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. š„
Delayed gratification is a core principle of the FIRE movement, but Iād argue itās also a great philosophy for life in general.
Take a simple exampleāa beer after mowing the lawn always tastes better than one before any work has been done.
I’ve embraced delayed gratification for years, and my FIRE journey is one of the best examples. We choose to live in a way many wouldn’t so that we can enjoy a level of freedom most never will.
As much as I believe in delayed gratification, the key is that gratification does eventually comeāotherwise, whatās the point, right?
And let me tell you, January delivered the gratification in a big way…
Tesla Model Y
That’s right!
I finally pulled the trigger on a new Tesla Model Y. Tesla cars have been a dream of mine since I drove the Model S back in 2012.
It’s an interesting time to buy anything from one of Musk’s companies. Anyone famous is going to have some haters, but the Elon hate train is just about at its peak right now. I’m honestly a bit nervous that someone is going to key this car in an act of rebellion against Musk. I think he’s an incredible entrepreneur, but I wish he’d tone it down on Twitter. Some of his comments and actions are hard to defend, and it’s frustrating because I genuinely think he’s changing the world for the better.
I might have to get one of those stickers like, “I bought this before Elon went crazy’ š.
We went with the RWD option, which had the following breakdown.
I know we can afford this car, but I still hesitated when I saw the price inching toward $70K on my screen.
Even with all the tax incentives and cost savings of owning an EV, itās still a staggering amount. Back when I was 23, I spent $21K on a 2011 Camry and thought that was crazy expensiveāhaha. 23-year-old me would have never imagined a world where weād drop $70K on a new car.
But like I said at the start. The beer tastes better after some hard work, and we’ve been working pretty hard during the last 13 years… time to enjoy the beer now š».
PS.Ā
I’m thinking about financing this car and was quoted 6.5%, which seemed pretty reasonable to me.
Iād love to hear how others purchased theirs and the pros and cons of each method.
For reference:
I’m buying this car through my company
The company has enough funds to buy it outright, but Iād rather spread the cost over a few yearsāunless the numbers show significant savings by paying in cash.
This car qualifies for the FBT exemption
Net Worth Update
A monster month all around in January!
A $7K+ dividend was a nice little boost, adding to our cash reserves along with some company invoices being cashed.
Basically, every asset class had a stellar month, which resulted in an ATH for the net worth.
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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
Januaryās passive income came dangerously close to covering expenses. Iām confident the red will overtake the blue sometime this year unless a major market downturn hitsā¦ which isnāt entirely out of the realm of possibilities.
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. š„
December was a whirlwind of activity, as it always isāa month packed with festive vibes, catch-ups with friends returning to the country, and plenty of summer barbecues.
A highlight for us was hosting our co-spaceās first-ever Christmas party. Honestly, moments like that were a big reason we started this business in the first placeāitās all about building a community!
We rang in the New Year down in Sorrento VIC, which was great fun! But honestly, one house, four families, and a bunch of kids? It was… lively š . Coming back home to work felt like its own kind of holiday.
Looking back, 2024 was a massive year for us as a family. Our daughter turned one (still canāt believe that š), we launched a co-working space in our hometown, and the data business kept growing, with new clients signing on recently.
2025 is already looking like another big year. Honestly, the pace can feel a bit daunting at times, but Iāve come to realise Iām just wired to keep building/creating stuff.
This year, my main goal is to help the data businesses stand more independently so it’s not relying on me as heavily. Hereās to a year of growth, finding balance, and maybe even carving out a little more breathing room!
Net Worth Update
Significant changes this month!
First off, letās talk about the major shift in our cash position compared to last month…
We sold all our VAS units (~$144K) and combined that with some cash from our holdings to purchase ~$180K worth of A200 shares.
This move has been on my mind for a while. The main goal was to simplify our portfolio since VAS and A200 are so similar. The bonus? Lower management feesāA200 is 0.03% cheaper, and given how alike they are, Iād rather go with the more cost-effective option.
I decided to switch about a year ago but held off until our PPoR loan came off its fixed 1.99% rate in August last year.
