Quit Like a Millionaire: 100% Bull***t-frei Vermögen vermehren, früh in Rente gehen und nach den eigenen Vorstellungen leben

by Kristy Shen, Bryce Leung, Fritz Söllner (Translator)

Kristy Shen ging im Alter von 31 Jahren mit einer Million Dollar in den Ruhestand – und das, ohne einen Home Run an der Börse zu landen, das nächste Snapchat in ihrer Garage zu starten oder in Immobilien zu investieren. Aufgewachsen in bescheidenen Verhältnissen bereist sie heute die Welt. In diesem Buch erzählt sie, wie ihr das gelang und wie auch Sie den Ausstieg schaffen.

Sie zeigt in ihrem internationalen wie jeder seine Ausgaben einschränken kann (ohne seine Lebensqualität zu mindern). Wie sich ein erfolgreiches Portfolio aufbauen lässt, das auch Durststrecken an der Börse überlebt, und wie jeder für immer aus dem Hamsterrad aussteigen kann. Nicht jeder kann oder will ein Unternehmer oder ein Immobilienbaron werden; für alle anderen ist Shens mathematisch bewiesener Ansatz, um Jahrzehnte vor dem eigentlichen Rentenbeginn in den Ruhestand zu gehen der einfachste und solideste Weg zum Wohlstand.

Genres: Finance, Personal Finance, Nonfiction, Money, Business, Self Help, Audiobook

481 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Despite growing up in poverty and, at one point, living with her family on 44 cents a day, Kristy eventually became a millionaire at the age of 31 and retired from her job to travel the world. Her story has been featured in media outlets all over the world, including the New York Times, CBC, CNBC, Women's Health Magazine Australia, Germany’s Handelsblatt, GQ Russia, and the UK Independent. She now spends time helping people with their finances and realizing their travel dreams on www.millennial-revolution.com. She is the co-author of "Quit Like a Millionaire", the book that details her journey from 44 cents to becoming a world-travelling millionaire.

Reviews

[Lenjo · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first thought was: "Another FIRE book? Is there anything new to say?"
Apparently there is. I absolutely loved the book.
Here a short pro and con List:

Cons:
- Very US and Canada centered, even though not as much as other books. Only a few pages though.
- No "How To" for Newbies. This is more like a refinement for People who know how to invest a bit

Pros:
+ Very personal book of Kristys Journey with a lot of wisdom to take with me
+ New Content that absolutely adds new dimensions to the Investment planning
+ Very motivational for People of all Ages, income etc. Shows that FIRE is not a "rich People" topic
+ I loved to read also from a woman, that way it is easier for me to relate to
+ Easy to read, I could not stop. It had me hooked.

My advice: Read the book, and also maybe additionally another Investment book that covers also the Basics of investing.

[Valerie Brett]

I can’t rate this book because I fundamentally disagree with its premise (capitalism). If you agree with capitalism, this book is full of great advice on how to legally not pay taxes, scrimp and save, pick a job you might hate because it’ll make you the most money, etc etc etc. This woman is a psycho I would not want to be friends with & her life sounds miserable. Is it worth it to have a miserable first 31 years and then a good rest of your life? She doesn’t acknowledge the luck of making it through that time with her health and no accidents etc. But if your goal really is early retirement, or if you don’t care about the moral and/or life-quality implications of ruthlessly fighting your way to the top of a capitalist system, this is useful.

[Mara · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars - Well damn. I was just trying to do some reading to figure out how to optimize my retirement strategy so that I could retire at 50. Now I'm thinking I could retire way sooner? This was excellent informative non-fiction, and I really loved how Shen incorporated her personal story to drive home how you can come from literally nothing, be super risk adverse, and still accelerate your road to financial independence.

[Leilani · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is okay. There is a lot of useful information, and I like Kristy Shen's sense of humor. However it's pretty clear that Shen has an isolated and limited understanding of the factors that drive poverty (and wealth) at a societal level, especially in the US. Her story of growing up poor and leaving poverty behind is powerful and inspirational, and Shen clearly understands how many people think and feel when they are or have been poor, but that does not mean she understands how poverty operates as a system. The work smarter and harder message is not new, nor is it the full picture of what's going on, as shown in other books such as The Color of Wealth, The Color of Law, and Evicted. As James Baldwin puts it in The Fire Next Time: "One would never defeat one's circumstances by working and saving one's pennies. One would never, by working, acquire that many pennies." Yes you have to work hard, but working hard does nothing if the system is rigged against you to the point that you can literally be sentenced to life in prison for doing absolutely nothing wrong. Hustling, investing, and optimizing your spending is useless in that situation. This lack of acknowledgement of how poverty works in the US, while talking all about US retirement accounts, index funds, health insurance, and so on, really rubbed me the wrong way.

