Saving up a bunch of money gives you power - power you can use to make your life better and your journey to financial independence quicker. The only way to take advantage of the power though is to use it. Full Article: https://www.madfientist.com/power-of-quitting ..read more

If you want to use money to make you happier, stop thinking about what you can buy with it. Instead, think about how you can use it to remove the things in your life that make you unhappy. Full Article:  https://www.madfientist.com/happiness-through-subtraction ..read more

I have some big news… I am now a British citizen! In honor of finally getting my UK passport, and therefore completing this long journey to citizenship, I am releasing my UK FIRE episode. Barney, from The Escape Artist, joined me in my Edinburgh apartment (before the pandemic) to discuss all things related to financial independence and early retirement in the UK. Hope you enjoy it! Highlights The cultural differences between US/UK that affect pursuing FI How to escape from the prison we create for ourselves Translating US investing terminology to the UK (e.g. 401k→pension, IRA→ISA, etc ..read more

If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll know that I’ve released an annual update every year since I quit my job. It’s now been five years since I stopped working so this is my fifth (and final) annual update. Why is it my final one? I explain in today’s short episode. Highlights How the pandemic highlighted the power of having savings Why FI is the ultimate shock absorber and cheat code The reasons this annual update will be my last What to do when money is no longer a source of motivation Why “Lean FIRE” may be a bad idea Warren Buffet’s plan for leaving money to his kids (and why it may c ..read more

On today’s episode of the Financial Independence Podcast, I finally got to interview the person who introduced me to the concept of financial independence and early retirement in the first place… Jacob Lund Fisker from Early Retirement Extreme! To my mind, Jacob is the founder of the modern-day “FIRE movement” so hope you enjoy the interview! Highlights What Jacob has been up to since stepping away from ERE His experience being a financial quant and how it impacted his personal investing The problem with set-it-and-forget-it index investing The importance of staying flexible with your investi ..read more

Last year, I conducted an experiment in Ultralearning that I hoped would help me achieve a lifelong dream of mine of writing and releasing an album. I’m happy to say it was far more successful than I ever imagined it would be! As I mentioned in the initial Ultralearning podcast episode, the hope for the 3-month experiment was that it would accelerate my progress towards my goal and make the process more enjoyable. Well, it did all that and more… I ended up finishing a song during that 3-month experiment and I can’t believe it but I just released that single today! Not only did I write a song d ..read more

It’s been four years since I left my full-time job and what a crazy year it’s been! To celebrate this anniversary and to recap the things I’ve learned during this last year of post-FI life (and the COVID market crash), I recorded a short podcast episode ..read more

Bear markets are a normal part of investing but is this time different? As the coronavirus COVID-19 spreads around the world, governments are struggling to limit the economic impact of the disease. In today’s unplanned episode of the Financial Independence Podcast, JL Collins (author of The Simple Path to Wealth) joins me to talk about this stock-market crash, how it differs from previous crashes, and what you should do about it. Note: Apologies for the audio quality of this episode. Since this wasn’t planned in advance, I didn’t have my normal microphone so I had to use the microphone on my i ..read more

On today’s episode of the Financial Independence Podcast, I’m excited to introduce Scott Young! I first heard about Scott when he decided to complete MIT's entire computer science curriculum in a year. Scott has taken on a lot of these types of impressive learning projects and he just wrote a great book about it – Ultralearning. As you know, I’m attempting to tackle a very intimidating project myself so what better way to kick off that effort than with my own 3-month ultralearning project! In today’s interview, we dive into the details of ultralearning and we design a new ultralearning pr ..read more

I can’t believe it but it’s already been three years since I left my full-time job! To commemorate this special anniversary and to recap the things I’ve learned during this last year of post-FI life (which happened to be the best one yet), I recorded a short podcast episode ..read more