Episode 165

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Published on:

23rd Apr 2025

You’re Financially Free But It Doesn’t Feel Like It | E165 Shannah Game

You’ve run the numbers a hundred times. You’ve built the spreadsheets, projected the growth, and calculated your safe withdrawal rate down to the decimal. On paper, money isn’t an issue. You should feel secure.

But you don’t.

Because even though the math checks out, the feeling doesn’t. The scarcity mindset, the one that pushed you to save relentlessly, doesn’t just disappear when you achieve FI. Instead, it lingers, making you question if it’s really enough.

That’s why I’m excited to have Shannah Game on the show today. She’s a Certified Financial Planner and host of Everyone’s Talkin’ Money. Shannah has helped countless people break free from the mental traps that keep them feeling financially insecure, even when their numbers say otherwise.

In this episode, Shannah is going to help us tackle that nagging sense of “not enough” and share strategies to shift from a scarcity mindset to one of confidence and abundance.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with the cupcake-making, money-talking millennial…Shannah Game.

Key Takeaways:

  • Why you never feel like you have enough (even when you do)
  • How to unlearn financial habits you inherited from your parents
  • Why transparency in the FI community might fuel the comparison trap
  • Strategies to shift from scarcity to abundance
  • A powerful journal prompt for overcoming scarcity
  • How to practice mindful money moments


More of Shannah:

Podcast: https://everyonestalkinmoney.com/episodes/


More of FI Minded:

Connect with Justin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinleepeters/

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About the Podcast

FI Minded - Financial Independence, Early Retirement & Lifestyle Design
Achieve Financial Independence & Have Fun Doing It
Pursuing financial independence, financial freedom, or early retirement often leads to the same questions: How do I become financially independent? How much should I save? What happens after I reach FI?

FI Minded helps you use money to create more freedom, without turning your entire life into a financial optimization project.

Host Justin Peters explores the decisions behind building a flexible, work-optional life, from reaching financial independence and navigating Coast FI and Slow FI to spending your money, changing careers, stepping away from work, and figuring out what comes after FI.

Each episode combines practical personal finance with conversations about early retirement, lifestyle design, work, spending, healthcare, self-employment, and life after financial independence. The goal isn't simply to reach FI as quickly as possible. It's to make progress toward financial freedom while actually enjoying your life along the way.

On FI Minded, you'll learn how to:
- Reach financial independence without burning out
- Build a flexible, work-optional lifestyle
- Navigate Coast FI, Slow FI, and other paths to FI
- Make smarter decisions about spending and saving
- Prepare financially and emotionally for early retirement
- Figure out what life can look like after financial independence
- Think through the tradeoffs behind major money and lifestyle decisions
- Make progress toward financial independence while actually living your life.

Some of our past guests include Carl Jensen (1500 Days), Jeremy Schneider (Personal Finance Club), Nick Loper (Side Hustle Show), Andrew Giancola (The Personal Finance Podcast), Jordan Grumet (Earn & Invest), Rachael Camp (Work Optional), Jillian Johnsrud (Retire Often), Sean Mullaney (FI Tax Guy), Jill Sirianni (Frugal Friends), Jackie Cummings-Koski (Catching Up to FI), Joel Larsgaard (How to Money), Cody Garrett (Measure Twice), Jesse Cramer (Personal Finance for Long-Term Investors), Jess (The Fioneers), Chris Hutchins (All The Hacks), Diania Merriam (EconoMe), Andy Hill (Marriage Kids Money), Fritz Gilbert (Retirement Manifesto), Maggie Tucker (Inside Out Money), Cody Berman (The Financial Independence Show), Joe Saul-Sehy (Stacking Benjamins), Doug Cunnington (Mile High FI), and and others helping you rethink how to approach financial independence.
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