SpaceX IPO Made This Couple Rich Enough to Quit Their Jobs at 35—Now They're Spending $25K a Month Travelling

Brian Aggrey once needed his roommate to lend him $200 after he could not afford both his rent and the taxes on his SpaceX stock options. More than a decade later, the former SpaceX engineer has quit his job and is travelling the world with his wife, Phoebe Novack, after the rocket company's blockbuster IPO turned their long-held stake into substantial wealth.

The 35-year-olds decided to embark on a year-long global adventure that they call their 'Year of Freak', budgeting $25,000 a month to pursue hobbies and experiences they once had little time for.

The couple sold enough SpaceX shares to fund their travel plans, but the majority of their holdings remain in the market. 'The IPO really gave us the confidence to treat that stake as real capital,' Aggrey had told The Wall Street Journal.

A Dream Itinerary

Their travels began in July with trips to Milan and the Côte d'Azur, followed by a summer stay in the French countryside. In the following months, they based themselves in Fontainebleau, southeast of Paris, where Novack spent 35 hours a week studying acting while Aggrey explored nearby towns by bicycle, visited Paris museums, and read French novels in cafes.

Aggrey also made a spontaneous cross-border trip to Valencia, Spain, after discovering a total solar eclipse would be visible there. In September, the couple headed to Chamonix in the Alps for paragliding before travelling to Italy for the Formula One Italian Grand Prix, the Venice Biennale, and the Venice Film Festival.

Now in Paris, their itinerary continues with plans to travel to Mexico City, where Aggrey will study sculpture and work with artist Brian Thoreen on a project exploring potential solutions to the city's water shortages.

The couple plans to spend the winter back in California, skiing and surfing, amid forecasts for intense snowfall and larger ocean swells linked to El Niño, before continuing their travels and creative pursuits until 31st July 2027. Novack also plans to study landscape design, visual arts, and film production along the way.

From Roommates to SpaceX Windfall

Aggrey and Novack met while they were students at Washington University in St. Louis and later settled in Los Angeles. The couple said they had long prioritised structure, stability, and saving money, even holding twice-yearly retreats to plan their finances.

Early in their careers, they kept their finances tight, at one point living with roommates so that Aggrey could put as much money as possible into SpaceX stock options.

However, that strategy came with financial strain. In 2015, Aggrey recalled being unable to afford both the taxes on his SpaceX options and his rent, when his roommate decided to front him $200. He nevertheless continued building his stake in the company, accumulating SpaceX shares through his initial signing allocation and annual performance bonuses.

Aggrey had joined SpaceX as an intern at 21 and ultimately spent well over a decade there, working on the Falcon 9 and avionics design before becoming a senior software engineer. His commitment to SpaceX could be traced back to his passion to work on rockets since middle school.

Meanwhile, Novack was most recently a senior category manager at Impossible Foods.

For years, there was no guarantee the accumulated SpaceX holdings would ever become valuable. 'We had no idea, while we were going through it, accumulating stock, whether it was ever going to be worth anything,' he had told the media outlet. 'It's a risk we decided to take, and thankfully it paid off.'