by Adam Preston | Nov 4, 2022 | Podcast
Summary
Today is a very special episode because if you had told me 10 years ago that I would be chatting to Steve McKnight on my own podcast, I would have never believed you.
Steve is a professional investor, media commentator and online entrepreneur. But he’s probably most famous in the FIRE community for his book “From 0 to 130 Properties in 3.5 Years”.
This was actually the second book about financial independence that I ever read and completely changed my life. Steve is one of three people who I’d consider as the most influential figures for me to come across throughout my investing journey so as you could imagine, this was a special episode for me personally.
Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are:
- Burnout and seeking an alternative path (00:06:15)
- Investing in property (00:17:37)
- Vendor financing (00:20:51)
- Australia’s housing market is a Ponzi scheme (00:27:44)
- Online entrepreneurship (00:46:30)
- Finding meaning beyond financial independence (01:11:37)
Links
by Adam Preston | Oct 28, 2022 | Podcast
Summary
Today I’m talking with Brad Smith. Brad is an entrepreneur and former young Australian of the year for Tasmania who founded a motorcycle company Braaap in 2005 at the ripe old age of 18. Entrepreneurship is sometimes popularised as a quicker way to reach FIRE with the added benefit of doing something that you love. But it doesn’t always work out this way.
Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are:
- Brad’s background and family upbringing (00:05:53)
- What made Brad start a company so young? (00:15:11)
- Finding a manufacturing factory in China (00:25:28)
- The importance of separating personal finances from the companies (00:30:55)
- Dealing with adversity (00:34:20)
- Marketing vs engineering (00:39:09)
- Electric motorcycles (00:43:36)
Links
by Adam Preston | Oct 21, 2022 | Podcast
Summary
Today I’m joined by my high schoolmate Luke.
Luke and I attended FinFest and the Sydney FIRE meet-up over the weekend. I thought it would be fun to recap the event/meetup because we both had a blast.
Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are:
- The FinFest event (02:51)
- The presentations on the day (08:05)
- Food truck lines (09:18)
- Bumping into others from the FIRE community (15:51)
- The FIRE meet-up (30:08)
- Noisy venues (31:06)
- Other content creators coming to the meet-up (33:20)
Links
No links this week 😅
by Adam Preston | Oct 7, 2022 | Podcast
Summary
Today I’m talking with Dr Cameron Murray. Cameron is a father of two currently living in Brisbane and holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Sydney. You may have seen Cameron in a collection of print media outlets and in TV programs such as Q&A on the ABC. This is a big episode today because Cameron has such a breadth of knowledge across so many areas that affect our ability to retiree early. He has one of the most interesting and original takes on our Super system too which I think a lot of early retirees, such as myself, will be interested in hearing.
Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are:
- Why Australia should scrap Superannuation since the aged pension is a superior system that costs less and delivers more (00:11:20)
- Housing policies and what changes need to be made to help affordability (00:52:46)
- Money creation and its role in inflation (00:58:27)
- Political corruption and what it costs Australians (01:25:52)
- How to become a better economist (01:31:55)
Links
by Adam Preston | Sep 23, 2022 | Podcast
Summary
Today my guest is a legend in the Australian personal finance space. Noel Whittaker has been educating Aussies in money management and investing for over 50 years. He’s probably most famous for his international bestselling book “Making Money Made Simple” which has sold over a million copies worldwide!
Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are:
- Noel’s upbringing and first investments (00:02:19)
- What made Noel become an author? (00:13:41)
- Noel’s investment choices and experience (00:18:08)
- Noel’s thoughts on Australian Superannuation (00:26:50)
- Annuities in Australia (00:42:46)
- The big issue with Lenders Mortgage Insurance (00:48:37)
- What’s happened to the financial planning industry and how would Noel fix it? (00:50:38)
Links
by Adam Preston | Sep 16, 2022 | Podcast
Summary
I have an interesting episode for you guys today and I think you’re really going to like it. My guest today is Scott O’Neill. Scott bought his first investment property in 2010 with a $60K deposit after saving for 5 years. Just 8 years later, Scott and his wife had 28 properties generating $300K of profit each year plus around $7Million of equity. And Scott is very adamant that he didn’t receive any financial help, gifts, inheritance, living at home rent-free until his late 20’s etc. He’s self-made and agreed for me to dive deeply into exactly how he managed to do it.
Some of the topics we talk about today are:
- Scott’s background. What type of socioeconomic situation did he come from? (00:06:24)
- How did Scott come to be an investor? (00:11:41)
- The schools Scott attended and what type of career he had once he graduated from uni? (00:14:13)
- A timeline of Scott and his wife’s salary and savings rate during those 8 years from 2010 to 2018 (00:17:15)
- How did the banks let him and his wife load up on that much debt? Especially during the APRA crackdown in the early/mid-2010s. (00:42:04)
- How much of their success does Scott attribute to timing and luck vs skill and hard work? (01:00:26)
- How much he personally draws from his buyer agency business even after reaching financial independence? (01:13:39)
Links
