Today is the last Friday of the month and my regular listeners know that on the last Friday of the month, I host the happy hour on the podcast where I gather great friends with me to drink cheap drinks and talk about money topics. Since the beginning of this podcast, which now dates back over 8 years, we always had a set group of people who joined me for Happy Hour. 

Starting in 2023, we’re going to test out a rotating one or two seats for Happy Hour. This decision has come because of a few reasons, first of all, the monthly commitment required to co-host the happy hour is difficult for people to make when they have other businesses and interests as these seats are voluntary and there is no financial payment provided for the happy hour guests. Secondly, I’ve heard for years many of you wanting to join a happy hour and share your thoughts and honestly, I’d love to hear them because I have shared drinks with many of you in person and would love to also do it virtually and finally, this is a great way for us to amplify many of the voices in this community and discuss topics that you’re passionate about. 

Joining us for this month’s happy hour is long time listener, Liana. Liana joins us today to talk about her pursuit of FIRE or Financial Independence, Retire Early, and the various types of FIRE movement now. I love how the FI movement has grown to welcome many different paths and we discuss which FI path we’re on during the show. 

For more information, visit the show notes at https://www.martinisandyourmoney.com/show-notes/episode466-what-is-fire

Nine years ago this year, I started this podcast as a bet and it was one of the greatest decisions of my life. Over the past nine years, I’ve learned more than I ever imagined I could about money, cocktails, people and so much more. My tagline for the show is “Living a better life one cocktail at a time” and this show has helped me live a better life by allowing me to have these conversations, to share them with you and to build this community of amazing people on a journey of financial health and beyond. While I don’t utilize the show as a source of income, podcasting can certainly give you the opportunity to take a side hustle or a passion into a main hustle and my guests today did just that. 

Joining me are Aine and Kevin, the co-creators and co-hosts of the Murder Sheet podcast. They joined me to talk about how they took their backgrounds as a lawyer and a journalist and applied it to their podcast and ultimately how they were able to make the podcast their full-time job. And now here’s Aine and Kevin. 

For more information, visit the show notes at https://www.martinisandyourmoney.com/show-notes/episode465

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been seeing and hearing more about Artificial Intelligence, where it’s being utilized, how it’s having a positive effect in many industries but also how it’s negatively impacting people. Part of being financially healthy is being vigilant about you and your data and how people can use that against you and certainly AI can have an impact on your finances. 

Joining me today is Financial Gym client Paige, who’s spent the last three years studying and researching the impacts of AI especially through an ethical lens. She joins me to share what we should look out for, what we need to know and how we can protect ourselves. I have to tell you that if you’re someone who struggles with anxiety, this conversation could be filled with numerous triggers so you may want to proceed with caution, but it’s a conversation that I believe is important to listen to. 

For more information, visit the show notes at https://www.martinisandyourmoney.com/show-notes/episode464

A recent Financial Health Network Survey from 2022 found that only 23% of women are considered financially healthy. There are a number of reasons for this, but one of the main reasons is that women are typically more likely to be preyed upon, especially when it comes to schemes like MLMs or multi-level marketing companies. If you’re not sure what they are, they’re essentially a pyramid scheme disguised as a business opportunity for people. At the Financial Gym, we’ve unfortunately seen the negative financial impacts participating in an MLM have had on hundreds of our members. 

Joining me today is Roberta Blevins, host of the podcast Life After MLM to share what the experience was like for her and how you can spot and avoid MLM’s and if you’re in one, how and why you should get out of it. This was one of the most fascinating conversations I’ve had in a while and I hope this helps you or those you love learn more about these horrible companies. 

For more information, visit the show notes at https://www.martinisandyourmoney.com/show-notes/episode463

The journey to become a Financial Gym member for everyone starts with our Warm Up Call process. If you’ve been to our website, it’s the free call you’re encouraged to sign up for. Full disclosure, I am someone who would be unlikely to sign up for any free call, so if you’re someone who’s skeptical about it, I completely understand. Which is why today’s podcast is dedicated to the Warm-Up Call and educating more about the process for others who may not understand the need for it. 

Joining me are Colleen and Kristen who are both current Financial Gym clients and actively work as warm-up callers to share why they decided to become a warm up caller, what to expect on the call and why they love being on the other end of the warm up call process. And now here’s Colleen and Kristen. 

For more information, visit the show notes at https://www.martinisandyourmoney.com/show-notes/episode462