Fueled by the news of ballooning student loans and pernicious credit card debt, a small but growing group of Americans are taking control of their money.

Part of the financial independence, retire early or FIRE movement, they are committed to saving money from their corporate jobs and even taking on side hustles to build additional income.

Aiming to save money - oftentimes 60% to 70% of their incomes - a group of Americans are taking ... [+] control of their personal finances, and participating in the financial independence, retire early movement.

Their goal? Build a substantial nest egg and then retire. Although many end up working in what they call retirement - running blogs or taking care of kids - the idea is to achieve financial independence, whereby they can choose their activities, rather than be tied to a workplace for a paycheck.

Inspired by the 2008 personal finance book Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez, they promote what many Americans would consider to be unusual tactics to cutting costs from driving 30 year old cars to living in 52 square foot room.

And while every FIRE practitioner takes a different tact, here are three of the bigger names in the movement on how much theyd saved by 30, as well as a tactic they used to up their savings rate.

Fidelity recommends that the average American to have one year of their salary saved for retirement by 30. So if you make $50,000 a year, you should have $50,000 in a retirement account. Heres how these money experts in the financial independence, retire early movement compared.

Jillian Johnsrud of Montana Money Adventures

Saved (with husband) : $375,000, plus a pension valued at $400,000

Jillian Johnsrud and her husband saved nearly half a million dollars in order to fund their ... [+] Financial Independence, Retire Early lifestyle with five children.

My husband and I committed to saving half our income when we got married. Because we never earned six-figures that meant driving older cars, having a roommateeven after we had kids and finding low cost meals. I was passionate about travel, so we accepted a duty station in Europe and were able to travel frugally by driving and camping. We also opted to buy a home that needed a lot of work and slowly learned how to fix and upgrade it ourselves, which came in handy in the rentals we bought next.

Julien Saunders of Rich And Regular

Saved: around $20,000

By 30, Julien Saunders had saved over $20,000 in order to reach financial independence, retire early ... [+] by his late 30s.

In 2010 I was 30, and I had about $20,000 saved, between a savings account, a traditional IRA carried over from my twenties and one year of contributions to a 401k. It was during this time, I realized how little joy I got from cable and decided to cut the cord for good.

I then took it a step further and downgraded my cable internet to a high speed DSL service which was significantly less expensive and worked just as well for my needs.I've not had cable TV since and didn't regain cable internet until 2018. Every little bit helps!

Steph and Cel of Incoming Assets

Saved (together) by 30: $211, 658

Vancouverites Steph and Cel love to travel, and thanks to their frugal lifestyle they can visit far ... [+] flung destinations, while still working towards their financial independence retire early goals.

The only expense we ever really curtailed was lifestyle inflation. When we first met our income was very low and our spending reflected that. Then as we went from poverty-level income to normal income, we just kept our spending the same. Early on we did cut out a weekly home grocery delivery service that we had been using for a few years, though that was also inspired by their warehouse getting a nasty aphid infestation.

Originally posted here:

This Is How Much These Finance Experts Saved By 30 To Retire Early - Forbes