by Aussie Firebug | Oct 12, 2022 | Net Worth
I publish these net worth updates to keep us accountable, have others critique our strategy, and show that reaching financial independence in Australia is very doable without winning the lotto, having a high-paying job, or inheriting a wad of cash. The formula to be able to retire early is simple, the hard part is being consistent and sticking to a plan for many years. The table at the bottom details our entire journey from being $36K in debt all the way until we reach π₯
Firstly,
I’m going to be in Sydney this Saturday night for the FIRE meetup.
If you’re interested and want to hang out, the event is on Facebook here.Β
We headed to New Zealand for the school holidays in September.
This was our 3rd overseas trip for the year which is out of the ordinary for us. We’re planning on travelling throughout our early retirement but this year has been supercharged.
I attribute the excessive travel to a book I read early this year called ‘Die With Zero’ by Bill Perkins.
To cut a long story short, Mrs FB and I are trying to do as much travelling as we possibly can before we have kids.
After I read ‘Die With Zero’ I kept thinking…
We’re young, fit, healthy, have no dependents and have enough money to last 30+ years if we really wanted to. Why don’t we pull back on the accumulation phase a tad and start to harvest our hard work before we get tied up with raising a kid?
The logic makes sense to me. There are a bunch of experiences that lose value as you get older or are not available to you anymore. And conversely, there are some experiences that can be enjoyed much more when you’re older and can appreciate them.
Backpacking through Europe, whitewater rafting and hiking the Inca trail all take a certain level of fitness and stamina to do. These experiences would best be enjoyed when you’re young.
Other experiences like seeing the Pyramids of Giza, riding a gondola in Italy and seeing the northern lights are less demanding and will probably be appreciated much more as you age.
Writing down everything you want to experience in life and putting them into decade buckets helps to highlight the point I’m trying to make.
Here’s an example plan
https://www.diewithzerobook.com/apps
So basically what I’m getting at is you’re going to keep seeing our travel pics roughly every 3 months until we have kids π
π.
But back to NZ…
I had actually been to New Zealand before and we really wanted to do Japan instead but the travel restrictions are still a bit weird. I think you can technically travel there but everything you do has to be via a tour guide. So we decided it would just be easier to jump across the pond and check out the land of the Haka, sheep and hobbits π
Here are some pics during our travels.
Incredible views from the top of Queenstown
NZ rocks!
Unbelievable scenery (Queenstown)
Biking fun
Morning walks
We started in the North island and made our way down to Queenstown where we spent most of our time. Milford Sound is amazing and the drive to WΔnaka was breathtaking.
I have to say, Queenstown is seriously one of the most stunning places I’ve ever been to in my life. It’s not hyperbole to say it has 360 degrees of incredible scenery surrounding the town. The combination of the three snow mountains and lake is simply phenomenal.
I love what they’ve done from a town-planning perspective too. A lot of walkways and an entire area near the pier that’s open to pedestrians and not cars π.
And how could I talk about Queenstown without mentioning their arguably most famous product… the FERG BURGER!
The G.O.A.T of burgers
I’ll also give a massive shoutout to the Ferg Pie too. It would have to be up there with the best bloody pie I’ve ever eaten. Simple incredible.
Is there a Ferg ETF I can buy?
I also caught up with Ruth from the Happy Saver whilst in Queenstown.
Ruth and I enjoying a coffee
It was so cool meeting her and her husband Johnny in real life. We met for a morning coffee which lasted 3 hours!
Ruth and Johnny are some of the best examples of what FIRE and early retirement is all about. They’re the embodiment of being smart with your money and maximising happiness. We hit it off so much that Mrs FB and I actually swung by their home a few days later after coming back from Milford Sound.
It’s always fun checking out another podcaster’s set-up and home office.
Oh and lastly, for those wondering… yes, I did do a Bungy jump. It was 10 years ago when I first went, but I still did it!
Net Worth Update
Holy moly.
Pretty much all our assets got smashed except for Bitcoin which was up a bit.
The share market had big losses and combining that with our trip to NZ meant that the old Net Worth took a decent dive this month (our second biggest drop ever).
