Quit Like a Millionaire Book Review

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Who Are Kristy Shen and Bryce Leong?

Kristy Shen and Bryce Leong are known as Canada’s ‘youngest retirees’ who have retired from their traditional job (computer engineering) at the age of 31.

They are behind the website Millennial Revolution.

Kristy also writes for the Globe and Mail recently.

Quit Like a Millionaire Book Review

Quit Like a Millionaire: No Gimmicks, Luck, or Trust Fund Required book has three parts to it. It’s quite the story. The premise is that Kristy grew up in abject poverty and got herself out of it, grew a million dollar portfolio at the age of 31 (with her husband) and is now considered wealthy. Because she did it, there are no excuses that you can’t too.

In Part One, Kristy shares her very poor upbringing in China. A can of Coca Cola was such a treat that she treasured it. Her family made $0.44 a day. She played with medical waste in rural China, finding latex gloves and other things (including used syringes) to play with because she did not have any toys.

She grew up with a Scarcity Mind-Set. Her family eventually made their way to Canada. In an effort to try and get out of poverty, she knew education was the way out.

So she researched university studies that would give her the most ROI (she calls it a POT score- Pay Over Tuition). She opted for computer engineering even though her ambitions when she was younger was to be a writer.

She was not good at school and it took longer for her to learn things, she managed to get into University of Waterloo for computer engineering, she graduated and got a shiny new computer engineering job. Then she thought she was set for life.

Part Two: The Middle Class

Because Kristy grew up in poverty, she went overboard when she got her first big paycheque. She thought purses were a symbol of wealth so she bought a bunch of Coach bags. That temporary hit of dopamine when you get a shiny new thing is just temporary.

She also talks about how your house is not an investment (this usually upsets a lot of people), how to invest in index funds, and how to avoid paying assets under management fees to the ‘real bank robbers’ the financial advisors who take your money and buy their daily coffee with it.

They make money even when you lose money.

An interesting part of the book was talking about how you can never pay taxes again by using a technique called Capital Gains Harvesting. That seems a bit complicated to me but I’m not retired and don’t mind paying the taxes for now.

Finally, the magical number that saved her and Bryce was the 4% rule, whereby if your living expenses are equal to 4% of your investment portfolio, you will be able to retire and outlive wiur money with a 95% certainty over 30 years.

In Part Three, Kristy Shen and Bryce Leong talk about becoming wealthy with strategies like “The Cash Cushion” and the “Yield Shield”. The cash cushion involves having a one year cash cushion amount so that you are protected from downturns in your portfolio (so you won’t have to withdraw from your portfolio in a bad time).

They also learned that traveling the world could cost less than living in a high cost of living city. They spend $40,000 traveling around the world which was similar to their day to day cost of living in Toronto.

Finally, they talk about the elephant in the room when it comes to early retirement- Kids! In the book it doesn’t sound like they planned to have kids, but they have a one year old now, so I guess things change. Their expenses also seem higher than $40,000 now too but their portfolio is also higher. They give examples of FIRE bloggers with children who have made it in retirement and details potential expenses and costs of having children.

What I Liked About Quit Like a Millionaire

I liked the stories that Kristy shared about other FIRE enthusiasts. For example, the author talk about her friend Joe’s dad. When I was reading the story about how they arrived in the United States to start over from Thailand, his dad worked as a pizza delivery driver and got attacked with a baseball bat (because the customer did not have enough money to pay) and broke his arm.

That story seemed very familiar then I realized she is talking about Joe Udo from Retire by 40. I often read his blog. It was cool to read the parallel. I guess the “FIRE” blogging community is pretty small.

I also liked how there were chapter summaries at the end of each chapter so you can solidify your FIRE learning.

What I Didn’t Like About Quit Like a Millionaire

I didn’t think the authors put into account the cost of having children in the current economy. The cost of extracurriculars is so high especially since very few people I know just has their kid in “one activity”. The minimum seems to be a musical class, a martial art, a team sport, and possibly even an individual sport on top of the three.

That being said, there are people who home school (that would save a lot of money) and turn a blind eye to all the social school pressures of extracurricular activities- so it can be doable.

Genymoney.ca’s Verdict

I liked Quit Like a Millionaire. I have been following their blog occasionally and enjoyed reading the background story behind their Financial Independence story. It’s pretty much a step-by-step guide on how to save your money, invest your money, and not be tied to a ball and chain mortgage.

The book helped make the authors seem more likeable and less controversial I suppose!

What are your thoughts on Quit Like a Millionaire?