Mindful FIRE : Life Design for Financial Independence

Welcome to the Mindful FIRE Podcast, where we explore living mindfully on the path to financial independence and beyond. I’m your host Adam Coelho and I’m glad you’re here. 

In this episode, I’m again joined by my friend Morgan Bricca for Part 2 of our conversation. Today we explore the idea of “Craftsmanship”, which I think of pursuing and getting better at something for its own sake. For Morgan, her primary focus for craftsmanship is painting beautiful murals that make an impact but she has also applied craftsmanship to her blog, podcast and now a book she wrote and will release in the near future. In this episode we focus on craftsmanship as it relates to podcasting, since I’m new to the game and learning so much with every episode (BTW, thanks for being here!).

In today’s episode you’ll also learn quite a bit about me including things that even some of my close friends don’t know. That’s because Morgan turns the tables on me and starts asking me questions that make me reflect on some of the limiting beliefs I have about money, self-improvement and what it means to be and have enough. I’ve got to be honest, things get pretty real but I learned a ton about myself.

If you haven’t yet listened to Episode 6, I recommend checking it out to learn more about how Morgan applies the principles of financial independence and mindfulness in her life to live a life filled with alignment and purpose. 

As a reminder, Morgan Bricca is a mural artist, meditator, blogger, author and podcaster in the San Francisco Bay Area. She discovered Financial Independence early on in life and immediately applied the principles in her life, which allowed her to reclaim her time and ultimately leave a job that was unfulfilling to pursue being a professional mural artist. Now, Morgan enjoys life on her terms and has built a mural painting business that allows her to work part-time while earning six figures and making an impact in the community. 

In today’s episode Morgan and I dive into:

• What “Craftsmanship” means
• Why Morgan feels “Craftsmanship” is about growing and improving in the long run
• And why that means we should not put so much pressure on ourselves in the short term
• What Morgan learned from her reaction to a slow “clunker” blocking her way on the highway
• The question of “What is enough?” and how it applies to a lot more than just money
• How we can ease up and be kinder towards ourselves
• Why it’s important to invest time and money into yourself and the skills you’re interested in
• How Adam’s fear of spending money prevents him from investing in himself
• Some of the limiting beliefs Adam has discovered after many years of meditation and listening to the thoughts inside his head

And so much more. I hope you enjoy my wonderful conversation with my friend Morgan Bricca.

Join Adam Coelho for a 20 minute guided meditation in which we practice a Tibetan practice called Tonglen in which we imagine ourselves transforming suffering into love and kindness and sending that love and kindness out into the world.

During this practice we begin by calming the mind and then transition to the Tonglen practice in which we imagine ourselves breathing in suffering, transforming it into love and kindness and sending it back out into the world. We close by practicing embodying hopefulness and sending that out to those that need it most right now. I hope you find this guided practice to be supportive.

As a reminder, I will be releasing a new guided meditation practice every other week, alternating with a new podcast episode (Hit the Subscribe button!). Since this podcast is all about developing mindfulness and living the life that is ours to live, here and now, I share these practices with you in hopes you use them and grow in your own self awareness and self compassion.

I love taking requests when I lead meditations. Please share your feedback and requests for what you’d like me to focus on in the guided meditation by commenting at MindfulFIRE.org.

Please share this with your friends and write us a 5 Star review on Apple Podcasts!

Welcome to the Mindful FIRE Podcast, where we explore living mindfully on the path to financial independence and beyond. I’m your host Adam Coelho and I’m glad you’re here. 

Today I’m joined by my friend, Morgan Bricca, a mural artist, meditator, blogger, author and podcaster in the San Francisco Bay Area. Morgan discovered Financial Independence early on in life and immediately applied the principles in her life, which allowed her to reclaim her time and ultimately leave a job that was unfulfilling to pursue being a professional mural artist. Now, Morgan enjoys life on her terms and has built a mural painting business that allows her to work part-time while earning six figures and making an impact in the community. 

Morgan and I had such a great conversation in which we covered too much for just one episode. So I broke it into two parts. 

