Quit Like a Millionaire
No Gimmicks, Luck, or Trust Fund Required
byJ.L. Collins, Kristy Shen, Bryce Leung
Book Edition Details
Summary
Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung defy the norms of financial success with their groundbreaking manual, "Quit Like a Millionaire." At the heart of this guide is Shen's eye-opening journey to early retirement at just thirty-one, armed not with startup riches or real estate conquests, but a meticulously crafted strategy accessible to anyone with a calculator and some ambition. This book isn’t just about pinching pennies—it's a manifesto for living freely and intentionally. From safeguarding investments against market storms to mastering the art of spending wisely, it reimagines financial independence for those who yearn to escape the daily grind long before traditional retirement age. If financial freedom feels like a distant dream, this book offers the blueprint to seize it now.
Introduction
What if the very poverty you've been told would hold you back is actually your greatest asset for building wealth? While most financial advice assumes you started with advantages, the reality is that those who've experienced genuine scarcity often possess the most powerful money-making mindset of all. This isn't another generic guide about budgeting or investing—it's the raw, unfiltered story of how a mindset born from necessity can transform into financial freedom. When you've grown up counting every penny, you develop an intuitive understanding of money's true value that the privileged never acquire. You learn to spot waste that others can't see, to make decisions based on mathematical reality rather than emotion, and to treat every dollar as precious because you know what life looks like without them. This book reveals how to harness that scarcity mindset, transforming it from mere survival instinct into a systematic approach to wealth building. You'll discover how to convert your hard-earned financial discipline into investment strategies, how to recognize and eliminate the invisible money drains that keep others trapped, and most importantly, how to build a portfolio that generates enough passive income to free you from financial anxiety forever.
Medical Waste to Million Dollar Dreams
At age five, Kristy Shen was digging through medical waste heaps in rural China, searching for anything that could become a toy. While other children played with store-bought dolls, she carefully sorted through discarded rubber gloves and syringes, hoping to find rubber bands that could be tied together into a jump rope. The danger was obvious—contaminated needles, soiled medical equipment—but for a family living on 44 cents per day, safety was a luxury they couldn't afford. When she asked her mother if she could have a doll when she grew up and made her own money, the answer was still no. In China during the 1980s, the average worker earned $327 per year while Americans earned $18,426. For her family in rural Taiping, that figure was even lower. This wasn't just poverty—it was a masterclass in what psychologists call the "Scarcity Mindset." During the Minnesota Starvation Experiment in 1945, researchers discovered that when people lack basic necessities, their brains literally rewire to become laser-focused on what they're missing. Subjects stopped caring about entertainment, relationships, or hobbies. Every thought centered on food. This same neurological shift happens with money. When you've lived without enough, every financial decision becomes scrutinized with surgical precision. The scarcity mindset teaches three fundamental lessons that privileged children never learn: money is the most important thing in the world, money is worth sacrificing for, and money is even worth bleeding for. These aren't pleasant truths, but they're the foundation of every fortune built from nothing. While others treat money casually, those shaped by scarcity approach it with the reverence it deserves. They see opportunities where others see inconvenience, value where others see waste, and potential where others see limitation.
The Coach Purse Awakening and Freedom Mindset
After landing her first engineering job, Kristy experienced what she calls the "Immigrant Money Rebound Effect." Having escaped genuine poverty, she dove headfirst into American consumption culture, becoming obsessed with Coach purses. She researched every model, memorized serial codes, and could identify fakes from across a room. Each purchase brought a rush of dopamine—proof that she had "made it." Within weeks, she owned five expensive bags, each one providing less satisfaction than the last. The thrill was addictive but short-lived, following the classic pattern of what psychologists call the "Hedonic Treadmill." The awakening came suddenly. While admiring her latest acquisition, she noticed a half-finished Coke abandoned on her desk. Years earlier, that Coke can had been her most precious possession—a gift from her father worth three Chinese yuan, enough to feed her family for two days. Now she was treating it like garbage, all for an empty leather bag. The contrast shattered her illusion of progress. She had escaped poverty only to become enslaved by consumption. This moment crystallized a crucial distinction between two mindsets. The Scarcity Mindset, which had served her well in poverty, had evolved into a Hoarding Mindset in middle-class life—endless accumulation without purpose or satisfaction. But there was a third option: the Freedom Mindset. Instead of asking "How can I make more money?" she began asking "How can I use money to buy back my time?" This shift changed everything. Rather than accumulating possessions that demanded maintenance, insurance, and storage, she could accumulate assets that generated passive income. The goal wasn't to own more things but to own her time completely. The Freedom Mindset transforms money from an end goal into a tool for liberation. Every dollar saved and invested becomes a small piece of independence, reducing your dependence on employment by exactly that amount. When your portfolio generates enough passive income to cover your expenses, work becomes optional rather than mandatory.
