Podcasts for The FIRED (or Retired)

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Last Updated on July 22, 2024 by Carolyn

Changing Listening Habits

As I cross over into the “RE”  (retire early) side of FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early), I’m finding my podcast listening habits are changing. Investing shows such as “Afford Anything” and “Bigger Pockets Money” no longer interest me, after all, you can only cloak discussions on “Should I invest in a traditional or Roth IRA”, “What are ways to Generate Passive income”, “Do I Have Enough to Retire” in so many ways, and then it gets old. Very old.  I find myself very disinterested in ways of earning money and would rather listen to podcasts on living life to its fullest.

As one Reddit poster commented:

“I never listen to financial podcasts as they’re not worth the effort once you learn everything you need to. Too many other good things to listen to in life.”

-EliminatethePenny

I sympathize with this poster’s words. Once you have enough to retire, you more than likely have the knowledge you need to preserve your wealth and get on with living. So where the the Podcasts for the FIRED?

An Empty Podcast Library

I love listening to Podcasts but suddenly I was searching for different material: material on travel, living life, and purposeful living. When shows I used to lap up eagerly aired, I’d find my mind wandering, they failed to hold my attention and I was genuinely disinterested.

Then the quest to fill my podcast library with engaging, interesting material started. I found that though there is a ginormous number of podcasts out there very few deliver good engaging content; some of the content was good but the presenter was BORING or didn’t have a good podcast voice, others would tackle a good topic but would fail to deliver a good discussion.  I love to listen to Podcasts as I drive and I was desperate for some stimulating listening material to fill my library.

Ask the FIRE Creators what they Listen To

That’s when I had the idea to ask the FIRE creators and specifically the creators who have reached “FI”, “What podcasts do you listen to?”  Most of these creators have reached Fire and are just creating to keep entertained or to genuinely help people.  I thought surely they’re not talking about IRA strategies?

I also took my question to some public forums such as Reddit, Finally FI on Facebook, and the Mr. Money Mustache forum. There are hundreds of people on these forums who are RE, many are podcast listeners, what are they listening to?

I was curious to see if there are common listening habits among the FIRE creators and followers who no longer have to worry about FIRE or would they all have migrated to pursuing podcasts about their hobbies and personal interests.

Let’s see how they replied

Carl Jenson

Carl Jenson should need no introduction he is the face behind the blog 1500days,  as well as the podcast Mile Hi Fi.  Here is Carl’s most listened-to podcast list with his comments:

1) Tesla Daily: Tesla is a fascinating company and in this podcast, Rob Mauer gives unbiased information about the state of the company.

2) Animal Spirits: Investing! Some of the information goes over my head, but the hosts are really fun to listen to.

3) Mad FIentist: It’s been awesome to follow Brandon’s life as he figures out money and life.

4) Freakonomics: Thought-provoking insights on random stuff.

5) Lex Fridman: Great interviewer who isn’t afraid to ask uncomfortable questions.

Chris Hutchins

Chris Hutchins is the creator of All the Hacks, the podcast where you can learn all the hacks to upgrade your life, money, and travel. These are his favourites, in no particular order:

Animal Spirits

All-in: All things economic, tech, political, social, and poker.

Frequent Miler on the Air: Frequent Miler is all about getting the most out of the points and miles world.

Macro Voices: Weekly commentary on the world of finance and macroeconomics.

The Daily: This is what the news should sound like. The biggest stories of our time, told by the best journalists in the world.,

Roger Whitney

Roger of Retirement Answer Man says he listens primarily to the following 3 podcasts:

Deep Questions: The impact of technology on society and the struggle to work and live deeply.

Heroic: Features the best big ideas from life-changing books to help you move from theory to practice to mastery and flourish in energy, work, and love.

Hardcore History: Dan Carlin’s immersive storytelling and  unique approach to historical explanation

Brad Barret

Brad Barret is a familiar name to many FIRE podcast listeners, he’s the host of Choose FI. Brad says these are his top 5 podcasts:

Tim Ferriss Show: In this show, he deconstructs world-class performers from eclectic areas (investing, chess, pro sports, etc.), digging deep to find the tools, tactics, and tricks that listeners can use.

My First Million: Sam Parr and Shaan Puri brainstorm new business ideas based on trends & opportunities they see in the market. 

The Prof G Pod: Scott Galloway combines business insight and analysis with provocative life and career advice.

Huberman Lab: discusses neuroscience — how our brain and its connections with the organs of our body control our perceptions, our behaviors, and our health.

Modern Wisdom: Life lessons from the greatest thinkers on the planet.

Grant Sabatier

Grant Sabatier is the man behind Millennialmoney.com, where Grant shares his rags-to-riches story and his financial wisdom. His top listens are:

Lex Fridman: Conversations about science, technology, history, philosophy and the nature of intelligence, consciousness, love, and power.

We Study Billionaires: Interviews with and study of famous financial billionaires,

My First Million: Sam Parr and Shaan Puri brainstorm new business ideas based on trends & opportunities they see in the market

Fritz Gilbert

Fritz Gilbert hails from the Retirement Manifesto.

