Aussie Firebug

Financial Independence Retire Early

March was a month of highs and lows. Mostly highs.

I was asked by the ABC to come on to their national radio program to chat about my journey towards FIRE which was pretty cool. They had a financial planner, audio snippets from someone who was in their mid 30s current enjoying early retirement and yours truly. It was pretty cool going into the studio and getting mic’d up and all that. I can’t lie, I was a bit nervous when the ‘On Air’ light came on haha.
The one question that I wish I could have answered again was when the host asked me what I had to give up to be on this journey. I tried to answer it to the best of my abilities but I sorta just stumbled through the classic stuff of not upgrading your phone and eating out all the time. What I wish I had said was “Nothing! I don’t feel like I give up anything. If I want something enough, I buy it”. And that’s honestly how I feel.

I don’t know about you, but when I discovered financial independence and realized the freedom it can grant you. My wants and needs shifted. I honestly don’t feel as though I restrict myself in the slightest. I splurged here and there but for the most of it, the things I enjoy these days don’t cost a lot of money or are free.

The other one was the whole early retirement thing. Everyone has a different idea of what early retirement actually is. I could tell the host was a bit taken back when I said I don’t plan to stop working ever. What I really mean of course is not working a 9-5 job and unplugging from the matrix of being a wage slave. Meaningful work is a staple of life and without it, I’d be miserable. Even the lady that was on the program with me hasn’t really stopped working. They just do a different type of work. She and her husband grow a lot of their food for example. This is a form of work expect is probably has a lot more meaning and satisfaction to it than sitting in front of a computer screen for 8 hours a day.

You can listen to the program HERE.

I also learned first hand that major online publications are not overly concerned about what an article is about, but mainly what headline will be catchy enough for people to click the link.

Let me explain.

I was contacted by the commissioning editor of new.com.au because they wanted to increase their voice in the finance and money space and must have found me from the ABC radio interview. They asked if they could repost my Rent vs Buy article which I happily obliged.

I didn’t know when they were going to repost it, but I woke up one Saturday and there were something like 20 new comments throughout my blog and I was a bit confused before I realised that the article must have dropped.

First thing I noticed was the headline:

News.com.au

LOL. What! That’s not what the article is about.

The comments that followed were also extremely amusing.

 

angry5 angry8 angry4 angry6

Had to laugh about headline written by a kid comment 🤣🤣🤣

You can check out the Facebook comments HERE

I lot of people also commented on the actual article here on my site. They were really getting upset about me using 2.5% as a rate of return for capital appreciation on property. I edited the article and stated a source for property only having risen 2.8% (real rate of return) during the last 30 years. But the old ‘Bricks n Mortar’ crowd was out for blood I tell ya.

oldman

 

I also had another publication republish the same article.

Here was the headline

headline

Sigh.

faceplam

 

 

 

Net Worth Update

So now we have come to the lows for March. ETFs and Super were hit pretty bad to the tune of around $6K. This plus an expensive month results in us just keeping our heads above the $400K mark.

2018 has been pretty lousy for our net worth but here’s hoping for some stronger performances in April!

Properties

 

No changes in the properties this month.

 

 

*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

Down around $3K here. VAS got hit the worst with VEU doing the best (but still down).

Networth

 

Download My Networth Sheet

Download my personal spreadsheet I use to calculate my net worth each month

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