"If I don’t see any promise after a year, I'm going back to a 9-5."

Alexander Chen of TypeChinese quit his job, moved to Taiwan, and now he's timeboxing success: He has one year (and counting) before he has to get a "real" job.

I caught up with him to understand how he looks at money. 👇

Money amplifies you

💰 "Money just amplifies you. If you have a strong personality or interests, money lets you express yourself more and pursue your interests. But if you have no personality or interests, more money won't do much for you." —Alexander

Alexander got a high-paying job after college, but he didn't feel passionate about it — or anything, for that matter. He was depressed. He didn't know what to do.

He had moved to NYC during Covid. He had no friends in the city. No in-person coworkers. And he didn't feel comfortable meeting people, so he kept his distance. He fell into a routine because it was easier, and the repetitiveness made him even less happy. He felt defeated.

But once he broke his routines, everything changed. He started exploring himself and trying new things. He got outside and made friends rock climbing, kayaking, and running.

Now, he knows how to make use of his money. And his money amplifies him.

Side hustles are draining

Alexander quit his job before starting his indie hacking journey. He'd already tried it the other way around and it didn't work for him.

Building while working a full-time job, left him without enough time or energy. And he says he just didn't enjoy it at all.

💰 "It felt strange to me because the idea of indie hacking always excited me, but when I had a full-time job, building things outside of work was draining. A few months ago, I decided that this was important enough for me to take the risk and try it for at least a year." —Alexander

He suggests building runway, then going full-time on indie hacking. It lets you focus on indie hacking without the stress of a job.

If he didn't have so much saved, or if he wasn't so confident in his ability to code and learn new things, he says he might not have taken the leap.

No revenue, no expenses

Currently, he's working on TypeChinese full-time despite it being pre-revenue.

• Revenue: $0/mo
• Founder pay: $0/mo
• Freelance income: $500-$1,000/mo
• Personal account: $45k
• Business account: $20k

Pretty sweet nest egg he's got here. That's from saving up as a freelancer — his rate is $100/hr. He was working on a number of projects in order to save up enough. Now he just has one client so that he can focus on his products.

Here are his personal expenses:

• Total: $1565/mo
• Rent: $500/mo
• Entertainment/Travel: $500/mo
• Food: $400/mo
• Utilities: $75/mo
• Transportation: $40/mo
• Household/Misc: $50/mo

And here are his business expenses:

• Total: $0/mo

Yep, that's $0. He has two projects, in the wild, but he only uses services that offer a free tier (i.e. Firebase).

💰 "Try to build things with no money. Only spend if you get real value from it." —Alexander

Timeboxing runway

That's a pretty cozy runway. He says that if he lives minimally, he can live for around 2 years in Taipei. And that's with travel built in, but I'll come back to that. Despite his runway, he's only giving it a year.

💰 "I’m timeboxing this journey to 1 year. If I don’t see any promise after a year, I plan to go back to a 9-5." —Alexander

If you're not familiar with Parkinson's Law, look into it. Timeboxing might be the best way to deal with it.

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Investments

Alexander invests in stocks. Mostly ETFs.

All up, he has $25k in Robinhood and $25k in pre-IPO stocks. The latter was part of the compensation package at his last job.

He also has $20k in a Roth IRA, $75k in his 401k. The 401k is from previous employment. The Roth IRA is something he set up himself but he isn't currently contributing since he doesn't have any income. He says he chose a Roth IRA because he plans to be in a higher tax bracket when he eventually withdraws.

As far as debt, he doesn't have much. He has $6k left in student loan debt, down from $15k. He went to a public school and paid a lot of his tuition with grants and summer internship salaries.

Invest in good coffee Shops

Another investment he's happy to make is going to nice coffee shops.

He says he just isn't as productive at home. Co-working spaces are better, but not great. But coffee shops — that's where he gets his best work done.

💰 "Coffee is cheaper than co-working. This has helped me build more." —Alexander

What's a "nice" coffee shop? It's one where the barista actually puts a lot of care into each cup and the interior of the shop is comfy. He goes to these twice a week. The rest of the time, he goes to the “pretty good” coffee shops.

Sometimes, he even goes to multiple coffee shops in a day because he likes changing his environment.

Cost of living (and budgeting for travel)

Alexander no longer lives in NYC. He wanted to extend his runway, so he and his girlfriend moved to Taipei, Taiwan.

He was drawn to Taipei because it's a big city with a low cost of living.

His rent is only $1,000/mo, and he splits that with his girlfriend. Apparently, that's actually quite expensive in Taipei.

Folks speak Mandarin there, which he's proficient in, so that's a big plus — it makes things less touristy.

And then there's the "employment gold card" visa which is essentially a digital nomad visa. Definitely worth looking into. He says that took away some of the stress of moving abroad.

While he's in Taiwan, Alexander plans to travel. In fact, he built it into his runway projections.

He plans to travel to all the major cities in Asia.

Put in the bootstrapping reps

VC funding is an option as he notes it's good for products that need to quickly grab market share. But for now, he'll opt for ownership and freedom.

💰 "I want to put in the reps of building products and I want the freedom to try different growth methods. I can’t be as agile if I have pressure from investors." —Alexander

Save, but don't focus on saving

💰 *"Don't be overly focused on saving and investing. Buy nice things for yourself if you really want them.

Despite his ample savings and the fact that this is what made indie hacking full-time possible, Alexander doesn't like focusing on saving money. He says this idea of "suffer now for a better life later" doesn't appeal to him.

Remember the outdoor experiences that changed things for him? There was a company that organized kayaking trips and it was pricey, but he really wanted to do it so he did. Not only did it get him out of a rut, but it was the highlight of his year.

💰 "Life shouldn’t be about suffering. If you know buying something will make you happy, just buy it. It keeps your motivation high and helps you enjoy life." —Alexander

So he doesn't budget every dollar or track his spending granularly. He only has a vague idea of how much he should be spending.

Instead, he has multiple "backup reserves" for when things go wrong.

He has $15k that keeps in his savings that he only uses in case of an emergency. Another backup is liquidating his stocks. He admits it's not an ideal backup, but it's there if he needs it.

All the accounts

Alexander has an Ally high-yield savings account that he uses for the lion's share of his cash storage, as well as his emergency fund.

He says the high interest rate helps him to stay ahead of inflation. That said, apparently, you can only withdraw a few times per month and you can’t pay off credit cards with it.

He uses a Bank of America checking account to pay his credit cards. He thinks of this account as his short-term store where money regularly goes in and out.

And he uses a Schwab checking account to take money out of ATMs without foreign transaction fees or ATM fees. He says Taiwan (and a lot of countries in Asia) mostly uses cash, so this has been super helpful.

As for business, he uses Novo for his business account. It's digital-only, which is his preference.

Tools

As far as tools, he uses Mint for his personal finances. For business, he uses Stripe for payments and Google Sheets for keeping track of income and expenses.

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You can find Alexander on Twitter, or check out TypeChinese and 1000 Pound Club.

Please note that the above are opinions. It is meant for information purposes only. It is not intended to be financial advice.

And if you'd like to be featured as a guest in a future interview for this series, let me know in the comments!