Aussie Firebug

Financial Independence Retire Early

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Summary

Our guest today is Pat from life long shuffle.com. Pat’s a 29 year old construction engineer working in Sydney who is planning to retire early within 10 years. Having amassed a net worth of over quarter of a million already, he is well on his way.

 

In this episode, we talk about:

  • Investing! And in particular franking credits and why Pat is such a fan
  • Extra Super contributions? Should you be adding more to your Super each year?
  • Buying a house in Sydney
  • Explaining FIRE to normal people
  • Reaching FIRE with a partner

 

Show Notes

 

Transcript:

Aussie Firebug: Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the Aussie Firebug podcast. Podcast, the financial independence podcast pool Australians where I interview clever people who have already reached on the way to financial independence. Our guest today is Pat from lifelongshuffle.com. Pat is 29 year old construction engineer, working in Sydney who’s planning to retire early within 10 years. Pat, welcome to the show

Pat: Hey Mat, how are you going on? Yeah thanks for having me on the show.

Aussie Firebug: Yeah, not too bad mate, not too bad. Where does lifelong shuffle originate from mate?

Pat: Well, a few people have asked this question and it’s just kind of my brain child. I was a bit bored at work one day and I was you know, just thinking about…I have to get out of this and I was reading other blogs and I thought, this looks easy enough, I’ll start my own blog and I decided to call it lifelong shuffle. And the story kind of goes back to one of my mates who used to have this kind of really weird dance that he used to do before he would hit on some girls at the bar. We used to call it the Ken Host Shuffle, and for some reason I was just thinking of that on that day and it turned into part of my blog name.

Aussie Firebug: That’s a very funny origin for that name. Does he know about the blog?

Pat: He doesn’t know about the blog, I’m not sure if he knows I copy pasted the name of it on the dance that he used to do.

Aussie Firebug: Wow, the way I looked at it like lifelongshuffle I sort of you know, was a bit of a metaphor for shuffling through life in a particular way which is what you are about you know, looking through the wind of everything like that. That’s funny; it has that story behind it.

Pat: Yeah.

Aussie Firebug: So what was the original shuffle called?

Pat: The Ken Host Shuffle.

Aussie Firebug: The Ken Host Shuffle.

Pat: Ken Host is just a place in kind of out of Sydney where my friend comes from.

Aussie Firebug: Alright you know if you blow up and the blow comes mainstream I might come after you for some royalties so, Ken Host Shuffle royalties maybe; very funny. Did you always want to retire mate? Or was it something that you discovered later in life and you wanted to pursue?

Pat: Yeah I mean, not straight away. You know, when I first started fulltime work, really exciting and really interesting to me and did the university thing for like five and a half years, so kind of all that youthful excitement and energy was, I had it, kind of like everyone else does but after several years of doing that you know I just began to drain on me as it does and I’m in the construction industry of course I must have already mentioned that on the podcast. And it’s just one of those industries which it really kind of screws people down with really long work hours and working weekends and just kind of lots of pressure on the field. And so eventually a kind of desire grew inside of me and there was a tipping point and eventually I kind of went on google one day and I tried to start looking up that early retirement and I came across a few blogs and almost immediately it just kind of all really made sense to me. And it’s like well I’ve kind of always known I didn’t want to work forever, I never really had a detailed plan to get there but once I saw those blogs and I saw other people that had changed it and other people who were trying to do it kind of really cemented the idea in my mind and yeah, it was born really quite quickly.

Aussie Firebug: It’s such a common thing you know that you go online, you know maybe not sure what you are looking for then you come across one of these blogs and all posts and whatever and when you figure out you know people are really doing it, it’s sort of like the light bulb moment. I had that when I read a book but it sound like you read it on a blog. Can you remember which blog you were reading when you figured out like this is a thing and this is what you’re going to try to do?

Pat: Yes, so the very first blog I came across and I had a lot in me that I can’t really remember how I came across it, because it was Bill Carry Creko, with James, I’m not sure if you are familiar.

Aussie Firebug: Yes, I have read some articles before, I don’t follow as much as some others but yes, he’s been very popular.

Pat: Yeah, and to be honest that was one of the only ones I read before I really started my blog and before I kind of did some more detailed research into the ozzy scene. I mean it wasn’t until a bit later before I started kind of well, what other bloggers are out there really started to search, and kind of found them.

Aussie Firebug: Yeah I know that. And is this sound like, you know you mentioned that you always knew that you wanted to not work forever.

Pat: Yes.

Aussie Firebug: Has that been in your mind since you were a kid or was that an influence that you know by your parents or your upbringing or anything like that?

