37-year-old had just $10,000 in cash savings after her divorce—now she makes nearly $1 million: ‘I had to make a drastic change’

Wang was born and raised in Kaifeng, a small city in central China, where she felt pressured to follow a set path. “There was a lot of expectation put on me from teachers, family and later from my boss at work,” she says. They wanted her to live life “in a certain way, by a certain age” and that they had “a certain criteria of what success looks like.”

But Wang wanted to choose her own path: “I didn’t feel like I had enough of the freedom to live the life that I wanted, which pushed me to have this idea of moving abroad and living in a different environment,” she says.

In 2013, she moved to the U.S. to earn an MBA at Duke University​. The transition wasn’t easy, especially when it came to language. “When I first arrived in the U.S., my English was bad, it was terrible,” she recalls​. But she worked at it. “Gradually, as I practiced more, it just got better over the years.”

Life in the U.S. was different in other ways, too. “People here are very independent,” she says. Back in China, her life revolved around family and community, with expectations tied to relationships and tradition. But in the U.S., she found more freedom to make her own choices, both professionally and personally.

After earning her MBA in 2015, Wang landed a six-figure job as a sourcing manager for the hardware division of a tech company in Seattle, laying the groundwork for the career she would later use to rebuild her finances.

Wang left her job in 2020 after relocating to New York City for her husband’s work. She had already planned to take a year off to raise her daughter when the pandemic hit in early 2020, keeping her at home full-time as the world shut down.

Then, in 2021, her marriage ended. Suddenly, Wang was a single mom, unemployed and facing an uncertain future.

“When we were splitting up, I took a really hard look at my personal finances,” she says. “I had less than $10,000 in cash and roughly $40,000 in my IRA. And that’s pretty much it. It was pretty shocking for me to come to that realization. … I started to realize that up until that point, I had managed my personal finances really terribly.”

Wang relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area and reentered the workforce, overseeing software quality and operations at Google, ensuring reliability for products like Google Drive and Gmail. The role paid around $300,000, providing the financial stability she needed to support her daughter and rebuild her savings.

“I had to make a really drastic change in terms of my mindset,” says Wang. “This is not only just about me anymore. This is also about me taking care of my daughter’s future as well.”​

After nearly a year at Google, Wang started feeling stagnant. “I started to realize that I was not pushing myself enough, I didn’t feel like I was growing enough,” she says​. 

Instead of staying in her comfort zone, she set her sights on Google’s AI technology, recognizing its potential and impact. In 2022, she transitioned to a team working on large language models, helping oversee the development of tools like chatbots and AI assistants.

Over the next three years, Wang took on three different roles in AI, leaving Google in 2024 to join a startup for about a year before returning to a major tech company.

“I’m always looking for areas where I can be a student instead of being the teacher,” she says, believing that continuous learning drives long-term growth.

The moves helped her nearly triple her annual income from $300,000 to $970,000, including equity and bonuses, within three years. In the fast-growing AI industry, experienced professionals are scarce — and that scarcity drives up salaries. “The market is very competitive,” she says. “Everyone is trying to get the best talent.”

While the salary is a major perk, Wang finds the work itself just as rewarding. “When I walk into the office, I know I’m working on something really important to the future of this technology and that most excites me,” she says.

With a disciplined approach to saving and a focus on long-term financial goals, Wang maintains a frugal lifestyle despite her high income. Here’s how she spent her money in October 2024.

• Savings and investments: $52,118 towards brokerage account, HSA, Dependent FSA
• Rent: $3,458
• Discretionary: $2,322 for travel, clothes, flowers, life coach session
• Transportation: $642 for EV payment, charging station
• Food: $589 on groceries and dining out
• Subscriptions and memberships: $323 for Audible, cloud storage, Lululemon Studio Mirror, gym
• Insurance: $312 for health, dental, vision, car, renters
• Utilities: $174 for Wi-Fi, heat, electricity
• Phone: $32

Wang’s biggest financial priority is investing for the future — both her own and her daughter’s. In 2024, she contributed an average of $35,000 per month to her investment accounts, though it varied month to month.

By October, she had already maxed out her 401(k) and an individual retirement account, so most of her $52,118 in contributions that month went into a brokerage account, with about $1,000 allocated to her health savings account and dependent flexible spending account.

Her disciplined approach has helped her build a seven-figure portfolio — a level of savings that makes early retirement a possibility. “I am getting to a point where I can retire early if I want, but I choose not to because to me, my work is very fulfilling,” she says.

Despite earning nearly $1 million per year, Wang keeps her expenses low, choosing to rent a 2-bedroom apartment rather than buying one in expensive Palo Alto. “When I run the math, the amount of interest I would end up paying would be way more than the rent I’m currently paying,” she says. “I would rather put the money toward investments and let it grow.”

Wang still shops secondhand, reselling items when she’s done with them, and rarely indulges in luxury purchases. “I try to live frugally because I know that long-term financial security matters more than short-term luxuries,” she says. 

Despite her disciplined approach to spending, Wang has allowed herself small indulgences as her income has grown. She spends more on travel, fitness and no longer stresses over grocery prices the way she once did.

“I used to go into grocery stores, look at the price tag and think [about whether] I should get raspberries versus strawberries, but now I can get both,” she says.