Diania Merriam joins Marcus and Rich on the podcast today. Diania is the creator of EconoMe. EconoME is a one-day conference aimed at reclaiming the American Dream. The American Dream started as an idea that every person had the right to pursue his or her own idea of happiness. EconoMe is about reclaiming that right! While EconoMe has roots in the FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early), EconoME really believes that happiness comes from freedom, creativity and community. It subscribes to a new American Dream that doesn’t necessarily include excessive material possessions, conveniences or money.

In today’s episode Diania talks about her journey into getting out of $30,000 of personal debt and what gave her the motivation to pay it off by aggressively saving 60% of her income. Her debt journey and her philosophy about the American Dream led her to create EconoMe.

Highlights: 

• Being 8 years away from being financially independent
• Money Mustache, the blog that started it all for Diania
• Saving 60% of income to aggressively pay off debt
• Focusing on a goal gives you a real reason to start saving
• 25x your yearly expenses, the magic number for being financially independent
• Investing via low cost index funds
• Maxing out retirement accounts
• Planning and launching a conference

Key Takeaway: The American Dream doesn’t have to include excessive material items and money. The American Dream is really living your ideal lifestyle and working on things that you want to do, not things that you have to do.

Paychecks & Balances

Website: https://paychecksandbalances.com/

https://www.patreon.com/paybalances

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paybalances/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paychecksandbalances

Twitter: https://twitter.com/paybalances?lang=en

EconoMe

Website: https://economeconference.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EconoMeConference/