Pat: I don’t think I was influenced by my upbringing, I think it’s, to be honest I don’t think so at all it’s just something that you know when I was at work the concept or idea, a conventional early retirement really appealed to me. When I say conventional I mean five or 10 years early.

Aussie Firebug: Yeah.

Pat: Kind of not retiring at 65 like my father had to and so I started you know, investing my money well before I had the idea of retiring very early and I kind of think that investing that money was kind of a part that conventional early retirement goal. But yeah, it kind of, I really became focused and determined obviously kind of late last year, early this year when my blog was born.

Aussie Firebug: Yeah, who taught you about investing?

Pat: You know Mat, absolutely no one.

Aussie Firebug: At all?

Pat: Yeah, really. I think I’ve read a bit of your blog and you’ve mentioned the same thing you’ve kind of come from a wonk family and you sort of started your culture in investing in real estate and everyone is just like that you know, you have to buy a house, rent money, debt money et cetera and I didn’t go and invest in any real estate but that’s partly because my parents and my extended family would just really sort of anti-kind of securities or anti-equities, that’s you know, for my whole upbringing.

Aussie Firebug: Which actually is the common thing with you know baby boomism you know, it’s always bricks and mortar as a safe bet and you know, anything in the stock market is what I gain into them.

Pat: Yeah, exactly. And I had an uncle that lost big in the stock market and I think my father especially when I was young it kind of sounds like he was exactly like you said, terrified of the stock market. As far as he was concerned it’s just gambling your money which of course we know not to be the case after doing some varied research, yeah.

Aussie Firebug: Yeah, I know that. So just good said of that question, what are you investing in currently?

Pat: Yeah, so I’m kind of almost 100% shares at the moment. Perhaps at any one point I’m not just 100% just because I’m waiting to pile up a bit of money so I can then

Aussie Firebug: Oh yeah, sure.

Pat: More shares in a sort of cost effective manner. But yeah, mostly Australian equities with that kind of a really tiny exposure by what I can tell everyone else’s standard to international equities.

Aussie Firebug: So how much percent would you say is Australian equities?

Pat: I think at the moment it’s 80 to 85% Australian equities.

Aussie Firebug: So what’s the reasoning behind that?

Pat: Well, I’m not sure if you’ve read my Franking Credits article.

Aussie Firebug: I have, great article by the way. I would definitely link that in the show notes, it’s one to definitely read if you are unsure of the Franking Credits.

Pat: Yeah so I actually found that kind of bizarre, well not kind of bizarre like I understand the sort of how everyone wants a lot of diversification to head against a bit of risk from the Australian market not doing so well, but those Franking Credits, you know they literally are like an extra percentage point on your returns and you kind of mentioned to anyone that you’re going to go with this asset, cross with that asset, cross when this one has sort of one percent cost involved, they’d be like , “What are you crazy? You’re going to invest in an asset clause where you are paying one percent higher fees”

Aussie Firebug: Yeah, it’s blasphemy.

Pat: No, yeah exactly. It’s all kind of investing in Australian equities like that kind of what, Wow, I’m getting an extra percentage point of returns per year which of course is gigantic, and it can really speed up the investment process.

Aussie Firebug: Absolutely, so what is the fifty percent international? Do you pick the stocks or are you an ETF investor, I can’t remember on your side if you’ve said it either or…

Pat: Yeah, I’m mostly ETFs and then I kind of have a few Australian stocks which I bought, I’d say kind of not stupidly but against all my better judgment.

Aussie Firebug: I have, I told you that’s safer.

Pat: Well some of those turned out great others they just kind of posting along not doing much so I think all in all if you take all of those stuff that I’ve bought together they kind of just equaling what I get out of my ETFs so yeah, it’s like…

Aussie Firebug: You know, I did the ETF thing as well but you know I think it’s you know, whatever you are comfortable with like it’s whatever blend of shares you’re comfortable with and even I’ve seen some people you know pick and choose their own shares but they sort of stick with the you know, the bigger companies, and companies that are in the ETFs anyway, so really there really is no right or wrong answer, whatever makes you sleep at night really but yeah, you know, if you know what you’re doing and you think you know you can make a good judgement call like you know, I don’t see why not. What ETF, what Australian ETF are you invested in? Venga?

Pat: Yeah, Venga VAS. Yeah, that’s it, that’s my…

Aussie Firebug: I’ve seen that, yeah. That’s a, it’s a common choice you know, you’re like you’re talking about management fee it’s probably hard to, I don’t know if anyone is offering that point zero zero or point zero four percent of the you know, measurement fee out there.

Pat: Yeah, the Australian is point one four I think. It’s the US one that gets that ultra-point zero four.