Another bizarre thing I noticed about the book is that there just aren't that many examples of other women on FIRE, even in the chapter on parenting. I follow a lot of FIRE blogs and even some podcasts, so I know that if she really wanted to, Shen absolutely could have included more women in her book. She never says this directly, but the way she reveres so many White men and ignores all of these other issues says a lot in itself. Also, if you are under the impression that women are not very involved in FIRE, you are absolutely wrong, though I can see how people may be led to believe this idea after reading Shen's book. Here's just one counter argument, but there are many:

https://treadlightlyretireearly.com/2...

I have a feeling that Kristy Shen does not care too much about recognizing and uplifting people who are underrepresented at higher socioeconomic levels. That's her choice, but what good is being rich if we can't make the world better with that wealth? I just question the getting rich to do whatever you want story, because there's no accountability to society or to one's community. I get especially suspicious when Shen starts saying we should steal ideas from the rich. I would rather die a pauper than be seen as being even remotely similar to Andrew Carnegie and those other prosperity gospel assholes.

That being said, Shen has many practical suggestions and motivational sound bites for middle class and upper middle class readers. I'm not as invested in dodging taxes, because how exactly does Shen think we even got the ACA in the first place? But I agree that we should be investing in 401ks and IRAs, being more mindful about our spending, and getting paid the incomes we deserve, just for different reasons.

If you just want the tips and don't care too much about the packaging, then go ahead and read this book. But if you want a message that's about building wealth in a values-sensitive way, I would not recommend this book. To be fair, there are not a ton of personal finance books out there that are values-focused, but Your Money or Your Life is a great one (one of the few moments when Shen recommends something done by a woman), Smart Women Finish Rich is another.

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book on FIRE. While the title is correct that you don't need a trust fund, it does require you to have a six figure income so you can invest 60-70% of your income per year. That is not realistic for the average American.

[Mona · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are quite a few bad things my generation says about Millenials, but FIRE concept is something some of us secretly envy them and wish we figured it out ourselves. 


Pros:

1. Good background story and skillful presentation of clash among two different cultures (including financial culture) - East and West. 

2. Excellent description of entitlement mindset and consumption needs in the West. Also, very pragmatic (too bad, so rare) point of view on the career choice. 

3. Book is directed to Millenials and younger but everyone will find something interesting, either in investment or tax area. 

4. Autor is from Canada but did pretty good research about American stock market, taxes etc. 

Cons:

1. Lack of costs analysis related to renting real estate property - renters insurance, association, costs of moving in and out from the apartment building, costs of deposit, pets fees etc. Also, lack of information regarding relocation costs for renters vs. homeowners (which creates moving expenses).  Overall, housing advice was based on author's unilateral and quite narrow point of view comparing author's experience of renting 1 BD apartment for $800/mth vs. aspiring to buy the house for $500K - $800K... with mortgage. 

2. Lack of any information about asset protection and liability - very important topic in litigious society of America. Most people with large assets understand, that even with the best planning life can turn upside down in a snap - guy repairing your roof can fell and break his back, you can kill someone while driving etc. - home or car insurance will not be much help in such scenarios. There are divorces, legal troubles with government, civil etc. Lawsuits and bancruptcy is always a possibility - the bigger pockets, the higher risk. Asset protection is crucial. Not sure if author realizes that 50% of her portfolio (except 401k and Roth) is widely open to the creditors. And in a case of divorce, even those are vulnerable.

3. Author acknowledged exclusively stock market as a source of passive income, while many (if not most) people like to diversify and include real estate and other sources of passive income. 

4. Author made American health insurance issue appear easier than it really is. To qualify for Medicaid or any significant Obamacare subsidies you have to claim really low gross income (around 22K/couple or less in many states for Medicaid). If you pass this threshold, prices jump substantially. Especially as you get older and need lots of medical care. But she is definitely right that health care is much cheaper anywhere else outside the US. Something to think about upon retirement. 

