Financial Independence Podcast

Captain FI

On the Captain FI podcast I open the cockpit to the Best and Brightest in Personal Finance, and those who've reached or are on their way to Financial Independence. We learn the secrets of their success and explore useful tools, where I also reflect on my own journey to Financial Independence and Retiring Early.

  1. 31/12/2023

    Liz - Meet The Frugalwoods

    Today, I have the absolute pleasure to be chatting to Liz from her awesome blog and amazing book that she wrote, Meet the Frugal Woods! Anyone who's been on the Captain FI blog knows that I'm a big fan of Liz and Nate, the Frugal Woods and they are literally living my dream! They have an acreage in rural Vermont, which they call the Frugalwoods. There, they're raising their two beautiful daughters and they participate in a whole bunch of wholesome things. They're always gardening, the kids are always in the garden, and it really just looks like an awesome lifestyle. 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 nature. They were in Boston and did not feel energised, they wanted to be in the woods. 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!

    1h 19m
  2. 17/12/2023

    Phil Muscatello - Shares for Beginners

    On board today is Phil Muscatello, the host and producer of the awesome podcasts, Shares for Beginners, Stocks for Beginners, ETFs for Beginners and Talking Companies. 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 J. 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!

    1h 10m
  3. 03/12/2023

    Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung - Millennial Revolution

    On board today is Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung from Canada, also known from their popular blog, Millennial Revolution. Here's a quote from our guests, 'Money is the most important thing in the world'. Maybe a bit of a controversial take. 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 spectrum. Despite growing up in poverty and, at one point, living with her family on 44 cents a day, Kristy Shen, along with her husband Bryce Leung, went on to become self made millionaires at the ripe old age of 31 and 32, going on to retire only a few years later. Now, 40 and 41 Kristy and Bryce have spent the past decade traveling, exploring new cultures, spending time with family and friends, helping others succeed with their financial goals, and expressing their creativity as authors and publishers, both in personal finance, but also, interestingly, with children's books. How did they do it? Well, as students, analyzing potential career paths, they weighed up training costs, effort, and future salaries to work out their optimum return on investment, and the pair both very mindfully chose to work in the developing field of software engineering. Kristy's heritage taught her to avoid debt at all costs, and the importance of a high savings rate. Kristy and Bryce took it to the next level, saving and investing on average 80 percent of their large software engineer incomes over their nine-year working careers. In 2015, they pulled the plug. They retired from their engineering jobs to FIRE and travel the world together. They blog at Millennial Revolution, and have published the book, Quit like a Millionaire, which I found particularly helpful and inspiring on my journey to FIRE. They believe that money is the most important tool we have to improve our quality of life. Kristy and Bryce swear by the numbers which led them to financial freedom and enabled them to pursue their passions for travel, writing, and helping others. Jump on board, this one's a long one but Kristy and Bryce were just so inspiring to chat to!

    1h 45m
  4. 22/10/2023

    Making Sense of Cents - Michelle

    On board today is Michelle from Making Sense of Cents. Michelle reached financial independence through her online businesses and has enjoyed living a variety of interesting lifestyles post FI, including, but not limited to van life. 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 used to work as a financial analyst and documented her journey towards FI through her blog, Making Sense of Cents, which she started in 2011, so her first series of blogs was about paying off nearly $40k worth of student loans in just half a year, which is a pretty mind-boggling accomplishment in itself. Michelle went on to write tips and insights about personal finance, budgeting, and how she was able to make more money which helped her to pay down these debts so quickly, and then she was able to turn this cash firehose into building her wealth. 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 don't often see online. Jump on board, I learned a lot from Michelle!

    1h 7m

About

On the Captain FI podcast I open the cockpit to the Best and Brightest in Personal Finance, and those who've reached or are on their way to Financial Independence. We learn the secrets of their success and explore useful tools, where I also reflect on my own journey to Financial Independence and Retiring Early.

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