Aussie Firebug: These two, yeah sorry you are correct, it’s the VTS is the point zero four. Yeah that’s right, still…

Pat: Unbelievable like point zero four

Aussie Firebug: I know that’s just insane. What about the international. You are in cheers or you are going for ETF’s s as well for international?

Pat: Definitely ETF and again VTS is what is at the moment. I am kind of hoping to get into other international ETFs but just kind of cruising at the moment and seeing what my next purchase would be

Aussie Firebug: I mean VTS as well I do like every month. I just go by whatever ratio is you know whatever split is out of my three funds split and I just top up that one. I just do that. But I‘m sort of not of hoping like if the Australian dollar was to decline any further which some people are predicting that it is coming to 90 cents I would go and start leaning towards buying some VTS just because of the fact that it is unhitched against the Australian dollar like if you look at the returns if you had put in some money in 2012 and was parity or was just a little bit over its such a good opportunity that I’ll know what to do for next time you know it gets me that I will I be buying a whole bunch so that when it comes back it is like boom you get that unhitched bonus.

Pat: If you bought US VTS security in 2012 you would be doing very well right now.

Aussie Firebug: Yeah that’s just so good. I lost. Next time you know now that we know we will be prepared for next time.

Pat: Exactly. Back in 2012 I was spending most of my money travelling so

Aussie Firebug: Right, I spend like… I actually went to the states. Can you believe it? It was a once in a life time trip but we spent I am not kidding if you like this is before I truly discovered financial independence. I spent like a good 18 grand or something and I converted it to US it was like a 2months trip but I bought so many things because I knew a whole year that if I was going to buy this wait until I will go to America because it is going to be cheaper. I went to New York and I spend like 4 grand in New York I bought laptops…I got watches clothes everything. I had been holding out for a whole year but because each stand was so good I got all these electronics and everything was so much cheaper I really cleaned up but I thought if I just kept $1000 currency and converted I could have made some money of that but you know you live once I guess

Pat: Exactly

Aussie Firebug: I was going through your blog and you had another interesting article which also I would link into the show notes. You are not a huge fun of Super.

Pat: Not at all. The reason for that is mistrust of government policy over my lifetimes so I am 29 now and before I can access my Super I am looking at something like 30 years or a bit more than 30 years. I just don’t trust that the government will keep all rules the same so that I can access my Super when I want to and cant access it in the same way that people can right now. I much prefer to invest outside of Super.

Aussie Firebug: I don’t add anything extra to Super which I am guessing you are not adding anything extra either so your main fear is that if you start adding extra to super because super can play an important role in early retirement if everything holds up the way it is now but your main concern is that the government with the meddling fingers, you know they have a history of meddling where they shouldn’t be they might change something and you might not have access to it. Is that your main worry?

Pat: Yeah. Essentially and it is not just not having access to it it’s just having access in different sort of ways and what happens to the money when I die, or my beneficiaries die and all those sort of little questions and all those sort rules that can change over the next 30 years.

Aussie Firebug: Do you think that if you are approaching the preservation age there is that much change. Like if you are three years out of the preservation age and you might start to follow some money into super just for those juicy tax savings.

Pat: Well yeah, exactly. As I approach preservation age there is obviously the risk of changes. it completely diminishes as you get closer and closer and so I am not sure exactly when the tipping point will be for me but I imagine somewhere like 10 years before I reach my preservation age I would start to think well it is only two more different governments and two more governments changes before I can access my super so maybe I will just contribute a little bit more now

Aussie Firebug: Sure. There is a few people that I have spoken to on the phone that have the similar mentality as you that they don’t trust the government and that they would rather keep it sort of on the fence. I am on the fence. I am building up my profile on super I am not contributing any extra bit I don’t know if I will because I made a little calculator that sort of you know that calculates how much you need for super how much is inside super to have the quickest way to financial independence in Australia is a two phase system if everything stays the same. Right now you need sort me on the outside you need to sort me on the inside super but when push comes to shove I am not sure if I will actually contribute to super or not so I am on the fence about that. When we are talking like I would need to shave off an extra year or something… is an extra year really that bad to guarantee financial independence. I don’t know, that’s a bridge I will cross when I get to it I guess. You are in Sydney right now aren’t you?

Pat: Yeah I am in Sydney.

Aussie Firebug: You are currently renting with your partner is that right

Pat: Yeah that is correct and we are renting in a sort of share apartment so we live with someone else at the moment and I am kind of a big proponent of share accommodation in these really expensive capital cities so me and my partner practice what we preach in terms of that article and we are sharing.

