306 | Myths and Misconceptions |Diania Merriam

<div class= "elementor-element elementor-element-15da9379 elementor-widget elementor-widget-theme-post-content" data-id="15da9379" data-element_type="widget" data-widget_type= "theme-post-content.default"> <div class="elementor-widget-container"> <ul> <li>Diania Merriam is the Chief Economeist behind the EconoMe conference, a two-day event at the University of Cincinnati whose roots are in the FIRE movement.</li> <li>In 2019, Diania was preparing for the launch of EconoMe in the spring of 2020. She could not have anticipated the risk of a global pandemic impacting her conference, but it was successfully held on March 7, 2020, just before the event location’s shut down. The 2020 event hosted 250 attendees and nine expert speakers.</li> <li>After putting 20 months of work into the conference, Diania was gratified to hear that 90% of participants loved the event and would recommend it to a friend.</li> <li>Getting together as a community is something that has been missed in the financial independence community over the last year. While some may label the movement as a cult, that is s misconception.</li> <li>Like many others in the financial independence community, Diania felt the need to share content to make it accessible and help those receptive to the message get their financial houses in order, much like Mr. Money Mustache did for her.</li> <li>She finds that many people have preconceived notions and assumptions, thinking that it won’t work for their personal situations, but Diania believes putting more content out there will help others it’s a mindset and there are no hard and fast rules.</li> <li>Although some may believe you have to be a white 3o-something male with a tech career to be in the FIRE movement, Brad points out that is far from the reality ChooseFI sees in its Facebook and local groups. Brad says that 90% of the responses to his weekly email are from women.</li> <li>Financial literacy is for everyone and FIRE is merely an aggressive and enthusiastic brand of it.</li> <li>Though there seems to be a