With the loan now variable, instead of directly investing the $180K into the market, we paid down our PPoR loan to $0, redrew the funds and used them to buy the shares.
This tax strategy is also known as debt recycling, and I’ve written about how it technically works here.
In short, 100% of our PPoR loans (~$380K) are now fully tax-deductible, which is awesome!
This also marks the first time weāve bought shares in over two years. It feels great to be back in the investing game, but I donāt anticipate us putting more into the markets anytime soon.
As Iāve mentioned before, weāve reached the phase of our FIRE journey where weāve shifted to consumption. These days, we spend our dividends and focus on enjoying life outside the spreadsheet. Those 12 years of intense focus on saving and investing have given us the freedom to make these choices nowāprecisely what FIRE is all about, in my opinion.
Youāve probably noticed the increase in our expenses in these updates. Over the last year, we spent just over $63K, a significant jump from our usual levels. But honestly, this is what life looks like for us now, and Iām completely okay with that.
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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
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. š„
It was a very quiet November for us this year.
I did manage to attend a conference as a sponsor for my data company, though, and itās been such a different experience being on the other side of the table. After years of attending as a government delegate, stepping into the sponsor role has been a lot of fun and a real eye-opener.
Marketing and selling my business has been a journey of discovery. I used to think that selling was as simple as solving a problemābuild it, and they will come. How could they not? But in reality, itās been nothing like that.
Most clients donāt even know what theyāre looking for until you show them something that just clicks. Thatās when youāre in business. Over the past three years, Iāve worked hard to refine my presentations to get to that moment as quickly as possible. When I meet a potential buyer, I aim to capture their interest in under two minutes. If it takes longer to explain, Iāve usually lost them.
This whole process has also given me a deep appreciation for how polished other businessesā marketing can be.
I love learning new skills, and selling has been one of the most challenging yet rewarding tasks Iāve undertaken. It is funny, frustrating, and always full of lessons!
Net Worth Update
Holy Bitcoin, Batman!
Our BTC holding shot up by a massive 38.6% in November, adding over $20K to the portfolio in just one month!
Itās been impossible to ignore what Bitcoinās been doing latelyāitās all over FIRE blogs, subreddits, forums, and even my Facebook group. The surge has been wild, and now BTC makes up 6.7% of our FIRE portfolio. Thatās no small chunk considering the size of our portfolio.
I stopped buying Bitcoin back in 2022 when it hit 2% of our allocationāthat was the level I was comfortable with. But these gains have completely smashed that target. Now Iām in a bit of a bind:
Do I sell some BTC to bring it back to a reasonable weighting in the portfolio? Or do I hold on and ride the wave, even though itās making me a bit nervous?
The other issue is, I want to actually use Bitcoin like itās meant to be usedāfor buying goods and services directly. But letās face it, hardly anyone accepts BTC as payment these days. And converting it back to fiat just to spend AUD defeats the whole purpose of decentralised currency.
I want to trade Bitcoin peer-to-peer, no middlemen, no fiat conversions. But honestly, that dream still feels a long way off. So, if I want to rebalance, I might have to sell back into fiat.
On the flip side, holding it makes me uneasy too. Right now, our BTC is worth $75,000āthatās a whole Tesla sitting in the portfolio! It doesnāt align with my investing philosophy to let a speculative asset take up such a big slice of the pie.
And then thereās the debate about Bitcoin being ādigital goldā rather than a currency. Thatās not why I got excited about it in the first place! I want BTC (or another crypto) to be a true medium of exchange.
Yes, the block size issue gets thrown around as a roadblock, but technical problems can be solved with time and consensus. Sure, people will point to the block size wars as proof it wonāt change, but I think itās more nuanced than that. Breakthroughs take time.
Iām still bullish on BTCāor another cryptoāeventually replacing fiat as a currency. The idea of it being virtual gold feels like a distraction from what Bitcoin originally set out to achieve.
As always, time will tell… but for now, this wild ride continues!
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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
Question: Why do we have A200 & VAS?