This is his reply to my email:

“ You’re spot on with your statement that “when early retirement is attained our listening habits change.” 

I was an avid podcast listener for the last 5 years of my working years, due mostly to my 1.5-hour commute (each way).  I listened on 2X speed and consumed thousands of hours on podcasts, the majority of which were focused on personal finance and retirement.

Now that I’m retired, I don’t listen to podcasts anymore!”

Hard to believe how drastic the change has been, but with the elimination of my drive I simply don’t have a time that suits me for listening.  When I’m hiking, I’d rather listen to the birds.  When I’m working out, I do online classes and need to hear the instructor.  When I’m walking the dogs, I like to be present with them.  The list goes on and on.”

Fritz Gilbert

You-Tubers

Following I ask some FIRE creators who use mostly YouTube and other social media to spread their messages; on their channels these creators share their lifestyle pre-fire and after fire, and share with us their nomadic lifestyles.

Amy Rutherford

Amy comes to us from the Youtube Channel: Gowithless where she and her husband Tim, share their Nomadic life, Travel hacking, and FIRE lifestyle. Amy also is the admin for the Facebook Gowithless group.

When I first asked Amy if she’d participate she replied:

“We haven’t talked about FIRE on our channel for years.
Today’s my 9-year FIRE anniversary. I say it’s like having teenagers and talking about toddlers on a parenting channel/podcast. We’ve been doing it so long, we covered everything we wanted to and moved to new stuff.”

And I told her that’s exactly why I’m writing this post as many of us have done the same.

Amy says she loves to watch the following creators on YouTube:

Our Freedom Years for wonderful nomadic travel videos

Sebastian Maniscalco for LOL humor videos

The TIN Lounge podcast for  travel agent education

Steve Keys

Steve & Lauren Keys of Tripofalifestyle.com may not be household names to many readers but they should be! They are the true personification of FIRE, having achieved financial independence at the age of 29. They now spend their time pursuing their passions of writing and travel.

Steve says he listens to:

How I Built This: Guy Raz interviews the world’s best-known entrepreneurs to learn how they built their iconic brands.

Hidden Brain: Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behaviour, shape our choices, and direct our relationships.

Freakonomics Radio where Stephen J Dubner uncovers the hidden side of everything.

Choose Fi-FIRE podcaster’s FIRE podcast on how to make work optional via financial independence.

Stephanie & Gillian

Stephanie & Gillian of Ourfreedomyears are an LGBT couple who have a great channel on youtube about their nomadic life. Their favourite podcasts are:

Queer Money: How Gay People Do Money

Sustainable Minimalists: Creating eco-minimalist, non-toxic homes (without the extra work)

Zero to Travel: Packed with life-changing perspectives, inspiration, and practical advice for everyone from travel newbies to nomads

Badass Digital Nomads: Helps you break free from old paradigms and thrive in a location-independent lifestyle.

Design Her Travel: Inspiring you to live the life of your dreams and incorporate more travel into your daily life.

FIRE Followers Listening Habits

This sums up the responses from the creators themselves.  I thought it might be interesting to pose this same question on some public FIRE Forums including Reddit “Financial Independence” , Mr Money Mustache’s Post-Fire subforum as well as the Facebook group “FinallyFI”.

There were hundreds of podcasts mentioned but  those most mentioned across all the public forums are:

• Mad Fientist
• The Retirement Answer Man
• Afford Anything with Paula Pant
• The Clark Howard Show
• The Retirement and IRA show
• Retirement Planning Education
• Choose FI
• I Will Teach you to be Rich
• Stacking Benjamins

I was shocked at this list as it contains a fair number of FIRE podcasts. But upon further deliberation, I concluded FIRE is what this group of readers had in common so it would make sense that the shows listed more often would be FIRE-related.

My Top 5 Podcasts

I would be remiss if I didn’t list what tops my podcast playlist. I listen to a diverse selection of podcasts but my most listened-to shows are:

The Journey On Podcast: Powerful conversations and mindful nuggets of wisdom define The Journey On Podcast by Warwick Schiller

All the Hacks

Living Planet:  Living Planet brings you the stories, facts and debates on the key environmental issues of our time.

Rewildology: Conservation, sustainability, wild travel stories.

The Urban Farm Podcast-, your partner in the Grow Your Own Food revolution! 

Most Popular Podcasts amongst All Respondents

To complete this foray into the listening habits of the FIRED, here are the top five most-listened podcasts amongst the replies from all sources (both creators and listeners)

The number one most listened to show is the Mad Fientest appearing multiple times on both the creator’s lists and the public forums lists.

Runners-up include:

Choose FI

The Retirement Answer Man

Afford Anything

Animal Spirits

Lex Fridman

What Do You Listen To?

There you have it, an insider’s scoop on the listening habits of the FIREd creators. Which podcasts will you be adding to your playlist?  Do you want to mention a favourite podcast not included here? Please feel free to add it in the comments section.

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