A woman whose wedding celebrations got cancelled due to covid decided to invest the money instead - and is on track to retire at 40.
Kristine Licuanan, 38, works as an IT consultant and lives in London.
She and her husband, Gabor, had a small-scale wedding in June 2019, with just their close family attending.
But they were also planning a big wedding bash in June 2020 - until this got derailed by the pandemic.
The pair were planning a major celebration, which would have seen most of the guests fly in from across the world, including Kristine's native Philippines.
But covid travel restrictions meant the event had to be called off - leaving them with £15,000 and nothing to spend it on.
"During that time we thought that money could either sit in the bank or we could invest it in the stock market," Kristine said.
In 2020 Kristine signed up to investing firm Freetrade - which as the name suggests lets users invest without paying the normal trading fees.
The money she invested has grown by around £7,500 since 2020, though she has been putting in some of her salary too.
Kristine invests with Freetrade in two ways - through a 'general investment account' and a stocks and shares Isa, which lets users put in up to £20,000 a year without paying tax on any investment returns.
She said her goal is to build up £1million, with the help of other investments, and to retire between the ages of 40 and 43, but she says this is "not set in stone".
The target is do-able because she leads a thrifty lifestyle and the couple don't have children, she added.
Kristine researches and picks her own investments herself, and said some of her favourites so far have been big tech firms like Apple, Google and Microsoft.
"We're hoping to have a big wedding celebration next year or the Autumn of this year, but haven't got firm plans yet," she said.
If you invest money, the value of it can fall as well as rise, though over time it does tend to rise if invested safely.
Last year The Mirror reported how a father retired early after spending £4,700 on two casks of Scotch whisky almost 30 years ago and selling them for an eye-watering £225,000.
Roger Parfitt, a 59-year-old bank manager from Coventry, said he would use the money to pay off his mortgage and retire three years earlier than planned.
Despite not being an expert in whisky, Parfitt spent £3,200 on a cask of single malt Macallan and another £1,500 on a cask of Tobermory back in 1994, in the hopes they’d be worth more some day.
His stroke of luck ended up paying off, and the life-changing sale meant Parfitt netted a return of 4,700% and a profit of £220,300.
The money he has made is also tax-free, as whisky casks are classed as a “wasting asset” by HMRC and are not subject to capital gains tax.
