Bill Holland could retire at 32, but still takes transit to work

Bill Holland had enough money to stop working by age 32, but the former CI Financial chief is still going to the office at 67, Fortune reported. His career shows how early wealth did not lead him to leave work or adopt the trappings often associated with multimillionaires.

Fortune, citing a recent Financial Post profile, reported that Holland’s route into finance began after a run of low-status jobs despite his graduation from Toronto’s York University. The jobs included delivering 7Up, factory work and working as a doorman at a Toronto bar, according to the report.

Holland entered Mackenzie Financial Corp. at 27 as a customer service representative, the Financial Post reported. The job involved taking about 120 customer calls a day, according to Fortune’s account of the profile.

Holland told the Financial Post that he did not see the work as unusually hard unless it involved heavy lifting. Within five years, according to Fortune, he had made enough money to retire as Canada’s mutual fund business was expanding quickly.

Holland credited chance as well as ability for his rise, according to the Financial Post. “A lot of people who have disproportionate success, for the most part, are normal people and if they are being honest with you, they will tell you that they got really lucky,” he said. “I got really lucky.”

From a small firm to CI Financial

Rather than retire, Holland joined a small investment company with about $50 million in assets under management, Fortune reported. That business later became CI Financial, where Holland became chief executive in 1999 and executive chair in 2010, according to Fortune.

CI Financial was taken private last year by a United Arab Emirates sovereign wealth fund, and the company had about $140 billion in assets under management, Fortune reported. Holland’s personal fortune has not been publicly fixed, but The Globe and Mail estimated his CI Financial stake at $260 million in 2011, according to Fortune.

Fortune reported that Holland fully sold his CI Financial holdings last year. Even after building substantial wealth, he still travels to his Toronto office five days a week by public transit, according to the report.

Holland’s current work includes investing, including real estate, and running his family’s philanthropy office, Fortune reported. He has donated more than $100 million to charitable causes over the years, according to Fortune.

Other wealthy figures kept modest habits

Fortune compared Holland’s routine with habits maintained by Warren Buffett and Elon Musk. Buffett, whose fortune exceeds $150 billion, told CBS News last year, “I’m cheap,” according to Fortune.

Buffett still lives in the Omaha, Nebraska, house he bought in 1958 for $31,500, Fortune reported. Fortune said the five-bedroom home is now valued at about $1.3 million, and Buffett has said he would not trade it because he and his late wife raised their three children there.

Fortune also cited a 2017 HBO documentary that described Buffett’s McDonald’s breakfast routine, in which his order varied with the stock market. If markets were down, Fortune reported, he bought two sausage patties for $2.61; if markets were up, he bought a $3.17 bacon, egg and cheese biscuit.

Musk took a different path after years of owning luxury properties, Fortune reported. The Wall Street Journal reported that he sold seven California homes for nearly $130 million after saying in 2020 that he wanted to own no house.

Musk later said his main residence was a roughly $50,000 home near Boca Chica, Texas, rented from SpaceX, according to Fortune. His mother, Maye Musk, wrote on X earlier this year that the home had no food in the fridge and described sleeping in the garage during a visit, Fortune reported.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.