We bought $1K of Bitcoin at the start of September and we plan to do another $5K into ETFs for October once one of my freelancing invoices comes in.
A few people have been commenting on our unusually high cash buffer lately.
There are a few reasons for this:
- We want to buy a new car in the next 12 months and I leaning more and more towards an EV that doubles as a home battery solution. That might cost $60K+ all up.
- Mrs FB isn’t sure what she’s going to do next year in terms of work. Maybe she won’t work at all… this means our cash flow will be impacted which has resulted in us having a higher cash buffer. It helps our sleep at night factor
- My freelance business is sporadic. I love being a freelancer because flexibility and creative freedom are awesome! But if you need a steady paycheck, freelancing ain’t it. This again means that we just feel more comfortable having a higher cash balance than usual.
I’m finding it hard to allow myself to start harvesting money from the portfolio. I think this is one of the biggest physiological advantages of receiving dividends as opposed to selling shares for income. Receiving dividends just feels better because you don’t have to sell anything. Even if there’s not a mathematical difference between the two, I’m more likely to receive dividends and start to use them to pay for expenses vs selling down my portfolio for some reason.
*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 is created by Sharesight
A lot of red this month.
I’m feeling a bit guilty for not taking this opportunity to pour in as much money as we can. The thing is though, I’m not all as fussed about it as I once was. We’re living a great life at the moment and I know we will get to full fledge FIRE one day anyway.
I keep seeing the market drop and have thoughts about picking up some more lucrative contracting work to get more cash to invest. But this of course comes at a cost of time, energy and stress. I’m pretty happy with where we are sitting at the moment so I’ve just been plugging away with my freelance business and enjoying life travelling around.
It’s so hard to shift out of accumulator mode after being in it for most of your life. There reaches a point where building wealth takes a back seat to other endeavours. Even though we’re not full FI yet, I feel like we’ve reached that point now.
Question: Why do we have A200 & VAS?
Answer: We started buying A200 in August 2018 after Vanguard didn’t lower their MER to match A200. Practically speaking, A200 and VAS are almost identical so it makes sense to go with the lower MER. As an added benefit, I like the fund diversification between Vanguard and Betashares. We decided to hold both after making the switch since it doesn’t have any other impact other than some extra accounting work once a year.Β
Networth
by Aussie Firebug | Sep 5, 2022 | Net Worth
I publish these net worth updates to keep us accountable, have others critique our strategy, and show that reaching financial independence in Australia is very doable without winning the lotto, having a high-paying job, or inheriting a wad of cash. The formula to be able to retire early is simple, the hard part is being consistent and sticking to a plan for many years. The table at the bottom details our entire journey from being $36K in debt all the way until we reach π₯
One of the best things about semi-retirement are the new interests and hobbies you’re able to pursue with the extra free time.
2022 has definitely been the year of BJJ (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) tournaments for me.
I had always been interested in martial arts growing up. But between footy, gym and the occasional basketball/mixed netball comps, I never had the time to really pursue it. It’s been awesome training and competing with my mates for the last 20 months without sacrificing other areas of my life. Having the free time to discover new hobbies and pursue new interests is a real privilege!
I’ve been on a pretty solid training schedule in 2022 and part of me wanted to know how far I could go competing in the sport, especially since I’m not getting any younger π΄π
.
So with a bit of momentum behind me, I registered to compete in the Australian national Jiu-Jitsu championship in August.
It’s a knock-out style competition (sorta like Mortal Kombat haha) and my group had 16 competitors.
Every match was very difficult and I somehow ended up getting to the final round where I lost to a kimura submission.
I managed to snag the silver
I was pretty chuffed taking home the silver tbh.
At 33, I was one of the older competitors and I somehow hurt my back in one of the matches which has been bugging me for weeks.
I think this will be my last comp for a while because my body just doesn’t bounce back like it use to. I almost wish I could start again at 21 and see how good I could have been if I dedicated myself during my athletic prime but such is life, isn’t it. Ya can’t do it all!
At least FIRE has given me the free time to have a decent crack in my 30s which is all I can ask for.
August was pretty busy for me work-wise too. I’ve been heads-down-bum-up building/optimising the data product I’ve sold.
