by Aussie Firebug | Dec 14, 2025 | Uncategorized
After ten years and three months, I’ve decided the October update will be the last net worth update, and I’m stepping back from Aussie Firebug for a while.
This blog started as a way to prove, using our real numbers, that early financial independence is achievable without a huge income, wealthy parents, or winning Lotto.
Our latest numbers showed that our passive income, using the 4 percent rule, was higher than our monthly expenses for the first time.
For the month of October 2025, we were financially independent.
So why stop now?
The Spark Is Gone
I will be honest.
My interest in FIRE content has faded. What once felt new and exciting now feels repetitive and disconnected from where I am in life.
The spaces I used to spend time in, like /r/fiaustralia, the MMM blog, and even my own Aussie FIRE Facebook group, no longer resonate with me.
The movement has not changed. I have.
Discovering financial independence changed my life. I devoured every book, blog, and podcast I could find.
But as our wealth grew and life opened up, my focus shifted. By 2023, creating Aussie Firebug content felt like a chore.
I had completely lost interest.
All the exciting stuff had already happened, and the snowball was well and truly rolling. Becoming financially independent felt inevitable.
We were already living the life we wanted. A number ticking over in a spreadsheet wasn’t going to change anything.
2023 was also the year our daughter was born, and the year before that, I’d started a business.
Somewhere during those years, my obsession shifted.
Family became my top priority once I became a dad. As life got busier, the time I spent on Aussie Firebug steadily declined.
When I did get time away from family, I kept gravitating towards the business. In the past, that time would have gone to AFB.
My spare time is now mostly consumed by building products, not for the money, but for the craft of entrepreneurship itself.
Creating something new, understanding sales and marketing psychology, and finding an edge over the competition genuinely excites me.
I haven’t felt this level of energy for something since I discovered Mr Money Mustache in 2013.
It’s not always smooth sailing, but working through a problem and watching the result come to life is an incredible feeling.
Seeing a customer thrilled that something your team built solves a real problem for them is unbelievably rewarding.
It’s addictive.
The truth is, my passion for FIRE has tapered off, and I have no desire to create content about something I am no longer obsessed with.
I Have Mostly Done Everything I Wanted To Do
When I started, I had three goals.
- Get 100 readers on the blog.
- Interview Brandon from the Mad Fientist, Steven McKnight, and Mr Money Mustache on my podcast, since they were the biggest influences on my FIRE journey.
- Share monthly net worth updates until we hit financial independence.
I have ticked off the first two.
The third one did not end the way I originally planned.
There is a clear turning point in everyone’s financial independence journey when your monthly passive income, using the 4 percent rule, covers your monthly expenses.
It happened for us in October.
We reached financial independence.
However, one good month does not guarantee a repeat, particularly given how much our expenses fluctuate.
I planned to keep publishing updates for three years after reaching that point, because I knew there would be plenty of ups and downs.
But I’m calling stumps here for a few reasons:
- As explained above, I’ve lost the motivation for creating FIRE content.
- I think the 4 percent rule is far too conservative. Inspired by the book Die With Zero, I am no longer aiming to preserve my portfolio indefinitely, but to draw it down to zero, or close to it, by the time I die. This significantly changes our drawdown, as shown by the fabulous calculator from engaging-data.com below.
https://engaging-data.com/will-money-last-retire-early/
If we stopped working today with our current FIRE portfolio, we would have a 71% chance of not running out of money by age 96, even with a 6 percent withdrawal rate.
Those are solid odds.
What sets this calculator apart from the traditional 4 percent rule is its ability to model flexible spending.
No one draws the same fixed percentage every year, humans simply do not work that way.
It also factors in mortality. There is a greater than 50 percent chance I will be dead by 80,
which puts the trade-offs into sharp focus.
This is exactly the point Bill Perkins makes in Die With Zero. The biggest risk is not running out of money, it’s running out of time.
- Super is not officially part of our FIRE portfolio, but there’s a good chance we will be able to access it eventually. This adds another ~$250K to the pot (in today’s dollars).
Keeping It Relatable
I tend to be inspired by people who are in a similar position to me.