In this episode I bring you part 1 of my conversation with Morgan. In it, we explore how Morgan applies the principles of financial independence and mindfulness in her life to live a life filled with alignment and purpose. 

In 2 weeks, I’ll share part 2 of our conversation in which we explore the idea of Craftsmanship.  

In both episodes, Morgan turns the tables on me and things get pretty real. I share some of my biggest dreams and some of the limiting beliefs that have held me back from reaching my goals in the past. 

In today’s episode Morgan and I dive into:

• How reading “Your Money or Your Life” by Vicki Robin changed how Morgan thinks about money and life
• How implementing what she learned in that book set her on the path towards financial independence and allowed her to leave her unfulfilling job in IT to pursue mural painting
• How I met Morgan and how that meeting influenced my path towards my dream of designing and building my own house
• How Morgan’s desire to be of service and make an impact directs her entire life
• How Morgan has reinvented herself as a blogger, podcaster and artist to explore her passion for mural art from many angles
• Why she believes that donating money to charity is the best way to clean up your own finances and what she learned from giving away 10% of her profits early in her career
• The dangers of focusing so much on the future and reaching financial independence that we miss the lives that are ours to live right now
• The power and choice we can all gain now by being on the path to financial independence 
• Morgan’s advice on finding your purpose in life
• Morgan’s top advice for people pursuing FI
• Morgan’s top advice for people getting started with meditation and mindfulness

And so much more. I hope you enjoy my wonderful conversation with my friend Morgan Bricca.

Make sure to check out Morgan’s incredible murals by visiting her 

Join Adam Coelho for a 20 minute guided meditation practice focusing on developing mindfulness and compassion, both for yourself and others. These are challenging times and we can all use a break and a reset I hope you find this guided practice to be supportive. 

 I will be releasing a new guided meditation practice every other week, alternating with a new podcast episode (Hit the Subscribe button!). Since this podcast is all about developing mindfulness and living the life that is ours to live, here and now, I share these practices with you in hopes you use them and grow in your own self awareness and self compassion as I am as well.

I love taking requests when I lead meditations. Please share your feedback and requests for what you’d like me to focus on in the guided meditation. 

Please share this with your friends and write us a 5 Star review on Apple Podcasts!

Welcome to the Mindful FIRE Podcast, where we explore living mindfully on the path to financial independence and beyond. I’m your host Adam Coelho and I’m glad you’re here. 

On today’s episode I’m joined by my friend Laurie Stephens, the Executive Director of Hood River Education Foundation a non profit helping students in Hood River, Oregon. We had a great conversation exploring how they made it happen and how they went about designing their life both before and after retiring early including what career to pursue, where to retire to and what to do with all their free time once they made it happen. 

Today’s episode is Part 2 of  our conversation and in it we explore how Laurie and her husband Doug retired at the age of 40 and what they’ve been up to since.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How Laurie reinvented herself over and over, pursing new types of work
• The great thing about living in a small town
• How Laurie is at a crossroads in her life and how she is thinking through what's next
• How having kids impacted Laurie and Doug’s journey to FI
• How they avoided the trap of lifestyle inflation and still do
• Why it's so important to reflect on what you want and why you want it
• How we can be open and ready to receive opportunities in our life
• Why self awareness is the foundational for both mindfulness and financial independence

Today’s Mindful FIRE Final Four:

• What Laurie most grateful for
• Laurie’s top advice for people just getting started on the path to Financial Independence
• Laurie’s top advice for those approaching financial independence
• Laurie’s thoughts on how mindfulness factors into financial independence and designing a life that you love

And so much more. I hope you enjoy my wonderful conversation with my friend Laurie Stephens. 

Welcome to the Mindful FIRE Podcast, where we explore living mindfully on the path to financial independence and beyond. I’m your host Adam Coelho and I’m glad you’re here. 

On today’s episode I’m joined by my friend Laurie Stephens, the Executive Director of Hood River Education Foundation a non profit helping students in Hood River, Oregon. Today’s episode is Part 1 of conversation and in it we explore how Laurie and her husband Doug retired at the age of 40 and what they’ve been up to since. Part 2 of our conversation will be released next week so be sure to subscribe to our email list and on your favorite podcast player. 