Aussie Firebug: Awesome. I have also done sharing before as well even in the country where rent is a little cheap but still it half’s your bills so I am definitely a believer in that also. Sorry I am coming to an article which I don’t remember when I read it but you are not very keen on Sydney’s property market which I think is quite understandable it a big crisis at the moment. Do you ever see yourself buying a house in Sydney? You are from Sydney originally like your friends and family are all in Sydney

Pat: Yeah all my friends and family are in Sydney and I was born here and to answer your question I don’t see myself buying a property anywhere in or around Sydney at all, ever. I think I… it’s a little bit more expensive it depends on what you consider Sydney but perhaps go up to the central coast or down to sort of Wollongong area and buy a property there but those are place which I don’t even consider to be Sydney any more. They are places you can even drive to and fro, you spend a day there you might even sleep there because driving back would be too much of an imposition on your body

Aussie Firebug: Yeah so are you planning to retire in Sydney. My question is that are you planning to rent forever?

Pat: No I do want to own a property I have sort of been considering my options. I am not sure exactly where I will retire and obviously a lot of it has to deal with my girlfriend as well where she wants to live and what she is comfortable with but I considered sort of Presbenerio or Sunshine Coasts I haven’t looked too far into it but buying a property is certainly one of my sort of long term aspirations.

Aussie Firebug: Is your partner from Sydney as well

Pat: No, she is from Wollongong actually and yeah she’s moved up to Sydney for work because there is a not a lot of work in her field down in Wollongong.

Aussie Firebug: How is she taking all these financial independence business? Is she on board with it at all?

Pat: Yeah she is actually and I am kind of surprised may be a little bit surprised by it to be honest but she is yeah very supportive right from the beginning and she has a very big part to play in all of my blog posts. When I write something it’s sort of a grammatical mess and verb errors and tense errors and all sorts of stuff but she comes in and cleans up every post after I have written it and it’s been really great

Aussie Firebug: Do you know I had the same deal going on with Mrs. Firebag but she got sick of it towards the end so, I even had a radar that was doing for me which was cool but I had to like every time I did a post I didn’t have to wait for her to log in and check in I always do it myself now and there is heaps of errors but I don’t particularly care about that much.

Pat: Sometimes I feel the same way. Just get them out just don’t worry

Aussie Firebug: Why don’t you take us back to the moment like was there a conversation you had with her explaining what you were trying to achieve and what you envisioned your life to be when you reached financial independence. How did that go?

Pat: This is kind of really awful not because the conversation was hard or anything but I had never did really discussed it with her before I started my blog and I kind of just sprung the blog on her.

Aussie Firebug: Ooh well.

Pat: That’s kind of how she found out.

Aussie Firebug: So you just wrote in a blog post one day and she said what are you doing and you just dropped it on her?

Pat: Yeah, my first blog I don’t know. I was a bit embarrassed to be honest or so unconscious about writing my own blog it’s not something I ever imagined myself doing years ago or when I was a child or anything so when I wrote that first blog post I kind of brought it to her and I was like hey, I have started a blog do you want to read it. That’s when she kind of really found out.

Aussie Firebug: What did she say? How did that conversation go you know? Perhaps like I have seen that you want to retire early and we are not going to be saving for the next ten years does this mean that we are not going to eat. How did that go? I am sure she had 100 questions

Pat: She did have 100 questions but she didn’t ask them straight away she kind of let them on slowly and I think at the very beginning she was just very supportive and really happy and she thought right well I have really missed blog. She thought that was pretty cool and so she was really happy to begin with. Little later on we started feeling out those sorts of issues. Well do we eat out anymore, how much we eat out what we spend our money on? Writing the blog has just been great and getting my thoughts out and her having to read every single one. It is aided in our communication a whole lot and every time I write something new she gets another little insight to how I am thinking about these things but yeah she is enjoying it. To be honest I think I asked her about it one day and she said you know what Pat, not much has changed whatsoever to be honest we spend a little less on eating out and we just think about what we are spending our money on and that’s about it. Otherwise we still enjoy ourselves, we still get out, to be honest we probably even spend more time together now, we do things that we enjoy even more and yeah. I can’t say there have been any negatives whatsoever.

