Just like last year, and the year before that. It’s time again to take a step back and see what we achieved over the last 12 months and set new goals for 2019!
2018 GOALS
Have a savings rate of 65% or better
Achieved = No ❌
Total expenses for 2018: $60,742
Total money made (post-tax): $142,957
Savings rate for 2018 = 57.5% 😓
This one isn’t really a surprise for us. The two big factors that lead to an increase in spending was all the flights and accomodation we booked for our trip overseas and Mrs.FB having her wisdom teeth out was not cheap either. Even though we earned $12k more this year than the previous, as always, the expenses are the biggest factor in a healthy savings rate and not your income!
I’m not overly devastated by this because I know that these big expenses were sort of a one-off and not exactly lifestyle creep. Tbh, 55% is not that bad considering how much we booked for our trip. If I cut out the money we spent on flights and accommodation our savings rate jumps to 67%… Not bad.
Reach $200K in ETFs
Achieved = No❌
Technically this wasn’t achieved. We had around $194k in ETFs/LICs at the end of December 2018. But we could have had heaps more in there because we sold IP1 last year and currently have a big cash reserve we’re drip-feeding into the market. It also didn’t help that December was a really bad month for the markets but oh well.
If I actually remembered this goal in December I could have just put in an extra $7k to hit it haha.
Always next year!
Get to $550K+ in net worth
Achieved = Yes✅
Woohoo first tick! We managed to end 2018 at $600k mostly due to the sale of IP1. Very happy with this one.
Make monthly checks to the above goals as part of my monthly net worth posts
Achieved = No ❌
I don’t know how I forgot about this one but I can’t remember referencing these goals at all during the year. It was maybe something that sounds good last year but not something I ever think about with each months update. Maybe I’ll remember this year 😂
Redesign homepage and the whole site
Achieved = Yes✅
I changed my WordPress theme at the start of 2018 to make it easier for me to update the site and for you guys to navigate around. The older readers might remember, but the old theme was a bit clunky and for me to add things into the site use to take ages and was extremely buggy. So happy I made the switch to the new theme. Really fast and very customisable.
Find a Super expert to interview on the podcast
Achieved = No ❌
Ugh! I’m so over this one. I was really close to getting a Super expert for MONTHS to come on the show and they never did. I won’t name any names but I got over it really quick after I tried pretty hard to land some other quality guests.
So I’m changing my strategy.
If you know someone who would like to contact me to come on the podcast, then I’m all ears. But I’m after someone who will provide expert info about Super in regards to FIRE. What I don’t want is some random from their financial consulting company coming on to talk about how good their company is. It has to be specifically in regards to people looking to FIRE or FI that are close to their preservation age. SMSF is of great interest.
[email protected] if you know someone 🙏
Update the Australian FIRE Calculator
Achieved = Sorta yes ✅
I made some minor changes to the calculator last year (didn’t update the changelog) but nothing major. There are actually other calculators that are based off mine that have expanded it greatly. If you’re one of those people who has made amendments to it, please contact me as I’d love to release a better version and give you credit and some exposure to whatever site/content you may have.
I came across one version that had the ability to enter in multiple people’s numbers and stuff like that. Really cool stuff and something I’d love to get out there officially without having to further develop this myself as I’m pretty much moved on from that.
Get to 500 Facebook likes
Achieved = Yes ✅
Currently sitting on 940 likes 😁
Who will be the prestigious 1,000 like?
I feel that pages and groups have so much more authority when they hit the magical 1K mark.
Although there’s plenty out there who pay for likes 🙄. Just look for the pages who have over 1,000 likes yet only have 5-7 reactions each time they post. I take pride in saying the Aussie Firebug page has never ever paid for likes and on top of that, doesn’t have a single friend or family member liking the page. Mostly because they don’t know about it! But I reckon that’s an easy 100-200 likes right there getting the old friends and family on board 😂
And that’s it for the recap for the last 12 months. Heading into 2019, these will be our main focus financially/blog-wise.
2019 GOALS
The big financial goals are:
- Obtain a savings rate of 20% or better
- I honestly don’t know if we will be able to save anything whilst on our trip this year. But that of course was never the goal. I’ve set 20% as a little goal just to be a bit more accountable. A lot depends on our housing situation and how good the jobs we’re able to land are.
- Reach $420K in ETFs
- We’re putting in $15k into ETFs/LICs each month over the next 16 months from the big pile of cash left over from the sale of IP1. This means at a minimum, $165K will be going into the markets for us this year. Maybe we can continue to add a little bit from savings and perhaps the markets will do ok. I don’t think this goal is unrealistic but a lot will depend on factors outside of our control.
- Get to $700K+ in net worth
- Maybe a bit unrealistic since I don’t think we will be able to save that much but you never know.
- Sell another property if the lending condition changes and the market picks up
- I could be waiting a decade for this one but the two IPs are currently cash flow positive so I’m in no rush.
Website goals:
- Bring back AFF and aim to release an episode on a regular basis once I’m up and running overseas
- Release a webapp I’m been working on
- Get to 2,000 Facebook likes
That should keep me pretty busy this year.