Quick reminder for the Sydney FIRE meetup on the 15th of October too!
We already have over 50 people coming and another 180 interested. I’m really looking forward to meeting the Sydney FIRE community in person π
The event is on Facebook here.Β
Net Worth Update
The big gain from this month came from our PPoR being revalued.
Our mortgage broker had been going back and forth with our bank to get us a better rate. The banks eventually came to the party after they officially revalued the house at $610K. Realestate.com.au actually has it higher but we’ll stick with the official valuation.
We bought the house in April 2021 (settled in July) and the gains are pretty typical of what we’ve been seeing over the last 16 months since. Our home’s value is probably on the way down with all these interest rate rises so I’ll be sure to keep an eye on it.
I gotta admit, it’s been a bit mind-blowing seeing the sold prices of similar homes around our area over the last 6-8 months. I remember thinking we had bought at the peak in April 2021. Never in my wildest dream would I have thought prices would climb to the heights they’re at now.
Once again, savers have been left holding the bag for asset rich/highly leveraged Australians.
The rest of the month was pretty uninteresting with some gains from shares and Super whilst Bitcoin and cash reserved dropped.
Cash continues to be high while we save for a new car. I pray to the gods each month that the second-hand car market returns to some sort of normality soon lolπ
*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 is created by Sharesight
Not much to report here.
There was a big drop at the end of the month that wiped out most of the gains. Let’s see what happens in September!
Question: Why do we have A200 & VAS?
Answer: We started buying A200 in August 2018 after Vanguard didn’t lower their MER to match A200. Practically speaking, A200 and VAS are almost identical so it makes sense to go with the lower MER. As an added benefit, I like the fund diversification between Vanguard and Betashares. We decided to hold both after making the switch since it doesn’t have any other impact other than some extra accounting work once a year.Β
Networth
by Aussie Firebug | Aug 10, 2022 | Net Worth
I publish these net worth updates to keep us accountable, have others critique our strategy, and show that reaching financial independence in Australia is very doable without winning the lotto, having a high-paying job, or inheriting a wad of cash. The formula to be able to retire early is simple, the hard part is being consistent and sticking to a plan for many years. The table at the bottom details our entire journey from being $36K in debt all the way until we reach π₯
It wasn’t too long ago that I was complaining about my lack of social interaction because I worked from home.
Well, let’s just say I’ve had a change of heart ever since the cold snap set in during July.
There’s nothing better than wearing trackies and a hoodie when it’s freezing outside and enjoying a cuppa/hot Milo during work. Our solar panels provide free electricity during the day so I’m able to run a little heater in my office guilt-free and I try to get all the washing/drying done when the sun is shining.
Mrs. FB, I, and some friends wanted to escape the cold during the holidays so we ended up booking a trip to Bali in July.
Quick PSA too. Mrs. FB needed to renew her passport and the whole process was a nightmare that took over 5 weeks. We had to go down to the Melbourne passport office TWICE! If you’re thinking about traveling soon and need to renew your passport, I’d suggest you start the process ASAP.
We ended up booking a 7-night stay in Legian, Bali.
Below are some of the pics from the trip.
Bali Mandira Beach Resort
Potato Head Beach Club
Jimbaran Bay Sunset
ATV Fun
I lot has changed since my first visit there as a 12-year-old with the fam.
My memory of Bali was a dirty, busy, and loud holiday destination that heaps of Aussies went to so they could drink cheap beer.
The island of Bali has had a really interesting transformation in the last 24 months. I couldn’t believe how clean everything was compared to my last visit nearly 20 years ago (damn I’m getting old). I spoke to a few locals about COVID and what happened to the place when all the tourists left.
They told me that a lot of people went back to farming. Either starting their own farms or helping other farmers out during the last 24 months. There was also a big push from the government to clean up the streets and beaches.
I was blown away by how nice the beaches were. I swear they didn’t look like that 20 years ago. I’m not just talking about lack of rubbish either. The quality of the sand and lack of rocks were what stuck out in my mind. Maybe I just went to a few crappy beaches as a kid but Jimbaran Bay, for example, had a world-class beach that would rival most Australian ones. And when you’re eating a seafood banquet on the beach for ~$40pp including cocktails in 27Β° weather, it’s hard to complain.
