You can retire in your 30s
Toronto couple left work before age 33 to live a ‘kick-ass life’
Learning to scuba dive. Playing with elephants rescued from the logging industry. Daily massages, long hikes, dining out with friends.
This is what freedom 30-something looks like for Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung. Or as Leung puts it: “The complete ability to do whatever you want with your day.”
In 2015, the Toronto couple quit their jobs as computer engineers and invested the money they had saved for a house to become globe-trotting retirees. She was 31; he was 32.
Today, they’re living a “kick-ass life” overseas on $110 a day — $40,000 a year — from investment income. Oh, and their net worth just hit $1.4 million.
“It’s been almost five years and we’re still thinking, ‘this can’t be our life,’ ” Shen said over the phone from Thailand, their “second home,” where they’re wintering in a new condo for $650 a month.
The genesis of their revolt against what they call the “broken, outdated dreams of boomers” dates back almost a decade when Shen was working at a job she hated.
Adding to that stress was the couple’s search for a house following their marriage in 2010. Leung became “absolutely disgusted” with the buying process in Toronto’s expensive housing market while Shen was put off by “snarky real estate agents” who questioned whether they could even afford a place.
At the same time, they watched friends and colleagues become “miserable” as they struggled with the burdens of home ownership.
Shen and Leung, who were paying $800 a month in rent and walked or used public transit, had managed to