My favourite blogs, podcasts, and YouTubers are all people I can relate to and learn from because, in one way or another, their situation mirrors my own.
Lately, I have found it harder to relate to the struggles and mindset of many people who email me. That is not a criticism, it is simply a reflection of where I am now.
That is not to say I cannot offer useful insights from the roughly 13 years I have been doing this. I can, but it is harder to genuinely connect given how different my circumstances are today.
As an example, I think Die with Zero is an excellent book for people who are close to, or already at, FIRE, but a poor fit for someone just starting.
That is how I feel about my current situation more broadly. I am not sure I can provide the same level of value to beginners as I once did. My mindset is completely different to when I was at the start of the journey.
Where to now?
So, where to from here?
That is a good question, and one I have been sitting with for months.
I am not shutting down Aussie Firebug for good, but I am taking an extended break to focus on other priorities.
My time writing about FIRE has largely come to a close.
I have said and done more than I ever set out to do. There is nothing left that I feel I need to add.
This blog has been far more popular than I ever could have imagined. Not in a million years did I expect it to reach the audience it did.
I still enjoy long-form, thoughtful conversations, so I would like to continue the podcast. That said, it may evolve into something broader and not be focused solely on FIRE. We will see where that leads.
This blog has given me far more than I ever expected, and I’m proud of what it became.
Thank you all for following along.
🔥🐞
by Aussie Firebug | Nov 23, 2025 | Net Worth
I share these net worth updates to stay accountable, seek feedback on our strategy, and prove that achieving financial independence in Australia is feasible without relying on extraordinary luck or wealth. The table below tracks our journey from $36K in debt to reaching our goals. 🔥
It finally happened…
Monthly passive income vs expenses
October was the first month in AFB history where our passive monthly income, calculated using the four percent rule, exceeded our monthly expenses.
It was a particularly low-cost month and the FIRE portfolio had a significant boost, which I’ll get to shortly.
But still… for the first time, the red line has edged just above the blue.
So what does this mean?
Honestly, not a lot.
It’s a financial/Excel milestone, and one my wife and I have been working towards since 2013. But in terms of day-to-day life, nothing really changes.
It’s still worth acknowledging because it reflects fifteen years of disciplined saving and investing a significant portion of both our incomes. Our FIRE portfolio now sits at just over $1.35 million, and that figure doesn’t include our super or home equity. It’s simply the assets we can access today to fund an early retirement.
One thing I need to clarify, even though I spell it out in every net worth update, is that we don’t receive our passive income in tidy monthly instalments like the FIRE progress chart might suggest.
The passive income figure is based on the four percent rule and then divided by twelve to create a monthly estimate.
In reality, we only receive five chunks of passive income each year. Four come from dividend payments and the fifth comes through our tax return, which is when our franking credits are refunded.
The four percent rule also assumes capital gains and expects you to gradually sell down your share portfolio to generate the income. We aren’t selling anything at this stage.
So the line chart shows the theoretical passive income our FIRE portfolio could produce, not the actual income flow we receive.
A big reason why we don’t sell down shares is that I’m still generating an income outside of investing, so there’s currently no need.
So what does this mean for these updates now that we’ve temporarily hit this milestone?
I’ve got an article coming out in November that outlines my plans from here and what’s next for AFB.
Stay tuned.
Net Worth Update
It was a strong month for every asset class except BTC, although the real driver once again was the business.
We’ve just signed another reasonably large contract and with more in the pipeline, 2026 is shaping up to be a massive year.
I started this company in 2022 because I wanted to build something interesting and work on challenging problems with great people.
At the time, I only had one small contract that covered about 25 percent of my old salary.
Financially, it was a big risk to step out on my own with no guarantees.
No sick leave, annual leave, super, long service leave or workers’ compensation.
The one thing I did have was our FIRE portfolio. Back then, it covered roughly 70 percent of our living costs.
That gave me the confidence to take the leap, knowing my wife and I had a buffer that would support the family even if the business didn’t work out.
After four years of paying myself next to nothing and reinvesting in tools, people and equipment, I’m finally starting to see revenue reach the level I used to dream about.
