Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Friday, Aug 08, 2025

Former Netflix, IBM software engineer turned TikToker talks retiring at 30

Former Netflix, IBM software engineer turned TikToker talks retiring at 30

This TikTok sensation has amassed over 748,000 followers talking about careers, the tech industry, investing, and more.

A former software engineer is making a name for himself on TikTok offering advice on careers, the tech industry, investing, and more.

Frank Niu, a full-time dad who retired at age 30 after working at IBM, Credit Karma, Netflix and GrubHub, which Amazon just took a small stake in, tells FOX Business that his Tiktok account was created in early December of last year to compete with his wife.


My wife had actually started at Tiktok account. She had a couple thousand followers and she was kind of gloating about it, saying "Check it out. I'm so famous." Like rubbing it in my face," Niu explains. "We're both very, very competitive people. And so I thought, 'Okay, you know what? I'm going to start my own TikTok account and I'm going to beat you. Give me until end of the year.'"

Within three to four days of launching his account, Niu easily surpassed his wife's follower count. Since then, the multi-millionaire has amassed over 748,000 followers.

Niu, who grew up in a poor family, graduated from Iowa State University in 2013. He landed his first job as a software engineer at IBM in January 2014, where he was given a $74,000 salary and $5,000 signing bonus.

"I did really well for my group as one of the top performers, but after one year they didn't give me a promotion, which really made me quite upset," he explained. "I actually quit my job before I even found a new one."


After leaving IBM in June 2015 and losing a portion of his money to day trading, Niu moved to San Francisco in hopes of working for a tech startup.

Though he secured a position as a DevOps engineer with the tech firm Dwolla a month after leaving IBM, the stint was short-lived as he was laid off in December 2015. During that job, he earned a salary of $125,000 salary, a $5,000 signing bonus and stock options.

Two months later, he joined Credit Karma as a senior software engineer, where he was given a $138,000 salary and $100,000 stock package. Although Credit Karma "checked a lot of the boxes" he was looking for in a company, he ended up quitting that job in May 2017 to go run a cryptocurrency startup, which "went nowhere."

As Niu focused on his next move, he and his then-girlfriend were thinking about getting engaged and settling down. The couple ended up moving to Chicago where Niu took a job with GrubHub in July 2017 as a senior site reliability engineer, earning a $140,000 salary, a $7,500 sign on bonus and a $200,000 stock package.

"The job and everything was great," he said. "I got really lucky with my stock grants, hit like 4x or something, so my total salary and compensation shot up to like an insane level."


Ultimately, they decided not to stay in Chicago long-term and have since settled down in Canada. Niu got a job as a tech lead with Netflix in April 2019, which ended up offering him more than $500,000 in total compensation. However, he reevaluated what was important in his life following a death in the family and the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Basically my entire reporting channel at Netflix from like the vice president down to my immediate manager was let go within the span of like two years or so during the time I was working there," he noted. "And I got a new manager who, as new managers do, shake things up. And she wanted me to come back early from paternity leave. And I made it very clear before I left that I was not going to do that."


In October, he took severance from the streaming behemoth and started raising his two kids full-time. At the time of his departure, he and his wife had surpassed their goal of reaching $2 million in assets.

"Money doesn't buy happiness, but it buys you freedom," he said. "I'm able to focus on family or friends or my health or things that I care more about."

In addition to raising his kids and posting on TikTok, Niu and his wife have started a podcast. He's also made his first angel investment with Beacons and has been asked to serve as an advisor at several startups.


Niu's advice for anyone looking to retire early is to work in a high-paying career that allows you to maximize your salary, job-hop frequently to ensure you're being paid the highest possible rate in your field, live below your means and invest your money.

For new investors getting started, he recommends dollar cost averaging into S&P 500 index funds. In order to protect yourself from inflation, he suggests Series I Savings bonds.


Niu also emphasizes the importance of not letting fear or negativity get in the way of trying to be financially successful.

"It's the people I've known throughout my life that are the hardest working and have the greatest ambition who've been really able to grab a hold of traditional financial success and be where they are in life. And like, none of them made excuses," he said. "Yes, there is an element of luck, but you're not going to get any luck if you don't try."

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Russia Formally Recognizes Taliban Government in Afghanistan
Mediators Edge Closer to Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Agreement
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
Amazon Reaches Major Automation Milestone with Over One Million Robots
Meta Announces Formation of Ambitious AI Unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs
China Unveils Miniature Insect-Like Surveillance Drone
Marc Marquez Claims Victory at Dutch Grand Prix Amidst Family Misfortune
Iran Executes Alleged Israeli Spies and Arrests Hundreds Amid Post-War Crackdown
Trump Asserts Readiness for Further Strikes on Iran Amid Nuclear Tensions
Iran's Parliament Votes to Suspend Cooperation with Nuclear Watchdog
Trump Announces Upcoming US-Iran Meeting Amid Controversial Airstrikes
Trump Moves to Reshape Middle East Following Israel-Iran Conflict
NATO Leaders Endorse Plan for Increased Defence Spending
U.S. Crude Oil Prices Drop Below $65 Amid Market Volatility
Explosions Rock Doha as Iranian Missiles Target Qatar
“You Have 12 Hours to Flee”: Israeli Threat Campaign Targets Surviving Iranian Officials
Oman Set to Introduce Personal Income Tax, First in Gulf
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
×