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 for retiring 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 🔥
I finally managed to get the 2022 FIRE survey published the other week.
2022 FIRE Survey dashboard
I would like to get other communities involved in this next time. I only advertised the survey on my channels and Facebook group and even though I was happy with the number of submissions, I still feel like it can improve.
I liked the granularity of this year’s dataset but I need to strike a fine balance between asking a lot of questions and making the survey easy to complete. I’m thinking of removing a bunch of questions next year so it’s quicker to finish.
If anyone completed the survey last year and has feedback, please let me know in the comment section 🙂
In other news, my brother-in-law was telling me about these non-alcoholic (NA) beers I needed to try late last year.
My favourite non-alcoholic beer
See, I’ve never been a massive drinker but I will indulge in a couple of cold ones a few times a week (does that make me a big drinker 🤔?).
It sometimes feels illegal to barbeque on a hot day without a stubbie in your hand. But during a heat wave late last year (yes, we do get them in Victoria) I found myself drinking 3-5 beers every day for a week straight!
That may be a lot for some, and not a lot for others. Regardless, it crossed my mind that all these beers would add up eventually and I should probably cut back a bit.
I then stumbled across a podcast by Andrew Huberman who is a neuroscientist at the Stanford School of Medicine.
It was titled: What Alcohol Does to Your Body, Brain and Health.
This podcast was a big eye-opener for me. I’m sure most people know alcohol is bad for you, but listening to Andrew break down how regular alcohol consumption basically destroys the brain was scary. The really surprising part was just how little you need to be drinking to become affected. I always thought it was only those who were getting wasted regularly, but apparently not!
I finished that podcast and thought about those beers my brother-in-law was praising as the only decent-tasting NA.
I went down to Dan Murphies later that day and picked up a 4-pack. I haven’t had a light/mid/full-strength beer since Christmas!
I even went to a stag party two weeks ago and wondered how long I could last before I was bullied into full-strength beers. The weird thing is that moment never came and most people didn’t care/notice I wasn’t drinking full-strength cans.
I’m sure it had something to do with the age group (there’s more social pressure as a young fella to get wasted with the boys) but I’m more convinced that simply holding a can that looks like a craft beer has a hypnotizing effect of being part of the gang.
I’ve been in social situations where I couldn’t drink (designated driver for example) and for some reason, it’s so much weirder to be around people drinking when you don’t have anything to hold as opposed to drinking a NA beer. Even a can of soft drink doesn’t quite have the same effect.
I didn’t feel outcasted drinking my NA as much as I thought I would.
Social drinking is an enormous part of Australian culture. As I said earlier, I’m not a big drinker and I take my health and fitness very seriously. But I love catching up with my mates at the pub and this inevitably leads to alcohol consumption. I’d tried to go to the pub and drink lemon lime and bitters but it almost always ended up with me being roasted 😂.
I have never had a great-tasting NA beer before trying Heaps Normal. And I’ve recently discovered 4 Pines which is fantastic too.
I’m now drinking the same amount as before, but with fewer hangovers. And I also get to have a few after BJJ training to help me hydrate!
I’m not ruling out alcohol forever (there’s actually a tiny amount in these NA beers anyway), but I’m going to see how long I can last before having another.
Net Worth Update
The sharemarket roared into the new year.
Big gains all round except for our cash reserves.
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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
We booked a trip to Japan/South Korea in January. Flights + accom sent our spending way up!
Shares
The above graph is created by Sharesight
Gains across all holdings with the Australian market leading the pack.
No more big invoices to cash yet so we continue to keep a decent cash buffer.
We didn’t buy shares in January.
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.
Ha! It’s funny how much of an impact this Huberman has in the FIRE community. I went dry in September and October before the Christmas silly season, and then have been dry over Jan/Feb.
Like you, I was expecting to be socially pressured into drinking “the real stuff”. But I find with a NA beer in my hand, no-one even seems to notice. And, after a drink or two, even I find myself forgetting that I haven’t been drinking. It’s an odd experience.
Thanks for the update. Hope your 2023 is off to a great start.
I know right!
NA beers are like black magic. Somehow socially acceptable when cans of soft drink won’t cut it.
They taste very similar to an actual beer which hits different after a hard day’s work in the sun. So good!
I’ve also been sober this year. Highly recommend you give the Bridge Road Brewers Free Time Pale Ale a try. It’s become my favourite ZA beer. Also really enjoy the Heaps Normal XPA.
