Financial Autonomy

Following on from Episode 23 on Multi-Phase solutions for Retirement   we are joined today by Shaun Farrugia from Optimised Accounting & Finance to talk all things Trusts. Check out our free download  Multi-Phase solution for Early Retirement In this episode we cover: The dummies guide to what exactly a Trust is How it can work as a funnel and the tax flexibility that it allows The two types of pe...

Way back in 1996 I bought my first home.  It was a two bedroom flat in a very ugly brown brick building, probably built in the 70's with nothing done since.  It wasn't flash but it was within my budget and in a good location close to town – Kew for the Melbournites.  I paid $107,000. Now I know that for those looking to buy their first home, $107,000 is probably pretty sickening right now, but 20...

In this episode we are joined by ICT professional and cryptocurrency expert Ivan Jasenovic, who describes himself as having his head in the cloud, his soul on the Blockchain, and his heart in decentralized Healthcare. In this interview we cover: The benefits of Blockchain technology and whether you truly need to understand how Blockchains The different types of cryptocurrency and examples of when...

The goal of early retirement is one many Australians aspire too.  And certainly, when thinking about achieving Financial Autonomy, retiring early is very often baked into those goals. But what is the best way to bring that goal to reality, given the uniqueness of our system – superannuation, franking credits, negative gearing, and means tested Aged Pensions, just to get you started. The approach I...

In this next interview episode on the Financial Autonomy Podcast we chat to Ruby Lee the founder of The Careers Emporium and head of HR at Cogent. In this interview we cover: The benefits of a side hustle in achieving your financial goals The 18 month journey Ruby when through when changing careers Identifying your strengths and knowing when the time is right for a career change How daily journali...

What do Apple, Nike, Under Armour, Instagram, and Groupon all have in common? It's not just that they're hugely successful, multibillion dollar companies.  They also share a common birth – they all started life as side projects of their founders.  I've been reading Nike founder Phil Knight's autobiography Shoe Dog recently, and I highly recommend it – very readable and interesting.  He was working...

In my next interview episode on the Financial Autonomy Podcast we chat to Adam Murray from the Subtle Disruptors Podcast. In this interview we cover: How a difficult personal time highlighted the need for Adam to take some leave from his career and reevaluate his life How the Good Life Project gave him a framework to take a gap year How identifying four key priorities during that gap year has now...

There's a template that all Australian's are meant to follow. Study, enter the workforce, buy a house, raise kids, pay off a mortgage, retire. It's served us pretty well for the past 100 years or so, so you know the saying about if it ain't broke… But for an increasing number of Australian's this model is broken. The original spark that started me on this Financial Autonomy journey was the realisa...

In our first interview episode on the Financial Autonomy Podcast with talk with Felicity Loughrey. She shares her career transition journey from journalism to advertising that spanned across two continents. In this interview we cover: How this Australian freelance journalist ended up working in New York Why she finds Americans are good to work with How she handled the transition away from the dyin...

How hard is it to get started?  I'm sure we've all had things that either need to be done, or that we'd like to do, but we put them off – shift them to the bottom of the pile or check out our Facebook feed instead. Procrastination is evil, and it afflicts us all at some point or another.  When it comes to Financial Autonomy dreams, I think procrastination is quite possibly the number 1 impediment...

How good would life be if you were debt free? No mortgage payments, or car loans.  No credit cards.  Imagine the weight off your shoulders.  The financial freedom you would gain.  The financial autonomy. Of course many people, probably most people, achieve debt free status over their working life.  This episode is not for those who have already achieved this milestone. This episode is for those of...

If you catch a snippet of the radio in the morning on your way to work, you're likely to hear what happened to the Dow Jones overnight. If you read your news online or watch the news on TV it's likely you'll hear about the All Ords or maybe the ASX200.  You might even come across acronyms like the NASDAQ and the FTSE. Probably, you know this is something to do with share markets. If you turn your...

