll be happy to work for another 40 years.'"

But in October 2020, Purple retired at just 30 years old with $540,000 in savings, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. She goes by Purple online and in the media to maintain her privacy.

In 2014, she got the dream job she mentioned — but it didn't bring the satisfaction she thought it would. So the next year, she revisited the FIRE idea and started calculating. 

She estimated she could live on roughly $20,000 a year in retirement and would need $500,000 set aside upfront based on the 4% rule, which contends that you can safely withdraw 4% of your portfolio per year to cover your expenses without running out of money. Purple figured if she could boost her income and reduce her spending, she could reasonably retire in 10 years — a goal she hit five years early.

So far, she's enjoying the freedom to spend her days however she likes and has no problem filling her time. "I'm very good at doing nothing and relaxing and finding new random hobbies," she says.

Purple wishes she had gotten on board with FIRE when her partner first told her about it. Otherwise, "I don't have any regrets in retirement," she says. Her partner hit his FIRE number of $777,000 in November 2023, but he plans to keep working for a few more years to help support some of his loved ones.

Here are the three major moves Purple made to be able to retire early.

1. Job-hopping to maximize her income

Before Purple officially started her FIRE journey, she was making $48,000 a year working in advertising and living in New York City, leaving her virtually "$0 after rent," she says. When she decided to increase her income, she knew the best way to do it was through job-hopping.

"In my experience, [job-hopping] has been the only way I can get significant raises and even promotions," she says.

She also learned early in her career that it doesn't always pay off to be blindly loyal to a company; it won't necessarily earn you a raise or promotion. As a result, Purple got very comfortable leaving jobs and companies she felt didn't meet her financial or psychological needs.

That mindset paid off. Five years and as many jobs later, Purple had more than doubled her salary. As of 2017, at age 28, she earned nearly $107,000 a year. By the time she was getting ready to retire in 2020, her final salary was $114,230.

2. Cutting her spending

A major factor that allowed Purple to stack her savings was moving from New York to Seattle in 2015 to drastically reduce her cost of living. In Seattle, "they pay Manhattan salaries, in my experience, but the cost of living is about half of New York City," she says. 

At that point, Purple expected it to take 10 years to save enough to retire, but when she recalculated her goal with reduced living costs and an increased salary, she figured she could stop working in just five years.

In her final year in New York, Purple earned $68,000 and spent just under $30,000 on living costs, including any discretionary spending, while socking away money in her 401(k), individual retirement account and cash savings. Her first year in Seattle, Purple secured an $85,000 salary and brought her annual spending down to about $22,500.

You might expect to see huge concessions in her budget, like never going on vacation, but that wasn't the case for Purple. Splitting rent with her partner helped keep her housing costs low throughout most of her journey, and she doesn't own a car or pet that can come with large startup and recurring costs.

She started focusing her spending on the things that really make her happy. Working in advertising, Purple saw plenty of peers spending tons of cash on clothes, makeup and designer labels, and started acting similarly. But Purple realized none of that brought her joy, so she stopped.

Still, "I spend lavishly on things that really make me happy," Purple says.

Travel, for example, has always been a priority for her and she will fly first-class without a second thought. But when she can, she'll turn to methods like travel hacking — taking advantage of credit card rewards offers to score cheaper flights and hotels — to save.

"If I can find a way to get something expensive for less, I do that," she says.

3. Investing early and often

Purple learned the importance of investing from her mother, who didn't start contributing to her retirement investments until she was 40 and still managed to retire 15 years later, she says.

Her mother told Purple to enroll in her company's 401(k) plan at her first job out of college in 2011, even though she wasn't earning much. It helped that Purple didn't have any debt, including student loans, so she could focus on saving. Despite her relatively small contributions at first, starting early gave Purple the head start that would eventually allow her to retire at 30.

Starting early gave Purple more time to take advantage of compounding interest, which is when interest grows not just on your initial investment, but on your gains as well. If you start investing $100 a month at age 25 and earn an 8% annual return, your portfolio would grow to over $350,000 by 65. But if you wait until 35 to start contributing, you'd wind up with just over $150,000 at 65.

By 2014, she'd amassed around $22,500 in her 401(k), plus over $17,000 in cash savings. She also started contributing to an IRA in 2015, and maxed out her contributions from that year onward.

Continuing to max out her 401(k) and IRA contributions each year helped Purple hit a $100,000 net worth in early 2016 and $500,000 in savings by July 2020.

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