I also noticed that the island is becoming a lot more ‘westernised’. There were a lot more cafes and eating spots that cater to Australian tastes more so than Indonesian. This is either a positive or a negative depending on the type of person you are but we thought it was nice to have that option.
My mate and I did a bit of surfing which was awesome. I’d love to dedicate a few weeks to get a decent base because riding across the wave looks like so much fun (I can only do the white water for now).
The wife and I were so impressed by Bali that we’re thinking of heading back during winter again next year. Hopefully for a bit longer that time around. I would love to incorporate some sort of east Asian trip once a year where we live somewhere hot for a few weeks. I’m lucky enough to be able to work out of a laptop so I don’t see why not.
In other news, I sold my first data product in July which is a big reason for the big bump in this month’s net worth.
I can’t go into contractual specifics, but this is a bit of a milestone for my business. It signals a move away from consulting and more into product delivery. I think I’ll always consult to a certain degree, but I’ve had dreams about building this product for years and it was awesome to see there was a demand for it in the market.
I signed a three-year deal with my first customer π₯³
And lastly, I’ve been talking about it for years, but I’m finally coming up to Sydney and I’m going to organise a FIRE meet-up.
I’m heading up to FinFest on the 15th of October so I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone and organise a meetup for that night.
The event is on Facebook here.Β
All details and updates will be posted there. I’m really looking forward to meeting some of you guys in person π
Net Worth Update
The share market and Bitcoin all had healthy gains in July but it was our cash balance that received an out-of-the-ordinary bump.
The cash injection came from the sale of my first data product being sold on a three-year deal (the first year being paid for in full).
Without going into specifics, I’m basically selling ready to consume data models to the customer. It’s a DaaS (data as a service) business model where I’m taking care of all the data engineering, architecture design, ingestion, modeling, and serving for a fixed cost. The customer receives the models via an endpoint and away they go.
I’ve had this idea for some time now but it wasn’t until I worked in London and dealt with companies there were running this exact business model did I know it was really viable. I’ve been tweaking the product for over a year and it’s really exciting to land this first deal.
The plan is to sell the product to a few more customers so I can have enough recurring revenue to justify hiring someone. I have a dream of running a small Analytics company of 5-8 amazingly talented and fun individuals where we can solve fun problems. I want to foster a similar working environment that I was lucky enough to have experienced overseas. That’s my dream for this decade, work-wise.
Cash is really high atm. It’s a combination of saving for a car and having money on hand for my tax bill. We also purchased around $3K worth of Bitcoin in July.
*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 is created by Sharesight
Ohhhh Eeeeee!
$15.5K of dividends baby, plus some strong growth from our international shares. If only every quarter was as good as this.
Our overall portfolio is still down from the all-time highs at the start of the year so it’s all relative but you’ve gotta celebrate the wins when you get them.
We purchased $5K worth of VEU in July because that was the most underweighted split.
Networth
by Aussie Firebug | Jul 13, 2022 | Net Worth
I publish these net worth updates to keep us accountable, have others critique our strategy and show that reaching financial independence in Australia is very doable without winning the lotto, having a high-paying job or inheriting a wad of cash. The formula to be able to retire early is simple, the hard part is being consistent and sticking to a plan for many years. The table at the bottom details our entire journey from being $36K in debt all the way until we reach π₯
An old neighbour from my childhood neighbourhood (where my parents still live) passed away last month.
I don’t know the exact details but my understanding was that it was very quick (less than 6 months from diagnosis), unexpected and has left a big hole in their family.
The man that passed away was around 10 years younger than my dad.
People always tell you to spend time with your aging parents, but sometimes you need a wake-up call.
A major reason my wife and I came back to country Victoria was to spend more time with our parents and extended family and I’m so happy we did.
My wife and I are so lucky. All four of our parents are still with us and even better still, are fit and healthy to enjoy experiences.
