I’ll retire at 50 thanks to these savings strategies. Two years ago I only had £5,000 and now I’m on track for a £3million pension pot. No matter your age, there are ways you can buy yourself a few extra years of retirement

Cj O’Neill is dreaming of a retirement spent travelling, watching sport and relaxing in sunnier climes.

And thanks to his extreme saving and investing strategy, he hopes to start as soon as his 50th birthday. The 34-year-old from Hulme, in Manchester, is on track to retire in the next 15 years with £3 million in the bank.

Two years ago Cj, a tech consultant, had just £5,000 in savings.

But a financial wake-up call sent him on a path of extreme saving to achieve ‘financial independence’.

Cornelius James, known as Cj, originally from Ireland, is part of a growing number of people who are saving and investing as much as possible so they can afford to stop or reduce the amount they work years before the traditional retirement age.

Each month Cj saves up to 30 per cent of his income into a self-invested personal pension (Sipp) – about £2,500 to £3,000.

By his calculations, he will have £1 million by the time he is 39 and be able to retire with £3 million if he continues at this rate.

However, he says he’d be comfortable retiring with £1.5 million, so he is aiming for double that, but if he falls short he’ll still be in a good position.

Cj started with his saving and investing strategy in 2024, after years of struggling to reach his goal of buying his first home while working on a £50,000 salary.

‘Management were looking after themselves,’ he says. ‘I came to the realisation that I was undervalued, not supported, that they weren’t going to look after me or pay me enough to increase my savings, so I had to do something.

‘I rolled out of bed one morning in July 2024 – I could barely get out of bed because of everything that was going on at work – and I said, “Enough is enough, I’ve got to do something about this.” ’

Cj, who was 32 at the time, took time out from work and reviewed his finances.

His total pension was worth £35,000 after nine years of working – a good start, but not nearly enough to retire early.

It was at that moment that he decided something had to change – he didn’t want to spend his life saving for decades only to be left short anyway.

‘I had a good, well-paid job, but I looked the situation in the face and decided I’ve got to do something different,’ he says.

‘We can’t really follow the same model as our parents – I could not get a mortgage deposit by working a nine to five.

‘I realised that it’s the same with retirement – no one is going to come and help you, so you have to do something about it. I had to adopt a strategy which was quite risky and aggressive.’

Cj quit his job and set up his own business, CA Project Management Services, as a contractor, in the hope of turbocharging his income.

Within two years the tech expert had doubled his salary to more than £100,000 and saved enough to afford a 5 per cent mortgage on a £450,000 home.

He now has £100,000 in a Sipp with investment platform AJ Bell. He invests in low-cost tracker funds and primarily opts for globally diversified funds, which means he has exposure to stock markets all around the world.

He also invests a small fraction in thematic funds, which invest in companies that focus on, for example, AI or defence. Last year he enjoyed a 20 per cent return.

Stock markets are volatile and there is no guarantee he will achieve such returns in future. But investing tends to produce much higher returns over the long term than leaving money in savings accounts earning interest.

‘The reality is my state pension won’t be adequate to cover my retirement,’ he says. ‘So I decided to maximise my revenue, take control of my earnings and put myself in a position where I can dictate how I invest that money.’

Although his salary has more than doubled, he has kept a tight leash on his spending to reach his goal.

He uses public transport to avoid owning a car and enjoys holidays in the UK – which he says are as good as going abroad. He always shops around for the best deals. For example, he has locked in his energy tariff for a year to avoid price hikes of up to 24 per cent that are predicted in January. He collects points on his American Express credit card and through travel website Expedia to help cut costs.

‘It’s about being clever with how you spend your money,’ he adds.

For Cj, financial independence means choosing when and how often he works. He hopes to split his time in retirement between Ireland, England and ‘somewhere sunny’. He will travel and enjoy sporting events – especially rugby.

He says: ‘I want to have financial independence so I can work as much or as little as I want to. That’s the ambition.’

‘I can’t work for another 30 years…’

Anke Gretting had never considered retiring early until she reached a state of burnout in her job last year.

The 38-year-old was up late one night worrying about work the next day. Anke, who is from Germany but has lived in the UK for almost 20 years, asked an AI tool how much she would have to win in the lottery to never work again.

‘It was at one o’clock in the morning, and I was thinking, “I don’t want to go to work tomorrow. I can’t.” So I asked ChatGPT how much money is needed to generate an income of £20,000 a year without working.’

She says she gave ChatGPT her age, salary, mortgage and financial information such as what she had in savings. ‘It turned out that I didn’t have to win the lottery – I could do it myself,’ she says.

Anke’s late-night search for an escape route set her on a ten-year savings mission. Her main goal is to leave her job as a senior project manager in the health care industry at age 47 and pursue art as a vocation.

She says: ‘I have a stressful job and I was looking at my life and I thought… I can’t do this for another 30 years.’

Unlike Cj, Anke says she is ‘risk averse’. She has stuck with her job and is saving aggressively. She pays 7 per cent into her pension, which is matched by her employer. Any bonuses or pay increases also go into her pension.

