How I Built Wealth After Quitting My Job
How I Built Wealth After Quitting My Job
Six years ago, I quit my 9-to-5 as a stockbroker with an $80,000 net worth.
I didn’t have another high-paying job lined up. I’d never even made more than $45K a year.
Today, my net worth is around $250,000.
And one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned about how to build wealth after quitting a job is this:
I didn’t need to make more money to become wealthier.
I needed to understand how to optimize the money I already had.
Since quitting my job, I’ve gone through grad school, built my own business, traveled around the world, experienced $0-income months as an entrepreneur, and dealt with a major health emergency.
And through all of that, my investments kept working in the background.
Here are the three biggest money moves that helped me build wealth after quitting my job—and what I’d want anyone considering quitting, taking a sabbatical, or becoming self-employed to know.
1. I Quit With an $80K Net Worth Instead of Waiting to Feel “Rich Enough”
I see people with significantly more money than I had who are terrified to leave jobs they hate.
They think:
I’ll quit when I have $500K.
I’ll quit when I make six figures.
I’ll quit when I know I’ll never have to worry about money again.
I didn’t do that.
I quit with an $80K net worth because I understood how to optimize what I already had.
I knew I didn’t want to go into debt for grad school, so I got a full ride. I deliberately lowered my housing expenses. And most importantly, I had already learned how to invest my money.
While I was in grad school and barely making money, I hit my first $100K net worth.
It wasn’t because some giant paycheck suddenly landed in my bank account.
My investments were growing.
That’s something we massively underestimate when we talk about building wealth.
Your paycheck isn’t the only thing capable of making you richer.
Eventually, you want your money making money to become an increasingly important part of your wealth-building strategy.
2. My HSA Saved My Ass During a Health Emergency
Around the end of my stockbroker era, I had a major health crisis and ended up hospitalized.
Thankfully, while I was working, I’d contributed money to my Health Savings Account.
And I hadn’t just left that money sitting there.
I’d invested it.
Then the emergency I’d been saving for actually happened.
I sold investments from my HSA and used that money to pay my medical bills.
Did I love watching money leave an investment account?
HELL NO.
But this completely changed the way I think about investments.
We talk so much about never touching investments and letting everything compound forever that selling can start to feel like you’ve done something wrong.
You haven’t.
Money has jobs.
Sometimes its job is to compound for 30 years.
Sometimes its job is to save your ass when you’re lying in a hospital bed wondering how the fuck you’re going to pay for everything.
Knowing what accounts I had, what I owned inside them, and how to access that money gave me options during one of the scariest periods of my life.
That’s financial security too.
3. My Old 401(k) Kept Building Wealth After I Quit
Here’s something people forget when they’re thinking about leaving a job:
Your 401(k) doesn’t stop existing when you quit.
When I left my stockbroker job, I had around $30,000 invested in my employer 401(k).
I knew what I owned inside of it. I wasn’t sitting in cash. I had intentionally chosen my investments, and I decided there wasn’t a compelling reason for me to roll the account over.
Six years later, that old 401(k) has grown to more than $50,000.
I didn’t have to keep working for that employer for the money to continue growing.
I didn’t have to stare at the account every day.
And I certainly didn’t have to start picking whatever individual stock was trending on the internet.
The investments were already doing their job.
That’s why I tell people that putting money into a 401(k) is only step one.
You also need to know what your money is actually invested in.
Because there’s a massive difference between having a retirement account and having a retirement account that’s actually set up to build wealth.
Quitting My Job Didn’t Mean Quitting Wealth-Building
I think this is the misconception I most want people to understand.
We tend to imagine wealth-building as:
Make more → save more → invest more → repeat until retirement.
So naturally, quitting a job sounds like interrupting the entire process.
But your existing money doesn’t suddenly stop working because your paycheck does.
My old 401(k) kept growing.
My other investments kept growing.
I continued maxing out my Roth IRA.
I kept learning how to optimize my expenses and use the financial system to my advantage.
