How I Retired in My Mid-30s While Working Just 4 Hours a Week

What if you could retire early, working just FOUR hours a week? Well, Coast FIRE achiever Diania Merriam is doing just that! After a decade of grinding away in corporate America, Diania had almost nothing to show for it. She was thirty thousand dollars in debt, wishing she could go on the trip of a lifetime, but realizing she had no funds to do it. She put her head down, became debt-free, and started paying attention to her personal finances. Now, in her mid-thirties, she’s successfully self-employed (or unemployed if you ask her), doing what she wants, when she wants.
But how did Diania come up with enough money to leave her job? The answer is surprising. She didn’t have millions in the bank to live off of forever; thankfully, she didn’t need some massive amount of cash (and neither do YOU) to retire early. Diania asks, “Do you have enough to take a risk?” because chances are, you do, and if so, you could be living the Coast FIRE lifestyle, just like Diania, working four hours a week, doing what you love.
Want to cut your nine-to-five schedule by ninety percent and start doing the things that you’re most passionate about? Stick around because if you follow Diania’s footsteps, you could retire early, too!
~~~~
Join BiggerPockets for FREE 👇
www.biggerpockets.com/signup?...
~~~~
Find an Investor-Friendly Agent in Your Area:
biggerpockets.com/agentmatch
~~~~
Find Investor-Friendly Lenders:
biggerpockets.com/findlenders
~~~~
Watch More Episodes of the FIRE Show:
• The FIRE Show
~~~~
FI: More Than Retirement, a Chance to Take Risks w/ Diania Merriam:
www.biggerpockets.com/blog/bi...
~~~~
Read the “Mr. Money Mustache” Blog:
www.mrmoneymustache.com/
~~~~
Connect with Diania:
Conference: www.eventbrite.com/e/590550882587/?discount=BIGGERPOCKETS
Instagram: @economecon or / economecon
Podcast: oldpodcast.com/optimal-financ...
~~~~
Connect with Mindy on BiggerPockets:
Mindy: www.biggerpockets.com/users/m...
~~~~
Follow Mindy and BiggerPockets on Instagram:
Mindy: @mindyatbp or / mindyatbp
BiggerPockets: @biggerpockets or / biggerpockets
00:00 $30K in Debt!
03:04 Quitting Her "Toxic" Job
09:06 What About Health Insurance!?
11:45 How Much Diania Makes
15:42 Ultimate Time Flexibility
20:36 You Already Have ENOUGH Money!
25:07 Connect with Diania!

[@beaglebrigade]

i enjoyed this. Thank you!

[@libbyzona]

Great episode! ❤

[@saundrayoung2745]

Love this, very encouraging!

[@alagify2]

What an amazing episode Mindy! Her mindset is off the charts. Scarcity mindset is the root of many personal financial goals. It's a big misconception that one's happiness is somehow related to not having to work when we need to teach future generations a good work ethic. Children learn by modeling. Thanks again for another life lesson 🙏🏿

[@laurenarington2431]

Do you have rent or a mortgage? Just trying to figure out basic living expenses to only make $1200/mo. Are you living off of interest of a large lump sum?

[@BrianSchoedel]

Great episode

[@hunter_69_69]

7:02 Heck yeah... that's the power of "f*ck you money."

[@RosanaR2011]

Thank you… unemployed and this resonated!

[@ayshapm7321]

$1200 per month ? , I would be living in a tent here in Cali. How do you pay your utility bills ?

[@angaudlinn]

From work - yes. But add dividents and/or returns from investments to that.

[@Kittenmom2]

I agree with the part of how much money do you need to take risks? I would like to see her $1200 break down. A lot of us have kids so unfortunately this is not realistic for most of us.

[@MikeAffholder]

When and what is the conference called in Cincinnati?

[@Monkey-oy1us]

Great episode! The overarching message is incredible and difficult to achieve among FI folks

[@Jerome-iwnl]

I'd say for most people, you would need to sacrifice until you're 25. Then from 26-35, you can have a balance of work and life enjoyment.

[@jorgitodes8703]

good for her ...I'm in my 50s and still on the Hamster Wheel - and don;t even have memories of anything outside of work -

[@travis7974]

Love this episode! FU money…..yes please!!!

[@amycolucci6769]

My favorite video ever !!!!!!!!!!!

[@The_NomadNinja]

Did MMM ever end up creating the ultimate face punching machine?

[@SarahWilley838]

Would love to see an assessment of the "what about insurance" or exploration of how medical expenses factor in that takes into account those with chronic medical conditions. At the very least a disclaimer that you're exploring it from the perspective of an extremely healthy individual/family that doesn't need much. My partner and I have at least 8 monthly prescriptions between us, and in addition to regular visits with our primary care we each have recurring visits with specialists to manage ongoing medical concerns. It took me longer than it should have to do my research, but we are now both self-employed and using a marketplace plan - we could still make it work but it just looks a lot different than it would if we didn't have these ongoing things and could opt for a high-deductible plan.

[@kristinabeerz7077]

You also have to work to get Social Security.😊 I'm sorry you need to work so you have when your old.

[@aprilvancleve9463]

Agree... You need to do something to make an income.

[@Jerome-iwnl]

I would caution everyone to consider: Do you want to get married. Do you want kids. How many kids do you want. How healthy are you and can you avoid medical bills. These are factors that could multiply your cost of living by a lot. Especially if you think about retirement. In my situation, my FI number is at least 5X bigger because I want to have a family and kids.

[@angaudlinn]

Intelligent, Creative, Generous - well, thinks. :D

[@mrniceguy423]

I like the creative mindset philosophy. However, I was curious about the story of your company being taken over by men and you being paid less than the men. From a business perspective it wouldn't matter what you have between your legs as long as you're selling. You said you were in sales. Wasn't your compensation based on commission or how much you sell? It's not like customers pay less because the person selling to them is a woman. I'm a little confused there.

[@Kornheiser10]

Sadly a relatively worthless episode because without disclosing a general net worth she entered into her "retirement from her corporate job," you can't begin to asses if it translates to you. She talks about Roth conversions as income so she has traditional retirement account(s)....she could have answered what she considered was "enough," but didn't. Lot of talk, no show.

[@theChef1337]

Lol this episode clearly went over your head. Its not about the numbers, its about your mindset.

[@Kornheiser10]

@theChef1337 mindset is irrelevant if you don't have the base idea of "how much." This is supposed to help.others by her path, but if she wasxsitting with 2 million in assets from her jobs before she stepped away, it's setting up a false narrative that "you too can be like me," as was the premise for the episode. Lack of honesty as to how she actually started her journey makes it a fairy tale, not something instructive...but if false dreams help, good luck.

[@theChef1337]

you have to determine your own personal “number”. basing it on other people is pointless because your lifestyle is your own and unique, not to mention personal risk tolerance, skill sets, life situation , and other variables that would determine when to leave your job. There are no rules when it comes to making life changes. With regards to the roth conversations, you could probably just look up the tax thresholds online and do some basic math to get a rough idea of some strategies she is using. Im sorry that you found the message of shifting your mindset to be able to make meaningful changes in your life to be “relatively worthless”

[@theChef1337]

Also, they literally say she has a net worth of around 500k in the first 30 seconds of the video.

[@Kornheiser10]

@theChef1337 it's rainbows and unicorns wrapped is a tale of "success." Let's see where she in 5 years...but that won't tell us anything because we have no clue where she started her journey. Just another example of survivorship bias. Put on some people who tried and failed, and then there would be useful information on what to avoid. Her story provides nothing useful as the law of large numbers dictates that you have people like her.

[@youarehere1251]

Sugar daddy wanted.