Ex-Google Techie Works 3 Hours A Week, Earns Up To Rs 2.6 Lakh A Month. Here’s How

A 39-year-old man who used to work more than 40 hours a week in his corporate career in Singapore now has a three-hour-a-week job that not only sustains him, but also his family in Thailand. In an interview with CNBC Make It, Shao Chun Chen revealed that he lives in Thailand with his wife and “supercommutes” to Singapore once a week to work as an adjunct lecturer at the National University of Singapore. He earns around $1,540 to $3,070 (approximately Rs 1.3 lakh to Rs 2.6 lakh) per month, which is enough to cover his travels and all of his and his wife’s living expenses in Thailand. 

“I’m gaming the system. Three hours of working in Singapore can sustain my entire expenditure in Thailand,” Mr Chen, who teaches a weekly three-hour digital marketing class, told CNBC Make It. 

It took a layoff to make the 39-year-old realise he was financially independent in early 2024, and could turn around his life. 

Mr Chen revealed that he was laid off from Google on the eve of his 38th birthday. For almost a decade working at the tech giant, he lived below his means and consistently set aside up to half of his paycheck for investments. However, after he was unexpectedly laid off, he realised that the seven-figure portfolio he had built over the years meant he no longer needed to rely on a paycheck for a long time. 

“I’ve been working for the last 14 years of my life, and because of the layoff, I was forced to take a break. It was very devastating, it was a huge blow to my ego, my identity, but it turns out, with time … it sort of mandated me to think (about) what I really wanted in life,” Mr Chen said. 

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After being fired, Mr Chen created multiple sources of passive and active income. Apart from teaching at the university, he shared that he also makes money by creating educational content on YouTube and from his coaching business, for which he charges $500 an hour.

“Find a way to improve your skill sets, or to reach a position where you can charge a high per-hour rate,” Chen said. 

He also stated that he doesn’t need to work as much to support a comfortable life with his wife in Thailand, where the cost of living is much lower than in Singapore. “If you combine a high per-hour rate with a low cost of living, you only need to work very few hours to cover your expenses,” he told the outlet. 

Cities and jobs that can pay a high hourly rate tend to be expensive areas, but that’s less of a problem now that digitalisation has enabled remote work arrangements, he added.

Mr Chen shared that in total, he spends between four and eight hours a week working, which includes his teaching, coaching and making YouTube videos.