I share these net worth updates to stay accountable, seek feedback on our strategy, and prove that achieving financial independence in Australia is feasible without relying on extraordinary luck or wealth. The table below tracks our journey from $36K in debt to reaching our goals. 🔥
We welcomed our second daughter into the world in June.
Baby Bug 2
I’ve often spoken about the huge benefits of having control over your time once you become a parent, but I have to say that blessing multiplies tenfold when you’ve got more than one!
Since early June, we’ve been deep in newborn life. It’s chaotic, exhausting, but honestly manageable. The biggest reason? Neither of us are working full-time right now.
Those first few weeks are rough. Most of your time goes into the older kid, cleaning, cooking, or trying to sleep before the next wake-up.
But honestly, it’s felt more manageable than I expected. We’re in a lucky spot with Mrs. Firebug at home and me able to step back from work, but it’s still surprising how doable it’s been.
Lately, on walks with the girls, I’ve been thinking about how much harder this would be if I had the stress and time demands of a full-time job.
I reckon the shift to both parents needing to work has had some serious knock-on effects, especially for new families. I don’t know what the solution is, but building a system where two incomes are required just to raise kids feels like a big misstep.
One of the things I’m most proud of as a husband and dad is being able to give my family the option to slow down. If Mrs. Firebug doesn’t want to go back to work, she doesn’t have to. That means a lot to both of us.
I’ve found a real passion for meaningful work over the past couple of years, but I’m still incredibly grateful for the portfolio we built. It gives us breathing room, and that freedom is priceless.
Net Worth Update
Not a lot to report here.
The stock market has a decent month with most of our other assets in the red.
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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
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Shares
The above graph was created by Sharesight
We didn’t buy any shares this month.
Networth
Congrats on the second bub.
You are 100% spot on in regards to both parents working. I have dropped to part time to spend mote times with the kids, a financial hit but a family lifesaver. I can always make more money, but the kids are only kids for a short period of time.
Of course, in Australia it all comes back to property, the dual incomes have had a lage effect on rising prices, only exaggerated by the government incentives and migration policies.
What concerns me most is now that couples are waiting longer till the have kids, waiting till they finally have enough money to buy a house before having kids (which is entirely rational).
We have created a vicious cycle which only adds stress to our lives. The irony being we live in one of the best countries in almost any aspect. You have done yourself a your family a great service by being the ‘outlier’.
Spot on, Ococ.
Australia truly is one of the best places to live, but raising a family in Melbourne or Sydney has become incredibly difficult due to the skyrocketing cost of real estate. If this trend continues, it will have long-term consequences for the country. In my view, strong families are the foundation of a healthy society.
Hey mate, just wondering if I can grab a copy of the charts and graphs you use? It seems like the form to input your email for them doesn’t work
Congrats on your new baby! I miss your podcasts but great you’re still here
Thanks David.
I miss it too lol. Just too much going on in my life right now.
New ep dropping on Tuesday morning so keep an eye out 🙂
Congrats Matt on the second bub. We stopped at one child because we fell into a similar camp to what you described – waited longer to have kids and both work full time. The cost of Child care, particularly if you earn a higher income is astronomical and it just doubles each time you have another kid.
Although we did get the ability for my wife to go 2 years unpaid maternity leave, then slowly go back 1, 2, 3 days per week and ramp up. That was invaluable as I was on a strong career trajectory at the time and my wife taking on more household responsibilities was key to enabling that. However it was extremely stressful at times, particularly as how often you get sick in the first few years of a kid’s life, there’s no support system for it. You just start going into unpaid sick leave which is also very stressful.
Once my wife had returned to full time, we looked back at the journey and how hard it was, and knew that resetting the clock and having another child was not going to be financially prudent and we were happy enough with one.
I wish I started my FIRE journey 5-10 years earlier, as I may have been in a position like yourself and made a different decision around having another child. Good on you mate.
I think we’ll face a lot less population growth in future as a result of this. Growing up, two kids was considered a tiny family, and 3-4 was the norm. Now it’s 1-2.
If we look at China, they had huge population which affected property prices hugely, created a lot of debt and hard working couples who sacrificed starting a family to get onto the property ladder. Now there’s less population and property prices are no longer growing, with some declining.
Hopefully Australia sees the writing on the wall and finds a way to step in and stop the cycle.
I’m with you on the population decline thing… some countries (like South Korea) are doomed, and a lot of the first world nations are not far behind unless their immigration policies are sufficient to keep numbers up. People are quick to blame immigration for things, not realising that without it we’d be in a LOT worse situation than we are now. And it’s only going to get worse with the declining birth rates across almost every one of the developed countries.
Love that you are spending time with your young family! My children are 8 and 5 and I work one day a week – best decision ever to have extended parental leave and “only” work part time. FIRE philosophy has helped me with this! I too wish society was more on board with this and accommodating parents to be with their children. Young children and parents benefit from time together. Well done and I enjoying following you!
Hi David,
Congratulations on the new Bub, and the stress free’ish environment you and your partner have built for your family.