Being able-bodied is so important. What’s the good of living till you’re 100 if you’re hospital-bound from 60? You can still enjoy some experiences but the bulk of them are gone at that stage. It’s one of the biggest lessons I took from reading ‘Die with Zero‘ the other month. Allocate your bucket list items to certain decades throughout your journey because life doesn’t always pan out like a movie. The vast majority of people are not going to retire at 60 and then pursue all their grand plans. You run out of energy. A snow trip to Japan is going to look and feel a hell of a lot different when you’re 50 as opposed to 25.
The entire goal of becoming financially independent is to free up our time to live a happier and more fulfilling life. And one of the greatest joys of claiming our time back is to spend it with loved ones.
My dad asked if I wanted to go with him to the Footy in June. It was an afternoon game on a Sunday at the G and he was heading up to meet some mates and cousins.
I’m pretty sure he asked me to come to a game last year but I just had too much on and was trying to get my freelance business off the ground so I declined.
If I was still working full time, my first instinct would be to think about the 2+ hour train ride and how buggered I’d be for work on Monday morning after getting home late on Sunday.
But I don’t work Mondays anymore π€
We headed up together on the train and watched with glee as our beloved Magpies dismantled the ladder leaders, the Melbourne Demons.
You can say what you want about Melbourne, but it has to be one of the best sporting cities on the entire planet! And there’s nothing better than watching a big game at the G!
Collingwood vs Melbourne at the MCG
We made our way down to Swan Street in Richmond for a feed after the game and the atmosphere was electric.
The magpie army had taken over Bruton Avenue as the poor Melbourne supporters were subjected to our famous war cry…
“COOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIINNNNNNNGGGGGGGGWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD”
One of dad’s best mates is a Dee’s supporter which made the victory all that much sweeter.
We ended up at the Corner Hotel in Richmond for a pint and to talk about Collingwood’s path to an inevitable 16th premiership.
And as I was downing my Guinness beer, talking to dad about the game, arguing that De Goey doesn’t do enough or that Cox needs to be more consistent, I couldn’t help but think… this is what it’s all about.
Net Worth Update
Mamma Mia!
All of our assets got crushed in June to give us our second-worst monthly drop of all time. I keep sounding like a broken record but luckily we’re still in the accumulation phase so depressed asset prices are a good thing.
But if the market continues this decline, I’ll have to retract our millionaire status π
We also bought around $2K of Bitcoin in June even though I personally think it’s going to drop further. There are talks about the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) in America finally regulating cryptocurrencies. I think this could be a huge step in its adoption. If the SEC (and consequently other commissions around the world including ASIC) come out and say that Crypto is an official financial asset, it will give this new technology legitimacy in the eyes of a lot of people. It could also start the process of consumer protection and eliminate thousands of scams that have infiltrated this technological breakthrough.
I’m a free-market libertarian at heart but I don’t think even the most staunch Bitcoin maxi would advocate for zero regulation.
Our cash holdings are way too high for my liking but I still have a few big tax bills plus we’re saving for a car. Not much I can do about it for now.
*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 is created by Sharesight
Big drops all around.
We didn’t purchase any shares in June but I’ll be topping up in July for sure.
Networth
by Aussie Firebug | Jun 24, 2022 | Uncategorized
After much thought and consideration, I’ve decided to end my ‘Ask Firebug Fridays’ segment after the announcement from Australia’s financial services regulator.
On the 21st of March 2022, ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) published new guidelines for ‘Discussing financial products and services online‘.
These new guidelines have major implications for content creators in the FIRE and personal finance communities.
This is why I wanted to share my thoughts and opinions on these new guidelines and what they mean for AFB moving forward.
What?
In a nutshell, ASIC is cracking down on unlicensed creators who they think are giving financial advice or are seen to be ‘influencing’ their audience.
Their definitions and examples for what constitutes ‘influencing’ are clear as mud.
asic.gov.au
They don’t even give a clear answer to what defines an influencer either, having followers ‘In the thousands’ apparently π€·ββοΈ.
But who’s an official follower anyway? Someone who listens to one episode of your podcast or YouTube video? An email subscriber? A Twitter follower?
You’re probably thinking they’re only targeting people giving specific or dangerous advice right?
Well, you’re in for a rude shock.
ASIC official speaking to afr.com
We can’t even discuss our own investment decisions or strategies apparently π€.
