From Early Retiree to Investment Coach: An interview with Charlene Cong
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(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links)
Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing somebody who is financially independent in Switzerland. We hear a lot more about financial independence in other countries, but this is also entirely possible in Switzerland.
Charlene retired in Switzerland at 32, in 2023. Her story is very interesting since she comes from the private banking industry and has some insights into the inner workings of the finance industry. And what is also fascinating is that her financial independence led to becoming a financial coach in Switzerland.
Without further ado, here is the story of Charlene Cong, a financially independent financial coach in Switzerland!
1. Tell us a little about yourself
Hey Baptiste, thanks so much for having me here!
I’m Charlene Cong — based in Zurich, CFA Charterholder, early retiree and a passionate investment coach.
I spent about 10 years working in banking across Asia (Hong Kong and Singapore) and Europe (Switzerland). Eventually, I hit a point where the corporate grind just felt kind of soul-sucking. So I quit. By then, I had built up a 7-figure investment portfolio, and I knew I didn’t want to keep trading my time for money.
Now I’m on a mission to help others do the same — no finance degree or investment background required. And, it’s my 4th year in Switzerland and yep… still struggling with German. It’s not easy, but I’m trying! I just got my B1 certificate.
2. When did you retire from your corporate job?
I left my corporate job in late 2023, and it had been exactly 10 years for me in the banking industry.
I just handed in my notice quietly one day. No detailed business plan, but I had a solid portfolio and years of consistent investing behind me. That gave me the confidence to step away.
3. And why did you quit?
Honestly, it was a mix of push and pull.
On the push side — I just didn’t enjoy the corporate job anymore, especially the last job. It got to a point where I started asking myself, what’s the point of all this?
I started out as a banking journalist, digging into how multimillionaires and billionaires invest. Then I moved to JPMorgan, serving private banking clients. Eventually, I landed in Zurich, working at a banking tech firm.
So yeah, I’d spent 10 years in private banking — essentially helping the rich get richer. At some point, I started asking myself, Is this really how I want to spend the next decade of my career?
Then there was the pull. I’ve always wanted freedom. Freedom to work how I want, where I want, who I want to work with. And I started thinking — what if I could take everything I’ve learned from serving the ultra-wealthy, and use that knowledge to empower everyday people instead? That felt way more meaningful.
So I looked at my finances, asked myself, How much risk can I take? Could I be okay with earning nothing for a year? Or two? Or even five? After some thought (and a few spreadsheets), I decided to go for it.
4. Do you follow a safe withdrawal rate strategy?
I haven’t actually started withdrawing from my investments yet — but maybe someday.
Right now, I’m pretty mindful of my lifestyle. No more Gucci bags or long Maldives trips — and that’s totally fine. At the same time, I’ve built a few income streams that give me flexibility.
Also, my investment coaching business picked up faster than I expected. We hit breakeven in the first few months, and by the second year, we were on a solid path to grow and scale.
5. How do you like your retirement so far?
I wouldn’t really call it a full retirement — it’s more like I’ve created a life with a lot more freedom, while also building my own coaching business.
In short: I LOVE it. And I’ve never once regretted the decision.
What I enjoy most is the freedom.
- Freedom to wake up without an alarm.
- Freedom to travel without needing anyone’s approval.
- Freedom to say yes to the things that excite me — and no to the things that drain me.
Ironically, I’m “working” more now than I ever did — but on things that are more meaningful to me. That makes all the difference.
6. How did you retire early?
If I had to sum it up simply: make money, save money, invest money — and repeat.
I was fortunate to earn a decent salary during my 10 years in corporate (and yes, I negotiated a lot — always negotiate!). I’ve also been a natural saver since I was young, which definitely helped.
But what really made the biggest difference? I understood the power of investing early on.
I made my first investment during my final year of university — $500 into an ETF. I barely knew anything about investing back then, but that one decision completely changed the course of my life.
