From the Employment Ice Age to True Poverty: The 100 Million Yen Quest to Escape a Black Company
Becoming a millionaire through saving and saving money!
The term millionaire refers to investors who have built assets worth millions. Typically, these are individuals who have succeeded through investments in stocks or cryptocurrencies. However, the person featured here, Absolute Quitter, achieved over 100 million yen through saving and saving money. Working at a low-paying black company during the employment ice age, experiencing the Lehman Shock, and enduring prolonged deflation, how did they become a millionaire? This journey can also be seen as a warning about the current investment boom.
Profile: Absolute Quitter
During the peak of the employment ice age, he joined a black company. On his first day at work, he decided to save 50 million yen in 10 years in order to quit as soon as possible. From then on, he embraced an ultra-frugal lifestyle, dedicating most of his income to savings. Giving up on conventional happiness, he achieved 100 million yen in assets by the age of 46, becoming a savings-based millionaire. His blog, Ice Age Generation Challenges Early Retirement from a Black Company, and his book, How to Save 100 Million Yen: From Zero Savings to Becoming a Millionaire through Extreme Frugal Living (published by Diamond Inc.), are also receiving great acclaim.
What is a savings-based millionaire?
The millionaire featured this time, “Absolutely Quit My Job Man” (hereinafter referred to as Quit Man), is called a savings-based millionaire. Typically, millionaires featured online have made large profits from stock investments or foreign exchange trading (FX). However, Quit Man is a rare case who became a millionaire mainly through savings, though he also made some profits from investments.
First, let’s track the progress of his assets. When he started his career, he had almost zero assets, or more accurately, he started with a negative balance due to student loan repayments. After three years, he reached 10 million yen, after nine years, 30 million yen, and by December 2017, he had accumulated 50 million yen. Finally, in January 2024, he reached 100 million yen! — While this sounds like steady asset growth, behind this success lies an extraordinary lifestyle that goes beyond the usual phrase hard work and perseverance.
On the first day of his career, Absolutely Quit My Job Man was born
The moment “Quit My Job Man” decided to start saving was entirely driven by his desire to quit his job.
“I had a gut feeling on my first day that this was a completely black company,” says Quit My Job Man.
His intuition proved to be right. For the following years, he endured a life of arriving at the office at 8 AM, with the workday often extending past midnight. On top of that, overtime was capped at 20 hours a month, with most of it considered unpaid overtime.
“Back then, unlike now, the option of changing jobs wasn’t even a consideration. We were in the worst period of the employment ice age, and even if someone lucky enough to quit found a new job, they would end up at an even worse black company.”
So, he decided on the way home from his first day at work that he would save 50 million yen over the next 10 years and quit. From then on, he embarked on a lifestyle of extreme frugality.
The lower the hurdle for happiness, the more easily one can find happiness
Absolute Quit Work Man’s first salary was about 190,000 yen after tax. From this, he allocated 45,000 yen for living expenses and saved the remaining 150,000 yen.
“It might seem difficult to live on 45,000 yen, but the big factor was that I lived in a company dorm, so I didn’t have to pay rent. The dorm was rundown, though… I usually ate only one meal a day, lunch. The working hours were so long that I didn’t have time to spend money elsewhere, and I didn’t have the energy to do anything on my days off.”
It may seem like a life without any pleasures, but the motivation to save money in order to quit the company was so strong. However, this mindset also had its benefits.
“How should I put it? The hurdle for happiness kept getting lower. The work at the company was so tough that I was happy just to have a day off, and any food I ate tasted good. Before I knew it, living frugally became my normal lifestyle, and there was no sense of despair or pain. In the end, wealth and happiness are relative, right? If you lower the hurdle for happiness, anything you do will make you happy.”
Once this lifestyle was established, even with a living expense of 45,000 yen a month, he started to have money left over.
“The leftover money naturally went into savings (laughs).”
Lehman Brothers crisis is overcome with deposit power
Thus, the super-frugal lifestyle was fully on track, and over time, the assets grew, reaching the milestone of 30 million yen in the ninth year. The breakdown of this 30 million yen was approximately 70–80% from savings and salary, and 20–30% from profits from stock investments. Even though the stock investments didn’t see explosive gains, the increase in value and dividends accumulated over the nine years.
“The journey to 100 million yen was the most difficult when going from zero to 30 million yen. Without the Lehman Brothers collapse, I think I could have reached it a little faster, but even when my assets shrank, I never stopped saving or investing, and that was key.
In particular, by continuing to contribute, even if my assets didn’t grow, they didn’t decrease significantly. That itself was a support, and it helped me maintain a frugal lifestyle and savings. I really realized the importance of maintaining contribution strength.”
In fact, even after surpassing 100 million yen, the life of “Quit Work Man” hasn’t changed much.
“My food expenses are nearly zero. I use stockholder benefits and points accumulated through poin activities, so I don’t need to use cash. Also, my food expenses were only 30,000 to 40,000 yen to begin with (laughs).”
■ What is the surprising lifestyle of the “Quit Work Man” who became a millionaire? Details about his recent portfolio status and specific stock investment methods can be read in the paid version of 【FRIDAY Subscriptions】.
Interview and text by： Kenji Matsuoka
After working as a money writer, financial planner, and market analyst for a securities company, Mr. Matsuoka became independent in 1996. He writes articles on finance and asset management mainly for business and economic magazines. Author of "A Textbook for the First Year of Robo-Advisor Investing" and "Understanding with Rich Illustrations! The Book of Absolute Benefit from Cashless Payments".
