Financial Independence Podcast

On board today is Michael Quan, author of the book The Fire

Post FIRE, these days, Michael is a stay-at-home dad in sunny San Diego. He loves raising his kids, spending time with his wife, and in his downtime, writing, podcasting, and financially coaching

Michael's latest project has been setting up

I really enjoyed my chat with Michael and he had heaps of awesome suggestions for learning resources and inspiration too!

Today, I have the absolute pleasure to be chatting to

They have an acreage in rural Vermont, which they call the

Liz and her husband started working towards FI in 2014, both 29 at the time. They had white collar office positions and thought they were dream jobs but they realised they didn't actually feel fulfilled. They were forced to re evaluate and started to talk about other ways that they could live their lives.

Something that they really wanted to do was live in

So they bought a property in rural Vermont in 2016 and have never looked back.

Liz has since enjoyed freelance writing, working one on one with clients doing financial consultations, writing for the Frugalwoods blog and she published the book, Meet the Frugalwoods which has been extremely popular!

This was a bit of a selfish interview as I wanted as much info as possible on Liz's homestead life so I can make this a reality for myself!

On board today is Phil Muscatello, the host and producer of the

Phil is not from a finance background, but he wants to learn more about becoming a better investor. So he hopes that his listeners come along for the ride and don't make the same mistakes that he has.

Phil actually has degrees in Media Production and Literary Studies. He played in some awesome, psychedelic, heavy rock cabaret bands in Sydney during the 80s, before moving into a more stable career in radio, working at the ABC, and Triple

Phil describes himself as a seventies punk boomer, he loves playing guitar, ocean swimming, cycling, going to the gym, and anything to do with technology.

He grew up in Sydney, has always been interested in music, playing guitar, loves literature, arts and is an avid reader.

He went to UTS in Sydney and became a little bit of a political radical. After leaving university with a media degree, there was a recession and a lot of depair, as well as very limited jobs in media, so he ended up driving taxis for a few years before starting a career in radio, moving into commercial radio and then started his own recording studio.

He recorded one of the first podcasts in Australia, setting up his own server and fast forward to today, is still loving the podcasting!

Phil was incredibly interesting and had a thing or two to teach me too!

On board today is Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung from Canada, also

Whilst having money is certainly no guarantee of happiness, poverty is sure to make you miserable, and no one knows this better than Kristy, who has seen both ends of the wealth

Now, 40 and 41 Kristy and Bryce have spent the past decade

How did they do it? Well, as students, analyzing potential

Kristy's heritage taught her to avoid debt at all costs, and the

They retired from their engineering jobs to FIRE and travel the

They believe that money is the most important tool we have to improve our quality of life.

Jump on board, this one's a long one but Kristy and Bryce were just so inspiring to chat to!

On board today is Louise Howard, a Sydney-based executive who I met through the FIRE community. Louise is an incredibly talented, dedicated and successful person who has held executive roles in infrastructure projects in the public sector, as well as management and consulting in the private sector.

Louise is from a big Italian family and learned some solid financial lessons from her parents who provided a wonderful start for her and her siblings.

Louise lives in a high cost of living area in Sydney, but is a mean negotiator when it comes to her salary, and is passionate about pay equality for women in the workforce.

Louise is 5 years from her FAT Fire goal, has made some very smart money and investing decisions along the way and it was awesome to catch up with her again!

On board today is Dev Raga, a practicing clinician from Melbourne with a passion for personal

Dev began podcasting because he wanted to leave a blueprint for his children and family in the rare event that he wasn't around to explain the basics of personal finance and investing.

He's a husband, father, doctor, podcaster and he's a first generation immigrant. His parents migrated here in the early nineties from India and Dev grew up in Adelaide actually, went to medical school and then moved to Melbourne.

Dev is a millennial and learned from his parents at a very early age, that while money was not the most important thing, that it is very important.

Dev wants to keep working in the medical field, even after reaching FI and continues to enjoy interviewing many interesting professionals through his podcast.

Dev has some very useful viewpoints to share with us, so strap in, this one will get you thinking!

On board today is Michelle from Making Sense of Cents. Michelle

Now, Michelle and her family even live part-time on a sailboat, and get to travel the world via the seven seas, which is pretty bloody cool.

Michelle went on to write tips and insights about

Her blog became incredibly popular, and fast forward to today, Michelle's website has reached over 20 million readers, regularly goes out to over 300, 000 subscribers and has earned her a tidy USD $5 million in revenue!

Michelle has actually meticulously documented this income showing the various income streams through areas such as advertising, sponsored posts, affiliate marketing and selling her own digital products and courses.

It's pretty awesome. And it's a transparency that you

Jump on board, I learned a lot from Michelle!

On board today are Jess and Corey, better known online as The Fioneers.

Jess and Corey both spent the majority of their careers working

But in 2018, Jess experienced really bad burnout,

When researching and planning out her future career and finances, she discovered that they'd actually already reached coast FI, so decided to only continue working part-time and enjoy creative and relaxing hobbies on her time off, such as blogging.

In 2020, Jess launched her own business, Design A Life

It was a really interesting, 3 way chat today, learning about their attitudes towards FIRE and about designing a life you don't need

On board today is Dr. Jordan Grumet, better known as Doc G from the DiverseFI blog and the host of the incredibly popular Earn and Invest podcast, but he's also the author of the blog, In My Humble Opinion.

Doc G specializes in palliative care and despite reaching FI continues to work in the hospice part-time where he compassionately helps people through the final

Unlike most doctors I know, Doc G is pretty amazing when it

In addition to his award-winning blog and podcast, he has written and published two books with his latest book being titled, 'Taking Stock, a Hospice Doctor's Advice on Financial Independence, building Wealth, and Living a Regret Free Life.'

Doc G was incredibly inspiring and forced me to think differently about FI! Jump in!

On board the podcast I welcome Queenie Tan, a Sydney-based personal finance content creator who you might recognise from her incredibly popular channel and profile, Invest with Queenie, where she has amassed nearly 400,000 followers across social media channels such as Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Facebook.

Queenie creates helpful, relevant content centered around money-saving hacks and investing to help your money go further and also shares how she's building her wealth through earning, saving and investing money. Queenie had a modest upbringing and was raised by her single dad, leaving home at 19 years old.

Queenie was able to go from earning minimum wage to quickly earning 6 figures and in a few short years was able to save over $100,000 for her first home deposit.

Fast forward to today, Queenie has amassed a net wealth of over $500,000 and is well on her way to financial independence, building a thriving influencer marketing company, all by the age of 26.

It's awesome to see that Queenie has been able to help so many people with her engaging content and I loved catching up with her once again! Jump on board!