Overall good book, I wish I knew some of those things 20-30 years ago...

[Shannon A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book got me thinking about my Roth IRAs, my 401k and my savings/investments differently. Indexes? Who knew? Did you know that traveling the world actually can cost less than staying in one place (or home) for a year? Wow. This book will have you re-thinking how you think about money; and while I don’t think I’ll actually become a millionaire; I do know that this book has caused me to consider making an appointment ASAP to speak with my financial advisor and start asking more questions.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 — Was not a big fan of parts of this book, since I’m not an “optimizer” as the author writes. The word “retirement” was also liberally misused, instead of “financial independence” which is more accurate. She did not “retire” at the age of 31, since she’s now writing books (her true passion). She simply became financially independent. Did she really hate her engineering job THAT much?...

Arnold Schwarzenegger used a similar strategy of investing into real estate, thereby becoming a millionaire in his 20’s, which allowed him to fully pursue his acting goals. I feel Kristy can learn a lot from Arnold’s example — using wealth to reinvest and to take risks, in order to do bigger and better things (she’ll need to work on shedding her scarcity mindset first).

My dad was very risk-averse and it suffocated him from pursuing great things in life, this is why I can’t sympathize with this attitude. I’ve also seen this bean-counter mindset come to dominate many an organization – where it leads to me-too products & services that don’t exactly create new value or wealth within society, leads to unhappy / unfulfilled workers there to collect a paycheck (the “9-5 clock-watchers”), and hence the downfall of many an organization in the free-market system. This is perhaps why she was so eager to leave the world of work (or the “cubicle prison” as she describes it) behind? Perhaps she was in the wrong field all along?

Despite my qualms, at least the author is honest with herself, and there are still a ton of nuggets of gold to be found within this book – one being the three types of personalities / paths to wealth:
1) The Hustler (entrepreneur)
2) The Investor
3) The Optimizer

The breakdown of those three was spot-on, and I especially enjoyed hearing Kristy’s story about her family’s experiences of growing up in extreme poverty and escaping Chinese communist rule.

[J. Wootton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found Shen and Leung's blog while researching some basic questions on investment strategy. Loved the combination of straightforward explanation (none of that vague "advice" that hedges every option with twenty qualifiers you see on finance industry websites) and sharp, smart, funny voice. Is it a little over the top? Yes. Will all of the tactics they use be right for you? Of course not. But it's informative and insightful and fun to read (and how often do you get to say "fun to read" in the context of anything related to finance?)

Finding one blog post led me to about thirty others, on their site and elsewhere, which I spent the better part of two days working my way through and cross-checking against professional sources as best I could. This led me to rethink multiple aspects of my approach to savings and financial management, and I bought their book as a way to say "thank-you."

So glad I did. It's incredibly rare to find nonfiction books this well put-together. Shen seamlessly unites memoir and how-to content using one of the most engaging and personable narrative voices you're likely to encounter on any subject. Even though I'd already absorbed a lot of the more technical stuff piecemeal (through their blog), Shen's style made them a pleasure to re-encounter, organized and augmented with extra content. A rare page-turner in both its genres.

(I do recommend both book and blog and supplemental research - there's also a lot of useful content, especially examples and dozens of case studies, that aren't in the book alone. Plus it's important to get multiple perspectives on a subject this potentially complex and consequential).

Quit Like a Millionaire isn't a complete guide to personal finance, and it doesn't claim to be. But it's a great supplementary resource for anyone intimidated by the stock market or confused by their retirement account.

[Nomads With a Vision · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book by Kristy and Bryce from Millennial Revolution! I attended a Chautauqua with them in Ecuador in 2017 and will always remember Kristy's kindness. At the meeting, we went down a mile-or-two-long trail that dropped about 2000 feet to a river. On the hike back up to the top, I was left in the dust by the very fit FIRE crowd. As I puffed along up the jungle path as night was falling, I began to wonder if anyone even remembered that I came along for the hike. As things were looking grim, I saw a flashlight ahead and it was Kristy coming back to check on me with a cold bottle of water.

This book continues in the same spirit of providing succor in a time of need. After the authors have blazed a trail of financial success, they turned around to extend a helping hand to those still slogging through the morass of financial misinformation out there. Whether you're struggling to make ends meet or well on the road to Financial Independence, "Quit Like a Millionaire" will help light your path and provide much needed encouragement.