Today's episode is the 3 rd and final look at the most common financial mistakes I come across when advising clients.  Thanks for your comments and feedback on the previous 2 posts, it seems that many of you have battled with some of these issues yourselves, and there were a few other mistakes that you've managed to make that, whilst being proud of them is perhaps not quite right, they are certain...

Welcome back.  In the last episode we explored common investment mistakes people make.  It's not really essential that you listen to Part 1 before giving this one a listen, but if you haven't listened to that one yet, perhaps make that the next episode you grab. Today we're going to explore common cash flow mistakes that I see people make. I mentioned in the first episode that when I was first pla...

Enough people have hit their thumb with a hammer for you to know that it hurts quite a lot. You don't need to do the experiment yourself. I've been helping people as a Financial Planner now for almost 18 years, and I've meet many, many wonderful people. Often people put off seeing a financial planner until they're at some sort of cross roads – they've been made redundant, or retirement is rapidly...

Having a job and a regular wage is comforting and secure, except if you lose that job.   UK stats say that 45% of workers will be made redundant at least once in their working life.  I'd expect the Australian numbers would be much the same. In that sense, being a full time employee is very binary.  Very secure and reliable whilst you're employed, but when you're not, there's nothing. If Financial...

How long since you've taken a step back from your professional life and considered where it's taking you?  Is your current professional activity taking you to somewhere you want to be in 10 or 20 years?  Is it leading you towards inner happiness? It's easy with the pressures of mortgage repayments or rent, perhaps kids, and just the normal expenses of life, to push on, head down bum up.  The probl...

When thinking about financial autonomy we are typically talking about medium to long term goals, and then developing strategies to get to those goals. The transition then is a planned one. What if your transition was thrust upon you? I met someone recently who faced this challenge, and with her permission, I thought it was worth sharing with you a little of her story and the learnings that we can...

Financial Autonomy is about managing and planning for major transitions in life.   A transition that many of us face unfortunately is divorce.   I understand researchers have found that going through a divorce can be one of the most stressful things you can experience in life. As a financial planner, I often work with clients who have been through or are going through a divorce, and assist them in...

Many people that I speak to seek freedom from the need to clock on and clock off.  To not be answerable to a boss. To not having to devote time and energy to things that they're not passionate about, just for the pay. The dream therefore becomes to retire early, and the sooner the better. In Australia superannuation is the primary vehicle that we use to save for retirement, and access to superannu...

I've known Nish for over 25 years.  He was there when I started my first job out of school, and over the years our careers and lives intersected. These days, as well as being a friend, Nish and his family are also clients.  For many years Nish was a financial planner, even running his own firm for a period.  To have someone with that professional skill and background decide to engage me and my fir...

Starting a family is a huge step in a great many of our lives.  Bringing a new little human into the world.   So much hope.  Scary too!  Completely life changing. Financial Autonomy is about you taking control of your finances, and not being controlled by your finances.  The focus of this audio blog is to think through the financial implications of taking this big leap, and what you can do to prep...

One fantastic and I find often overlooked way to achieve financial autonomy is to buy an existing business.  In comparison to starting your own business where cash flow starts at zero and you need to support yourself whilst the business becomes self-sustaining (refer episode 1), when you buy an existing business, you have cash flow and customers from day one. Buying a business is something I can t...

I've named this podcast Financial Autonomy. So what is Financial Autonomy? What does it mean? Well that's what we're going to explore in today's podcast I'll give you a big hint – Financial Autonomy is about gaining choices in life. Buckle up – let's dive in! Financial autonomy or financial independence if you prefer, is about being in a financial position to have CHOICE. In my role as a financial...

Redundancy – not something most of us like to contemplate. Yet it is a reality for many of us in our working life. So rather than redundancy being seen as something negative, let's flip it around - your redundancy could be the best thing that has ever happened to you. Financial autonomy is about building financial strategies to give you choices in life. And very often these choices present themsel...