{"id":266715,"date":"2025-09-30T14:31:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/266715\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T14:31:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:31:16","slug":"how-32-year-old-and-her-husband-saved-more-than-500000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/266715\/","title":{"rendered":"How 32-year-old and her husband saved more than $500,000"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Growing up, Lauren Perraut learned many money lessons from her dad, including &#8220;never spend more than you&#8217;re making&#8221; and &#8220;always pay off your credit card balance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The 32-year-old now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2025\/09\/16\/32-year-old-makes-122k-a-year-in-health-care-without-med-school.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">makes $122,000<\/a> per year as a pathologists&#8217; assistant. She lives with her husband, Dylan, who makes $60,000 as an academic advisor, and son, Reed, in Lexington, Kentucky. The only debt the couple has is their mortgage.<\/p>\n<p>Among the biggest lessons Perraut&#8217;s father taught her was<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2025\/06\/04\/expert-tips-for-saving-more-money.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> the importance of saving<\/a>. &#8220;If I got money for birthdays or holidays, he would encourage me to save it in my bank account,&#8221; she says.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a lesson she took to heart. These days, the Perrauts have about $524,000 put away, split across cash savings, retirement accounts and other investments.<\/p>\n<p>They set aside a total of $3,900 in June 2025. Here&#8217;s where it went:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Dylan&#8217;s 403(b):<\/strong> $245<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lauren&#8217;s 401(k):<\/strong> $1,404<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dylan&#8217;s Roth IRA:<\/strong> $500<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lauren&#8217;s Roth IRA:<\/strong> $500<\/li>\n<li><strong>Shared brokerage account:<\/strong> $1,000<\/li>\n<li><strong>529 college savings plan for Reed:<\/strong> $250<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Both Perraut and her husband are taking advantage of their respective employer matches on their workplace retirement accounts. They&#8217;re also maxing out their Roth IRAs.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"headline0\"\/>Saving up &#8216;enough to have the flexibility to retire when we want&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>In addition to saving for retirement, the couple prioritize funding their son&#8217;s college savings account. They make sure to put $250 into his 529 plan every month and had about $11,500 saved as of June.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re making sure to save up money for him to go to school, to go to college, if that&#8217;s what he chooses,&#8221; Perraut says.<\/p>\n<p>Another goal is to reach $30,000 in their high-yield savings account \u2014 enough to cover six months&#8217; worth of expenses. As of June, the account had around $18,000 in it.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the total amounts their various accounts held as of June 2025:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Dylan&#8217;s 403(b):<\/strong> $52,960<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lauren&#8217;s 401(k): <\/strong>$235,280<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dylan&#8217;s Roth IRA: <\/strong>$37,570<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lauren&#8217;s Roth IRA:<\/strong> $72,960<\/li>\n<li><strong>Shared brokerage account: <\/strong>$95,460<\/li>\n<li><strong>High-yield savings account: <\/strong>$18,120<\/li>\n<li><strong>529 college savings plan for Reed: <\/strong>$11,500<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ultimately, &#8220;our goal is to save up enough to have the flexibility to retire when we want,&#8221; says Perraut. <\/p>\n<p>But she doesn&#8217;t feel they&#8217;re making big sacrifices to do so. They&#8217;re not big spenders and are comfortable with the life they&#8217;ve built. In June, they only spent about $274 going out to eat and just $13 on entertainment, like going to the movies.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Dylan and I are both relatively frugal people,&#8221; says Perraut. &#8220;We both enjoy our jobs and we enjoy our routine.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Last chance to save: Want to be your own boss?<\/strong>\u00a0Final days to get 30% off Smarter by CNBC Make It&#8217;s new online course,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarter.cnbcmakeit.com\/p\/how-to-start-a-business-for-first-time-founders?utm_source=cnbc&amp;utm_medium=makeitarticle&amp;utm_campaign=bottom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">How To Start A Business: For First-Time Founders<\/a>. Find step-by-step guidance for launching your first business, from testing your idea to growing your revenue. Use coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount from September 16 through September 30, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Plus, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/make-it-newsletters\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sign up for CNBC Make It&#8217;s newsletter<\/a> to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/groups\/13194471\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">request to join our exclusive community on LinkedIn<\/a> to connect with experts and peers.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"InlineVideo-styles-makeit-videoThumbnail--koCZV\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1759242676_289_108173404-250710-mg-08-mm-chacon-miami_thumb_8_clean.png\" alt=\"How I earn $900,000 a year as a dermatologist\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Growing up, Lauren Perraut learned many money lessons from her dad, including &#8220;never spend more than you&#8217;re making&#8221;&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":266716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[7890,64,7891,9939,7889,74197,255,7895,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-266715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-articles","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-make-it","11":"tag-make-it-money","12":"tag-makeit","13":"tag-millennial-money","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-sourcetagnamecnbc-us-source","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115293736266096200","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}