Ex Fidelity Taiwan Head Left Finance, Now Fights Youth Housing Crisis

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Timothy Wang, 64, the former head of Fidelity Taiwan. The following has been translated and edited for length and clarity.

I remember exactly when it hit me.

I was reading a report about young people who had moved to Taipei for work. They described feeling hopeless about their futures because of unaffordable housing.

That word “hopeless” really got to me. I remember feeling incredibly sad.

When I was 30 and working at Citibank — where I started my financial career — I didn’t feel this sense of despair.

My generation lived through a more affordable time. Housing wasn’t cheap, but it also wasn’t as expensive as it is now.

Over the past 20 to 30 years, housing prices have surged, while salaries have barely grown.

I called Andy Chang, the secretary-general of Believe in Next Generation, the nonprofit association I had founded, and said, “We should do something about this.”

How we started renting homes for young people — and subsidizing their rent

That was during the pandemic in 2021, several years after I retired from my last job as the head of Taiwan at Fidelity.

We started scouting livable apartments and matched them with young tenants. In the first year, I personally covered a quarter of the rent — about 500,000 Taiwan dollars.

Today, we run 10 such youth apartments across Taipei. The tenants apply for government subsidies and partner with landlords willing to accept these tenants in exchange for tax incentives.

In return, tenants in these co-living apartments run community programs.

One tenant taught Japanese to elderly people. Another — Tseng Chih Wei, a performance artist — has organized community theater projects and workshops for people living with HIV.

Not every tenant runs programs perfectly, but we want to give them a chance to try. For us, these projects are meant to be empowering opportunities — not charity.

How I turned my childhood home into a hub for youth empowerment

Community work has always been close to my heart.

Years ago, when I was at Citibank, I visited a small bakery in the city of Kaohsiung that left a lasting impression. It was run by young people with intellectual disabilities.

When I came back to Taipei, I asked my boss whether we could support that organization. He said yes.

We helped them launch a similar bakery in the capital, which grew into one of Taiwan’s earliest social enterprises.

That experience taught me something important: When you take the first step, you often discover that there are many like-minded people who would support your cause.

A different kind of impact

I feel very lucky to have spent more than 30 years in finance.

Because the industry gave me so much, I feel I should give more back.

After all, for the same one hour we spent doing our jobs, we tend to be compensated much more generously in finance than in many other industries.

When I turned 50 in 2011, I started a community space in my disused and rundown childhood home in a military village in Taipei. The renovation cost me 2 million Taiwan dollars.

For years, I gathered with young people at the space we call University Café. The meetings were informal — concerts, reading groups, and discussions.

In 2017, while I was traveling abroad, I got a call from my wife: my mother had suffered a brain hemorrhage.

On the flight back to Taipei, I told myself that if she made it through this, I would step back from my career and spend more time with her.

She did, and I left Fidelity the next year.

After that, I lived with her. I made lunch for her every day, and my wife made dinner. That went on for years.

She passed away last year, but I deeply cherish that time. This was the life I wanted.

I changed my life for two reasons: to spend more time with my family, and to empower the younger generation.

A new beginning

In 2019, the University Café community went on two study trips to Japan, where we saw many people stepping up for their cities, such as in post-earthquake recovery work.

They inspired us to think that we, too, should do something for the cities we live in.

That was when I decided to make our community a formal association. The young people came up with the name: Believe in Next Generation.

Andy joined us that year. I first met him when he interviewed for an internship at Fidelity. Many college students said they wanted to go to Hong Kong, Singapore, or Wall Street. But Andy said he wanted to travel the Silk Road.

I thought he wanted to write his own story, and that left a deep impression.

Andy didn’t get the internship, but joined a Fidelity study group I organized. After his graduation and travel, we reconnected, and I invited him to visit our community space. He stayed.

Beyond housing, we hosted a 2023 artist residency where a young playwright created a piece about intergenerational conflict in a family.

The play struck a chord in Taipei and was later translated into Korean and performed in South Korea.

That was a defining moment — for the playwright, and for me. Back in finance, I wanted to help young Taiwanese go abroad. Now, even after leaving finance, I can still help young talent step onto the international stage.

My path had changed, but the purpose was the same.