Keep the suggestions coming!
I’m gonna try them all 😁
You must be loving the +50% on bitcoin so far this year!
Yes, this has been nice. Still down from when I bought though 😬
A good N/A beer for the health conscious is ‘Zero sports pale ale’. Only 40 calories and a few things added for recovery.
I’m at least 10 cases deep in the last year, also trying to swap to N/A beers….
I’ve had them and they’re OK.
Taste a bit funny to me though.
If I really wanted to be health conscious I’d just stick to water/Gatorade. But having a decent-tasting beer without all the negative health consequences is simply amazing!
The only rational thing to do is to stay off the poison (alcohol).
Well done and congrats on a big portfolio uplift. Your heavy asx and Bitcoin allocation, really gave you a boost.
I’m not ruling out the poison forever. It’s just so refreshing to have an alternative that tastes great.
Great progress from the market so far. Just wondering, and you’ve touched on it before but without trawling through all the blog, do you DRP your a200 and vas and if so/not why/why not?
Just getting mine all set up and autoinvesting through pearler so it’s a set and forget. Some people are divided by growth vs dividends. What is your take?
Cheers mate.
We don’t have DRP turned on because we like the psychological effects of seeing the cash hit our bank accounts.
I’m more of a fan of receiving dividends because it forces you to start receiving cash from your portfolio without having to sell units. Again, it’s more of a psychological trick than anything.
It’s much easier for us to spend dividends than to sell units and spend capital growth. Technically there’s not much difference but in reality, I would find it very difficult to sell down units for cash.
I hope that helps 🙂
🔥🐞
Just shy of my 40th birthday, and with a one-year-old daughter, I decided to go dry. I had always been a regular weekly drinker, and you could say a well-functioning alcoholic. That was one and a half years ago, and it was the best decision I have ever made. The more you learn about alcohol, the more you understand it has no positive effects. Being a non-drinker also makes you more frugal, which is a plus on the path to FIRE 🙂 — Also, try the Athletic Brewing Co-Run Wild IPA. It’s a tasty drop..
That’s the thing though, the social inclusion was always my favourite part of drinking.
It’s almost ingrained in the fabric of Australian culture to involve alcohol with gatherings, meetups and special occasions.
NA beers have cracked the code. You can be part of the crew but without the negative health consequences.
I’ll try your recommendation mate.
Cheers
Mate,
Love reading these – funny how great minds think a like. Have been off alcohol since January, and NA beer has made it much easier. My fav so far is simply Peroni 0.0% – very refreshing. Great that I can have a guilt free beer mid week on a hot day and can drink two without craving 3 – 4 (first you have a drink, then the drink has a drink).
Looking at your net worth, I can’t help but ask if you have considered paying off your help debt? Yeah yeah, I know – “the best debt you will ever have” as they always say. But the trick is, if you pay it off voluntarily by June 1st you avoid indexation entirely. e.g. this year you will probably be hit with 7.2% x $14,679 = $1,057. So paying it off in full is an instant guaranteed return of 7.2% then you get back any PAYG with held amounts at tax time. Plus it is one less item to track in your net worth!
Cheers Matty.
You make a decent point about the HECS debt but honestly, I don’t really care about maximising our wealth these days. I’d rather spend $14K on another holiday vs paying off HECS to avoid $1K in interest.
I’ll have to give Peroni a go 🙂
Mate, great responce. Any tips for getting out of the wealth maximisation mind set? Or is this just something that happens when you hit a certain level of financial freedom?
For me personally, it wasn’t about reaching a level of wealth. It was about living the life I’d always dreamt of. Once I started doing that, I didn’t care about the money so much.
This is a super interesting response.
Just wondering when you cut back on full time work last year, did you feel internally conflicted at all re the missed income opportunity?
I’ve cut back to 4 days a week as of this year, and I’m still not feeling 100% comfortable with it, which is very annoying as I’ve talked about wanting to do so for a very long time. Keen to hear your thoughts.
Interesting point Matty,
I wrote a small article on this.
I reckon most people chasing FIRE do not have a clear choice.
If you have consumer debt at 20% just pay HECS off, but if you are sacrificing funds into ETFs LICs it is tricky. What would you do?
https://aussiestrategy.com/your-hex-debt-is-about-to-get-hit-for-6-or-should-i-say-7/
Absolutely.
