You can save $400,000 before 40

Whenever I ask around, how much do you need to be able to be able to slow down in work pace and that you can choose how to live your life and not rushing to work everyday, the answer is always $1 million. I dont know why but it seems that $1 million is the magic number. I mean how many of us, the working class can accumulate $1 million through savings. 

I am sure most of you would have read the news about how a 74 yrs old cleaner was conned of her entire life savings of $400,000. You can read the news from here. This news served as a wake up call, if a 74yrs old cleaner, with not much of a education (my assumptions), is able to amass a huge savings of $400,000, I dont see any reason why most of us cant. In fact most of us should be able to accelerated this amount conservatively by half the time taken. We are much better educated than her, we have more opportunities than her, and our earnings are so many times more than her. This lady reminded me of my Ah ma, she was a very frugal lady. As their generation had gone through so much hardship, they were very thrifty and saved every pennies they could. This is probably one of the traits that most of us would not have, sadly. 

A working couple earning combined income of $7000, if they save $3000 a month, in 12 years time, they will be able to save $432,000. This also means that before you hit 40, you would have half a million of savings, isnt this cool. Do you think this is achievable ?