It has been a lot of fun building this business, but I honestly struggle to see how I could have made it work without the financial support from the portfolio, especially while raising a young family.
If you’re thinking about starting a business, my advice is to do it before you have kids if you can. It’s far less stressful, and you won’t feel the financial pressure as much as you would while supporting a family.
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*Expenses include everything we spend money on to maintain our lifestyle. We do not include paying down our PPoR loan as an expense, only the interest
*Investment income is simply 4% of our FIRE portfolio divided by 12
It’s a little tricky to see on the chart, but our expenses for the month came in at $4,403 and our passive income landed at $4,419.
So we cleared the line by twelve dollars. Woohoo!
Shares
The above graph was created by Sharesight
We didn’t buy any shares this month.
Networth
by Aussie Firebug | Oct 16, 2025 | Net Worth
I share these net worth updates to stay accountable, seek feedback on our strategy, and prove that achieving financial independence in Australia is feasible without relying on extraordinary luck or wealth. The table below tracks our journey from $36K in debt to reaching our goals. 🔥
My daughter turned two in September.
It’s a cliché, but bloody hell, it’s true. Time really does speed up as you get older.
Wasn’t it just yesterday that wifey and I were gallivanting around Europe without a care in the world?
Kids were always something we’d “get to one day,” and now they’ve rocked up, raising hell and melting down because The Wiggles came on instead of Bébé Finn (apparently, that was on us).
Why are they so damn cute when they tantrum though? That’s something I’d love Mother Nature to explain. It’s hard not to laugh and encourage them when they’re carrying on like a pork chop. But seriously, why so cute?
One of life’s mysteries, I guess.
So now I’m dealing with a toddler and a baby, who’s an absolute dream compared to her psychotic sister.
One minute you’re negotiating with a tiny dictator over not having Riff Raff at the dinner table, and the next you’re melting because they’ve wrapped their arms around their sister and said, “Love you, Sissy.”
😂🥰
Net Worth Update
Pretty quiet month overall. We had a few larger household expenses come through, but aside from that, it was business as usual.
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*Expenses include everything we spend money on to maintain our lifestyle. We do not include paying down our PPoR loan as an expense, only the interest
*Investment income is simply 4% of our FIRE portfolio divided by 12
.
Shares
The above graph was created by Sharesight
We didn’t buy any shares this month.
Networth
by Aussie Firebug | Sep 1, 2025 | Net Worth
I share these net worth updates to stay accountable, seek feedback on our strategy, and prove that achieving financial independence in Australia is feasible without relying on extraordinary luck or wealth. The table below tracks our journey from $36K in debt to reaching our goals. 🔥
August honestly felt like Groundhog Day.
Family, work, BJJ training, the weekend, and repeat.
We’re finally starting to find a bit of a rhythm with the baby, but any time outside of those core activities is pretty much nonexistent at the moment.
Luckily, I don’t mind routine. I actually enjoy doing the same things week in and week out.
But… I definitely missed our annual Bali trip this year.
There’s just something about escaping the middle of winter, spending most of the day in the sun, and completely unplugging from the grind. I’m already looking forward to next year’s trip. I always come back from Bali feeling recharged and ready to dive into some interesting problems at work.
I’ve always said I love Victoria’s seasons, but the last month of winter really drags. Throw kids into the mix, and it gets even harder. Everything takes more effort when it’s wet and cold outside.
Spring can’t come soon enough 🌄
Net Worth Update
Another monster month.
Shares and Super had a good run in August, but it was the business that really moved the needle. Things are picking up, and it’ll be interesting to see where we land by the end of the year.
We’ve been steadily building multi-year contracts over the last couple of years, but now I’m ready to take things up a level. I held off on marketing while we were preparing for our second baby, but she’s here now, and life’s starting to settle.
The team’s really starting to come together, too. I’ve got two guys with me now, and I’m aiming to add a third by year’s end.
It’s go time.
I’ve told the team we’re going hard after new business in Q3 and Q4, with the goal of setting up a huge 2026.
