215: FI: More Than Retirement, a Chance to Take Risks w/ Diania Merriam

BiggerPockets Money Podcast

BiggerPockets

Education, Investing, Business

4.5 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2021

⏱️ 81 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After years and years of working in licensing, Diania Merriam opened up her credit report and saw that she was (collectively) $30,000 in debt. This forced her to ask the question, “what am I working for?” It made sense at the moment: you get your paycheck, you can go out to a fancy dinner, you get another paycheck, you can buy yourself something nice. But Diania wasn’t happy, or at least as happy as she thought she’d be. She realized that she didn’t want to be stuck in a job she had to go to every day. She wanted autonomy, freedom, and financial independence that would allow her to rule over her schedule and pursue her passions and interests. So, she went to work and started saving whatever she could. She stopped eating out, started cooking all her meals, moved to a more inexpensive city, bought a house and house hacked, heavily invested in retirement, and did everything right. Now, she’s self-employed, hosting the Optimal Finance Daily podcast and the EconoMe Conference in Cincinnati. She was able to create her dream roles because she came from a position of financial strength, she also had a plan in mind and knew what her “worst-case scenario” looked like. In This Episode We Cover Getting out of consumer and student debt as quickly as possible Minimizing expenses and maximizing income to increase savings rates Building a strong financial runway so you can start your own business Buying a house and house hacking by renting per room Understanding your “worst-case scenario” before you take the leap into entrepreneurialism Finding your passions and cementing what you want to do when you reach FI And So Much More! Links from the Show BiggerPockets Money Facebook Group BiggerPockets Forums Finance Review Guest Onboarding Scott's Instagram Mindy's Twitter Get Tickets to BPCon 2021 The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement Get Tickets to the EconoMe Conference and USE CODE BIGGERPOCKETS for a Discount BiggerPockets Money Podcast 01 with Mr. Money Mustache BiggerPockets Money Podcast 120 with Michael Kitces BiggerPockets Money Podcast 153 with Bill Bengen Grab the House Hacking Strategy Check the full show notes here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/moneyshow215 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the bigger pockets money podcast show number 215 where we interview Diana Merriam from the economy conference and
0:07.5	Talk about getting out of debt and quitting full-time employment prior to reaching financial independence
0:13.3	My problem wasn't really income my problem was money management and the fact that I wasn't paying attention and that I was wasting a lot of money and
0:23.2	So recognizing that I realized that hey
0:26.2	I'm if I can't manage a thousand dollars. I'm not gonna be able to manage a million dollars
0:31.0	So this idea that I'm gonna figure it out when I make more money was completely misguided
0:37.6	Hello, hello. Hello. My name is Mindy Jensen and with me as always is my sweat glitter co-host Scotch
0:44.2	Hmm what a sparkling introduction Mindy
0:48.2	Scott and I are here to make financial independence less scary less just for somebody else to introduce you to every money story
0:54.8	Because we truly believe that financial independence is attainable for everyone no matter when or where you're starting
1:00.7	That's right
1:01.4	But you want to retire early and travel the world go on to make big-time investments in assets like real estate or start your own
1:06.8	Multiple businesses prior to reaching by will help you reach your financial goals and get money out of the way
1:12.3	So you can launch yourself towards those dreams
1:14.3	Oh
1:24.5	Okay, Scott I have been a little bit hesitant to showcase a story of somebody who quit their job before reaching financial independence
1:33.2	because I don't want to encourage people to make
1:37.2	frivolous decisions
1:38.2	I think that there's a lot of people who
1:40.2	Discovered the concept of financial independence and then say oh great. I can quit and no
1:45.2	Let's make a plan but Diana didn't just quit frivolously. She made a plan. She had a
1:51.4	Opportunity and she took it and I love her story because she didn't just slug it out
	...

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