24-year-old who left California for Bali makes $254,000 a year working only 30 hours a week: ‘I'm definitely much happier'

This story is part of CNBC Make It's Millennial Money series, which details how people around the world earn, spend and save their money.

What does a 12-year-old do with $10,000 he earned from a videogame "basically by accident"?

In Steven Guo's case, he blew through it pretty quickly — but it kickstarted his path to becoming an entrepreneur and founding brands that have brought in millions in revenue.

It all started with a summer project when he was 12 and "super into the game Minecraft," Guo tells CNBC Make It. "I wanted to host servers so that me and my friends could play on it. Turns out, other people decided to start playing on it as well, and because of that, someone offered me $50."

That transaction changed everything. "I was super happy and through the moon," Guo recalls. "I didn't realize you could make money off the internet."

Guo kept building his server and selling in-game perks to players. By the end of the summer, he pocketed $10,000.

The high didn't last long. With his $10,000, Guo tried to start a game development company, "and unfortunately I failed miserably and blew basically all of my money," he says. "But I learned a really valuable lesson, which was: marketing is extremely important for any business."

From there, Guo says he became "obsessed" with learning about running a business and making it his career. "Ever since I made my first bit of money when I was 12 years old, I knew that I didn't want a traditional job," he says.

Guo, now 24, is the founder of multiple e-commerce businesses on track to bring in a combined $1.7 million this year.

He recently moved from Southern California to Bali, Indonesia, where he splits a villa with friends and spends his free time surfing. As his own boss, Guo is on track to earn roughly $254,000 this year.

Here's how he spends his time and money.

From a 2.7 GPA to founding businesses that bring in millions

While Guo fixated over starting businesses as a teen, he didn't take college as seriously.

Guo studied business economics at the University of California, Irvine, where he "was more focused on my entrepreneurial endeavors, and because of that, I had a 2.7 GPA."

In some ways, his poor grades motivated him to become a successful entrepreneur. "Because my GPA was so bad, I knew that getting a high-paying job was probably unlikely, and that pushed me to work even harder on my own businesses," he says.

Guo graduated in 2022 and today runs several e-commerce businesses: an online retailer that sells dates (the fruit) to customers, a K-pop inspired merch store and a company that sells premium car covers with for people with luxury cars.

In 2022, he sold one of his first companies, a jewelry brand called Impulse Modern that brought in over $2 million in revenue within a year.

The brands all ladder up to his main venture, Manifest Five, a venture-capital studio where he helps grow, operate and invest in 8- to 9-figure direct-to-consumer brands across heath, beauty, automotive vehicles and more.

It's a lot to keep track of, but Guo has learned how to maximize his time and efforts.

Early on, "I spent a lot of time running every single operation in the business, and I definitely got burnt out quite a bit," he says.

Now, he works with a team, managing 19 employees across the U.S., Philippines, UK and India. "With online businesses, one of the greatest perks is being able to hire remotely and have the best of the best out of anywhere in the world," he says.

Guo typically works from Monday to Friday six hours a day, or 30 hours a week, and spends roughly 40% of his time doing market research on his clients and the products and services they sell.

Life in Bali: 'A place where my work-life balance finally makes sense'

A change in scenery also helped him find better balance.

After graduating from college, Guo called Southern California home, but traveled to roughly 15 countries. He enjoyed being able to afford a nice lifestyle at a lower cost in many of them and, in early 2024, made the decision to move to to Bali, where he first visited after high school and has always felt "a magnetic pull."

"Bali really is a place where my work-life balance finally makes sense," Guo says. "Mornings are mostly for running my business, [and] afternoons are for surfing, exploring the landscapes or enjoying the vibrant culture here."

"I'm definitely much happier in Bali because of how great the lifestyle is," Guo says of his move, adding that he's blown away by the quality of life he can have at a "fraction of the cost" of what it would be back in California.

"I get to spend tons of time with my friends. I also get to spend a lot of time doing the activities that I like, such as surfing," he says.