We had a great conversation exploring how they made it happen and how they went about designing their life both before and after retiring early including what career to pursue, where to retire to and what to do with all their free time once they made it happen. 

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How Laurie and her husband Doug retired at 40 years old
• Her husband always knew that he wanted to have a life filled with play and used that desire to be intentional about his career path so he could make money and then retire to a life of play
• How Doug brought Laurie into this vision and helped her build confidence that retiring early was actually possible
• How the book “Your Money or Your Life” by Vicki Robin changed the way Laurie thought about life and money
• How Doug took 
• What they’ve been up to in the 20 years since they retired
• How Laurie has thought about pursuing her passions through several post-career careers
• How Laurie and Doug chose where they wanted to retire to
• How knowing you can always get another job is incredibly powerful in pursuing early retirement
• Laurie’s thoughts on the difference between being frugal and being cheap

And so much more. I hope you enjoy my wonderful conversation with my friend Laurie Stephens.

Welcome to the Mindful FIRE Podcast, where we explore living mindfully on the path to financial independence and beyond. I’m your host Adam Coelho and I’m glad you’re here. 

Today we talk to my friend, Spencer Sherman, a financial advisor, mindfulness teacher and owner of Abacus Wealth Partners. Spencer lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. I learned so much from Spencer in this episode and I’m excited to share it with you.   

In this show you’ll learn:

• How a huge fire in the office building where Spencer worked changed his life forever. And how and why he ran back into the building
• That most people believe that their net worth equals their self worth and how Spencer works with clients to change that belief system
• Why Spencer says that “enough” is the dirtiest word in the English language and how if we can practice “enough” in our lives we can see that we can and already do have it all, right now
• How our beliefs about money impact how we live our lives and that we can begin to change behavior just by recognizing and becoming aware of the behavior
• Some simple but powerful practices to start to bring more awareness and choice to your relationship with money and with others in relation to money. 
• Spencer’s advice to save money and have a plan but recognize that the goal is to be with your life in this moment right now. Don’t live in the future

And so much more. I hope you enjoy my wonderful conversation with my friend Spencer Sherman.

Full Show Notes | https://bit.ly/3t1Hg6r
More Inspiring Interviews | https://bit.ly/3jvhuUZ
More Guided Meditations | https://bit.ly/3mM20Ol

Welcome to the Mindful FIRE Podcast, where we explore living mindfully on the path to financial independence and beyond. I’m your host Adam Coelho and I’m glad you’re here.

Today we talk to my friend, Lori Schwanbeck, a psychotherapist, mindfulness teacher, executive coach and curriculum designer in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In this show you’ll learn about how Lori
- First got interested in mindfulness
- Switched form a career in marketing and business to one in psychotherapy and mindfulness
- Intentionally designs her business and life to focus on what interests her most
- Combines multiple streams of income to produce a livelihood that supports her and allows her to do what she loves

And she will share:
- Her top advice for those who want to develop or sustain a meditation practice
- Her top advice for those who aspire to teach mindfulness as a career or side hustle.

How to get in touch with Loriˇ
http://lorischwanbeck.com/

If you got value from this episode please subscribe.

Welcome to the Mindful FIRE Podcast, where we explore living mindfully on the path to financial independence and beyond. I’m your host Adam Coelho and I’m glad you’re here. 

Today we talk to a friend of mine, Keith Horan, a mindfulness teacher and MBSR instructor in Galway, Ireland. 

In this show you’ll learn about:

- How Keith got into mindfulness and then spent over 20 years studying and practicing meditation and mindfulness. 

- How he made the transition to teaching mindfulness professionally in schools and in businesses

- His top advice for those who practice mindfulness 

- His top advice for those who aspire to teach mindfulness to others. 

- Themindfulnesscommunity.com - A new online community Keith’s building to support people in their mindfulness practice. 

I hope you enjoy our wonderful chat.

How to get in touch with Keith

www.KeithHoran.com

Themindfulnesscommunity.com

If you got value from this episode please subscribe.

Enjoy this 15 minute focused attention guided meditation. Train your brain and your muscles of attention and meta-attention by simply observing your breath.