Don’t wait for your company to decide your future. Learn how an HR manager is building a dividend pipeline to FIRE before getting FIRED. Start here.
Introduction
If you have read my About Me page, you know that my ultimate dream is early retirement and world travel. But I wasn’t always like this. Like most people, I used to think that getting promoted and earning a higher salary was the only way to succeed in life.
Today, I want to share a very personal story from my diary. It is the story of the exact moment I realized that traditional corporate life is a trap, and why I desperately started my FIRE journey.
The Illusion of the Corporate Ladder
Back in 2009, I got my first real job. I was a warehouse manager at a huge petrochemical plant. My job was to oversee the packaging and shipping of products. The actual physical work was done by older operators. Many of them had moved to the warehouse because their bodies were too worn out for the heavy production lines.
They made good money, but as a young man in my 20s, I often wondered: Are they happy? They spent one-third of their lives in a factory, doing repetitive tasks that required no new skills, just waiting for the day they could officially retire. Some were content, but many constantly complained. Yet, none of them wanted to leave because they needed the safe paycheck. That was my first glimpse into the reality of the “9-to-5 trap.”
The Malaysia Epiphany: A Taste of Real Wealth
Fast forward to the COVID-19 pandemic. I was working as an expat in Malaysia. Because of the extreme virus situation there, I had to work from home. The company provided a beautiful house with a swimming pool. Suddenly, the two hours I used to spend commuting became my time. I could eat every meal with my kids and watch them grow.
Then, I noticed something shocking. My neighbors—guys in their late 30s, the same age as me—were wandering around the neighborhood in the middle of the day. At first, I thought they were working from home too. But I soon learned the truth. One of them was an investor in Singapore who only did one project a year and spent the rest of his time playing with his kids. Another neighbor lived entirely off the monthly rent from his real estate investments in Korea.
I was stunned. My whole life, I had surrounded myself with company men. We only talked about office politics and who was getting the next promotion. I had sacrificed precious time with my growing children just to impress my boss. But these guys? They lived by their own standards, completely free from other people’s expectations. I tasted that freedom during my work-from-home days, and I knew I could never go back to being a normal corporate slave.
The Ultimate Lesson: I Will FIRE, Not Be FIRED
The final push came recently. The petrochemical industry has been struggling, and my company started “workforce optimization.” As an HR manager, it was my job to conduct layoff interviews.
Sadly, in any organization, you usually know who is going to be let go. These were often people who used to be passionate but got burned out by repeated corporate failures. Over time, their attitude changed, their performance dropped, and eventually, their names ended up on my list.
During these painful interviews, one man changed my perspective forever. He was in his mid-50s and famous in the company for being a brilliant investor. When he sat in front of me, he was completely relaxed. He actually smiled and said the company atmosphere had become too toxic anyway, and he was happy to take the severance package and leave. He had been waiting for an excuse to quit!
Compare him to another employee I interviewed—a father whose daughter had severe mental health issues. He desperately needed the job. I felt like crying for days after talking to him.
The lesson was brutal but clear: No matter how much you earn, if you do not have a financial cushion, you cannot protect yourself or your family.
Building the Pipeline
I don’t know what the future holds. But I know this: I refuse to wait in fear for the day my company decides it doesn’t need me anymore. I am not going to be FIRED; I am going to FIRE.
I started by investing in real estate, and now my focus is heavily on building a US dividend stock pipeline. I am not completely financially independent yet, but I am building my shield every single month.
Are you building your shield, or are you just waiting for your company’s next move? Let’s take control of our lives.