From Kristy's background of poverty to her and Bryce's success as software engineers, this book traces the path to financial freedom. It provides advice that encompasses everything from budgeting, saving, investing, choosing a career and even dealing with the fear of taking a leap and retiring early. They even give advice on achieving Financial Independence with children, despite their lack of the same! (Ok, they bring in a great crew of experienced, financially independent parents to share their experiences for that section.)

So, in short, read the book! Start down the road to FI! Have your kids follow the pot when choosing a career! Er, I mean POT. As in POT (Pay Over Tuition) score...

[Jay French · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another in the recent crop of books on young people saving enough money to reach financial independence and retire early. I’ve read quite a few of these books, and many, if not most, tend to the how-to, with some personal details of the journey to provide insight into the unique ways that the author pulled off their financial feat. This was very similar to most of the others, with some distinct differences that really set it apart. First, the author begins her story in her youth, as a very poor child in China. She relates tales of her family and her upbringing, which started with need and hunger. She uses these anecdotes, at times shocking, to help explain her “scarcity mindset”, which is what she attributes much of her ability to save prodigious amounts of money. Note the author is married, and her husband did not seem to have this mindset, but still worked with the author to save over half their pay for many years. The author then described the steps in her financial development, figuring out the ability to become financially independent over time and through a few leaps of thought. This reads like a book by a researcher explaining where they got their ideas. I found this very interesting and similar to my own lines of thought. Shen then describes the issues she has dealt with and what she has learned along the way, with topics such as budgets, financial benefits of travel, tax avoidance, buckets for planning, insurance, and more. I found the idea of buckets well described. Shen is good at coming up with names for some of the strategies she followed, such as her cash cushion and yield shield. Nicely done. And while she provides mostly generic budget information or samples in the body of the book, she saves a few appendices for her actual budget and savings numbers. Quite interesting. The writing has attitude I have come to expect from the millennial generation, where cursing is second nature. I found the attitude unnecessary and a bit overwhelming from the story.

As for the advice, it seems mostly reasonable. Shen is Canadian, so provides both American and Canadian examples throughout. As I compare her situation to mine, I see that her advice really revolves around not owning real estate, trusting medical insurance will always be there (Canadians, nuf said), having a mindset to massively save from large engineering salaries, and not having kids (although her chapter on kids say retiring early is done with kids all the time, they don’t have them). Most interesting advice -- foreign travel to lower costs. I’ve heard this before, but Shen’s descriptions were compelling.

Note that the author is a computer engineer with a head for math, which she talks about quite a few times throughout the book. I found one of the few math equations in the book, on page 179 of the paperback, had a set of parentheses missing, leaving the equation incorrect. While she might have gotten her math order of operations out of whack, Shen seems to have her financial operations in order..

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were things I liked about this book, and a lot I didn't like. I think the author is kind of a psycho, and definitely not someone I'd want to hang out with. Also, people need to stop assuming that TRAVEL is the be-all, end-all goal of retirement. Just because some people really enjoy it does not mean that it's the only way to live a full and satisfying life. I'm too much of a homebody... I'd go nuts living out of a suitcase for more than a week at a time.

One thing that really stood out to me was the idea that you don't have to start a business to become wealthy. Most of the FIRE books I've read take that as a base assumption. It was a nice surprise to hear that there are other ways. Definitely some good ideas to consider in this book, if you can put up with the rest of it.

[Raquel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of interesting math in here for sure but no magic bullet. Be ready to sell your house and live in Airbnb’s in cheap foreign countries forever.

[Broken Lifeboat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great intro for me to the world of Financial Independence, Retire Early (FI RE). Shen gives the reproducible risk and debt-adverse method to retiring early without fear. This book is for those with lower expenses in order to maximize savings, instead of aggressive investment strategies.

I would've liked a glossary of terms as a lot of these financial and investment words and concepts were new to me so a couple of beginner books are in my future to complement the strategies is Quit Like a Millionaire.

While I need a few more read throughs, Shen's writing is fun and generally easy to understand for newbies and I've already adjusted my 401K investments to start me off on the FI path.

The permanent travel strategy isn't for me but there's enough in here for home owners and renters through budgeting and saving.

