Don’t Waste Freedom, with Diania Merriam

Money Tales

In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Diania Merriam. In her 20s, Diania felt like she was wasting her privilege. She was an educated white woman in a first world country with a good job, yet Diania was living paycheck to paycheck and running up a mound of debt. She decided something had to change. Diania made a mindset shift and became a supersaver. She got creative and resourceful about meeting her needs and developed a brand-new relationship with money.

Diania Merriam is the founder of The EconoMe Conference, a party about money designed specifically for the FIRE movement (financial independence, retire early). She’s also the host of the popular podcast Optimal Finance Daily where she narrates articles from the best personal finance blogs on the planet. After getting out of $30k of debt in 11 months, Diania used her newfound financial freedom to negotiate a remote working arrangement with her employer, take a two-month sabbatical to walk 500 miles across northern Spain on the Camino de Santiago and launch her own business.