It gets worse.
afr.com
So… discussing financial products online such as “shares” or “ETFs” without a licence is now illegal…
WE CAN’T EVEN TALK ABOUT ETFS?!
π©π©π©π©π©π©π©π©π©π©π©π©π©π©π©π©π©π©π©π©
This is kinda a big deal.
Stopping people from discussing ETFs is starting to drift into the totalitarian type of conversation. And I don’t say that lightly, but a government that restricts people’s right to discuss certain financial products under the guise of ‘it’s for your own good’ starts to remind me of that book that George Orwell once wrote.
Maybe you’re not worried about these specific new guidelines, but it’s the precedence that they set that should cause alarm. No one cares about anything until it impacts them.
What would you say if one day ASIC released guidelines prohibiting unlicenced parents from talking about money and investing with their children?
That’s perhaps hyperbole, but these new guidelines are one step closer to that dystopian future.
My other issue is there are so many questions and definitions that have been deliberatively left unanswered or are so vague that no meaningful conclusion can be drawn… but let’s move on.
Why?
Let’s give ASIC the benefit of the doubt and say these new guidelines were introduced to protect investors.
This is a good thing!
If an investor loses money after receiving bad advice from an AFS (Australian Financial Services) licenced professional, theoretically they should have a pathway to recoup some of those losses.
If an investor loses money after receiving bad advice from someone on TikTok… bad luck.
AFS licensees have to adhere to a set of minimum requirements which provide important protections for investors if something goes wrong (aka a lot of expensive insurance).
With the explosion of online financial content in the last few years, it makes sense for ASIC to take a closer look at what’s going on. Most content creators are producing honest/useful stuff, but I have to admit that there’s been a trend of creators clearly making content primarily for monetary benefits.
You know what I’m talking about. Creating content for the hell of creating content to make sure their channel stays fresh in the algorithm. Releasing rehashed stuff every second day basically repeating what they’ve already said 100 times.
If content creators are receiving a monetary benefit, there will always be some bias no matter what.
“Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome”
– Charlie Munger
I love this quote and it’s highly applicable to this situation.
Content creators that make money from affiliates and/or sponsors will always have a conflict of interest no matter how small.
And this applies to me too guys. I try my best to be as unbiased as I can but we all have some sort of bias no matter what (sometimes at the subconscious level)! This is especially true when you’re getting kickbacks.
I think the ‘why’ behind ASIC’s new guidelines is fair enough and makes a lot of sense viewed from this angle.
Having said all that…the way ASIC has chosen to crack down on these bad actors is heavy-handed at best, and oppressive at worst.
How?
ASIC’s solution to regulate an influx of online financial content creators is to make them pay for a licence (which can cost tens of thousands of dollars a year) or threaten litigation to the tune of $1M+ dollars in fines and up to 5 years in jail… π
asic.gov.au
To say that this is harsh would be putting it lightly.
To put that into perspective, Australian gangster Mick Gatto has served less jail time than the maximum sentence ASIC can dish out…
A financial content creator might serve more jail time for talking about ETFs, than Mick Gatto… π€
I’m starting to think we’re losing the plot here?
Lazy Policy Personified
Let’s recap so far.
ASIC’s solution to a few bad apples within a thriving community of online financial content creators is an all-encompassing blanket rule that will crush independent media.
It’s sorta like dropping a nuclear bomb to get rid of an ant nest in the backyard.
Overkill doesn’t even come close to what these new guidelines are and the only people who are going to be left standing are the big media corporations that can afford to pay the licence fee which can be as high as $30K a year.
Here’s an idea. Why didn’t ASIC just come out and say that anyone who monetises online financial content needs to hold an AFS licence?
It’s a lot more specific and tangible andΒ would weed out people who are only in it for the money pretty bloody quickly.
But no. In typical government fashion, the corporate watchdog releases new guidelines that are so vague and light on details that 99% of online financial content creators are caught in the crosshairs.
I understand resourcing constraints and ASIC doesn’t have the time to monitor everyone and everything but surely there’s a happy middle ground.
A few bad apples shouldn’t ruin it for everyone.
Is The Cure Worse Than The Disease?
The public opinion of the financial sector has been in tatters ever since the royal commission in 2017.
