They became millionaires and retired at 31. They think you can do the same

Since leaving their old jobs they both worked as computer engineers they have travelled the world almost constantly spending time in countries including Japan, the UK, Portugal and Thailand started a successful blog, Millennial Revolution, teaching others how to retire early too, and co-written two books. The first was a childrens book, Little Miss Evil. The second, Quit Like a Millionaire, a memoir-cum-how-to guide came out this month and presents financial independence as a route to happiness and is refreshingly dismissive of home ownership as an investment.

To begin with, their friends and families were skeptical, expecting them to return penniless after a year. But travelling cost them less than spending a year at home in Toronto, and their investment portfolio has grown since they left their old lives behind, so they now have more money than they started with. Some people, says Shen, see what theyre doing as invalidating because it challenges the status quo. It really makes people question their lives and they dont like that because its scary.

Their journey to Fire started fairly conventionally they were saving for a deposit to buy a house. But the more they saved, the more house prices went up and the less sure about getting on the property ladder they became. By 2012, after seven years of saving, they had C$500,000, but Leung started looking for other solutions. After coming across early Fire bloggers like Mr Money Mustache, he says: I realised based on what they were doing and where we were that we could either be in debt for the next 25 years or retired in about three.

Using an adapted version of the 4% rule a principle borrowed from the traditional retirement world they calculated their basic living expenses, C$40,000, and multiplied it by 25 to come to C$1m, the amount they would need to retire. In a total of nine years they managed to accrue around four-fifths of that in savings, plus a further C$200,000 through low-risk investments.

But their saving lifestyle wasnt exactly frugal. They continued to spend money on holidays and even allowed for treats. Cuts were focused on three key areas: transportation, housing and food. They avoided eating out, only used public transport and car share services and lived away from downtown to save on rent. Tracking their spending helped to identify areas that they could cut back including drinking habits. At one point at the beginning, he was spending $400 just on beer, says Shen, laughing. I was like, Do you realise this is how much we used to pay for rent at uni a month?

Now that theyre retired, they believe their savings, invested in low-cost index ETFs (exchange-traded funds), will keep them going for the foreseeable future. In case of disasters, including a 1929-style crash, they have three backup plans.

We are probably some of the most pessimistic people youll ever meet, says Leung, by way of explanation. And were only doing this because weve created all these safety nets that will catch us.

During her early childhood in Taiping, a village in Sichuan province, Shen says she learnt the scarcity mindset early on. If you ever run out, the government is not here to help you, theres never going to be any safety net to catch you. So my parents had instilled it in my head that money is the most important thing in the world. As a student her father, who before she was born spent 10 years imprisoned in a labour camp, was able to visit Canada. Shen and her mother followed two years later.

Despite earning comparatively little money as a student and dishwasher, her parents sent money to China to support the rest of the family. Her early experiences in China gave Shen perspective on poverty, she says. Basically, if you have four walls and you have your parents and you have food, you are wealthy.

Its a position of privilege to not be money-driven, she says. Anybody that says oh yeah, its only money, money comes and goes, its not about the money, its like, youve never been poor. If it hadnt been for her childhood experiences, Shen doesnt think she would be doing early retirement now. I wouldve just thought just do something I love to do I wouldnt have thought put in the hard work now and get the gain later.

Since retiring she is so much happier at one point, her job made her so miserable she was on anxiety and depression medication so much so that she wants to show others how to do it, too. She sees Fire as a remedy: Its almost like you see people get sick, you know what it feels like and it sucks to be sick and you want to give them the medication to help them feel better.

Leung, meanwhile, says he was recently diagnosed as obnoxiously happy by a doctor. He is so convinced by the power of Fire that he thinks it could even have political ramifications. [Donald] Trumps rise to power was caused by economic fear, Brexit was caused by economic fear If everybody was FI [financially independent], Trump wouldnt have got elected.

So would they ever go back to their old jobs? Shen giggles drily. I dont think I would be very useful as an employee any more. She has, she says, become too open-minded to obediently follow instruction. Once youve been out of the matrix, you cant go back into the matrix, she says soberly. Youve already seen too much.