Since starting the business in 2022, I’ve taken things slow on purpose. Bootstrapping it myself meant no investor pressure, no bosses, no rushing just to tick boxes. I’ve had the time to figure things out properly and build with intention.
In my old jobs, so much work felt rushed and half-baked because the incentives were wrong. When your boss only cares that something gets done, you naturally do the bare minimum. I was guilty of it, too.
Running my own business flips that. Everything I build, every process, and every line of code must align with the bigger picture. If I cut corners now, I’m only making life harder for future Matt.
That’s why I’ve liked growing slowly. It gives me time to make better long-term decisions. Not everything needs to be perfect, but some calls are painful to undo if you get them wrong.
Morgan Housel summed it up perfectly in this piece:
Investing: The Greatest Show On Earth
To summarise:
“Trees that grow too quickly in open sunlight develop soft, weak wood and often don’t last. Without the slow, steady growth needed to build density and strength, they become fragile and vulnerable to disease and a shorter lifespan.
Trees that grow slowly in the shade, on the other hand, develop strong, dense wood over time. That steady pace gives them resilience, allowing them to thrive and stand tall for decades.
Companies are no different. Rapid growth can feel exciting, but if you don’t take the time to build strength and stability, you end up exposed to risks that are hard to recover from. Sustainable growth takes patience, discipline, and a long-term mindset“
We’ve spent enough time growing in the shade. Now it’s time to rise above the canopy and make our mark on the industry!
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*Expenses include everything we spend money on to maintain our lifestyle. We do not include paying down our PPoR loan as an expense, only the interest
*Investment income is simply 4% of our FIRE portfolio divided by 12
Our FIRE portfolio has hit a new milestone: over $4K per month in passive income, nearly $50K a year! That is crazy!
Shares
The above graph was created by Sharesight
We didn’t buy any shares this month.
Networth
by Aussie Firebug | Aug 7, 2025 | Net Worth
I share these net worth updates to stay accountable, seek feedback on our strategy, and prove that achieving financial independence in Australia is feasible without relying on extraordinary luck or wealth. The table below tracks our journey from $36K in debt to reaching our goals. 🔥
July was still very much about the baby bubble, with not much happening on the personal front.
Baby Bug #2 is teasing us with the occasional stretch of solid sleep, but we’re still waiting for the full night to land.
I’m starting to really get why people used to say that coming into work felt like a holiday from the chaos of home life. When you’re working on projects you enjoy, in an environment that energises you, it hits differently.
Even though I’m home helping out a couple of days a week, it’s been nice to duck into the co-space for a few hours, throw on the noise-cancelling headphones, and get into a zen state with a fun problem.
What’s everyone listening to lately? On my current Spotify rotation:
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Don’t Tap the Glass – Tyler, the Creator
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Let God Sort ’Em Out – Clipse
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SWAG – Justin Bieber (don’t judge, it actually slaps)
Net Worth Update
Yuuuuuuge increase this month.
In fact, July just clocked in as the biggest monthly increase in AFB history.
The surge came from a combo of a few big invoices hitting the account for the business, plus a revaluation of our PPoR after switching lenders.
Add a strong month for shares and BTC, and we’re looking at nearly a $150K increase 🤯.
To put that in perspective, it took me four years to go from $36K in HECS debt in 2011 to $164K in net worth by July 2015.
Four bloody years of hardcore saving and investing.
Now we’ve added the same amount in a single month, and I’m working far less than I was back then.
This is the power of investing. If there are any youngins out there paying attention, lock this in.
The first 5 to 7 years of your investing journey can feel like a slog. But eventually, compounding takes over, and it starts to feel like money is working harder than you ever could. If you’ve set things up properly, you’ll be making serious gains with far less effort.
I had to double-check the numbers this month. I knew it was looking good, but damn. I owe my younger self a beer for the life I’m living now. It’s all been built on the foundation he started 15 years ago.
Feeling extra blessed this month.
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*Expenses include everything we spend money on to maintain our lifestyle. We do not include paying down our PPoR loan as an expense, only the interest
*Investment income is simply 4% of our FIRE portfolio divided by 12
.
Shares
The above graph was created by Sharesight
We didn’t buy any shares this month.
Networth