My wife has been following you for a few years now, and I occasionally glance at an email. This one caught my eye with the focus on family.
I moved from a full time job, to a full time dad when my little girl started prep. School and 2 * FT workers in a home is very difficult. Bye bye daycare hours.
We are lucky, as my wife is a career junky, but our family is priority. They are the garden I tend to, and grow, and I doubt my wife would be as successful or my child as happy if I was still working! We have used your philosophy on money, investment and life to build the flexibility I can now fully invest into the people I love. That to me is being successful. I don’t want to be rich and old. I will never regret spending too much time with my family!
Best wishes to you and your readers,
Yes everyone has to work and two full time incomes are now required. Loss of the family unit will have negative consequences for our country the beginnings of which we’re already seeing play out. But hey so long as the housing ponzi doesn’t collapse. Glad I bought my properties before we all went insane and glad I’ll be dead before the real battles begin.
Congratulations – Being a parent is an absolute blessing. You’ve worked hard to save to be able to step back and enjoy this special occasion together as a family these memories will live with you forever 🙂
Congratulations Matt! Lovely little bug 😉
Curious why you still value your PPoR the same for the last couple of years? The market has moved a lot.
Funny you mention it, Nick.
We just refinanced with a better lender, and the next update will include the new valuation. Spoiler alert… it’s gone up!
Huge congratulations to all the bugs! Sorry but maybe dumb Q but your expenses are way higher than your income, or am I reading it wrong?
*Investment income is simply 4% of our FIRE portfolio divided by 12
Thanks Jacks!
Nope, you’re absolutely right. Our expenses still outweigh our passive income, so we haven’t hit financial independence just yet 🙂
Congratulations on the new baby! We had four, and battled through, although we were lucky my wife was a mothercraft nurse and knew how to handle them!
Congratulations Mr and Mrs AFB! Great that you’ve been able to set yourselves up to be able to embrace and enjoy family time. Our (once little) bundle of joy just turned 20, and we were in a pretty good position through choices and lifestyle when he arrives. Rosa stayed home until school started for our son, then gradually built contracting work while maintaining great flexibility – no regrets! Enjoy the time.
Congrats on the baby mate – I am really looking forward to being a Dad (a few more years yet though..).
Followed your content for years – One quick question that I appreciate you might not have time to answer;
Do you honestly believe that the gains from the ETFs over the years will keep up with the real rate of inflation of the AUD..?
I stopped investing in ETFs during the start of covid, mostly for that reason (pivoted to stock picking and did quite well). It’s a whole rabbit hole that most people don’t consider, which I totally understand.
All I’ll say is that ‘The 4% Rule’ was created with a calculated inflation rate of 2%(!) into perpetuity; whereas if you look at how they used to calculate inflation in the past, its been closer to 6/7% for a long time (link below).
Anyway mate, just ramblings; congrats again on bebe #2!
https://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts
Thanks, mate.
In short, yes, I believe they’ll not only keep pace with inflation but outperform it over the long term.
Only time will tell I guess.
Congrats to you and Mrs Firebug!
I’ve heard the transition from 1 to 2 kids is bigger than from 0 to 1, so I’m sure you must really be appreciating all your FIRE-y efforts now.
Your comment about strong families being the foundation of society got me thinking you might appreciate a book I recently read.
Me and my partner have been moving towards FIRE and now looking to have our first kid. But! It’s been a big journey for me because I just felt (for many of the issues you mentioned – cost of living – plus some other personal ones (dealing with some chronic health stuff) that the “normal” way of doing parenting looked just, very unappealing. Hence the move towards FIRE, self-employment.
Alongside this I’ve been very interested in learning more about parenting styles – in particular ones that are less intense than what seems to be popular amongst my friendship groups at the moment.
This book was recommended to me by a parent: Hunt, Gather, Parent, I found to be really interesting: https://www.amazon.com.au/Hunt-Gather-Parent-Ancient-Cultures/dp/1982149671
Gives some interesting parenting advice, in particularly thinking about how to cultivate community very deliberately as a parenting strategy, and how many more supports parents had/have in different cultures, but also speaks to just why the “normal” way of parenting right now is so bloody hard!
Congrats again!
Thanks Sarah,
I’ve added that book to the list. Appreciate the recommendation 🙂
We’re only six weeks in, but from my very limited experience so far, one to two has felt easier. Still plenty of time for me to change my mind on that though, haha.
It’s definitely a journey!
Congrats, Aussie Firebug! I couldn’t agree more. I’m at a similar stage of life with a 6 month-old and a 2.5 year-old. We’re fortunate that it’s just me working, I earn a good income and that we bought our house when we were much younger. It really feels like our generation, and even more so the one coming after us, is the one paying the piper.
To me, it’s quite dystopian that dual incomes and full-time childcare have become the default just to keep up. The system seems built around the assumption that both parents have to work. You need capital to get ahead in capitalism, and without it, you’re constantly on the back foot.
wow welcome Miss 2nd Firebug
I noticed that your mortage amount never changes much. Why is that? Do you have an interest only mortgage?
We only pay down the minimum each month.