Quit Like a Millionaire provides a fairly accessible long-term plan that I think will help me build an early retirement path. And if nothing else, the fees I'm now saving from changing my 401K investments paid for the book!

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been following the Millennial Revolution blog since it was featured by CBC and thought that I knew a lot. And then I read this book. The book is in 3 parts; poverty (lessons learned) - middle-class (with useful tax and finance tips) - financial independence (with life-stage appropriate tips like nomad health insurance). I spent most of my reading time in the second part. None of the ideas presented are ground-breaking, but I have never seen tax strategies presented so clearly! Well done, Kristy and Bryce!

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading the book, I felt like I spent a weekend just hanging out with the authors. The book is written in a way, where it feels like one of your friends just spilling all the secrets of FIRE to you. They share everything they learned along the way, and don’t hesitate to tell you why something is complete BS or why it works well. All in a way that you don’t feel they’re trying to persuade you into something. It's just an honest and frank discussion about how they’ve achieved FIRE.

Although they indicate exactly how they became millionaires, they are also quick to say that how you do it is all up to you. You can copy them 100% or just pick and choose what suits you best. Which was great as my approach to FIRE is a bit different then theirs and I didn’t feel judged at all well reading. My approach is to save over 35 times my expenses to be able to pull out 4% during the good years, and dip down to under 3% during the bad ones. As well I’m a homeowner just outside of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area); which is not exactly what they recommend. The book helps you understand that they aren’t saying to copy exactly what they did, but rather use the general principles and tweak it to your liking.

Also I’ve been reading about FIRE for over 5 years now, and thought I’ve read pretty much everything there is on the subject, but they proved me wrong. Even if you’ve read everything about FIRE you will certainly still learn something from this book.

In summary, the content of this book is something everyone should know and understand. And the way the book is written is exactly for that purpose. Whether the reader is someone who really understands FIRE, or this is their first introduction to the movement, the book will be an easy and fun read.

[Siah · Rating 4 out of 5]

So the first five chapters are just about one privileged woman who was raised in Toronto with a PhD educated father complaining about life. You end up throwing up a little in your mouth when someone who was raised in the west talks about how hard life was under Mao in China. Someone definitely needed to check their privilege along with their net worth on Mint.

The rest is pretty good though. She has studied the tax code well and identified strategies to delay paying taxes. She definitely shows two computer engineers whose parents are in the west and used to go skiing in winters and Euro trips in summer can retire early.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve developed an interest in FIRE lately and this is the first actual book I’ve read on the subject. Decent overview, deeply annoying introduction, not a ton of info that I hadn’t already found elsewhere, but packaged pretty well into a readable and consumable format.

[Annalise D · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars!!!⭐️

I was about 60% of the way through listening to the audiobook when I ordered a hard copy; I know I will go back and use it as a reference guide when I start capitalizing (no pun intended) on many of these strategies.

I appreciate Kristy’s down to earth approach and vernacular for telling her story. I do wish there were a few more details about investing and taxes, so I will have to look for that elsewhere to supplement.

Overall great content that was extremely eye opening, a bit mind blowing, and well worth the listen/read.

[Büke · Rating 5 out of 5]

My biggest take on the whole thing was that whatever feeling or stance we default to (almost like a reflex) is what the system wants us to feel so that we keep making choices that just feed the wheels, and that we don’t consider alternatives that would enable personal (financial) freedom. I knew that on paper, yet I was still unaware of how strong my biases/reflexes are in reality (e.g., knowing mathematically that buying a house is rarely a good investment, vs. other types of investments that would yield much higher returns and not be tying up that money, yet owning a house=safety/passive income is so engrained for some reason. maybe there’s a cultural aspect that multiplies those biases too).

I loved the author’s openness about what their family had gone through in China and when they first moved to the States; and reading about that magic moment (I’m a romantic) when they realized how *only* money makes more money. There is a strong personal / human touch to all the math going on in this book and that makes all the difference. Happy early retiring!

