“I believe my journey is easily replicable”: An engineer who retired at 40 shares his savings and investment strategies

Who: Jim Chuong, 53, engineer Where: North York Retired at: 40, in 2012 Cash at retirement: $2 million Current savings and investments: Over $15 million

When I was 14, in 1986, I got my first job: a dishwashing gig at a rotisserie chicken chain. I earned $4 an hour, and I thought, No one can get rich doing this. So I went to the library and read books by Peter Lynch and Warren Buffett, who taught me that people got rich by investing in companies and letting their money work for them instead of the other way around.

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My parents were still pretty traditional, so at their urging, I studied engineering at U of T. After I graduated, in 1996, I started a company with a few friends and created a content management system. We often worked straight through till 10 p.m., but we were young. That’s when I started investing. I looked for businesses with owner-operators, like American Eagle and Columbia Sportswear. I figured that, if someone was looking after family money, they’d be diligent about growing the business. I also bought during market downturns, when things were cheap. It was like a sale: everything was 50 per cent off!

In 2001, I lost my business to the dot-com crash. I got into pharmaceutical sales for a while. Then, in 2009, after the subprime mortgage crisis, I saw an opportunity. Housing prices were down by 80 per cent. Condos on golf courses in Arizona were selling for $30,000, detached houses for $60,000. I figured I could buy them, rent them to tenants and make my money back in a couple of years. It was a hectic time. I was looking at properties and calling my American real estate agent at 3 a.m., even on Christmas Eve. I wanted to take advantage of opportunities as soon as they cropped up. By 2014, I’d bought more than 10 properties in the US.

All the while, I kept an eye on my stock market investments. I mostly own low-fee US index funds and shares of Berkshire Hathaway. By 2010, my portfolio had reached $2 million, which was enough for both my wife and me to retire on, but we didn’t do it yet. We were too conditioned to our working lives. Then, in 2011, we had our daughter, Isabelle, and in 2012, my mom got cancer. That’s when it really hit me. My mom was going through chemotherapy, and I was sitting in a sales meeting, thinking, I don’t even need to be here. So I finally quit and was able to spend time with my mom in the final years of her life.

I love being retired. Isabelle is 14 now. We’ve been to New York a few times to see her favourite performers, like Olivia Rodrigo and Conan Gray. Retiring early has come with a social toll, though. I’ve lost friends who were envious of me. Everybody wants you to be successful—just not more successful than they are. Nobody wants to hear that you made money in stocks or real estate. It’s been lonely at times.

I believe my journey is easily replicable. I repeated the process of buying during downturns: the dot-com crisis, the foreclosure crisis, the pandemic. The lesson I learned is that, when people are happy, they forget risk, borrow more and buy more. But I don’t. When people are sad, they fear risk and sell or freeze—that’s when I take advantage of the situation by doing the opposite. It’s a game to me, no more complicated than Whac-a-Mole.