Are you interested in early retirement? Today’s interview features Kristy Shen, who reached financial independence and retired at age 31 with a $1,000,000 portfolio.
You may recognize Kristy from the blog Millennial Revolution, a well-known resource in the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) community. In this interview she explains how she and her husband achieved early retirement and how they manage life after leaving full-time work.
In this interview you’ll learn:
- How they determined how much to save for retirement
- What motivated them to retire early
- Whether they live comfortably now
- How much time they spend traveling and what it costs
- The careers they held before retiring
- The sacrifices and difficult choices they made
This conversation is packed with practical insights and actionable guidance for anyone considering an early exit from the conventional career path.
Enjoy!
Note: If you want to retire early and travel the world, tools that aggregate and clarify your finances can be very helpful. Empower (formerly Personal Capital) is one such tool that lets you view all of your accounts—banking, investments, mortgage, credit cards—on a single dashboard, which can make planning and tracking your finances easier.
Related content:
- What Is Financial Independence, Retire Early?
- Boldin Review: Is This the Best Early Retirement Planning Tool?
- 12 Passive Income Ideas That Will Let You Enjoy Life More
- 13 Best Early Retirement Books
- How I Retired At Age 30 with $500,000
- How We Travel Full-Time On $1,400 Per Month
1. Tell me your story. Who are you and what do you do? Can you go into detail on how much you saved for early retirement, how you chose that amount, etc.?
We are Kristy and Bryce, a couple who left traditional careers in our early 30s and became world-traveling early retirees in 2015. Both of us worked as computer engineers. After nearly a decade following the conventional path—save, buy a house, work until 65 to pay it off—we realized those rules didn’t suit our goals or generation.
Instead, we focused on saving and investing. When our portfolio reached $1,000,000, it met our financial independence target and we retired.
2. Can you explain how early retirement works? What is the 4% rule?
The 4% rule is a guideline for safe withdrawal in retirement. It suggests that if you withdraw 4% of your portfolio in the first year of retirement and then adjust that amount annually for inflation, you will likely avoid running out of money over a long retirement horizon.
This rule comes from the Trinity Study, which analyzed historical stock and bond returns to estimate a sustainable withdrawal rate. We used the 4% rule to set our target. Since our annual spending was about $40,000, multiplying that by 25 (the inverse of 4%) gave us a $1,000,000 target—$1,000,000 × 4% = $40,000.
3. When did you begin saving for early retirement?
We started saving as soon as we began working, although initially our goal was to buy a house rather than to retire early. Living in a high cost-of-living city like Toronto meant that housing prices kept rising faster than we could save for a down payment.
After discovering the FIRE movement, we realized that at our current saving rate we could either keep chasing home ownership or shift our focus to investing and reach financial independence in about three years. Choosing the latter felt like the better option.
4. What made you want to retire early?
A pivotal event at work influenced our decision. A co-worker collapsed from severe exhaustion after months of 12-hour days and required emergency care. Even after that scare, he returned to work within two weeks because he couldn’t afford to stop making mortgage payments. Seeing health sacrificed for financial obligations made us reconsider our priorities and confirmed our decision to pursue FIRE.
5. Would you say that you live comfortably?
Yes—absolutely. FIRE isn’t about constant deprivation; it’s about making deliberate choices about spending and prioritizing what truly matters to you. While working, we still took two vacations per year because travel was important to us, but we avoided expenses that didn’t add value, like car ownership in a city with good public transit.
After retiring, we now travel full-time and teach others about FIRE. We also found that living abroad in lower-cost regions can be cheaper than living year-round in a major North American city.
6. How much do you spend traveling each year? What do you spend your money on these days?
Before the pandemic we lived a nomadic lifestyle, changing countries roughly every month. For us, travel is more a way of life than an added expense. By staying in Airbnbs and participating in home exchanges, and spending time in affordable regions like Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe, our annual cost for both of us averaged about $40,000 per year in the first six years after retiring.
During the pandemic we returned to Toronto for a family emergency. Despite inflation, lockdowns temporarily reduced our expenses to about $34,000 in 2020 and $39,000 in 2021. Our projected spending for this year is around $42,000. We prioritize spending on travel, dining, local experiences like walking tours, and occasional services such as massages.
7. What career did you have before you retired? Do you think you have to have a high income in order to retire early?
Both of us were computer engineers—Kristy worked in finance and Bryce in a semiconductor company. A higher income certainly makes accelerating savings easier, but early retirement is attainable in many professions. Our blog features readers on the path to FIRE who work as teachers, nurses, plumbers, and in other trades.
The rise of remote work also makes it easier for people to increase savings by relocating to lower-cost areas and saving the difference, which can make early retirement more accessible over time.
8. Do you still earn an income in early retirement?
Yes. Kristy had long wanted to write, and after retiring they created the Millennial-Revolution.com blog and co-authored the book Quit Like a Millionaire. Both the blog and the book generate income now, but the couple still relies primarily on their original $1,000,000 portfolio for daily living expenses. Any additional income is treated as discretionary “fun money.”
9. What sacrifices or hard decisions did you have to make to reach early retirement?
One of the hardest challenges was resisting the cultural and social pressure to buy a home. In Toronto, home ownership is highly valued, and in Kristy’s cultural community it was considered almost obligatory. Choosing not to buy caused tension with family and friends; it led to a rough first year in retirement when communication with her parents was strained. Over time relationships improved, and Kristy believes walking a different path was ultimately the right decision.
10. What do you do for health insurance in early retirement?
When living and traveling internationally, healthcare costs can be lower than in North America. For travel health coverage, they use a company that provides global medical insurance at a reasonable monthly cost—an example being a policy that costs about $42 USD per month.
If you live in the United States after retiring, you may qualify for subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) because earned income drops significantly in early retirement, which can reduce premiums.
11. What are your long-term plans now that you are retired?
Long-term plans include more writing, continued travel, and teaching others how to achieve financial independence. They also value having the flexibility to support family during health challenges or other needs.
12. If you were starting back at ground zero, what would you do differently?
They would have spent less time fixating on buying a home and started investing earlier instead of holding cash while waiting for a down payment. Missing the early years of market gains after 2008 meant lost investment growth that could have accelerated their path to FIRE.
13. Lastly, what is your very best tip (or two) that you have for someone who wants to reach the same success as you?
First, surround yourself with people who share similar goals. Community support—meetups, online forums, local FIRE groups—can provide motivation and practical help.
Second, start learning to invest as early as possible. Education and consistent investing are key components of reaching financial independence.
Are you interested in early retirement? Why or why not?