ASIC released a report in 2019 titled: Financial Advice: What consumers really think which found that 49% of those who were surveyed didn’t get advice because they thought advisers were more interested in making money for themselves. On the other hand, 35% didn’t get advice because the costs were too high.
ASIC Report
ASIC Report
A lot of people are being priced out of financial advice and even more, don’t trust financial planners. The data backs this up time and time again.
I’m not saying regulation is a bad thing, but I think these new guidelines are doing more harm than good.
The truth of the matter is that legislators have made the costs of offering financial advice so high, that the people who need it the most can rarely afford it.
Who should we be prioritising?
The 22-year-old that’s just finished her marketing degree and is trying to make some good financial decisions for the future?
Or the 64-year-old multimillionaire Boomer who owns 7 investment properties?
Why do the legislators think online financial content creators are so popular?
We’re filling a gap in the market that has been created largely because of overregulation.
Some regulation is needed, but these new guidelines are going to wipe out good education material that helps bridge the gap between “I don’t know anything at all” to “I feel confident discussing my financial future with a professional”.
That’s where we content creators thrive! We make stuff relatable and give personality to what can otherwise be a dry topic.
Casualties
One of my favourite podcasts ‘FIRE & Chill’ decided to shut down in April because of these new guidelines.
This is a podcast that averages 4.8/5 on 284 ratings on iTunes and has conservatively helped 10’s thousands of Australians with financial literacy.
iTunes Ratings
Here were two guys making relatable content, for free, that had great reviews.
Another victim of these new guidelines was John Palmer from the very popular YouTube channel ‘INVEST for the future’. John spoke about investing fundamentals drawing from his decades of experience and never charged any money for his videos.
John Palmer decided to shut down because of the new guidelines
“I know everybody would still like the videos to be there, but I just can’t afford to take the risk”
-John Palmer
The Family Finance YouTube Channel
Family Finance is another creator that had to delete a bunch of content. She now can no longer give an opinion on financial products π
lifelongshuffle.com
The Lifelong Shuffle blog is another one that has gone into hibernation because of the new guidelines.
I could go on and on showing other examples of great content creators that have been impacted by the new guidelines but I think you get the point.
The new guidelines are inadvertently snagging 99% of fantastic freely available Australian-specific resources.
Below is an AFR article titled ‘These young investors don’t want ‘finfluencers’ to go‘ which tells us what we already know. Many young investors don’t trust the financial industry and are looking for alternatives.
afr.com
As I’ve previously mentioned, 49% of Aussies don’t get advice because they think they’re being ripped off and 35% think it’s too expensive.
You’d think that ASIC would be putting more time and energy into ‘cracking down’ or improving the professional industry where the public has clearly lost trust?
Yet, ASIC is targeting online financial content creators who have amazing repour within their communities that don’t charge a dime.
I want to repeat this point because it’s important.
Many young people have lost faith and can’t afford advice in the industry that ASIC regulates largely due to over-regulation. Content creators start to fill this void and collectively rack up millions of views, downloads and sessions from a generation hungry for financial knowledge. The numbers don’t lie. If people didn’t like what the content creators were making, they wouldn’t watch, listen or read.
Shouldn’t we want financial education to be accessible for everyone and not just those who can afford it?
More regulation sounds good in theory but the data suggests that it isn’t working.
I have no doubt in my mind that ASIC had the best intentions when they came up with these new guidelines.
But as the old Portuguese proverb goes…
The road to hell is paved with good intentions
Rules for thee but not for me
One of my biggest gripes with this whole fiasco is the hypocrisy.
ASIC’s position is that unlicensed content creators might ‘influence’ investors to make costly decisions yet ASIC themselves are publishing content that’s detrimental to wealth creation.
Case in point, the Moneysmart website.
Moneysmart is a Federal Government website, brought to you by ASIC.
To be fair, they have a lot of great free resources and tools but their advice for financial fees is downright terrible.
Here’s a cracker.
Moneysmart Case Study
Moneysmart presents a case study about a bloke named Rhett who has around $400,000 to invest, including super.
I won’t go into all the details but the important part is what they’ve published as the fees for this case study.
