Mr. H: The Gen Z Millionaire Built on Frugality and a Startup Acquisition
Opening: What did you buy on Black Friday?
TQM:
Mr. H, what did you buy this Black Friday?
Mr. H:
Let me think… I bought a pair of pants. The exact same pair I bought a year and a half ago, because the old one wore out.
Then I bought a pair of shoes—same model again—also worn out after a year and a half.
And I bought an outer jacket because winter is here. I usually have just one jacket, wear it every day for a year, so I got another one to rotate.
And I bought a gift for my wife—an AI voice-assistant device—because she often uses voice notes for journaling and interviewing people. I want to support her work so she can do her job more easily.
X-ray Scan of Your Family Assets
TQM:
If we had an X-ray scanner to look at your household assets today, what would we see?
Mr. H:
Roughly a few categories:
Cash
Gold (mainly ETF)
Bitcoin
Equity assets (index funds + a few individual stocks)
We currently don’t own real estate, but plan to buy when conditions are right.
When opportunity appears, what you need isn’t courage — it’s cash that’s ready
Mr. H:
I believe you should always keep enough cash on hand. Because when real opportunities appear, cash is the ticket at the door.
My previous company Company M’s acquisition was a textbook example.
We needed to decide whether to exercise our stock options. The cost was very high —
I personally needed to put in close to $200,000 in cash.
For our family, that was the single largest check we had ever written.
Some colleagues didn’t have enough cash, so they could only buy part of their options or had to borrow. But borrowing adds risk — which is exactly why healthy cash flow is so important.
Mr. H:
I will never forget that day in May. My whole body suddenly entered a state of extreme tension.
“My fingers froze. My bones felt like they were protruding, as if trying to grab a handful of air that wasn’t there.”
Sweat kept dripping. Nothing around me had changed, but the energy in the room felt different.
Because I realized:
This was the biggest financial bet of my life.
What risk really means: Howard Marks taught me this
I thought about risk. Howard Marks puts it perfectly:
“Risk isn’t volatility. Risk is the possibility of permanent loss of capital.”
There was a real chance this money could be lost.
You don’t know when acquisitions close, or whether they might fall apart.
So why did you still do it?
We decided to:
Exercise 70% of the options first
Later exercised the remaining 30%
This was a risk range we could tolerate.
My wife and I discussed the worst case:
If the entire amount went to zero, would it destroy our family?
The answer: No.
That gave us the confidence to proceed.
But what we thought would conclude quickly ended up dragging on for six months.
During that time, we were just waiting.
Looking back: It was a million-dollar lesson
Mr. H:
Looking back, this was the best class I’ve ever taken in my life.
It taught me:
The real mechanics of tax, equity, cash flow, and risk
The art of investing: how to make decisions when the future is fundamentally uncertain
That investing is not math — it’s choosing under uncertainty
My previous “biggest investment”?
Probably buying Tesla stock —
I put in about $10,000.
Compared to the Company M acquisition decision, that was nothing.
This was a completely different level of test.
Why didn’t you buy a house in Silicon Valley then?
You asked:
“With decent amount in assets, why didn’t you buy a home? Everyone buys in Silicon Valley.”
Because I think housing has three attributes:
Living experience
Psychological satisfaction
Investment characteristics
At that stage for us:
Renting gave us good living experience so far
We didn’t have the psychological need to “own”
Buying a house would have created huge cash-flow pressure, reducing flexibility for opportunities like the acquisition
If we had taken on a mortgage then,
we wouldn’t have had $200k available to exercise options.
So in hindsight:
Not buying a home was what allowed us to catch a bigger opportunity.
Luck vs. choice — what was the ratio?
People say we were lucky the company was acquired.
I think:
Yes, luck
But also choice
I chose a healthy, profitable, solid company — even if it didn’t become the giant people expected at the beginning.
Vague correctness > Precise wrongness.
When job hunting, don’t obsess over what the stock is worth now or what it might be worth later.
There are too many uncontrollable variables.
The real question is:
Are you joining a good company — one that won’t go to zero?
My money philosophy: Earn honestly, no shortcuts
Mr. H:
Money is for freedom and a safety net, not luxury.
The most important thing: long-termism.