Aussie Firebug: Yeah I know. It’s really funny some people you know, I don’t know if you’ve had to explain to people what you’re doing but if I’ve ever had to explain that you know, some people what I’m doing it, yet still, they are like what so you know you’re going to live you know, on nothing live like a peasant for 10 years and then just live like a peasant for the rest of your life. They’re like, “Nah, it’s not that, it’s not like that.” It’s just like you know the new offering that’s like you know $1800, like when you start caring about that crap, like we happy to use like running out of phone, we don’t need to go out you know three or four times a week, buying clothes isn’t like a huge deal for us. I think heaps of consumer bullshit can be carrier and it can half your bill and then you sort of get to a level where if you’re cutting any more of your spending, then it sort of is impacting your life a bit, like way more than the first 50% you can get. And that sort of way out I mean my partner you know I was at the extreme level for a year or so then, I was a bit too extreme. And she sort of levels me at a bit so we lived a crime life. Like we go out when we want to go out, she buys new shoes if she wants to buy new shoes but there’s always, like she’s very responsible. She was responsible even before she met me and I always have like a little rule you know, we’re going to make sure I like it, I never impulse buy anything, I like think of it before, a few days and if I still want to buy, I just buy. We’re just conscious, we’re conscious of how much we spend and that’s really a bad it, like that’s not even like, we are not like starving ourselves, like some people think. It’s nothing like that.

Pat: It’s really funny like depending on how much you rated stuff sort of read my blog or if you haven’t read it at all yet, you kind of see a general theme of me just trying to explain or trying to express my thoughts that, wait a minute, like, we’re living in Australia where we’re living like these extraordinarily, like rich and opulent lifestyle compared to the rest of the world and compared to history. Like I mean I never go hungry I’m out you know, the other weekend I was at a friend’s party, we’re having a barbeque, I was drinking a nice cold beer, I was socializing and I’m like this whole nut costed me like five to $10 like I’m living like this really fun really comfortable really kind of beautiful Australian life, which is just extraordinarily sort of rich. Any sort of standards that you can make other than just comparing yourself to sort of other ultra-consumers first world country citizens of the year 2017 or the early 2000s, whatever you want to say.

Aussie Firebug: Yeah100% agree even the fact that if you live in Australia that puts you in like the top five percent wealthiest person in the world straight away without even doing anything or just the fact that you are in Australia that even on the minimum wage you are richer than majority of people on the planet. Yet people still complain.

Pat: That’s right and what you said by the way kind of confuses you are like wow you are being like really like a pervert if you are denying yourself of these pleasures and well actually no. Like you said everything I want and more I’ve just like cut away all the bullshit that doesn’t matter and that’s the key. Finding out like really finding out what matters and what doesn’t and when you start cutting away you figure out very quickly that all of this other shit like this external consumer gloss it just doesn’t matter and none of it makes you happier none of it improves your life and any sort of discernable way at all and once you start cutting away all that shit and you kind of de-clutter your life and you really de-clutter you remind and you start living I’d say a much better life because you are focusing on the things that do matter . you are going out for walks you are focusing on your works you are focusing on your relationships and instead of like every week and going to the shopping center and just buying the newest brand name in clothing because you have to look in front of your friends the next time you see them you are going out with your mates and you are kind of both look like buns but you are both running around the bay and you are both happy and yeah it’s amazing when you just cut away all that crap. How much better things become.

Aussie Firebug: Preach, preach it Patty Artist 100% truth you are right there. A minute of truth just dawns you just drop. There is a really cool view, Mr. Money Muztag. I think he was in it. He was talking about it like what makes us happy because at the end of the day I don’t care what you are doing it’s all about happiness. You enjoy being happy 24/7. Everything you do is to be happier even if you have given up your dome, or you are donating money or you are helping other people that is a side effect releasing dolphins and making you feel better about yourself which is a by-product of happiness. Right and Mr. Money Muztag has this video and it’s like the secret to happiness is being there is no secret it’s been here for years. There are certain things that the human being needs like shelter, food, security everything like that like basic human in needs. If you live in Australia odds are you know you are unfortunately harmless or something bad has happened to you. Once you got every basic thing a human being needs covered like at a basic level, you are being fed, you got a house a roof over your head so that beyond that is like a few other things that is needed to make a human being happy like creating relationships and family things like that physical fitness is a big one I mean that’s it, you know what I mean. There was no other, there was no apple mac book back in the stone age but people were surely happy but then there are books of people being happy you know like throughout history when there was no these things. That exist today and they didn’t exist then like it’s the same simple things that matter and so many people grow they look beyond and they think if I get that next promotion or if I am on this money suddenly I am going to be happier. Things like that or if I get that new bag it’s going to make me happier. It won’t make you happy you might get some like a rush of happiness but it deteriorates it’s not the new thing anymore. Then you know you flattered with Mac and campaigns that the new bag or the new Wife and suddenly your things crap it’s like just focus on the basic things like what a human being needs at the most basic level is usually all that you need and there is a little pleasure along the way that make you happier or you know I’ve got nowhere to go makes me so happy you know that is a little bit of new technology but very little, there is a few things I love but there is so much of other stuff they want to started to track my spending’s also I don’t really care about that that can go, the next thing you know you have cut out 30% of your spending just like that.