What about you? How did you go with your financial goals in 2018? And what goals are you setting for the next 12 months?
Great work mate, some of last year’s goals you’ve pretty much made but just a little under. Well done on that.
Hopefully you can still save and invest while overseas.
All the best.
Thanks BHL 🙏. I’ll try to but we’ll see. What really gives me comfort is the dividends that will still roll in during the year will be invested. Very warming to know my shares Ares till working hard for me when I’m away holidaying. So kind of them 😁
Hi Matt
Could you tell me why you are drip feeding your cash into the EFT market?
It just seems like opportunity lost to me, particularly with the recent dip in the market.
Hi John,
Basically because I was too scared to dump it all in tbh. The cash is sitting in an offset (which is at 3.98%) so not all is lost. It’s still working for me.
I’ve been thinking about putting in half when the next dip happens and then jsut dca after that.
It’s called dollar cost averaging. By drip feeding cash into the market you lower the risk of mis-timing the market. It’s a sound strategy.
“I’ve been thinking about putting in half when the next dip happens and then jsut dca after that”.
It’s a mugs game trying to time the market. Today’s prices could be the lowest they will ever be.
You are probably aware of this but Vanguard did a really good study on DCA vs Lump Sum. Lump sum wins by a decent margin. However, this is prefaced by your risk tolerance, comfort level etc. I have been struggling with it as I have for a few years now – held a probably silly high amount of cash (40%). I dumped some in during the downturn in Dec18/Jan19 – but still have too much cash.
I keep thinking there will be a huge downturn in which I can really boost my net worth by buying up a bunch of stocks on the cheap. I might be waiting for years..
https://investor.vanguard.com/investing/online-trading/invest-lump-sum (this isnt the actual study – more a 1 page summary)
https://www.vanguardinvestments.com.au/retail/ret/articles/insights/research-commentary/investment-principles/dollar-cost-averaging.jsp (article on DCA and emotions in investing)
Cool find Luke. I wish I had sumped it in when the December dip happened. Hindsight is 20/20 after all
Hi Aussie Firebug,
Hope all is going well on the trip! Keep up the great work.
Can you share what theme you use on WordPress?
Divi mate. Highly recommend!
Facebook likes are a fickle fiend… I have 850+ but all I do to keep it alive is set up a schedule with recurpost and spam my old links 2-3 times a week. I do literally nothing else.. I’m not sure why anyone follows me. I wouldn’t follow me >.<
Ooh, thanks for the tip about Recurpost, LadyFIRE. I’ll be keeping that one in mind when I start to get a good base of posts of ‘evergreen’ content to re-share.
Good round up of goals. I hear you on having to scale back the savings rate to 20% in 2019. I’m on a one-year mini-retirement in the USA and my savings rate is actually negative right now, after having reached 65-70% savings rate in previous years. I’m not eating into my portfolio, just the pool of cash savings I’d designated for this year off, so all is still well. I’ll be letting my index fund/LIC portfolio coast to my FI number over time, but it does feel hard to say I’m chasing FI without making active contributions to growing that stash right now…
Thanks Michael,
It’s definitely been different not being able to save as much this year. I’m lucky before of long service leave I’m still getting pay checks up to June. So hopefully with a new job in London and paychecks coming back home I’m able to save a little. We’ll see I guess.
I’m so keen to hear about super/fire….! Please keep working on that chestnut! I always turn my head by the long term tax savings of additional super contributions but then there is the whole factor about it being locked away. A blog from the USA talks about a two stage retirement where they calculate their budget off their total nest egg (super plus non super shares) but then just spend from their non super shares until preservation age at what point they will have spent all their shares but their super will have grown and they switch over…. this sounds like an opportunity for another fire bug calculator…! Keep us posted! Emma
Oops I never actually ever looked at your retirement calculator and low and behold!
Haha all good. Yeah that’s the most optimal way of doing it. But in reality, I’ll just get to my FIRE number outside Super I think. It’s a shame because of the missed taxed savings though 😢
Hi FB, Long time reader, first time poster. When you calculate you total income ($142,957), does it only include income from employment or everything including dividends etc? Everyone talks about the 50% savings rate, mine is currently sitting at about 35%, with a single family income this is all I can manage at the moment, however if I include about 7k in dividends that I receive my savings rate becomes about 40%. So does your total savings rate equals = income from full time employment only or do you include dividends as well? Cheers. Sorry if this has been asked before.
Hi Gene,
I actually don’t think it’s been asked so there you go!
The savings rate is from our PAYG income and tax returns only. I don’t include dividends or property income. If I had included investment income, it would have severely distorted the savings rate especially because we received close to $200k last year from the sale of IP1.
Easier for everyone if I just keep it to our incomes plus tax returns I think.
Hi FB,
Love your blog.
Just a Qu, when you calculate annual expenses what exactly does that include? i.e any loans/interest or just day to day living expenses?
Thanks
MJ
Hi Mia,
Check this post out
https://www.aussiefirebug.com/savings-review-17-18/