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. 🔥
Back in January, I did something that went against every instinct in my still-frugal (though admittedly less so these days) body… I bought a new car!
It took forever, but our new car finally showed up in May!
Tesla Model Y
At just under $70K, this certainly wasn’t a cheap purchase by any stretch of the imagination.
However, from a financial perspective, buying the car through the company unlocked several key incentives, which ultimately tipped us over the edge.
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Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) exemption — no FBT payable on personal use of the EV, which is a huge saving.
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GST credit — we could claim back the GST on the business-use portion, reducing the upfront cost.
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Depreciation deductions — the business can claim depreciation on the vehicle’s value (up to the car limit).
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Operating cost deductions — charging, rego, insurance, and servicing are all deductible based on business use.
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Lower running costs — no fuel, less maintenance, and no luxury car tax under the EV threshold.
Put all that together, and we bit the bullet.
I remember the first time I drove a Tesla Model S back in 2013. It completely blew me away. I told myself then and there that one day I’d own one. For the past 13 years, while I stayed laser-focused on building wealth, the idea of driving one of these incredible machines never really left my mind.
What’s strange is I’ve never considered myself a “car guy.” But there’s something about electric vehicles that clicks for me. I think it’s the technology, it’s next level. Since getting our new Tesla, I’ve been geeking out over all the features. Here’s just a taste of what it can do:
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Autopilot that handles highway driving effortlessly
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Cabin pre-heating, which is brilliant in winter (and I’m sure pre-cooling will be a lifesaver in summer, especially with kids)
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A super responsive touchscreen that controls everything in the car
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A built-in trip planner that factors in battery use, elevation, and Superchargers
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Sentry Mode, a 360-degree security system that monitors the car while it’s parked
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Smartphone app controls—lock/unlock, climate control, horn, charging status, and location tracking
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Streaming services built into the dash (Spotify, Netflix, YouTube, etc.)
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And of course, the motherload of bleeding-edge tech: Full Self-Driving (FSD)! Not yet available in Australia, but it’s sitting there, waiting.
I personally don’t think we’ll see FSD in Australia until at least early 2028, but I’ve been following the rollout of the robo-taxi service in Austin, Texas with bated breath.
Check this out!
HOLY CRAP ITS A #ROBOTAXI!!@SawyerMerritt @WholeMarsBlog @DirtyTesLa @niccruzpatane pic.twitter.com/slfAsu0AQl
— Terrapin Terpene Col (@TerrapinTerpene) June 10, 2025
That’s a new Model Y, the same model as the one we just bought… driving around Texas with no one in the car. 🤯🤯🤯
If Tesla can pull this off in the US, I reckon there’ll be massive legislative pressure across the globe to start legalising this tech in other countries. The next six months will be critical. But if things go well, the idea that our car could one day receive a software update and suddenly be able to drive itself… feels like something out of The Matrix.
This isn’t just a car. It’s a rolling piece of software.
A note for anyone thinking about buying an EV:
Make sure your charging setup is sorted before buying an EV. A friend of mine is struggling with his new electric work car, mostly due to not having a consistent place to charge. If you don’t have access to a home charger, I honestly wouldn’t bother. Charging at home is a game-changer, eliminating petrol stops entirely. Relying on public chargers defeats half the benefit and makes the EV experience far less convenient.
In other news…
I was in Sydney briefly and finally caught up with the Equity Mates boys to record a podcast for their show.
This one’s been a long time coming; I just haven’t been able to make it up there for ages. We’ve been in each other’s orbits for years, and they were one of the original financial podcasts back in the day, so it was great to get this done and dusted.
You can check out our chat below.
Net Worth Update
Our cash reserves took a noticeable hit in May following the purchase of the new car. We didn’t buy it outright; instead, we paid $20K upfront and financed $50,000 through the business at a 6.1% interest rate, which I was genuinely happy with.
There are a few so-called golden rules in personal finance that people hesitate to break because they’ve been repeated so often, such as always buying second-hand or never financing a car. But like most things in finance, there are edge cases, and the FBT exemption is a perfect example.
In our case, the opportunity cost of paying for the car in full was too high. With two growing businesses, maintaining strong cash flow is critical. The interest rate was reasonable, and the fact that the loan interest is tax-deductible made the decision even easier.
Aside from cash, all of our other assets performed well this month, particularly Bitcoin, which saw another strong rally.
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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
Congratulations on the new car mate, looks great!
Nice to see the net worth continue to tick up as well!
How come your sharesite benchmark is a200? I’d make it vdhg or something. Sorry I haven’t read this for a few years so I’m sure it has been discussed but why the heavy ASX weighting? You’ve missed out on a lot of tax free US capital growth while paying tax on the Australian distributions.
Dividends suit our needs better than capital gains. Psychologically, I find it much easier to spend income that arrives passively in our account than to sell down assets to fund our lifestyle.
