When Jean Voronkova decided to quit her $120,000-a-year job as a mid-tier lawyer in a Big Four law firm close to 10 years ago, her dad didn't speak to her for two years. It's not surprising that many around the then 29-year-old could not wrap their heads around why she would quit her lucrative lawyer job which afforded her many...
When Jean Voronkova decided to quit her $120,000-a-year job as a mid-tier lawyer in a Big Four law firm close to 10 years ago, her dad didn't speak to her for two years.
The pursuit of "shiny things", as Jean calls the money, prestige and status that having a 'good job' brings, was never on her agenda."I've always been dissatisfied with the way life options were presented to us in Singapore," said the self-professed high achiever who was from the gifted programme in Raffles Girls' School and went on to Victoria Junior College before graduating from law school at the National University of Singapore.
Her age also played a part in her decision. "I felt like if I persisted into my thirties, I might never gain the courage to walk away from my life back then, golden handcuffs and all." Most recently, during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Jean returned to Singapore from Vietnam for a few months and even took on a three-week stint as a FairPrice staff — "one of those Covid jobs" — before rejoining her husband Vitaly, who's Russian, in Moscow.When Jean turned 38 last year, the couple packed their belongings and moved to Bali, a move they'd already been dreaming of for several years and had begun actively planning for.
"It took only four years of dedicated investing and financial planning to get to my target amount," Jean told AsiaOne, which we agree is a modest sum by most standards. "Living in Vietnam allowed us to take advantage of the modest costs of living whilst still making money from our business in US dollars, which accelerated our savings rate," Jean shared.
"I think the most difficult thing is how it has stifled my ability to be generous towards my family, such as bringing my parents out for expensive meals and giving them luxury gifts," Jean revealed.
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Read more »