"Katie: One common mistake people fall into is not making investment decisions themselves. This comes from a fear of getting it wrong and thinking, "I don't know what I'm talking about." Instead of learning, they just hire professional advisors, which they don't need. It's a double whammy because these advisors charge high fees and also put your money into overly conservative investments like bonds alone."
"Alan: Even a 1% fee paid to a professional can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, which means delaying your financial independence. Katie originally invested with a very high-fee advisor. We worked it out later and realized that if we hadn't switched to low-cost index funds, we would be over a million British pounds worse off."
"Alan and Katie Donegan retired early at 35 and 40 - now they're warning others about common early-retirement mistakes. Many people waste money on expensive advisors or risky speculation, slowing their path to financial freedom. They say aiming for average returns and avoiding big risks is the smarter way to retire early. This as-told-to essay is based on conversations with Katie and Alan Donegan, who retired at 35 and 40, respectively. The couple is originally from the UK and has been nomadic since 2020."
Alan and Katie Donegan retired at ages 35 and 40 and run financial independence workshops worldwide. They identify common traps that delay early retirement, including hiring expensive professional advisors and confusing speculation with investing. High advisor fees and overly conservative allocations can erode wealth and postpone financial freedom. Even a 1% fee can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and reliance on high-fee advisors could have left them over a million pounds worse off. They teach a free 10-week course on saving and investing basics and emphasize low-cost index funds and aiming for average returns to reduce risk.
Read at Business Insider
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