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Who doesn’t want to retire early, like on your 30s? I mean, wouldn’t it be amazing to know you have enough money to sustain you for the rest of your life?
People who do this retire early thing — also referred to as the FIRE movement — work almost obsessively at accumulating mass amounts of wealth. Sure, it’s an awesome feat to amass a huge amount of wealth within a short amount of time, but it can come at a price.
My guest Gwen Merz, blogger at Fiery Millennials, came on the show to chat about the time when she got caught up working almost obsessively at accumulating mass amounts of wealth. She describes in detail how it affected her sanity when she saved up to 70% of her take home pay, and some of the hard lessons she learned. We also go into whether or not she regrets what she did and if she would recommend someone do the same things she did.
Stick around to the end where I’m going to show you how you can still feel like you’re retired without going intense on your savings or earnings goals.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
- Gwen’s crazy savings rate and how she felt when she fell into the comparison trap
- The multiple ways Gwen did to earn side hustle income
- Her breaking point which led her to stop aggressively pursuing FIRE
- What she’s doing now to take care of her mental health
- Why Gwen doesn’t regret going hard and fast to pursue early retirement
- What her best financial decision was
Questions to Ponder:
- How can you pursue a form of early retirement that won’t come at the expense of your mental health?
- What can you do now to feel like you’re retired?
*remember, let me know in the comments below your answers! If you’re a social media person, come find me on Instagram (@beyondthedollar) and send me a DM or comment on any one of my posts. I read every single one!
Resources:
- The Ultimate Guide to Money Mindset Mastery
- Values Based Spending Guide
- Freelance Writing Kickstart – use code BTDLISTENER for 10% off course
- Fiery Millennials
- The Basics of FIRE (Financial Independence and Early Retirement)
- Fincon – where we met
- Season 3 episode 6 – How Our Mental Health Affects Our Finances
*Thanks to Donovan Dorrance for the awesome theme music