I still have those moments. I’ll check out what contracts are paying in Melbourne and start to feel like “Damn, that’s a lot of money”. But I always come back to what I’d be giving up to have that money. Plus I struggle to conceptualise how the extra $$$ would make me happier. I’ve got everything I need right now.
I’m still working but it’s for self satisfaction reasons.
Exactly 💯 %
And of course the flow on effects as we are already looking at a higher the usual CPI for the next couple of FYs.
Have you tried the German wheat beer NA versions? Some are really good
Yes I have. The old man stocks it in his fridge. It’s a good drop actually
Love reading your journey, so real and also inspiring to many. Only question is why such low dividends showing in sharesight? Surely A200 has many more dividends paid over the years.
Cheers mate!
The returns in that image are only for the month on January 2023.
A200 has produced $49,938 worth of dividends for us since August 2018.
Ben, the dividends shown are since Jan 1st, 2023 only. See in the bottom left corner of the Sharesight screen grab
It’s good to hear that there’s a lot less peer pressure to drink nowadays, although as you say part of that may just be the age group. Although I spent a fair chunk of my twenties and thirties having a drink on a pretty regular basis, I basically don’t drink alcohol at all unless it’s a social event, and alas I don’t go to a huge number of those so it might only be a handful of times each year that I’ll have a drink. I can’t say that I really find myself thinking man I could really go a cold one right now, and avoiding the extra calories and lower quality sleep allows me to stay healthier with less effort. Oh and I guess as a side benefit I’m not spending money on buying alcohol either!
Oh and nice to see the portfolio ticking along for you!
I only really crave a beer after hard work in the sun or barbequing. And maybe sometimes after a hard BJJ training session.
Maybe the others are more diplomatic, but a good incentive to cut down on beer and indeed sugar is to go up the aisles at Coles or see the over 45s at pubs and ask yourself if people look healthy and in good shape. Sugar and alcohol age you, and add countless health problems, plus imagine how much you spend on these in the name of ‘mateship’ and social convention. In my case I’m averaging one drink a month since the pandemic and am trying to cut sugar now. A massive dental bill this week has strengthened my resolve!
Hi mate, where are you buying your bitcoin?
Hey Mate, love the updates. Also on the no/low alcohol bandwagon and loving it.
Question for you is that I have just noticed this month that IOZ have dropped the management fee to 0.05% which is now lower than both A200 and VAS. Any thoughts on this and switching again? Not sure what a 0.02% difference would make but its worth a question!
I think A200 has lowered their MER to 0.04% now haha. Honestly, I wouldn’t change considering how low the management fees are these days.
I’d rather not say sorry Andrew.
+1 for the Heaps Normals and cutting down on drinking in general. I’ve reduced my intake on any level to max 8 days per month. I’ve seen some pretty decent changes in the last 6 months as for me alcohol also leads to less gym time and more crap food.
I have a love/hate relationship with Huberman, each episode is so insightful but it’s also a case of ‘what is he going to ruin for me this time’ haha. I’m sure you’re aware but if your not, Matthew Walker (the sleep guy) has some unfortunate things to say about alcohol and sleep. His research + Huberman = a shit sandwich for those that enjoy alcohol regularly. Finding out that you’re classes as a ‘chronic user of alcohol’ if you drink just a few standard drinks per week, oophf.
I don’t know how to take that Huberman pod. Whilst i am sold on the idea of quitting drinking, a few things come to mind to question what he is actually claiming:
1) Selling supplements?? This blew up my BS meter.
2) Being under the NHMRC guidelines could still be classified as a chronic user in Huberman’s view. https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/health-advice/alcohol
Haha yep. I think a lot of people had the same reaction after listening to that episode.
Love hearing about more people giving up booze. I have never felt better after reducing my alcohol to only when I actually feel like it, which is, surprisingly, rarely. And the odd drink I do have, I really enjoy.
I agree, drinking in Australia is the norm, from a social perspective. ‘Let’s catch up…for a drink”, rather than just “Let’s catch up”. Very happy seeing the pendulum swing on this.
The thing that turns me off ZA beers is the carb content. Heaps Normal are a bit better than some others I’ve seen at 15g carbs per 375ml but that’s still more than double the carbs in a typical mid-strength beer.
Nothing wrong with carbs if it fits your macros Steve.