7. Tell us about your money situation.
I’m pretty open about money — with my students, my friends, pretty much anyone who asks.
Over my 10 years in corporate, I earned around $1 million in total. I saved about half of that — roughly $500k — and then doubled it (to $1 million) through investing.
Of course, there were ups and downs along the way, but the math is actually pretty straightforward. When I saw $1 million in my account, I knew I had options. I could walk away from situations that no longer felt right.
My partner is also financially independent and runs a business. We’re very aligned when it comes to money talk. Having a life partner with a similar money mindset is a gift.
8. Would you do anything differently if you started today?
Everything I went through got me to where I am today. But if I could go back, I’d do a couple of things differently.
First, I would’ve started investing even earlier — with my new year pocket money as a kid, instead of waiting until I was 21. And one more thing — I probably wouldn’t have pushed myself so hard trying to climb the corporate ladder. I quite burned out in the first few years of my career. Looking back, a lot of that stress was unnecessary.
9. Did you get lucky?
Of course, there’s always a little luck in life. But success in investing is more about strategy than luck.
10. What did you learn from your 10 years of banking experience?
One big thing I learned is that the finance industry loves to overcomplicate everything.
When you work at a Wall Street bank, like my previous employer J.P. Morgan, there’s this culture of throwing around jargon — DD, alts, P&L, IRR, EBIDA, you name it. But honestly? Investing isn’t that complicated.
If you learn it the right way, you can grasp all the fundamentals over a weekend. Seriously — that’s what a lot of my students tell me after going through my course. (It’s NOT a joke!)
Another thing I realized: financial freedom doesn’t come from a high salary. It comes from how you actually do with it.
I’ve seen so many friends with nice six-figure incomes who are constantly upgrading their cars, collecting luxury watches, buying Hermes bags, sending their kids to international schools… but at the end of the day, they’re barely holding on to a six-figure bank balance.
11. How do you invest?
These days, I keep it simple. I follow a low-cost, diversified strategy that’s designed to grow steadily over the long term. Mainly:
- Low-cost stock and bond funds
- A few high-conviction single stocks
- A bit of cryptocurrency exposure (not much)
- Global diversification
- Long-term buy and hold
- Rebalancing portfolio once in a while
No day trading, no hype. Just a solid strategy that actually works.
12. What is your best advice to someone wanting to retire early?
Start by building a simple but solid investment strategy.
There’s a lot of noise out there — people telling you to just buy this stock, jump into crypto, or just buy that ETF. But before you put your money anywhere, you need to get clear on your investment goals.
From your goals, look at the investment options available to you, and build a strategy that actually fits you. Cut the noise. Focus on the fundamentals. That’s what I always tell my students.
And once you’ve got that personalized strategy? Start as early as you can. Don’t wait!
13. Why did you start your investment coaching adventure?
Over the past few years, I started noticing something — a lot of smart, ambitious, hardworking people were still stuck in jobs they didn’t enjoy.
And it wasn’t because they weren’t trying. It’s because no one ever taught them how to make their money work for them. That’s what pushed me to start coaching.
Not just because I needed another paycheck — but because I wanted to give people the roadmap I wish someone had given me.
14. Tell us a little more about your financial coaching and how we can work with you.
I coach busy professionals in Switzerland and beyond who are ready to stop feeling stuck and start building real wealth — even if they have zero investment experience.
My approach is practical, clear, and designed to help people build confidence with their money and create an investment plan that truly fits their life.
To help more people get started, I’m hosting a free live online investment masterclass and have opened up 100 free spots exclusively for you. In this masterclass, I’ll cover:
- The first 5 steps to make your job an option — not a necessity — through smart investing
- How to avoid losing money when you invest
- My personal journey: how I left my corporate job after building a 7-figure investment portfolio
More details are here: Investment Workshop
- Sign up now before the free spots are filled up.
