Buck the odds

Something else Shen and her husband, Bryce, did to make their early retirement dreams come true was investing money into various investments rather than opting for homeownership, which many of their peers went for. Shen said most of their friends were experiencing the FOMO syndrome – fear of missing out – which prompted them to purchase properties, either because they felt obligated or pressured by other people around them. Working in engineering, Shen knew numbers were important; she decided to focus on that instead of her feelings and in the end, her approach paid off.

Check out more Things You Should Do to Save Money.

Check your consumerism

It’s a given that the more you earn, the more you spend. Just take a look at these 16 Expensive Hobbies Only the Rich and Famous Can Afford and you’ll understand. The problem is, however, that it’s not only the rich and wealthy that spend a lot of money. According to personal finance blogger, Mr. Money Mustache, middle-class people with good jobs and nice paychecks also spend money unwisely, struggling to make headway. The finance blogger said many of his friends and former co-workers have financial problems because they are wasting their money on unnecessary expenses such as skiing trips and sports equipment, gym memberships they never used, new dealer-financed cars with all sorts of hidden taxes and so on.

RELATED: 13 Things You Shouldn’t Purchase During a Recession.

Invest straight away to avoid spending

The man behind Mr. Money Mustache, by his real name, Peter Adeney, also revealed that the idea of having money invested in something rather than just sitting in his account appealed to him more. If he comes across an unexpected amount of money, “I don’t think of something to buy with it, I think, ‘OK, I better get rid of this money and put it to work again.’ So, I sweep it out of the bank account and into regular index funds,” Adeney says.