Congratulations on your new car! Sometimes in life, decisions might not be considered financially wise, but what’s the point of living if you don’t enjoy life along the way. Enjoy your hard earned reward 🙂
💯
There comes a point where money becomes a tool to help you live a better life. “Just because” can be reason enough—especially when you’re in a position to afford it.
Nice update and you’ll have some wonderful memories and go to some beautiful places in this car
Good interview Matt. 100% agree with you. It’s all phycological to me now reflecting back on my journey. I’m a big fan of automating and including super my partner and I invest 4 times a month, all automated.
Realizing behavior is more important than returns is also why I’m more interested in listening to Ramit Sethi and Morgan Housel who talk about peoples thoughts and emotions on money than stock pickers podcasts.
Aussie ETFs (A200/VAS/IOZ etc) gives me a dopamine hit 8 times a year (4 times when they announcement the distribution and 4 times when they pay out). 8 evenly spread dopamine hits a year helps me get excited about saving so while there might be bigger returns elsewhere the Aussie ETFs work for me and reinforces a positive behavior.
Good one. And don’t forget the franking credit refunds—they’re the icing on the cake.
Nine dopamine hits right there!
Good news about the car, especially after the long wait and the feature list looks awesome. How did you find the insurance situation as I’ve been hearing a few horror stories lately about the cost of insurance for EVs.
Thanks, Steve.
Yeah, it’s not ideal. We pay $1,700 a year to insure it—more than double what I pay for the Camry. It’s worth over three times as much, so that helps justify it, but it’s still a big jump in cost.
Hoping premiums come down in the future.
How good does that quicksilver colour look, model Y owner here – you won’t regret it bud. Enjoy!
I’m obessed mate. Stare at it every time I park haha
Hi, love your blog – just wondering are you making any changes to your VTS & VEU holdings considering the potential tax implications if section 899 of the new tax bill goes ahead?
Thank you.
Nope.
I’m hoping this finally pushes Vanguard Australia to domicile those two funds locally. Other providers have already done it, so as far as I know there’s no technical reason it couldn’t be done. I guess the thinking was always, “why bother?” if people kept investing anyway.
Hopefully this puts enough pressure on them to move the funds to Australia so I can stop filling out that bloody W-8BEN-E form every couple of years!
Hi, love your blog – just wondering are you making any changes to your VTS & VEU holdings considering the potential tax implications if section 899 of the new tax bill goes ahead?
Thank you.
Glad you finally got the car mate! And likewise pumped for FSD and watching what is going on in Austin 🙂
This explains the huge jump in Tesla sales last month- everyone was waiting for delviery. Will be interesting to see it goes next month.
Isn’t the robotaxi in Austin teleoperated?
Also, is your PPOR really only valued at 660k?
We don’t know the finer details of the robotaxi at this stage.
I seriously doubt they’re teleoperated—the latency would be far too high.
I haven’t updated the PPoR valuation in a while. We might be refinancing soon, so I could get a bank revaluation in the coming months. Curious to see what they think it’s worth these days.
is it ok to add house you are living / own house minus mortgage into networth?
Yep.
We have an electric BMW and live in an apartment complex without a home charger, however it’s not been a problem as we use the public charger at Woolies down the road and charge while we’re shopping. Yes it’s more expensive than a home charger, but still a helluva lot cheaper than petrol!
True, but is it a bit of a pain in the arse? Maybe.
Still, never having to visit a petrol station again is absolutely glorious—easily one of the best parts of owning an EV, in my opinion.
With the amount tou currently have in your fire are you looking to start upping your super contributions soon?
Potentially in the coming years. I’m not currently paying myself any super, but if the business starts performing really well, I’d seriously consider making a lump sum contribution. I’d especially want to take advantage of the Catch-Up Concessional Contributions rule. From what I understand, I could contribute up to five years’ worth of unused caps in one go and still stay within the concessional limits, meaning I wouldn’t have to pay any additional tax on it.
Hi, not sure if its been covered before but curious why you don’t use Super in your Fire Investments income vs expenses chart ? is this just because of the access age ?
Hi Jeff,
I don’t consider it part of our FIRE portfolio due to the age-based restrictions.
I can’t wait for the fully self-driving cars to be a reality!
Having said that…….as a motorbike rider myself……….I beg you to not rely on the Tesla to avoid collisions with motorbikes. I’m not sure if Musk simply hates anyone on a motorbike or if the techies genuinely can’t figure out how to get their software to reliably avoid running bikers over, but either way, please take over the driving if you see a motorbike anywhere near you.
Noted!
Why you can received investment income every month? I thought shares only pay 4 times per year.
I have a note under that chart:
*Investment income is simply 4% of our FIRE portfolio divided by 12
Congrats on the car mate! I waited about 12 months for mine, it was delivered around the time that the ship got stuck in the delivery canal a few years back, so everything was delayed.
As you mentioned, just wait until summer to see how great the remote climate control is. Hitting the gym on a hot day? Turn on the aircon from your phone when you’re about 5 minutes away from leaving. Get back to a nice cool car.
Epic. I can’t wait for Summer!