[Ingólfur Halldórsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ágætis bók þar sem farið er í smáatriði varðandi hvernig hægt er að koma sér í aðstöðu til að hætta að vinna langt fyrir eftirlaunaaldur. Sumt af bókinni er leiðinlega mikið miðað inn á bandaríska lesendur en oft og tíðum tekst höfundinum að binda saman sína persónulegu lífsreynslu og góð fjárhagsleg ráð á skemmtilegan hátt. Bókin er líka stutt sem er virðingarvert innan þessarar bókmenntagreinar, sérstaklega ef köflum um ameríska eftirlaunasjóði er að mestu sleppt. Mæli með fyrir þá sem eru með fjármálin í rugli eða eru að leita sér að fleiri vopnum í búrið.

[Siddharth Prabhu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got to know about Millennial Revolution when I found their blog online and I really loved the way they broke down complex investing terms and making it really easy to follow and invest in the stock market. I was very excited when I found that they had a book coming out and it did not disappoint. Kristy really takes you through the journey she and Bryce went through to becoming financially independent at the young age of 31! and explains the steps she took to achieve her goals. While the financial principles they lay out in the book are great, what really stood out to me was the dedication which Kristy showed to pull it off. While reading the book, I realized that she had an extremely strong will which pushed her through tough engineering courses in College and a pretty demanding job with long work hours, so when the time came to invest I was not surprised to find that these skills were pushing her towards achieving her goals. Kristy and Bryce demonstrated great discipline while investing, while also not falling prey to expectations which family and friends put on them to buy a house. This book is filed with tips for ways to invest your money in a pragmatic way regardless of where you live in the world. I look forward to reading this book again and again, as I find myself learning something new each time I pick it up. I definitely recommend this book!

[Sophie Morley · Rating 4 out of 5]

TIP: I planned to read this but it then became available as an audio book. She is witty, funny, and I really want to know this lady!! She’s great to listen to!
—————————————————————————————

An excellent resource to get people without much financial reading or research behind them a) motivated and b) familiar with lots of key concepts.

I especially like how she stresses certain concepts and approaches, but always reinforces the appreciation that people are different and that things can be tailored to your own context.

Whilst some aspects of this book I had a good grounding in - saving, budgeting, investing, and a bit of hustling! - I still learned a lot and it felt good to have even more affirmed. I was especially inspired to think and reflect a bit on how my future might look if I have children, for example. It’s also seriously made me reconsider buying a ‘dream home’, even if house prices are ridiculously cheap where I’m from in the UK. Although watching Grand Designs alongside this didn’t help - I’m simultaneously convincing myself I can build an eco home for nothing and EARN money from that madness. The scary thing - she described my traits in parts of this book and I can’t help but feel that this is a project I can venture into beyond FI (financial independence) and complete “another year” as she puts it, to find my Grand Design [sigh - have I learned nothing?!]

The only drawback - A LOT of this is specific to North Americans. There were chapters I wanted to skip ahead on but listened to anyway out of mild interest and potential crossover to me as a British ex pat.

Well worth a listen/read. If you have teenagers or work with kids - make them read this book. If they’re your children, explain that this book will shed light on why 1) they will not be bought a car for their 18th birthday and 2) why they will have a part time job from the age of 14 and 3) why mother and father will bot be bailing anyone out of anything finance wise. A grounding experience!

[Kayla Wiens · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been a longtime fan of Kristy’s blog, and was so excited for the release of her new book. I have always consulted her blog for answers to specific investing questions. Now, in “Quit like a Millionaire”, readers have a comprehensive guide to FIRE that goes into the detail necessary to execute a solid plan. It is a perfect answer to all the detractors of FIRE! I feel so much more confident in my own plan, having read this book. Kristy’s story is inspiring, yet she explains FI in such a way that everyone can get there. I will recommend his book to anyone searching for an amazing, unconventional life. Highly recommend!

[Ericka Clou · Rating 3 out of 5]

She has some good points and ideas (though she seems to willfully ignore Dave Ramsey's existence) and I'll definitely raise this one more star if I manage to implement her investing concepts. We are committed to living in our house until the kids (and probably after) are out of school and I'm not even sure how much of what she talks about applies in that very common situation.

[Ryan Matsumoto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kristy Shen has a fascinating life story - she started from humble beginnings as the daughter of working-class immigrant parents, pursued a career in computer engineering during her 20s, and saved & invested enough with her husband to retire at the age of 31 with a net worth of $1,000,000 to travel the world full-time. This book job did a great job combining Shen's life story with useful personal finance tips for anyone focused on saving, investing, and navigating the tax system. I found this to be a highly engaging book - I finished it in under 24 hours!

