FRLN101: Life of Movement, Financial Ergonomics, Happiness Deferred
This week on the Fit Rich Life Podcast, I released a deep dive with Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung, authors of Quit Like a Millionaire and the creators of the Millennial Revolution blog.
Their book & blog helped shape my own financial independence journey, and this episode is packed with the kind of clarity, honesty, and practical wisdom that changes lives.
We explored their journey to Financial Independence and early retirement (at 31 & 32), why renting can beat buying in today’s world, how they grew their net worth from $1M to $2.8M while retired, the emotional reality of losing a parent & becoming a parent, identity shifts, and why financial freedom is so important when life gets tough.
About Kristy & Bryce
Kristy grew up in rural China, at one point surviving on 44 cents a day. Scarcity wasn’t an idea. It was her daily life. That experience shaped her fierce drive to build a future where she was never financially vulnerable again.
Bryce grew up middle-class, met Kristy in engineering school, and quickly realized her real dream wasn’t engineering. It was writing. His question became: How do we build a life where she can write, we can be free, and we’re not chained to a job forever?
Saving aggressively, investing simply, questioning homeownership, and designing an intentional life became the path forward.
They retired in their early 30s.
Ten years later, FIRE still works — better than they ever expected.
We ran out of time to cover their fitness, money, and life strategies, but Bryce was kind enough to do a second interview with me so we could cover those, along with doing a deep dive on investing, gold, preferred shares vs bonds, international stocks, and more (episode coming soon).
Here are the fitness, money, and life strategies:
FIT — Build A Life Of Movement
Bryce and Kristy are currently living in Madrid. And like their years in Toronto, they easily hit 10,000–15,000 steps a day simply because their lifestyle supports walking.
This is one of the most underrated fitness principles:
If your environment pulls you toward movement, your fitness becomes automatic.
Every truly healthy person I know moves a lot (not just in the gym, but in daily life).
So ask: Does my lifestyle help or hinder my health?
RICH — Financial Ergonomics
Design your financial system so wealth happens automatically.
A few examples:
Automate weekly or monthly investing
Automatically pay credit cards in full
Track spending and net worth using simple tools
Remove friction between you and the behavior that builds wealth
Your future isn’t built by big heroic financial decisions.
It’s built by small, automated ones.
LIFE — Don't Defer Your Happiness
Bryce shared a heartbreaking story about a former boss who always dreamed of starting a band and playing more music. After he passed away from brain cancer, Bryce discovered he carried a guitar pick in his wallet every single day. A quiet reminder of the dream he never acted on.
Too many people die with their music still inside them.
Bryce also opened up about the emotional whiplash of losing his father while becoming a father. Two life-altering events unfolding within days of each other. It was a moment that revealed, in the starkest way possible, what FIRE is actually about.
Financial independence gave him the time, presence, and emotional bandwidth to be fully there for both the grief and the birth. No meetings. No deadlines. No asking a boss for permission to be with the people he loves.
That’s the true value of financial freedom:
The ability to show up when life demands everything from you AND the space to pursue the dreams that can’t wait.
Life is unpredictable.
Don’t wait until “someday” to live the life you actually want.
ACTION — Upgrade + Why This Episode Is Worth It
Pick one to upgrade your week:
Build a lifestyle that moves you — structure your days so walking, steps, and natural movement happen automatically. Fitness becomes the default, not the exception.
Automate one small money move — set up a recurring weekly or monthly investment, even if it’s just $20. Financial ergonomics turns good behavior into wealth without willpower.
Stop waiting to live your life — write down one dream you’ve been putting off. Then take one small step toward it today. Don’t die with your music still inside you.
Then grab the full convo with Kristy & Bryce so you can:
Hear how they reached financial independence in their early 30s and have been retired for a decade.
Learn how their portfolio grew from $1M to $2.8M while retired (even while withdrawing from it).
Understand why renting can outperform owning in high-cost cities and how it helped them retire early.
See the real value of FIRE when facing life’s hardest moments — from losing a parent to raising a newborn.
Listen Here:
🎧 Spotify | 🍎 Apple | ▶️ YouTube | 🌐 Web
To your health, wealth, and happiness,
— Justin David Carl