And I want to remind you that the title of this article is ‘Financial advice costs: Pay the right price for the right financial advice’.
Rhett’s total fees for the first year are $14,000 (Moneysmart’s aggregate column is wrong). This is made up of:
- $7,660 for the financial adviser
- $3,000 for the investment platform
- $3,340 for the product issuer which includes full yearly insurance premiums
$14,000 in fees is 3.5% of Rhett’s original investment.
Worst still, this case study estimates investment fees and insurance premiums to be $9,000 (another summing error) per year ongoing perpetually. And $2,000 of that being the fee for financial advice regardless of changes needed to be made or not.
All up that’s an ongoing fee of 2.25%.
90% of people will have no idea if 2.25% is high or low which makes advice from a government-run website like this so insidious.
How on earth is ASIC justifying this content when they know better than most that normalising these fees serves to further line the pockets of advisers and product issuers rather than the investor.
This is a huge problem because so many people are going to read a case study like this, that is backed by the government and just assume that paying an ongoing 2.25% in fees is reasonable.
In fact, this exact case study was posted in the FIRE Facebook group where most of the professional financial advisors also agreed that the case study fees were too high.
Facebook Group
Facebook Group
But as most of us know in the FIRE community, fees play an enormous part in your wealth creation journey.
A great explanation of this can be found here on the PIA website.
How on earth did the responsibility of not being ripped off, fall to a bunch of content creators without any formal education in finance.
It’s almost as if ASIC wants to normalise these fees so AFS licence holders can still profit after paying an arm and leg in regulatory costs impose on them by the very same organisation…
I wonder what would happen if the majority of the population became financially literate and stopped paying these high fees π€?
One could speculate that ASICs’ main source of revenue would dry up pretty quickly.
But that’s just speculation of course…
The End of Ask Firebug Fridays (AFF)
These new guidelines have already claimed a few scalps in the FIRE community and AFF will, unfortunately, be added to the list π’.
I started this FIRE Q&A back in 2018 after getting hundreds of emails from readers each month. I was putting so much time and effort into answering the same questions that I thought a public Q&A podcast would be able to spread the knowledge better.
The AFF segments are clearly in breach of these new guidelines which unfortunately means they will have to be removed.
I’m going to leave the episodes up for the month of July and then remove them from my podcast RSS feed.
If you want to keep an offline copy for yourself, use this link here.
The AFB podcast will be restricted to the interview style format which will focus on the journey, mindset, and life philosophy. I’ll have to tip toe around discussing specific financial products.
We’ll see how it goes.
What Can We Do?
If we want to make real change we need to communicate our message to the legislators that make the rules.
Stephen Jones is the Federal Member for Whitlam and the Minister for Financial Services.
He has real power over how the legislation is written. ASIC merely enforce the law, they don’t make them.
Emailing his office is probably our best bet.
His email address is [email protected] but if you’re on a computer or smartphone, clicking the below link will automatically create an email filling in all the important fields.
CLICK HERE TO EMAIL STEPHEN
Email template
If you’re going to send me an email, here are some key points you might want to include:
- Introduce yourself and the issue
- Explain why this issue is important to you
- Include an ask (suggest a change or alternative)
- Be passionate and polite
- Request a follow-up
Wrapping Up
These new guidelines won’t affect me or my family that much. I might have to shut down a part-time hobby I enjoy which is creating content for the Australian FIRE community.
It’s the next generation that I’m worried about.
I can tell you right now that if these guidelines were in effect back in 2015 I would have never bothered creating AFB at all.
There’s a bunch of teenagers growing up right now that will become interested in their financial future in the next couple of years.
Who are they going to relate to?
It sure as hell isn’t going to be a middle-aged Aussie Firebug that’s hopefully blogging about the perils of raising children by that point.
The next generation of Australian financial content creators will most likely never appear because of these guidelines.
The finance industry will keep trucking along and there will be some bigger financial media corporations getting around but it won’t be the same as the independent grassroots movement over the last 10 years.
Maybe we’ll look back and say that the last decade was the golden age of free-flowing information driven by a small bunch of enthusiastic finance nerds on the Internet…
As always,
Spark that π₯