Answer: We started buying A200 in August 2018 after Vanguard didn’t lower their MER to match A200. Practically speaking, A200 and VAS are almost identical so it makes sense to go with the lower MER. As an added benefit, I like the fund diversification between Vanguard and Betashares. We decided to hold both after making the switch since it doesn’t have any impact other than some extra accounting work once a year.Ā
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. š„
My family and I went down to Melbourne last week to see the Coldplay concert on Wednesday night.
Coldplay at Marvel Stadium
Mrs. Firebug wasn’t feeling her best, so I took my mum insteadāand later found out it was her first concert ever!
Better late than never, I guess š
The concert was amazing, but I was almost as impressed by the LED wristband light show extravaganza!
I’m not sure when these wristbands were invented, but hereās how they work: as you enter the stadium, youāre handed a clear wristband. When the show begins, it lights up in any colour, likely controlled by an engineer using some sophisticated software.
What really blew me away was the proximity sensing. At first, I thought the lights just blinked randomly, but theyāre actually much more advanced than that.
The wristbands somehow detect their position in the arena, allowing for all kinds of amazing effects. They can create a āMexican waveā of light that flows through the crowd, change colours for different sections of the audience, and even form shapesāat one point, they used them to draw love hearts by selectively lighting up certain bands and turning others off.
Combine that with an incredible performance featuring lasers, smoke effects, confetti, and 60,000 people screaming the lyrics, and you get a truly out-of-body experience.
It was mind-blowing!
I found the video below, which captures it far better than I can describe:
All I could think afterwards was that there must be something encoded in our DNA that resonates with musicāsomething deep within us that comes alive when we gather in large groups to dance and sing around a fire.
With 60,000 people, Marvel Stadium felt like the modern-day equivalent of that ancient ritual.
Net Worth Update
All assets were up in October, with Cash seeing the biggest boost.
The Data business had two invoices land last month, giving our balance sheet a nice lift, and overall, it was a solid month across our other assets.
Several people have reached out about our debt recycling plans from last month’s update. I’ve previously detailed our approach to debt recycling, which you can read about here.
In short, we’re planning to sell off VAS, use the proceeds along with some savings to reduce our split loan to $0, then redraw the funds and invest in A200.
This accomplishes two things:
It converts roughly $180K of non-deductible debt into deductible debt (debt recycling).
It consolidates our holdings from four ETFs down to just three.
November should be really interesting, with the US election just around the corner…
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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
Question: Why do we have A200 & VAS?
Answer: We started buying A200 in August 2018 after Vanguard didn’t lower their MER to match A200. Practically speaking, A200 and VAS are almost identical so it makes sense to go with the lower MER. As an added benefit, I like the fund diversification between Vanguard and Betashares. We decided to hold both after making the switch since it doesn’t have any impact other than some extra accounting work once a year.Ā
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. š„
Quick update for September.
The biggest highlight? My daughter turning one šš„³.
People always said, “Enjoy it while theyāre young, it goes by fast,” but seriously, it feels like we were just bringing her home from the hospital yesterday.
Time flies!
Net Worth Update
A bit of a strange month for the net worth.
Our assets had a fantastic bump across the board, but the company had a big tax bill, which pretty much wiped out all the September gains.
In other news…
Our PPoR split loan just came off its fixed rate and jumped from 2.99% to 6.4%āouch!
Now that itās variable, Iām planning to debt recycle this split loan. Iāll be using some of our cash and selling our VAS shares to buy A200. I ran this by my accountant, and itās all good on the ‘wash sale’ front.
The trust will need to distribute some capital gains, but thatās not a big deal since most of it came from dividends anyway.
After this is done, we will have a slightly more consolidated portfolio and a 100% debt-recycled PPoR loan š„³.
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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
Question: Why do we have A200 & VAS?
Answer: We started buying A200 in August 2018 after Vanguard didn’t lower their MER to match A200. Practically speaking, A200 and VAS are almost identical so it makes sense to go with the lower MER. As an added benefit, I like the fund diversification between Vanguard and Betashares. We decided to hold both after making the switch since it doesn’t have any impact other than some extra accounting work once a year.Ā