Pat: you really need to link to Mr. Money’s Muztag video. Have you

Aussie Firebug: have you watched the video I am referring

Pat: Oh yeah I’ve watched it probably ten times

Aussie Firebug: Yeah, that’s right that means it’s awesome.

Pat: The way that he sort of articulates those thoughts and the way expresses them just really hits the nail on the head and it’s really hard to disagree with anything he is saying in that video just because I mean his really precise.

Aussie Firebug: Definitely the link to that video like as he said he can articulate it a lot better than I can but it just hit a nerve with me and I am sure he will hit a nerve with a lot of people it’s like just the basic stuff is where we are human beings, we are just an animal on earth and certain things biological can make us happy and all this other crap is marking in you know 21st century bullshit. With technology advancements it’s now good to have a heater if you feel cold you can turn this heater on and it makes you warm that’s cool. There is so much crap that you just don’t need. We saw that turning off our phones we went off the tangent

Pat: That not off tangent at all I think that’s like really the key to financial independence is finding out what you need and why and what you don’t because all flesh will quickly erode any sort of extra income you get if you let it

Aussie Firebug: I completely agree, absolutely. Why don’t we get back to yourself and on your website there is a goal tracker that sits to the top right of your website and it currently running round about $250000 and how I interpret it is that you need roughly 1.25 million to hit your financial independent number. Is that correct

Pat: Yes. The way I set that target is that I have taken the nominal amounts in ten years’ time to be 1.25 million which is equivalent roughly to 1million and 17 dollars.

Aussie Firebug: Got you. When you reach this number that means that you are financially independent correct

Pat: I think I will actually reach financial independence much sooner that when I hi that number just because I am spending actually far less than the income that that amount of money would produce. I am actually planning for a little bit of lifestyle inflation in terms of the sort of house I want and perhaps a family and that sort of thing.

Aussie Firebug: How much income is that that you planning to get form that at the end

Pat: Todays there was forty thousand a year

Aussie Firebug: That’s for you to be financially independent does that include your partner in that goal.

Pat: It doesn’t actually .it depends on when I think about it. That amount of money is more than enough why believed to sustain me and my partner for the rest of our lives. As I said earlier, a family will need slightly more than, adding my partner into the mix, in my mind and I have discussed with her a couple of times. Looking at around 1.5 or 1.6 million not much more at all

Aussie Firebug: I guess that when you are at that stage the difference is to save one hundred thousand dollars takes years. I mean to save the next one hundred thousand takes less and so on and so on and so on. If you write 1.25 million to add on the next couple of 100000 with the purpose of comparing interest on the markets takes a while in those years and shouldn’t be too far away. Have you got joint finances already or you haven’t tightened this.

Pat: No, we’ve got completely separate finances think they completely try and spare it to each other but as far as bank accounts and investment accounts that is completely separate.

Aussie Firebug: Does she invest herself

Pat: Yes she definitely does. In a lot of ways she is perhaps invested even more impressive way than have because she is five years my junior she is much stronger than I was five years ago.

Aussie Firebug: is that partly due to your nose you are quite fond of her or she is just shown an interest earlier on.

Pat: well she didn’t show interest in investment so much but just in being really good in money manager and not spending all that money and yeah she got a full time job. You know she left University and she had a part job before her bur she never just went out and spend all our money time and I think kind unlike me she just had more money than she could spend in a sort of rational way without kind of feeling completely ridiculous and that’s how I came later on my original couple of 100k. I didn’t really have a goal so can’t spend that much I just spend what I wanted ad then its stopped anything above that was just like what the hell I can’t spend this bloodshed’s that ridiculous I had no desire to.

Aussie Firebug: It is such a bonus isn’t it if your partner good with money, starting of the bar like more and more and it’s just like thank God that I want with someone that was just a reckless spender and that didn’t come out of the woodwork until a few years because I never looked at her bank account at all like the first couple of years when we joined finances last year and sort of like when I say joined finances it just becomes transparent. She has got all separate accounts and I have got mine but I guess the only difference is we invest in the one trust so she will help me out. She would transfer money to me and we will invest together that’s far the only difference but it’s just such a bonus that she wasn’t reckless.

