• Chris Elle Dove, once bankrupt, is able to retire early with over $1.5 million net value.

• She transitioned from earning $50,000 a 12 months as a professor to investing full-time.

• Her strategy includes living minimally, investing in real estate, and keeping spending low.

Chris Elle Dove, 52, declared bankruptcy at age 29 in 2001 and survived off government benefits and side hustles to supply for her two kids. She had recently lost her husband and was struggling to be an outstanding mom while finding more stable work.

20 years later, she and her second husband have an entire net value of over $1.5 million and are set to retire early of their 50s.

After years of earning between $50,000 and $60,000 as a professor, Dove was convinced by her husband — who’s inside the military and had maxed out his retirement accounts — to take a position full-time. Investing, alongside income from real estate and financial consulting, allowed her and her husband to be heading in the appropriate direction to vary into FIREs — or those who have reached financial independence and retired early.

She acknowledged her FIRE journey began much later than many others, though she stressed reaching financial independence will not be as inaccessible as many think.

“It was a protracted time before I got back on my feet, and I haven’t any intention of ever being in that situation again,” Dove said.

A rocky financial start

Dove was raised in an upper-middle-class family that went on two vacations a 12 months, and he or she or he did extracurriculars from cheerleading to horseback riding to ice skating.

“I didn’t even take into accounts not going to highschool,” Dove said. “I only considered what college.”

Her parents never openly discussed money, but she knew they kept a strict budget. They taught her about managing money, akin to by giving her a pre-paid bank card in highschool for garments that she needed to budget.

She had her first kid at 20 and her second at 24, putting her bachelor’s degree on hold — it took her 17 years to finish her degree. At one point, she held three jobs — teaching ballroom dancing, bartending, and shoveling mulch for a landscaping company.

While raising her kids, her husband developed a brain tumor that left him sick for years. The medical bills piled up, and most weren’t covered by their insurance. She also had student loan debt that she placed on the back burner.

Her husband died at 28 when her kids were 7 and three.

Dove didn’t have much time to grieve, though. She worked so many hours to support her kids she would get sick. After a automobile accident that led to a hospital stay, she declared bankruptcy.

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With little money to her name, counting on Social Security survivor benefits, she moved along along with her two kids to a town in Western Illinois. She bought a $50,000 home, paying $200 a month in mortgage payments. She maintained her dance teaching position, privately tutored, and was a research assistant.

“I in any respect times felt like a failure, like I have to be providing for my kids one of the simplest ways I was once provided for,” Dove said. “I was once never ready to do that. I was once just attempting to make it to the next paycheck.”

Getting back on her feet

In a stroke of luck, she got the possibility to point out sociology courses at a community college, which paid her $34,000 a 12 months in 2006. Her salary rose to $56,000 a few years later. Having a great deal of vacations and more stable hours allowed her to be more present in her kids’ lives, though money was still a stressor. She made extra income from advising campus clubs.

“We kept the wheels on the bus, but we never got ahead,” Dove said.

She barely had money in her retirement accounts and hadn’t invested much for her kids’ futures. All she could take into accounts was squeezing enough money out of her next paycheck to take her kids to a museum.

“I truthfully spent most of my life not caring about money unless I had an emergency expense and I couldn’t pay for it,” Dove said. “I assumed money was probably something that corrupted people, and I just didn’t have a extremely positive opinion of money.”

Her second husband, whom she met in 2015 and married in 2021, had maxed out his retirement accounts and saved much of his income. They agreed she would take off a few months to put in writing down kid’s books and see if it was financially sustainable. Once it became clear this occupation switch wasn’t viable, she began investing after her husband convinced her she could possibly be good at it.

“I pushed back because I didn’t think it was rewarding. I didn’t think I’d feel like I was once contributing to society in a meaningful way as an investor,” Dove said.

Reaching financial independence

She sold her automobile and invested that money inside the stock market, starting with buying a share of Berkshire Hathaway, then diversifying her portfolio.

“One amongst the biggest realizations for me is that I used to think you needed more money to be wealthy, but now what I’ve learned is you’ll have a ton of money and still live paycheck to paycheck,” Dove said. “You’ll find a way to make a extremely small amount of income and live inside your means and live stress-free and glad and construct wealth.”

She knew she couldn’t start her financial independence journey alone, and her more financially savvy husband helped her get heading in the appropriate direction. On a national parks trip, they decided they’d do whatever they could to retire early and spend more time exploring the world without worrying about money.

She read dozens of books and articles about financial markets, achieved graduate degrees in financial planning, and have develop into a Certified Financial Behavior Specialist. She modified her investing strategies to suit her personality, schedule, and risk tolerance. She and her husband began with $240,000 invested in retirement accounts, along with about $80,000 in equity. Throughout the primary 4 years, they doubled their investments twice.

In her mid-40s, she paid off her student debt, which she considered an infinite milestone. It was the first time she could start saving money and max out her 401(k).

She and her husband adopted a minimalist lifestyle, starting by adopting a “one in, one out” rule — for every shirt she bought, she would sell one. They prioritized experiences over gifts and significantly increased savings, only purchasing what they needed.

Over the past 4 years, she estimates they’ve saved over 40% of their income — and about 60% if including investments from home sales. Still, she said they aren’t overly frugal and spend on fitness, food, and hobbies like bikes.

She created an “intense and intimidating” spreadsheet to trace all of the pieces coming in and going out. She added sections for emergency savings, investments, net value, and their “slush fund” of purchases above $500.

They pivoted to moving 20% of her husband’s base income, 100% of her income, and as a minimum 50% of bonuses into investments. Her husband’s military pension, which is inflation-adjusted, has also taken some weight off the planning process.

“Together with paying ourselves first, we now have adopted the ‘give every dollar a job’ approach. On the tip of each month, any ‘extra money’ is assigned to either slush, emergency, or it’s invested,” Dove said.

Dove didn’t have to work way more hours, which could force her to sacrifice time along along with her kids, so she made more with less. They recently bought a house for $96,000 in Bloomington, Illinois, just as State Farm moved their headquarters and residential prices fell, then sold their house right as Rivian came in and costs rose.

This encouraged her to dabble in real estate investing, putting their mountain home up on Airbnb. The home was almost immediately booked out each week for eight months.

Dove has published 4 kid’s picture books and spends her days writing, facilitating workshops, and dealing as a financial coach. She will be an angel investor in some startups. Ultimately, she hopes to retire early to spend more time with members of the family and set them up for achievement.

“Although we now have no longer hit our FI number yet, we’ll reach our goal amount by our goal date with just what we contribute from my husband’s income,” Dove said. “That has paved one of the simplest ways for me to chase my many dreams.”

Are you a component of the FIRE movement or living by a couple of of its principles? Reach out to this reporter at nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.

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