Some things I learned from the book as well as my own thoughts:
- Shen believes that buying a house for the purpose of gaining wealth is often not a good investment. First, investing in the stock market (e.g. and index fund that tracks the S&P 500) typically has much higher annualized returns (~10% per year or doubling every ~7 years) than that of houses. Second, even if the house value goes up a lot, much of that increase is eaten up by property tax, real estate broker fees, insurance, maintenance, and interest payments. This is especially true in times like now where interest rates are pretty high. I found her analysis to be compelling.
- Investing in index funds beats 85 percent of all actively managed mutual funds after fees. While fund managers may charge a 1 percent management fee to your portfolio each year, expense ratios for index funds that track the S&P 500 (like VOO) can be just 0.03%. This really adds up over time - a 1% fee on a hypothetical $10,000 invested in the S&P 500 over 25 years could be the difference between that investment growing to ~$62k vs. ~$48k. This logic makes a lot of sense to me and is one reason why I decided to invest most of my net worth in the VOO/VTSAX index funds rather than use a fund manager that some members of my family use.
- The capital gains tax rate is much lower than the ordinary income tax rate and is one big reason why Shen and her husband have been able to withdraw most of their annual money from their accounts tax-free. For single people, the capital gains tax rate is 0% for the first $47,025. For married people, the capital gains tax rate is 0% for the first $94,050. This means that even if a married couple has a huge investment portfolio, each year they can withdraw tax-free an amount of stocks that has had up to $94,050 of capital gains tax-free per year. Once you get beyond these thresholds, the capital gains tax rate is still fairly low - generally 15%. Keep in mind though that many states (including California) also tax capital gains as ordinary income. In California, the marginal income tax rate for $94,050 would be 9.30%.
- If you retire early, you can access a limited amount of money in your 401k without paying a penalty by building a five-year Roth IRA conversion ladder. A somewhat confusing process that requires some planning, but seems legit.
- Capital gains harvesting can be used to reduce capital gains taxes paid. This is basically where if you still have room to sell stocks and stay below the $94,050 threshold (for couples) or $47,025 threshold (for singles) for capital gains, you should do so so that you can "realize" those gains tax-free. You can then re-buy the stocks at current prices.
- The 4 Percent Rule states that if your living expenses equal 4 percent of your investment portfolio, you will be able to retire and not outlive your money with 95 percent certainty over thirty years. This is how Shen and her husband decided to retire at 31 with their $1,000,000 net worth - their expected annual expenses were fairly low at ~$40,000. Personally I think that is extremely frugal and not applicable to most people, especially those who live in higher cost of living areas.
- You can make your early retirement portfolio more resilient / less-risky by developing a Cash Cushion (a reserve fund in high yield savings that you can use to avoid doing portfolio withdrawal during stock market down years) and a Yield Shield (basically using stock dividends as an extra source of cash during down years).
- When Shen and her husband quit their jobs to retire and travel the world, they found that their full-time travel expenses ($29,533 USD/year) were actually cheaper than living in their home of Toronto. While I do believe it can be cheaper to travel (especially compared to a high cost of living area), this seems like an absurdly low number, especially considering how much of their trip was in Europe and North America. Based on my experiences traveling to some of these places, I think they traveled quite frugally and it seems like they spent a very low amount on activities. Personally I would want to budget more for something like this unless a higher share of the trip was in cheaper places like Southeast Asia.
- While Shen and her husband chose to not have kids, they wrote a chapter about how their lifestyle could apply to couples with children. Basically she made the case (often based on experiences of other early retirees she has come across) that kids don't have to be as expensive as people think, and that traveling permanently with kids and educating them on the road ("world schoolers") is viable. Personally I found that this chapter was not particularly thought out - it kind of felt like she came to the conclusion she wanted first and then assembled somewhat dubious evidence and analysis to support her hypothesis.
- I found the chapter about semi-retirement to be most interesting. The SIDEFIRE concept means that you can semi-retire and do part-time or freelance work and reduce your required investment portfolio size accordingly (e.g. if you want to retire with $2,000,000 but plan to make ~$30,000 in part-time income per year, you can semi-retire with $2,000,000 - $30,000 x 25 = $1,250,000).