And over six years, my net worth went from $80K to $250K.
Building Wealth Gave Me Something Better Than Retirement: Options
When I talk about retirement, I’m not dreaming about turning 65 and playing golf for 30 years.
My goal is to become work optional.
I want enough money that working becomes something I choose to do rather than something I have to do to survive.
And I’ve already gotten a taste of that freedom.
Since quitting corporate America, I’ve run my business while traveling around the world. I’ve built a career around work that actually fulfills me. And I’ve continued growing my wealth even through the inconsistent income that comes with entrepreneurship.
That’s why I don’t think financial independence starts when you finally hit $1 million.
It starts when your money begins giving you choices.
You Don’t Need to Wait Until You Make More Money
I used to think the next step was obvious:
Get another degree.
Get the six-figure job.
Finally make “real” money.
Then become wealthy.
Instead, I quit.
Six years later, I’ve gone from an $80K net worth to around $250K without ever needing a six-figure salary to do it.
That doesn’t mean income doesn’t matter.
It means income isn’t the only lever you have.
Where your cash sits matters.
What you’re invested in matters.
Which accounts you’re using matters.
Your expenses matter.
Your taxes matter.
And understanding what to do with the money you already have matters.
That’s ultimately what changed my financial life.
The amount you have matters a whole lot less when you know how to make the money you already have grow.
And six years after quitting my job, I don’t regret leaving.
I regret that nobody taught me this shit sooner.
Build Wealth So You Can Use It
I’m not telling you to spend recklessly.
I’m telling you to build wealth intentionally so that one day you can extract it intentionally.
That’s the whole point.
Money isn’t the finish line.
Want to Build Your First $250K?
If you’re still in the accumulation phase and want to know exactly what to do first with your cash, credit, debt, and investments, I’d love to have you at my free live webinar:
Build Your First $250K Without Making More Money
You’ll learn:
🤑 Where your money should actually go first.
🤑 How rich gay aunties and uncles think during market crashes.
🤑 How to build wealth without waiting for a bigger paycheck, zero debt, or a “better” economy.
⚠️ The webinar will not be recorded.
If you can’t attend live, you’ll miss it. REGISTER HERE.
Listen to the Unicorn Millionaire Episode 150: How to Build Wealth After Quitting Your Job: My $80K to $250K Net Worth Story
In my latest Unicorn Millionaire Podcast episode, I go deeper into how to build wealth qithout making more money.
“How to Build Wealth After Quitting Your Job: My $80K to $250K Net Worth Story” 🦄
🎧Listen to Episode 150 of the Unicorn Millionaire Podcast on Spotify
🎧Listen to Episode 150 of the Unicorn Millionaire Podcast on Apple Podcasts
Ready to optimize your money?
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I’d love to help you make your money work for you.
If you want hands-on support understanding your investments, opening the right accounts, selling out of overpriced or underperforming funds, boosting your credit score, and building toward early retirement, you can learn more about my six-month one-on-one money coaching program.
I help LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and first-gen folks crush confusion around money and start building a six-figure retirement—even without a six-figure salary.
If you’re ready to maximize your savings and invest it, let’s work together.
We’ll get you on track to:
- Crush debt without shame
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Coaching includes bi-weekly calls, daily messaging, and a full curriculum covering savings, credit cards, debt payoff, investing, and money mindset.
Investment: $6,000 or two payments of $3,100.
Six-Month 1:1 Coaching includes:
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About Charly
I’m Charly Stoever (@travelercharly) — a trans Latinx money coach, speaker, and host of the Unicorn Millionaire Podcast. I help LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and first-gen folks crush debt and build a six-figure retirement—even without a six-figure salary.
As a formerly undocumented Mexican American and ex-stockbroker who’s traveled solo to 39 countries, I now coach full-time while also international pet sitting.
If you’re ready to stop avoiding your finances and start using your money on purpose, work with me.
Get your coaching FAQs answered here, and book a call with Charly to get started with 6 month coaching here.