I publish these net worth updates to keep us accountable, inspire others 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 get wealthy enough to retire is easy but it takes many years of being consistent and sticking to a plan. The table at the bottom details our entire journey starting from being $36K in debt all the way until we reach 🔥
Soooooo…. we got married in June 🤵👰🎉
📍Airlie Beach
God damn did it feel good to finally tie the knot after all the trials and tribulations during the last 16 months.
I originally wanted to elope back in Marid when I popped the question to Mrs. FB. But she wanted a destination wedding and it was a priority for her to have the family attend… which is fair enough.
Who could possibly have known that a global pandemic was around the corner 😅?
It was a smallish wedding of only 26 people (10 children). We just had our immediate family which made the whole experience really special and one that we’ll never forget.
It was the first time that everyone from both sides got together. I felt like we were the McCalister’s from Home Alone when we arrived at the airport to fly up. 26 people with nearly half of them being kids was absolute mayhem in the best possible way 😁. I was convinced that at any moment one of the parents were going to bellow out…
“KEEEEEEEEEVIN!”
We stopped at Brissy and had our honeymoon down in Byron Bay. Here are some of my favourite shots from the trip.
Whitehaven Beach
Airlie Beach
Brisbane
At The Farm in Byron Bay
Macadamia nut farm
🏄♀️… at Byron
We’ve had a blast over the last 2 weeks but now I’m ready to head back home and move into our new house (settlement is on the 9th).
We’ve just got to 🙏 that everything goes smoothly when we fly back to Vic. To be fair though, the latest outbreaks have been a bit of a headache for us but I’d take headaches in the honeymoon 100/100 vs having to deal with this shit before the wedding.
There was a little lockdown in Vic before we flew up, but by the grace of God, Queensland allowed regional Victorians to enter literally 1 week before our wedding. And now with the latest round of lockdowns, we got insanely lucky to get married the week that we did.
We personally know 5 couples who had to reschedule their weddings in 2021 due to the lockdowns so we can’t complain at all!
Net Worth Update
The major boost this month, which was completely unexpected, was from our last LIC… Milton!
I haven’t looked into the finer details of it, but I believe Milton has been bought out by another company called Soul Patts. And the agreement will see Soul Pattinson pay an equivalent offer value of $6 per Milton share.
Which, in plain English means that the share price of Milton went through the roof.
Milton returned us 27% ($12K) basically overnight 😱🏌️♂️🥳
Holy crap am I glad we haven’t sold out of Milton yet lol. I’m still planning to sell Milton to simplify our holdings plus I prefer ETFs vs LICs these days but wow this little bump has been very welcomed.
It’s honestly the most exciting thing to ever happen to the shares portfolio 😂. I mean… I got a message from my mate Jimmy a day before our wedding and I’d imagine that the feeling I got wasn’t too dissimilar to what most speculators feel when their gamble pays off.
Granddaddy LICs and most ETFs are solid choices for reaching FIRE in Australia but it’s extremely rare that you’ll ever get a major bump like this in such a short amount of time.
It was a good month overall for the sharemarket which saw more gains come from the rest of the portfolio plus Super.
The wedding/honeymoon plus a few bits and bobs for the house made it an expensive month. Add to the fact that I only worked 6 billable days in June meant that we didn’t save that much in cash, unfortunately.
Properties
No updates this month although you can now see the numbers for property 3 using the link below :).
Property 1 was sold in August 2018
Property 3 was sold in April 2021
*DISCLAIMER*
The current value of our properties is a rough guesstimation based on similar surrounding properties. I only really update these when we get an official bank valuation
ETFs/LICs
The above graph is created by Sharesight
No buys again this month. We’ll be back at it once the house settles in 3 days 🙂
Congratulations to you both! Great wedding photo there as well, both looking very schmick! Great that it all went off smoothly and you got to have the wedding and honeymoon without too many issues.
Nice that the takeover offer came through for you as well, love that feeling of a completely unexpected windfall! And now you’re just one decent month away from that first million!
😁
The recent purchase of the home has put us back a bit but depending on what the markets do, there’s a chance for the 1 milly mark by the end of the year 👊
Congrats AFB and Miss AFB! Hope you had a wonderful time. And the icing on the cake, soon to hit a Million NW! I bet you guys are grinning ear to ear. Glad everything worked out for you mate. What a wonderful surprise with Milton – I am kicking myself I offloaded it a while ago haha!
Thanks Cap.
Who knew that was coming though right? Definitely not me but I’ll take it 😁
Congrats guys – amazing news! Aside from Milton, the wedding is also cool I guess too. All jokes aside, welcome to a new chapter! And only months a way from the ol’ seven figures. While youre getting set up for it reckon you could resize your sharesight table? Currently its a table for ants.
Cheers.
TeeBee
Appreciate the Archer reference. You win more internets.
Cheers TB,
How are you viewing these updates? Phone or computer? You can always click on the Sharesight photo and zoom in 🙂
Congratulations!!!! Finding a partner who shares your goals and journey is the most important part (in my opinion) in your journey to FIRE. We also hit the 960’s ourselves this month and hope to get to 1 million by the end of the month. All the best for moving day
Hey AFB, so close to the elusive $1M! And congratulations on your marriage to Mrs FB!
