Aussie Firebug

Financial Independence Retire Early

I can’t believe we’re halfway through 2020 already.

The last 3.5 months have flown by and our Euro adventure will be over before we know.

It’s crazy to think back to last year and how much more we did between March and June in 2019.

We:

  • Flew from Dubai into our new home for the next two years, London city
  • Downloaded City Mapper, opened a bank account with Monzo and set up our Oyster card. All essentials for London newbies
  • Found our new flat and met our new flatmates
  • I got my first tastes of contract work and was blown away by job opportunities and just how much the city of London has to offer
  • Visited Belgium, Scottland and Germany

Whereas so far in lockdown I’ve…

  • Not ventured past a 5km radius of Clapham North
  • Re-watched season 4-10 of The Simpsons
  • Grown a beard and now look homeless
  • Came to the realisation that Carole Baskin killed her husband

To say this year is not panning out as I’d hoped is putting it lightly.

On the flip side, whilst we never, ever intended to go on this trip to save money, lockdown has actually forced nearly everyone on the planet to spend less purely by taking away options. We aren’t spending money on restaurants, entertainment, concerts, live sports… you know, all the good stuff we moved here to do and see 😅.

Not being able to travel absolutely sucks. We will be back home early next year and then it’s on to the next chapter of our lives. Who knows when we’ll be back in Europe, and even when we do come back, I doubt we’ll ever be as carefree as we’re now.

Ah well, ya win some you lose some. At least we got to do so much last year and looking at the bigger picture outside of our bubble, we’re very fortunate to be in a job and healthy.

But speaking of travelling, we are planning on doing a small trip around the UK in August. We want to visit Wales, the midlands and venture into the Scottish highlands.

Given the current circumstances, especially after hearing about Victoria and parts of Spain going back into stricter lockdown, it was too risky to book anything international in the event that we might need to quarantine once we get there.

I’ve been wondering if we’ll be allowed back into Australia at the end of the year now.

It’s been unbelievable watching Daniel Andrews speak about reinstating stage 3 restrictions after the recent outbreak. It’s such a hard decision with no right answer. They need to lock shit down in case it gets out of control, but that surely can’t be a long term strategy… right? Is the world relying on a cure/vaccine? I mean, if Victoria (or any other state) has to shut down every time there’s a flare-up… when will this end? I haven’t been following it closely enough to really have an educated opinion but part of me feels like Australia has shifted from flattening the curve to stop the hospitals being overrun to completely eradicating the virus from the country. And with NZ/Greenland being shining examples that it’s definitely possible I understand the want to be part of that group. My only question with all of this is what happens after that’s achieved? Quarantine for everyone coming into the country until there’s a cure/vaccine?

I’d love to hear from anyone who’s been following it more closely than I have in the comment section.

Net Worth Update

Strong gains from the sharemarket/Super plus another stellar month saving most of our 💰.

Only $6K off our all-time high too. Talk about that V shape recovery!

Properties

Property 1 was sold in August 2018

*DISCLAIMER*
Various data sources (RP data, Domain.com etc.) are used in combination of what similar surrounding properties were sold for to calculate an estimate. This is an official Commonwealth bank estimate and one which they use to approve loans.

ETFs/LICs

The above graph is created by Sharesight

Good returns, not bhed.

Before the Rona, I was expecting our dividends to be a fair bit higher than what they were this month. But given what has unfolded globally, it’s still a bit surreal to receive dividends at all. Not what I was hoping/expecting but we’ll take it anyway.

We purchased around $15K worth of A200 in June after we transferred back some £££ home.

 

Networth

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