Six-Figure Salary to Broke to FIRE (My Journey)

#009: There's a gut-wrenching feeling you get when you realise your dream is going to die. Quietly. Financially.

This is the episode I haven't told properly until now. The full story, from a six-figure corporate law career in London, to quitting everything to become a personal trainer and mountain leader, to watching my savings drain to almost nothing, to a failed luxury retreat that cost me ten thousand pounds, to a relationship breakdown that left me financially exposed, to six months as a digital nomad across Mexico, Argentina and Bali, to bootstrapping a law firm in Singapore during COVID, to the evening I plugged my numbers into a spreadsheet and realised financial independence was years closer than I ever imagined.

This isn't the highlight reel. It's the wrong turns, the shame, the financial freefall, and what I actually learned from all of it.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• The corporate law career that looked right but felt hollow
• Climbing Denali and the month that changed everything
• Quitting with £35,000 and thinking it was enough
• Building a fitness business that passion alone couldn't sustain
• The relationship breakdown that taught me what financial resilience really means
• The nomad chapter: Playa del Carmen, Buenos Aires, Canggu, Ubud
• Relocating to Singapore and discovering FIRE during COVID lockdown
• The spreadsheet moment I checked four times
• A six-month sabbatical that didn't fix me but showed me what needed fixing
• Why hitting milestones didn't make me feel free - and what was actually missing
• What still scares me and what excites me about what's ahead

THIS EPISODE IS FOR YOU IF:

• You're in a high-income career wondering if this is it
• You've thought about quitting but don't have a plan underneath the fantasy
• You've made financial mistakes you haven't told anyone about
• You're building toward FIRE but starting to wonder what actually comes after the number
• You've been running away from something and calling it running toward something

The biggest lesson from this whole story: following your passion isn't wrong. Doing it without the financial infrastructure is what makes it unsustainable. And hitting your number doesn't make you free - knowing who you are without the job is what makes you free.

Life After Enough is a weekly podcast about money, meaning, and who you become when work becomes optional.

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