She pays the maximum £4,000 into her Lifetime Isa each tax year. This is a tax-free account designed for those saving for their first home or retirement and benefits from a 25 per cent bonus from the Government. Anke earns £80,000 and she saves at least 20 to 30 per cent of her monthly income, while contributing £100 to her stocks and shares Isa.

Her aim is to retire with £600,000 saved and invested.

She wants to have paid off her mortgage by then, leaving her with an annual income of £20,000 that she can spend on bills, food and all the things she enjoys, such as arts and crafts.

She will not be able to access her pension savings until 57 or her Lifetime Isa until 60, so she will need to build up her other savings or delay retirement until then.

She says: ‘Retirement is not about age but about what you have in your bank account.’

She bought her first home at 33 for £300,000 and is overpaying this £1,800 a month mortgage by about £450 a month.

By doing this, she expects to be mortgage-free in ten years rather than her original term of 20 years.

She says: ‘For me, life isn’t about being flashy and doing all the fancy travel you see on Instagram. It’s about quality of life, living your life independently and having the time to enjoy it. I would love to be retired.

‘There are so many things I want to do. Get into texture paintings, baking, nail art, woodwork, making things. I could sell paintings or teach art classes. Really, it’s about working with my hands and actually enjoying what I’m doing.’

To save money, Anke says she cycles to work and favours eating at home over takeaways or eating out. She’s also strict with shopping – she doesn’t ‘waste her money on the latest fashion pieces’ – and only heats the room at home that she is using. Her ultimate aim is flexibility and freedom.

‘I want to spend more time with my family’

Dad-of-two Tom McNulty, 37, from Gloucester, hopes to slow down in his late 40s. By that time, his daughters, who are nine and six, will be 19 and 16.

He started investing in his early 20s through workplace share schemes. He initially put £125 a month into a Buy As You Earn scheme and £100 into a Save As You Earn scheme – perks some employers offer that allow you to buy shares in the company from your pre-tax salary.

Now he also saves £4,000 a year into a Lifetime Isa, as well as £100 to £150 a month into a standard Isa. He also makes pension contributions through his company.

Once retired, Tom wants to play more golf and spend more time with his family.

‘I love going to sporting events like rugby and cricket, and really want to do more of that,’ he says. ‘Also being able to take the girls on experiences, show them the world. We really enjoy musicals as a family – that’s something I’d love to do more of with the kids.’

Tom hopes that with £400,000 to £500,000 invested, this could provide him with a pension of around £30,000 a year, based on his assumption of roughly a 7.5 per cent return or dividend income.

Although some investors do achieve this, it is hard to receive such a high return consistently. There are likely to be years when this is not possible and others when he makes even more.

Managing how he takes income so, for example, he is not running down his savings when markets are low, will be key to his strategy.

He expects his mortgage to be paid off by then, lowering his household costs. He estimates his Lifetime Isa could reach approximately £350,000 by age 60, assuming 7 to 8 per cent growth. He currently has £32,000 in it.

Tom does what he can to save, for example by using cashback websites. To cut costs he recently switched to an electric car – that saves about £80 a month by reducing his £100 petrol bill to about £20 in electricity. He is also considering installing solar panels. However, he still gives himself the odd treat, such as buying coffees at work.

Boost pension savings and retire early

While most of us have daydreamed of retiring early, saving enough to stop working in your 40s is a tall order – especially if you have children who will need your financial support for years to come as they navigate university and the beginning of their own working lives.

For this reason, many choose to bring retirement forward by a few years rather than decades.

To do this, you must still plan your finances carefully to ensure you have enough to see you through retirement.

There are a number of ways you can boost your pension today if you want to buy yourself a few extra years of retirement.

First, check in on your workplace pensions to see how much you have saved so far. Then consider how you can boost the amount you are saving.

If you can afford to ramp up your contributions, or even put a lump sum in your pension, that can be very valuable. This is because you receive tax relief at your marginal rate on any contributions you make. If you are a basic-rate taxpayer this means that every £80 you put in will be topped up to £100. Higher-rate payers need to contribute just £60 to get £100, while additional-rate payers pay £55. Bear this in mind if you get a redundancy payout or an inheritance.

You may need to claim some of this tax relief yourself if you are a higher or additional rate taxpayer. In some workplace schemes, you receive the full tax relief automatically but in others you have to claim it from HMRC yourself.

The rules of pension auto-enrolment state that employees must put a minimum of 5 per cent into their workplace pension and employers 3 per cent. But some employers will match your contributions if you put in more. Ask yours what it offers.

Next, consider how your pension is invested.

If you have never touched your pension pot, chances are it has been invested in a one-size-fits-all fund. Check your annual pension statement or ask your provider for details of your investments.

As you approach retirement age, most schemes move you to lower-risk investments to reduce the chance that your pot suffers a stock market shock before you retire. But if you don’t plan to spend most of your pension for many years, it’s likely you can afford to take more risk – and hopefully benefit from higher investment returns.

Are you planning to retire early? Let us know how. Email: money@mailonsunday.co.uk