Afterwords
Baptiste: Thanks a lot to Charlene for answering my questions. I am glad she was willing to share all this valuable information with my readers. And thanks for offering a free webinar for my readers. I went through one of her live webinar and there is a lot of value in them.
It is rare for people to retire early in Switzerland, so it is great to hear stories about that.
We can learn a few things from this story.
- It is essential to start investing early. You want your investments to compound for a while.
- Growing your income over time is very valuable.
If you like these kinds of interviews, you should read my interview of Dror Allouche, another early retiree in Switzerland (also turned coach!).
If you are interested in Charlene’s story, you can read more on her blog. It is interesting to read the perspective of a previous banking professional.
Do you have questions for Charlene?
More reading
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Learn easy ways to optimize your finances and save thousands in Switzerland with our exclusive e-book. Learn about the most cost-effective financial services tailored for savvy residents and expats!
Get Your FREE Swiss Money-Saving Guide
Apologies for the rant but this is very disappointing content from an otherwise excellent website. The article is an obvious paid infomercial and is clearly misleading. Charlene has NOT retired! By her own admission she is working more than ever and hasn’t even started drawing on her savings. That is not the definition of a retiree! The title should be “Successful lady saves enough money to leave the corporate world and start a new business” – not quite as catchy I admit, but far more accurate. In my opinion content like this diminishes the credibility of this site and I very much hope it is a one off.
I am sorry you feel that way. It’s true that she isn’t retired. But she still left a successful career to focus on entrepreneurship, something that was possible because she was financially independent. I still believe her story has value and is worth sharing.
I liked this interview and was curious what Charlene had to offer so I signed up for her ‘free course’ that took place today (May 31st). It was very disappointing. It was a 90 min sales pitch for her paid course, with some minimal general facts about investing (that can be found everywhere in the internet) sprinkled here and there. A total waste of my time.
I attended this webinar as well and to be honest your comment is a little bit too harsh given the fact that this is a free webinar and everyone knows that the main content is going to be in the course. I attended many different webinars and always knew what to pay attention to when I attend a free webinar. Here you could learn that the strategy that is taught in the course is a “slow and steady” kind of investment strategy and that it will teach you how to tailor your investment appetite according to your risk tolerance. And then she explained the importance of research and analysis before investing so, just from the webinar I feel like I could go right now and set up my little portfolio based on stocks that I think would perform well in the long run. And the big plus for me was to see the broker that she showed us that we can use for investing and buying stocks. Just with this basic information I feel I could go and play with small amount of money on my own :) and I am sure the course actually teaches you way more than that. Charlene has a highly informative YouTube channel as well so to be honest she is giving out a lot for free as well and if you attended the last month’s webinar you would see that anyone who attends her webinars gets the entire Module 1 of the course for free (afterwards in the newsletter, something like day 3 email I think). So, after all, I don’t think that I got something that I didn’t expect from this free webinar it was actually opposite. However if someone is a total beginner with the investing terminology and these topics, maybe one webinar is not really enough to get to be able to see the value and then at the same time if you do already know something then I guess you don’t expect to have the main “secret” revealed to you on the webinar either :)
Thanks for sharing your feedback as well, Mr. G!
Thanks for sharing your feedback, Marta. Sorry to hear you were not satisfied. I attended a previous webinar myself and did not find it too sales-pitchy.
On the other hand, you should not expect anything brand new from a webinar. Even paid courses will only contain things you can find on the internet. The difference is the package and the ease to follow without having to jump from one website to the others and such.
Haha this comment honestly made me laugh. If thought something was such a “total waste of time,” I wouldn’t sit through 90 whole minutes of it. I’d have dropped off by minute 10 and moved on with my life. Staying till the end just to complain?? Very smart and intelligent.
Nice interview, thank you.
Thanks, Marek!
Hi everyone! Charlene here 😊
A big thank you to Baptiste for the interview—I really enjoyed our conversation! I’ve already seen some of the lovely comments and just wanted to pop in to say a quick hello to everyone. Hello, friends!
