Members of Generation X filed for bankruptcy at 30 and retired in their early 50s

• Chris Elle Dove is nearing early retirement after filing for bankruptcy with a net worth of over $1.5 million.
• She made the transition from a professor’s income of $50,000 a year to a full-time investment.
• Their strategy is to live minimalist, invest in real estate and keep expenses low.

Chris Elle Dove, 52, filed for bankruptcy in 2001 at age 29 and was living on welfare and part-time jobs to support her two children. She had recently lost her husband and was struggling to be a good mother while also finding more stable work.

Two decades later, she and her second husband have a combined net worth of over $1.5 million and will retire in their early 50s.

After years of earning between $50,000 and $60,000 as a professor, her husband – who is in the military and had maxed out his retirement accounts – convinced Dove to invest full-time. Through investing and income from real estate and financial consulting, she and her husband were well on their way to becoming FIREs – those who are financially independent and retire early.

She acknowledged that her FIRE journey began much later than many others, but stressed that achieving financial independence is not as unattainable as many think.

“It took me a long time to get back on my feet and I have no intention of ever being in that situation again,” Dove said.

A bumpy financial start

Dove grew up in an upper-middle-class family that went on vacation twice a year and participated in extracurricular activities ranging from cheerleading to horseback riding to ice skating.

“I didn’t even think about not going to college,” Dove said. “I just thought about which college.”

Her parents never talked openly about money, but she knew they had a strict budget. They taught her how to manage money, for example by giving her a prepaid credit card in high school for clothes that she had to stick to a budget for.

She had her first child at 20 and her second at 24. This forced her to put her bachelor’s degree on hold – it took her 17 years to complete it. At times she had three jobs – teaching ballroom dancing, working as a bartender and shoveling mulch for a landscaping company.

While she was raising their children, her husband developed a brain tumor that left him ill for years. Medical bills piled up, most of which weren’t covered by her insurance. She also had student loan debt that she kept putting off paying off.

Her husband died at 28, when her children were 7 and 3 years old.

Dove didn’t have much time to grieve, however. She worked so many hours to support her children that she became ill. After a car accident that resulted in a hospital stay, she filed for bankruptcy.

With little money and relying on Social Security survivor benefits, she moved with her two children to a town in western Illinois. She bought a house for $50,000 and made mortgage payments of $200 a month. She kept her job as a dance teacher, gave private lessons, and worked as a research assistant.

“I always felt like a failure, like I had to provide for my children the way I was provided for,” Dove said. “I was never able to do that. I was just trying to get by until the next paycheck.”

Getting back on your feet

By a stroke of luck, she got the opportunity to teach sociology courses at a community college, where she was earning $34,000 a year in 2006. A few years later, her salary increased to $56,000. The many vacation days and more regular work hours allowed her to spend more time in her children’s lives, although money was still a stressor. She earned extra money by advising campus clubs.

“We kept the wheels turning, but we never got anywhere,” Dove said.

She had barely any money in her retirement accounts and not much saved for her children’s future. All she could think about was squeezing enough money out of her next paycheck to take her kids to a museum.

“I honestly didn’t have anything to do with money for most of my life unless I had unexpected expenses that I couldn’t pay,” Dove said. “I thought money was probably something that corrupted people, and I just didn’t have a very 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 that she would take a few months off to write children’s books and see if that would be financially viable. When it became clear that this career change was not feasible, she began investing after her husband convinced her that she would be good at it.

“I resisted it because I thought it wouldn’t be worthwhile. I didn’t think I would feel like I was making a meaningful contribution to society as an investor,” Dove said.

Achieve financial independence

She sold her car and invested the money in the stock market, first by purchasing a share of Berkshire Hathaway and then diversifying her portfolio.

“One of the biggest realizations for me is that I used to think you needed more money to be rich, but now I’ve learned that you can have a lot of money and still live paycheck to paycheck,” Dove said. “You can live within your means on a very small income and live stress-free and happy and build wealth.”

She knew she couldn’t embark on her journey to financial independence alone, and her more financially savvy husband helped her get on the right path. On a trip to a national park, they decided to do whatever it took to retire early and spend more time exploring the world without worrying about money.

She read dozens of books and articles on financial markets, completed a degree in financial planning, and became a certified financial behavior specialist. She tailored her investment strategies to her personality, schedule, and risk tolerance. She and her husband started with $240,000 in retirement accounts and about $80,000 in home equity. Within the first four years, they doubled their investments twice.

In her mid-40s, she paid off her student debt, which she considered a major milestone. It was the first time she was able to start saving money and max out her 401(k) account.

She and her husband adopted a minimalist lifestyle and started a “one in, one out” policy: for every shirt she bought, she sold one. They emphasized experiences over gifts and saved significantly more by only buying what they needed.

She estimates that they have saved more than 40 percent of their income over the past four years – and about 60 percent if you include investments from home sales. Still, they are not overly frugal and spend money on fitness, food and hobbies like bikes.

She created an “intense and intimidating” spreadsheet to track everything coming in and going out, adding sections for emergency funds, investments, net worth and her “slush fund” for purchases over $500.

They decided to invest 20 percent of their husband’s basic income, 100 percent of their income, and at least 50 percent of bonuses. Their husband’s inflation-adjusted military pension also took some of the burden off the planning process.

“Not only do we pay ourselves first, but we’ve adopted the approach of giving every dollar a purpose. At the end of each month, the remaining money is either allocated to the blacklist, emergency or invested,” Dove said.

Dove didn’t want to work more hours, which would have forced her to sacrifice time with her children, so she made more with less. They recently bought a $96,000 home in Bloomington, Illinois, just as State Farm was moving its headquarters and real estate prices were falling. Then they sold their home when Rivian came in and prices were rising.

This encouraged her to try her hand at real estate and list her mountain home on Airbnb. The house was almost immediately booked every week for eight months.

Dove has published four children’s picture books and spends her days writing, leading workshops, and working as a financial coach. She is also an angel investor in a few startups. Ultimately, she hopes to retire early to spend more time with her loved ones and help pave their path to success.

“Although we haven’t reached our FI number yet, we will reach our goal amount by our goal date with just what we contribute from my husband’s income,” Dove said. “This has paved the way for me to achieve my many dreams.”

Are you part of the FIRE movement or do you live by some of its principles? Contact this reporter at [email protected].