Index Funds, Travel Hacking, and Geographic Arbitrage
When Kristy first walked into her bank to discuss investing, the salesperson pushed a mutual fund with fees so high it would have eaten 25% of her returns over a lifetime. He couldn't explain the fund's strategy, wouldn't let her meet the manager, and earned the highest commission on that particular product. She walked out, but not before learning a crucial lesson: the financial industry profits from keeping customers ignorant. Traditional mutual funds charge 1-2% annually in fees while delivering returns that 85% of the time underperform simple index funds charging just 0.04%. Index funds revolutionized her approach to investing by eliminating the need to pick winners. Instead of betting on individual companies, she was betting on the entire economy's growth. When Apple succeeded, she profited. When Apple struggled, other companies in her fund picked up the slack. The index automatically dropped failing companies and added successful ones, creating what JL Collins called a "self-cleansing" mechanism. Most importantly, because no expensive fund manager was required, the fees were negligible. But the real breakthrough came when she discovered that retiring early wasn't about accumulating millions—it was about optimizing the relationship between income and expenses. By combining low-cost index investing with geographic arbitrage, she could live like royalty for the cost of a modest American lifestyle. In Thailand, a luxury condo with pool and gym cost $470 per month. A feast of fresh seafood cost $12. An hour-long massage cost $10. Her dollar went four times further, effectively quadrupling her portfolio's buying power. Travel hacking amplified these savings further. By strategically applying for credit cards with large signup bonuses, she accumulated enough frequent flyer points to fly around the world for just the cost of taxes—about $6,000 saved per year. That savings alone was equivalent to having an additional $150,000 in her portfolio using the 4% withdrawal rule. Geographic arbitrage isn't about living cheaply—it's about living efficiently, maximizing life experiences per dollar spent.
Teaching Kids Financial Independence Through World Schooling
The conventional wisdom claims that having children makes early retirement impossible, but families like the McCurrys, Jacobsons, and others in the FIRE community prove otherwise. Justin McCurry raised three children on just $2,600 per year per child—less than a quarter of the USDA's estimated $13,000 annual cost. The secret wasn't deprivation but optimization. When you're not paying for daycare because you're already home, when you shop at discount stores like Aldi instead of premium grocers, when you buy quality used items instead of new ones, the savings compound dramatically. Even more revolutionary is the world schooling movement, where families educate their children while traveling globally. Lainie Liberti and Jennifer Sutherland-Miller represent thousands of families who've discovered that the world makes a far better classroom than any building. Instead of reading about the Vietnam War, world schooled kids visit the actual battlefields and interview veterans. Instead of memorizing exchange rates, they calculate them daily across different currencies. Instead of studying geography from textbooks, they climb the mountains and cross the rivers they're learning about. The first generation of world schooled children has now reached adulthood, and rather than being socially awkward misfits, they're proving to be more resilient, adaptable, and entrepreneurial than their traditionally educated peers. They've learned to form friendships quickly, adapt to new environments effortlessly, and see opportunities where others see obstacles. Most importantly, they've been raised with a global perspective and financial literacy that traditional education rarely provides. World schooling also solves many of the expensive problems that traditional families face. There are no school shooting concerns when your classroom is a beach in Thailand. There are no bullying issues when your child chooses their social circle from a global community of like-minded families. The education is more personalized, more experiential, and remarkably, often less expensive than traditional schooling when you factor in the reduced cost of living in many destinations.
Summary
The greatest financial advantage isn't inherited wealth or high income—it's the scarcity mindset that teaches you to treat every dollar as precious and every expense as negotiable. This psychological framework, combined with simple index fund investing and geographic arbitrage, creates a reproducible path to financial independence that works regardless of your starting salary or family situation. Start by tracking every expense for one month to identify your invisible waste, then redirect those savings into low-cost index funds that capture the entire market's growth rather than trying to pick winners. Calculate your "freedom number" by multiplying your annual expenses by 25—that's the portfolio size that makes work optional through the 4% withdrawal rule. Finally, consider how geographic arbitrage could stretch your dollars further, whether through temporary relocation or strategic travel that costs less than staying home. The path from poverty to millionaire isn't about earning more—it's about optimizing what you have and letting compound growth do the heavy lifting over time.
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