I noticed a few questions about the idea of “retirement.” Personally, I totally get the hesitation with the term. I wouldn’t call it full retirement either—honestly, the idea of just lying on a beach doing nothing isn’t my style at all, if that’s what retirement is supposed to mean. 😄
I truly appreciate all the kind words. And to be transparent, yes—I’m definitely open to promoting my coaching business. But I also believe it has to be a two-way fit. No one is ever obligated to invest in coaching unless they genuinely see the value. Just as clients choose coaches, coaches also choose the right clients or students. That’s why i offer the Free training for those who want to learn more.
Thanks again for the warm welcome! And hope to see like-minded people in the live training or connect on Linkedin or other social 💛💛
Lots of love,
Charlene
Thanks Charlene for your interview, really inspiring and it seems that you are extremely happy with your life, congratulations. To your comment about what retirement is supposed to mean, and as an early retired for 5 years, no, in my personal case retirement does not mean to be just lying on a beach doing nothing, I can tell you I spend my time doing million of other things that are very fulfilling but I could not do when I was working simply because I did not have the time. I just do not get a revenue stream from doing those things. For me that is the point of early retirement and to be financially independent, to do the things you want to do with no need to have other income but your investments. And it feels great, even if I am not lying on the beach! Thanks again for sharing your experiences, honestly very valuable for many of us
Well, for me this not retirement. This is simply changing jobs, maybe less stressful, maybe more inspiring for her, but let’s be honest she is not retired. She has not even started to spend her savings. I think it is a great story and very inspiring and I understand the point to tell her story and I am grateful to her and the poor swiss to share this, but I hope it is not misleading for new retirees-to be
It’s kind of debatable. She still retired from her first career to start a new one. But I should have changed my questions to make it clear.
I am confused, is that retiring? Or is it leaving your job to build a business? I thought retirement was living with money you saved and pensions. This sounds like becoming an entrepreneur. Anyway, congrats to her! She seems really happy.
Hi Jean
Good question. Being financially independent is what made here capable of trying to build a business. Most people simply don’t have the choice to work at their current job because they don’t have the means to take risks.
I kind of fast read it being skeptical.
Conclusions:
– Earning a lot before
– Having a partner that earns a lot with his own company
– Still offering advice and services for a modest ‘fee’. (aka coaching)
In conclusion- not retired, just advertising to get more clients to give advice on how to win or loose money.
I fully agree Robyn, from my modest point of view, and truly early retired for 5 years, we should be very careful about considering spending some of our money, even a “small fee”, for, let’s be honest, a financial advisor. The 30-40 years impact of a “small fee” can be important, in a way a similar concept for getting the lowest TER for our EFT. Do not get me wrong, some early-retired to be, can benefit from a person like this lady, but we need to understand the consequences of spending some of our money in this.
If you are an early retiree in Switzerland, drop me a note if you want to be interviewed :)
Hi Ronyn
I would not be so harsh :)
She is still financially independent and this allowed to start her own company.
But I could have called the article “From financially independent” instead of “From early retiree”.
Hi Baptist, although I did live some years in Switzerland, I currently do not live in that wonderful country. I am Spanish and I live in my own country, Spain. Having said that, I think 95% of your excellent blog applies to non-Swiss residents too. Actually, you and your blog were the triggers for me to quit my job. Thanks to your blog I completely changed my approach to investment. At that moment I had more than 40 different funds with very high comissions and I was totally blind to the potential amount of savings I would need to retire, even I did not know what a ETF was. Since I learnt how finance independence works, thanks to your blog, my commissions are 15 times less than before, and my decisions are fact-based, not merely instincts, and predictability of chances of success has very much increased. I know this is a long comment, but I truly thought that I must show my gratitude for your blog that, with no doubt, have changed my life!
Thanks for sharing! This is very interesting, and I am glad my blog played a part in you being able to retire early!
Enjoy!