This 35-year-old has a net worth of $470,000 and is semi-retired—and she only works 7.5 hours a week

Talking to Diania Merriam, you'd ne'er conjecture that the semi-retired big of a finance-centric podcast ever had problems with money.

But the 35-year-old says that conscionable a fewer years ago, she was "completely financially illiterate."

Merriam spent her 20s successful Brooklyn, New York, wherever she earned $135,000 a twelvemonth moving successful the user goods industry. She focused connected moving hard and making money, alternatively than connected spending what she did person responsibly.

"At my worst, I was astir apt spending astir $2,000 to $3,000 a period conscionable going retired and partying," she tells CNBC Make It. "I was going retired for drinks aft work. I was going retired to meal each night. I was partying beauteous hard and I conscionable simply was not paying attraction to wherever my wealth was going."

Before she knew it, Merriam had racked up $15,000 successful recognition paper indebtedness to spell on with the $15,000 she inactive had near implicit from her pupil loans.

For years, the indebtedness didn't fuss her. But successful 2016, erstwhile she decided she wanted to instrumentality connected Spain's celebrated Camino de Santiago, a 500-mile trek that takes a mates of weeks to hike, the situation inspired her to yet tackle her indebtedness arsenic well.

"I don't deliberation I had the ambition of retiring early," Merriam says. "I conscionable knew that I wanted to get retired of debt. I wanted to locomotion the Camino and I wanted to find immoderate fiscal stability."

She realized her nutrient spending had gotten retired of power and acceptable astir trying to trim it down.

"I started bringing luncheon to enactment each day, cooking breakfast, luncheon and meal and truly focusing connected those nutrient costs," she says. She besides traded costly nights retired for hosting meal parties astatine her apartment.

With her accrued savings, Merriam was capable to wage disconnected her indebtedness successful conscionable 11 months. From there, she decided to enactment each the wealth she was redeeming toward her investments and began pursuing FIRE, which stands for "Financial Independence, Retire Early." 

She moved to Ohio successful 2017, leaving Brooklyn down successful favour of a slower gait of beingness successful Cincinnati. 

"I went from paying $1,800 a period for a cockroach-infested flat successful Brooklyn to paying a $600 owe successful the nicest spot I've ever lived," she says.

By January of 2021, Merriam near what she calls "W-2 work" successful favour of hosting a podcast, which is produced by a squad of respective individuals, wherever she reads assorted idiosyncratic concern blogs aloud. She presently has a nett worthy of astir $470,000, including astir $350,000 successful savings and investments, and earns astir $3,000 per period from the podcast. She works astir 7½ hours per week. 

Merriam describes her existent fiscal concern arsenic "Coast-Fi," a breakoff of the FIRE movement. Being Coast-Fi means she lone needs to gain capable wealth to screen her expenses due to the fact that she already has capable savings and investments to enactment herself erstwhile she reaches a accepted status age.

For now, Merriam is blessed to stay Coast-Fi and isn't actively trying to afloat retire. Her $2,000 monthly walk — which includes her mortgage, car and different expenses — is little than what she was spending going retired with friends successful New York and gives her flexibility connected however she spends her time. 

The process of eliminating her indebtedness and past pursuing FIRE, she says, gave her a caller position connected her narration with money.

"It decidedly helped maine spot however wasteful I was being," she says. "That acquisition showed maine I didn't truly person an income problem, I had a spending and wealth absorption problem."

Watch the video supra to larn much astir Diania Merriam's story.

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