Health, relationships, career, wealth — they all require walking the long-term path.
Buffett says:
“Most people fail to get rich because they’re unwilling to get rich slowly.”
I agree completely.
Why gold, Bitcoin, and real estate now?
Mr. H:
All three connect to one core factor:
Inflation and long-term dollar devaluation over the next 5–10 years.
After reading a lot of economics, financial history, and top investors’ writings, I realized:
The macro environment today is fundamentally different from 15–20 years ago.
Inflation will stay higher and is hard to control
Post-pandemic rent increases are a good example.Real estate has “triple attributes”
Investment
Psychological/emotional
Living experience
If inflation persists:
Real estate appreciates as a scarce asset
Rent continues rising
Fixed-rate debt gets inflated away (a good thing)
So from that angle, buying a home in the future makes sense.
Early retirement? Not “freedom to lie flat,” but freedom to choose
TQM:
What’s your view on early retirement?
Mr. H:
The purpose of wealth accumulation is freedom — not laziness.
Two things matter most in life:
Meaningful relationships and meaningful work.
Munger said he accumulated wealth for freedom, not luxury.
I fully agree.
Early retirement is not “stop working once you have enough money.”
The real essence is:
Regardless of finances, you should live meaningfully, fully, happily.
Financial freedom just makes it easier to live life your way.
Money in marriage: aligned values, gentle pull toward growth
TQM:
Are your financial views aligned with your wife? Any differences?
Mr. H:
Quite aligned. But under her influence, I’ve come to appreciate a life with more beauty and taste.
And she’s wise and frugal when it comes to major decisions.
The classic example: diamond ring vs. gold ETF
Mr. H:
When we were getting married, we thought of a Harry Winston ring — over $10,000.
I said: Buy it! If she’s happy, I’m happy.
But she said:
“Okay, we’ll spend the money — but not on the ring.
Let’s buy gold ETF instead.”
Now that gold ETF has gained a few thousand —
“it has grown a little diamond on its own.”
She’s an outstanding investor in my eyes.
How my investment worldview changed
TQM:
Which beliefs of yours were completely overturned?
Mr. H:
Many. I used to strongly believe:
Only invest in broad index funds.
No gold. No alternative assets.
This came from the efficient-market hypothesis in A Random Walk Down Wall Street.
But after studying financial and monetary history, and Ray Dalio’s debt cycles, I realized:
Gold isn’t a commercial asset —
but it is the base-layer anchor of the monetary system.
The dollar system we take for granted does not have an eternal foundation.
When the debt cycle matures and confidence weakens, gold and Bitcoin will show their value.
Ten years from now: what will change, and what won’t?
Mr. H:
Many ideas may change.
But the fundamentals never will:
Long-termism
Money is for freedom, not display
What’s truly worth pursuing:
A meaningful life, meaningful work, meaningful relationships
What is long-termism?
Mr. H:
It means not seeking shortcuts. Find the right direction, stay on it for a long time, and let compounding work.
Investing, health, career — all the same.
Not 1–2 years, but 10–20.
Household spending
Mr. H:
My wife and I use Monarch to track spending and review it monthly.
Major expenses:
Rent
Food and cafés
Daily miscellaneous
Occasional clothing purchases, but not many
Marie Kondo philosophy: Only buy what sparks joy
I used to buy 70%-liked clothes and hardly wear them.
Now I only buy:
95%-liked, high-quality items that last.
More expensive upfront, cheaper and happier long-term.
Why not luxury goods?
TQM:
You never buy luxury goods — why?
Mr. H:
Luxury has diminishing marginal returns.
Take a cashmere sweater:
The difference between $100 and $300 is big.
Between $300 and $3000 — maybe 10%. Not worth it.
For people who understand investing:
The extra $2000 today is $20,000 in the future.
If we dropped you onto a parallel planet, would you become wealthy again?
Mr. H:
Yes. Because I have three things:
A mind, curiosity, and kindness.
A mind — meaning I love thinking deeply, getting to the root, understanding complexity.
Final book recommendation
Mr. H:
I won’t recommend finance books.
I’ll recommend literature:
Elena Ferrante’s The Neapolitan Novels.
The characterization is incredible. Finishing them feels like having lived another life with someone.
And read them with your partner.