While this book focused heavily on Shen's life story and her thoughts and opinions, I appreciated that she included a section at the end that talked about how there are many different personal finance paths that can work for different people, and that's important to find advice and strategies that resonate with you individually. She talks about how people who become millionaires and reach financial independence at a young age tend to excel at one of the following areas while being average or slightly above average at the other two: high income, strong investment performance, or low expenses.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Canadian-centric, would recommend even just to better understand finances/saving.

“A great book should expand your horizons, not just confirm your biases.”

“At the end of the day, it isn’t about money, it’s about time-and how to use it wisely to live the best life possible.”

[Sammie Varghese · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super impressed. A very comprehensive book with an awesome story!

[Julian Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed Quit Like a Millionaire much more than I thought I would. Fairly or not, I had not previously given the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement much attention or credit because I only ever encountered annoying FIRE influencers who did it based on luck (e.g. being in the right place at the right time to create an early app in the iPhone App Store) and then spent their time bragging about their limitless spending, etc. But I really identified with Shen's background and her personal story, plus the fact that she has a no-nonsense approach to FIRE. While I don't think I'm going to personally be FIRE-ing early for a variety of reasons I'll touch on below, I appreciated how Shen methodically and scientifically lays out how you can retire early, and gives the reader practical tools to do it. Plus, she transparently shares her and Bryce's journey and how their net worth grew to $1M (CAD) by the time she was 31, allowing them to retire.

While my parents did not grow up completely dirt poor unlike Shen's family, they were also not well-off; they immigrated from Hong Kong to Canada in 1973 with $800 and two suitcases apiece, and built a solid middle-class life in Toronto. Their values were also very similar to Shen's parents; "money is the most important thing" and "money buys happiness" because you need money to buy things to make you happy, etc. I also struggled with whether to become a writer or an engineer (unlike Shen, I actually enjoyed technology, and I had much more of an aptitude at it than she did). Like Shen, I am an Optimizer by nature, very risk-averse and frugal.

What I appreciated about Shen is that she lays out her methodology but doesn't shame the reader into dogmatically following every part of her program. For example, she explains how to use a very cold, calculating approach to select a career, one that maximizes financial ROI (expected $ of salary in excess of minimum wage). Many readers may be turned off by this approach, since a world in which everyone is a software engineer and there aren’t any artists, journalists, poets, novelists, actors, etc. would be a miserable one indeed. Shen acknowledges this and says the right thing, which is that you don't have to follow this path, but it will just take you longer to achieve financial independence. The same goes for any other parts of her program: you don't have to engage in geographical arbitrage to save money (i.e. become a digital nomad and spend half the year in lower-cost jurisdictions), but it will mean your expenses are higher and thus your beginning capital balance will need to correspondingly be higher before you can FIRE.

While I have no plans to retire imminently, because I generally enjoy my field and think I've got one or two more gigs in me, reading this book made me realize that my wife and I have probably amassed close to enough net worth to be able to retire early if we wanted to, because we've been quite conservative with our spending all of our careers. We'd need to trim some expenses further, maybe even move back to Canada where health care costs aren't so outrageous and unpredictable, but we are close. The relevant question would then be, what would we do with our time? Unlike Shen, I don't have a terrible job working for a bank that I desperately want to escape because of overwork (her bosses and co-workers were dropping dead from the pressure and stress). It's nice to be able to read this kind of book and realize we are probably okay, and also feel incredibly lucky and grateful to be living in a first-world country where we have been able to amass such wealth. That’s a meta-problem with FIRE, beyond the scope of Shen’s perch: it is only possible due to macro-level inequality, truly only accessible to those in middle-class or higher brackets, earning wages in first world countries. Everyone else will not be able to FIRE purely based on the math.

[Suraj Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about understanding the value that financial freedom can have in one's life and describes how it isn't an entity that is achievable only for a select few. The book is written like an autobiography: the author describes in detail how life was while she was growing up and while talking about her own journey, she teaches the reader about steps one can take to grow their wealth. It was really interesting to understand how simple concepts can really go a long way with time and how well these ideas worked for her.

The one negative I'd say is that since the book is so focused around the author's journey that some strategies are specific to North America. Having said that, I think it's the insights and 'ways of life' that the book teaches the reader that are important.

I would recommend this book to everyone! The lessons one learns here are ones I wish I'd learned in school or college because I think they are really important as one becomes independent.