Pat: I think finding someone like that you know isn’t a complete coincidence. Even Stephan told me it’s just my girlfriends name for all of your listeners who don’t know she was originally was attracted to me partly because I wasn’t very materialistic at all and I would just go out and try to shed off a lot of my wealth even though when I met her at least a few months afterwards it was kind of clear that I had quite a lot of money but yeah.. so with you I am sure part of the reason that you were attracted to each other was even if it’s kind of unconscious you are not materialistic you have good money management skills etc. sort of thing

Aussie Firebug: Do you know I have never actually thought about that but it does make sense now that you said it. It maybe subconsciously yes I was attracted to that side and maybe she was as well but yeah maybe that’s what happened. That’s a good sign to think of that I never thought of that one that’s a good one. You said in your blog that you want to retire by 39 and you are 30 still how long, so you are sill 29 now 10 years to go how long do you reckon it’s going to take to get there?

Pat: Since I have had that original target and original post I have gotten a promotion and I have driven my spending down even further and I have really kind of become conscious of everything I am spending I think by the latest calculations me on my own it will take about 6-7 years and if I throw Stephan in to the mix and we’ve that sort of reduced target together which is about 1.5M it will only take us about 5-6 years so yeah it’s been great and getting an extra income obviously helped and we are really driving don those costs it’s just really driving that date forward and it’s so powerful when you can see that date coming forward and you work it all out and you the results of kind of everything you are doing and it’s like yeey I can keep driving these costs down and I can drive my income up in this day. It’s going to be hit even before I realize it.

Aussie Firebug: that’s awesome , from where I am sitting that’s unbelievable and you know for those that are listening in having a partner you might think it might take twice as long, having a partner and you know you have to factor them in as well but it actually doesn’t if they have got a decent enough job. Having a partner could actually save you money because you have got someone else to turn in good money as you are doing even normal money but everything is cut in half like the rent is cut in half , the groceries are cut in half and it’s a lot more efficient living with someone else than having two people living two people living in two separate homes paying two separate rates if you are in the home, two separate gas bills and everything like that it’s a lot more efficient with a partner trust me.

Pat: Yeah two can live almost as keep as one

Aussie Firebug: Absolutely. You can almost do it almost like, yeah there are a few that you are extra but just as is mathematically impossible not to behave as two people as one but it’s very efficient. it’s all surprised like what the hell like huu we are pretty much living off Chris’ pay cheque which is more like the same she was like she is still living off my pay cheque and all those it’s been unbelievable.

Pat: if you don’t have a partner then obviously things are a bit more difficult in terms of reaching that goal but yeah if you do find someone and they are as intense on not working away their entire lives or running that rat rail their entire lives then yeah it just sucks. MI6 is so much better and so much easier. If I could Segway as well

Aussie Firebug: Sure

Pat: Just on topic, I can’t exactly where I read it but perhaps I can find something and link it to. They say something like 70 or the majority of divorces are a result of financial problems and so when your finances are in order and when you’ve got a partner that thinks financially the same as you you’ve kind of eliminated the major cause of most divorces in first world countries so it’s just another way of being financially independent really does drive being happy and yeah that’s sort of quite an important goal for everyone and being happy like we are talking about before with Mr. Money Muztag that it should be the goal of everyone to kind of be as happy as you can and help other people as much as you can and that should make you even happier and that’s just another plus or advantage to kind of achieving this goal.

Aussie Firebug: That’s a really interesting statistic if you could find that article it would make it cross link operative on the show but I have heard that you know that financial stress is a big cause of marriage breaks but I have had that it foes up to 70% but I believe that for sure that like 100% that’s very believable just because I know personally some couples that have gone through hard time because of financial stress, because of arguing about money, because of work related stress, because of they weren’t home enough and wherever and a huge motivation for me to reach financial independence is to have that time back to not worry about money to you know when we eventually have kids to not be even working three days a week would be a drain. I can’t imagine that. Three days a week for ever. I would be happy to do three days a week but eventually I have the option of working null days a week but it is just not in the brain for me to have that option and to achieve that goal and have so much stress lifted off your shoulders so you can go back to what is important in life like we’ve spoken in realities just focus on the important things and just cut off all the rat race bull shit.

Pat: The sort of rat race would steal so much time away from you and even more time than most people realize probably more time than I even realize: going for a full time job ad trying to sort out yout life in these sort of gaps around full time work and as you said get them out of your mind and let them go just having like could you imagine having the kid and actually having the beautiful sort of privilege, the luxury of being able to spend time with your kid which is possibly the saddest thing I have said this whole podcast like so many parents don’t have the luxury of spending time with your children. It’s kind of sad when you think about that but then this goal like just thinking of that sort of thing if I do have children which I do want to eventually just being able to wake up and just not have to race off to work and then get back home when they are tired and they have obviously gone to sleep.

