Hello and welcome to the very first episode of The FIRED Podcast. I’m Cat LeBlanc, your host and I’m excited to be uncovering the stories of the people we’ll be meeting on this podcast together.

You may know me already from my business podcast Your Business, Your Rules, but this is something completely different.

This podcast is centres around the FIRE movement – which stands for Financial Independence Retire Early.

If you’re familiar with the FIRE movement you may have some opinions about it – positive or negative. If you haven’t heard of FIRE I’ll have another episode coming up explaining exactly what it is.

My aim with this podcast is not to tell you what to do, but to uncover and share the human stories of people from different walks of life who have reached the ultimate freedom goal – the goal of no longer needing to go to work (or run a business) to have an income and live a good life.

This doesn’t mean our guests don’t work, it just means they don’t have to.

Many people who have ‘FIRED’ meaning reached financial independence, go on to do voluntary work, write books, create blogs helping others, build foundations, get themselves a part time role or even full time more fulfilling work.

I plan to be speaking with people in different countries, from different backgrounds who’ve been able to make this big goal happen for themselves.

  • What was the turning point when they decided this path was for them?
  • What did they do to get there?
  • What mistakes did they make and what would they do differently?
  • Are they finding a quiet life is for them or are they immersing themselves in something new?
  • How did they deal with losing the connection and status that went with their job or business?
  • Did they go back to work?
  • Did they move country, go travelling or stay where they are?
  • How did they tell their friends? Did they tell their friends?
  • Were they scared when it came to pulling the pin or did they moonwalk out the office never to return?
  • And after they had some time to decompress, what did they find themselves wanting to do next?

As well as chatting with the big names in the industry many of who have their own blogs I want to share the stories of the quiet rule-breakers.

The next-door neighbour that everyone thinks is unemployed because he’s home all day or the woman who introduces herself a housewife because she’s gone undercover and knows how confusing the words ‘financially independent’ are to people.

The people who did this on high incomes, but also the people who likely had to work harder, but managed to do it on a lower income.

Then there’s the adventurers… the ones who moved to a tiny house to be able to make this happen, or maybe they are living on a boat!

While I am 100% aware that the financial independence path is not a possibility for everyone and I think it’s important to acknowledge that, I am excited to find and share stories from people in as broad a range of all walks of life as possible and to have a broader discussion around what FIRE can look like.

Nothing on this podcast will be financial advice but what it will be is real stories of real people sharing with you, the listener, different paths that have been walked before you so you can think about what you want for yourself.

Let’s get started.