On the Milton share price. Do you have an inkling as to why the SP is surging beyond the $6 mark that was offered by WHSP?
@LJK
WHSP’s offer is not of $6 but a 10% premium to NTA excl final and special dividends.
Meaning, if you read MLT’s announcements, with recently released NTA of 5.50, SOL’s price of $34, and assuming SOL’s monthly vwap will be above $31, the current value of MLT share is around $6.50 excluding 19 c of franking credits, giving gross value of ~ $6.69 inclusive of franking.
Thankyou @nofriends for clarifying.
This whole merger business is new to me. Sounds like a hold and wait scenario.
Cheers.
Thanks LJK,
No idea about the share price. I’ll take it though 🙂
Thanks FoF,
That’s very true about finding someone who shares your goals. It’s something that can’t be quantified in a spreadsheet and one that is often taken for granted without much thought or consideration. It’s so hard to talk about that part of FIRE though because I just got extremely lucky. I’ve had people ask me about finding someone who is FIRE compatible before and it really stumped me because I don’t really have a clue when it comes to dating and finding your SO these days. It was really just dumb luck that Mrs FB and I met at uni.
Congrats to you guys too 🙂
All the best
Hi! I’m very new to the Fire movement. Currently just going with the A200/VGS split. Would you recommend this as I’m in the accumulation faze? Reading another one of your posts on thorn hill should I just 100% A200 for the dividends etc? Thanks!
Hi Kade,
I can’t recommend anything but I will say that A200/VGS is an appropriate investment for most Aussie if their goal is to reach financial independence. 100% Aussie shares is a bit too concentrated and not diversified enough IMO.
Hope that helps
Nice work. I would hold onto Milton until Sol Pat takes it over. You will be up with approx 0.52c dividend per share (from the reports they have released) and you will receive Sol pat shares which you can then decide to hold onto or sell. I will be doing the same.
Do you know when the take is set to happen (maybe it’s already happened)?
It will go to MLT shareholder vote first from what I understand. Sometime after September I believe.
Congrats AF, couldn’t be happier for you both!
Thanks so much Chris 🙂
Agreed with other posters – default should be to hold MLT until the scheme for dividends, but do the CGT calculations. From memory the consideration is both a SOL share and cash, so if you are not a SOL holder, and plan to sell quickly, the CGT may mean foregoing dividends and selling before the scheme is better.
My son’s first investment was MLT, so he has learned some great lessons about holding through the COVID dip and now gets to learn in more detail about CGT calculations and Franking.
Interesting. Won’t the price of MLT already factor in this information though?
Congrats guys. You’re making major moves.
I wanted to ask if you guys salary sacrifice into your super.
Cheers Michelle,
We don’t SS into Super. If we were older, I’d seriously consider it. But we plan to reach FIRE outside of Super so it’s less appealing for us.
Congrats on the marriage!
Can I ask why you have both A200 and VAS? as far as I understand VAS tracks the top 300 but the additional 100 companies only accounts for 1.5% of the overall value of the share, given the fees are much higher for VAS, would it be better to simply merge it into A200?
Cheers Frank.
VAS was first, then A200 came out and the MER was less than half of what VAS was… So we started to buy A200 because why not? I also liked diversifying away from Vanguard as a provider. Then the MER of VAS went down so they’re a lot closer… I’m happy to hold both atm. Might simplify it later down the road, we’ll see.
Congratulations on all fronts. Thanks again for sharing your FIRE journey! *TIP OF THE HAT TO YOU SIR*
Thanks Peter!
*NODS IN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT*
Congrats on your wedding, even with your faces blurred, you guys look amazing!!!
I love the positive vibes you put out with your posts. Life’s not always easy but you seem to have a flair for big picture thinking and your down to earth Aussie style, keeps me coming back. Wishing you and Mrs AFB nothing but the best for the future. I’m sure it’ll be a wonderful ride!
Thanks so much Ang.
What a lovely comment. Put a big smile on my face this morning 🙂
All the best for your journey too 👍
Congratulations, very happy for you both!
Thanks Sz 🙂
The MLT thing is a rare bump, but it does show the advantages that can come from buying quality LICs at a discount. At some point, market forces will work to value it at NTA or a premium. Shouldn’t this make you at least reconsider your preference for ETFs over LICs? (Personally I think there’s room to straddle both sides of this fence, but I guess it depends how hands on / hands off you want to be). You will *never* get a windfall like this from an ETF.
Congratulations on the wedding & good luck for the move.
Thanks Ben 🙂
Congratulations to you both! 🙂
Thanks Mrs Flamingo 🙂
Congrats on the wedding. We’re also stoked we didn’t sell our MLT holdings. Hope your settlement went well today!
Thanks Mr FDU 🙂
Congratulations on the wedding!
Just curious to know is there any reason that you are not considering Property ETFs like VAP to diversify more?
Also, I read in one of your previous blogs that you are planning to sell your LICs slowly and only buy ETFs. I can still see MLT in your portfolio. Did you change your strategy back to mix of ETFs and LICs?
Nope. MLT will be sold by the end of the year 🙂
Thanks Jyostsna,
I’m happy with the property exposure we currently have through VAS/A200 mate.