about me

I’m a second generation Korean American living on the East Coast in a high cost of living (HCOL) area. I’m in my early 30s, having spent most of my 20s working in the tech startup ecosystem in various strategy and operations focused roles.

My hobbies include pottery, traveling, volunteering on nonprofit boards, and making kimchi from scratch.

my FIRE backstory

I discovered the FIRE (financial independence / retire early) movement in 2021 in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic while I was finishing up my last year of graduate school. During this time, my previous employer went public, becoming a multi-billion dollar large cap company, making my previously exercised stock options a meaningful amount of money. I was not prepared for the impact that this financial windfall would have on my life and subsequently did not make good decisions once the IPO happened. I continued to live like nothing changed. I didn’t touch any of the money except to pay my parents back for the money they had lent me to pay for graduate school.

After I finished graduate school, I took a job at a boutique impact advisory firm. While that was the best job I have ever had, I decided to go back to being an operator and joined a growth startup. Less than three months after joining the company I was laid off while wrapping my onboarding period.

By the time the layoff happened, I was extremely burnt out. During graduate school, I worked 6 different jobs/internships (some simultaneously) to try out different industries and to cover my living expenses. I took only a week off between graduation and my full-time start date and in the month before getting laid off had traveled twice for work. Outside of work, I was dealing with the deaths and illness of multiple family members.

When I was laid off, I didn’t have it in me to keep working. I had been planning to take a mini retirement in a few years but knew that I had to take the leap then. I was able to use my severance package and savings that had been put aside for a home downpayment toward my next adventure

my mini retirement story

I spent a year traveling in Asia, with most of that time in Korea. I had longed to live in the country my parents and ancestors were born in. I wanted to experience the different seasons, experience daily life as a local, and spend hours and hours walking around Seoul. I also had a chance to visit other parts of Korea that shocked me with how beautiful and diverse the Korean landscape could be. I visited Gangneung, Sokcho, Geojin, Busan, Ulsan, Gwangu, Mokpo, and many other cities. I also got to visit my best friend from college who lives in Singapore, do yoga and play with elephants in Thailand, and surf and snorkle in Bali. I had the most amazing year traveling, learning, trying new things, and rebuilding my life.

Before I even started traveling, I finally took the time to go to the doctor, getting several health situations under control, including getting surgery. I started exercising regularly again, lost twenty pounds since getting off, and improved my bloodwork results significantly. I believe that getting laid off was the best thing that could have happened for my health. I was forced to get off the roller coaster I no longer wanted to be on and was very close to crashing.

One of the best parts of my mini retirement has been the time and opportunity to explore new interest and learn different skills. Early into my mini retirement, I took an online options trading course with the hopes of bringing in some extra pocket money while traveling. Today, I currently trade and invest as my primary source of income and am excited about the financial flexibility it gives me when it comes to making a decision about going back to a salaried job working for someone else. I also spent a fair amount of time taking pottery classes in Seoul, and doing lots of arts and craftsy things like a ring making class, Korean jagae class, cooking classes and more.

22-year-old me right after graduating from college and 28-year-old me right after finishing graduate school could not have imagined that I’d have gotten to go on this adventure. I’m certainly still in the in-between phase and am excited to see what unimaginable future awaits me.