Aussie Firebug: Exactly

Pat: It would be just as you said amazing, just unbelievable. Every day would just be like look I get to spend time with my kids instead of running around and racing around and never seeing them

Aussie Firebug: The saddest thing about being rushing off to work at 4am that’s a fear of mine. I am looking at all these dads working at pretty big office pf 1000 people and there are some people and there are some people working obviously going to work at four I was like are you insane, that’s ludicrous I know like that’s what you do, like if you have a kid you can’t have his time I am like oh my God I definitely … there is no way I will be working full time even if I don’t reach full financial independence when we have a kid I want to work three days a week for sure I have already worked that out so that when I am in my thirties I will be able to take a few days off and if I have to extend my financial date for a couple of more years I don’t care I would work 3 days a week and have that home time and have that sleep time and not sacrifice things, people sacrifice things when money is, whether they need more finances whether they need to work overtime, they need to do this and suddenly they are not going to the gym, they are not doing this, they are not walking the dog, they are not doing the things that make them happy and that is to earn that dollar to be able to live that life and its bad to walk into a thing

Pat: Like you said I have seen this sort of zombie parents who are barely present and that’s just like aah men I hope that doesn’t have to be me one day

Aussie Firebug: Exactly it is a big motivator for me for sure. I know we’ve spoken a little about it before but tell us a little bit about your sweat Part. How long have you been blogging for and what do you hope to achieve with it

Pat: I have been blogging since January this year and in terms of a goal I am not sure really I won’t be creative you know I can get a larger readership but to be honest I am really happy just kind of plugging away writing my blog posts. Some people seem interested a few other people seem quite annoyed at what I write but that \s ok too because it creates a bit of interesting discussion and yeah that’s about I am happy if I don’t get rated for the time being. it does kind of give me a bit of… it is one of this things that I am happy to do right now even though it actually sucks money out of my life to be honest I have definitely spent more just setting up the blog than I will probably make on the blog but just a sort of freedom to create something myself and invest time in something which the primary motivator isn’t just to make a few dollars and has been very empowering and it’s been quite enjoyable and I just have to keep doing that.

Aussie Firebug: Awesome stuff I know with my blog I did it sort of as an accountability thing and making sure my strategies made sense and they weren’t crazy and the response has been awesome like I have had so many people get in contact with me, like solicitors and like seasoned investors that I can meet up with any time and ask questions about and have people critic my strategy and I can have those how are you doing this and you should be doing this and it is awesome and I like passing content and making these podcasts for people to listen to its so much fun and like you said I have put in way more money than I will probably make but it is not about that it is about expressing myself and holding myself accountable really.

Pat: Definitely

Aussie Firebug: So if there is any listeners out there wanting to get in contact with you what’s the best place they can reach you

Pat: The best place is obviously first of all read my website kind of see what I am all about

Aussie Firebug: What is the address to your website?

Pat: its lifelongshuffle.com and I am usually pretty responsive in there and I try to answer every comment personally that is posted and I have obviously the privilege of doing that because I don’t have an extremely huge readership so I can keep up with all the comments that re posted. Otherwise I spend quite a bit of time on the FI Australia edit so if you kind of post there and I find what you posted interesting I will be able to respond to it or you can message me I don’t know is it good my username Pat the shuffler on reddit.

Aussie Firebug: Yeah sure. FI Australia is an awesome phone board I always go there myself. And just the lastly, if you had to give one bit of advice for a new shuffler what would it be

Pat: I think the best thing I could say is that you will learn very quickly just like what we were discussing before how much all that other shit just doesn’t matter. All the consumable shit, all the latest gadgets all the fancy clothes all of the fancy hand bags kind of showing of to your friends. Getting the sort of ritual respect coffee everyday like none of it matters at all and its quickly going to deplete you of all your money and eventually you will deplete all of your happiness as well but that none of that stuff really brings you real happiness and it just takes time away from you to really going to find what brings you really happiness in this world. So the best piece of advice I can give is just start cutting things away that don’t matter and you will quickly realize how much they don’t matter

Aussie Firebug: What’s to live by Part what’s to live by you guys if you have enjoyed this podcast and you want me to make more be sure to drop me a comment and ratings on iTunes just search ozzyfirebag on iTunes and you will find I am also SoundCloud at www.soundcloud.com/aussie-firebug. Show notes of this episode can be found on my website at www.aussiefirebug.com. Pat it’s been an ab solute pleasure of mine thanks for coming on the show.

Pat: No worries thanks for having me mate, I was definitely looking forward to it and I always look forward to your next podcast.

Aussie Firebug: Ok… too kind mate

Pat: Bye buddy.

 

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