Guo lives with two of his best friends and former college classmates, who are also entrepreneurs and share similar lifestyles.

Tourists and digital nomads have flocked to Bali in recent years, which has created overcrowding and overdevelopment concerns.

Guo acknowledges that many tourists get a bad rap for being "a little bit disrespectful to the local culture." As longer-term digital nomads, Guo and his peers try to be aware of this and contribute to the local community and economy.

How he spends his money

Here's how Guo spent his money in September 2024.

• Savings and investments: $5,583 toward a Robinhood brokerage account and a Roth IRA
• Discretionary: $1,942 for shopping, gifts, travel and health expenses
• Housing and utilities: $1,691 for his share of a monthly Airbnb rental, Wi-Fi and utilities
• Food: $539 on takeout and restaurants
• Subscriptions and memberships: $430 toward his annual Amex fees, Amazon Prime, YouTube Premium, a personal assistant and a storage unit
• Insurance: $223 on health and travel insurance coverage
• Transportation: $97 on a scooter rental and taxis
• Phone: $30

Guo pays for the majority of his expenses on his credit cards using U.S. dollars, though he covers utilities and transportation in Indonesian Rupiah.

Guo's biggest monthly expenses go toward his investment accounts. He aims to invest $60,000 per year, or $5,000 per month, in index funds, and he currently has roughly $340,000 shored up. He also contributed the maximum $7,000 to his Roth IRA this year and has over $17,000 stashed in it in total.

Guo splits a four-bedroom, four-bathroom Airbnb with friends in the heart of Canggu, a resort village on the south coast of Bali known for its ideal surfing conditions.

He spent just over $500 on food for the month of September. He rarely cooks and instead prefers to dine out with friends at nice restaurants or local "warungs," which are small family-run shops.

The expense is well worth it for high-quality food, Guo says: "One of the best parts about Bali is how clean and healthy the food is. When you eat it, you feel healthier, and it just makes you feel better overall."

The rest of his monthly expenses typically go toward travel. In September, he went on a trip to Portugal and booked future travel to Australia in December. He also paid for a few subscriptions, a personal assistant, health insurance and a scooter that acts as his main mode of transportation.

Guo says being an entrepreneur has made him aware of just how unstable business can be, so he lives frugally to make sure he can weather any ups or downs.

"I typically don't like to spend too much money on myself," he says. "Most of my expenses go towards food, but if I do spend money, it's typically towards gifts for family or my girlfriend."

As far as what he doesn't spend on, "I absolutely refuse to spend money on things that depreciate in value," like luxury goods, Guo says.

Learning the value of hard work: I 'got to see what it was like to grow up as an immigrant'

In his decade-plus of building businesses, Guo says one of his proudest accomplishments was treating his mom and her boyfriend to a fully paid vacation in Hawaii.

It was a full-circle moment to show appreciation to his mom, who raised him and taught him the value of hard work.

"When I was 7, I immigrated from China to Canada with my mom," Guo says, "and I really got to see what it was like to grow up as an immigrant. I saw her working multiple jobs and working hard to just put food on the table."

Seeing his mom's efforts taught him the value of hard work and money, he says. "Because of that, I wanted to make sure that going forward, my family doesn't have to go through hardship again. And my mom is definitely one of my biggest inspirations." 

In recent years, Guo has gotten closer with his father, a former architect living in China who's also getting into business. "We're just starting to rekindle [our relationship], partly because we both are entrepreneurs now," Guo says.

Looking ahead

Guo has big plans for his businesses. He hopes to have a $50 million e-commerce portfolio by the time he's 30.

"My plan to do that is by incubating a variety of businesses through working with students and mentoring them and investing in them," he says.

As for his personal life, Guo plans to split his time between Bali and Australia, where his girlfriend lives, until she's able to permanently relocate to Indonesia.

"Bali isn't just a home," Guo says. "It's the freedom to live, work and thrive on my own terms."  

Conversions from Indonesian Rupiah to USD were done using the OANDA conversion rate of 1 IDR to .00007 USD on Sept. 30, 2024. All amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar.

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