Financial Autonomy

Research from the Australian Stock Exchange found that in 2014, 36% of adult Australians owned investments listed on the share market. Combined results from RP Data and Census data found 7.9% of the Australian population own an investment property. Now there would be some cross-over here with people holding both shares and investment property, but we can safely conclude that at least 55% of the ad...

Today we chat with Co-founder and consultant with Tara Lucke from View Legal about the importance of Estate planning. Though it is not something we like to talk about, it is so important for protecting your assets and loved ones, no matter what stage of life you are at. In this interview we cover: Making sure your hard earned money goes to the right place with a good estate plan What happens to yo...

We all know that property prices in Australia have gone stupid in recent years.  One significant consequence of that has been that first home buyers have found it increasingly difficult to enter the property market.  Banks like to see at least a 10% deposit, and in the ideal world you'd have a 20% deposit to avoid mortgage insurance costs.  But when a first home can often cost north of half a mill...

Networking marketing has changed since the days of Tupperware and Amway.  Today I am joined by Lloyd Ross who talks through how our online behaviours and advances in technology have revolutionised the world of network marketing, making it an easier side hustle than ever before.  In this episode we cover: What network marketing is and why you need to consider this as a viable side hustle How social...

The goal when working towards Financial Autonomy is to gain choice.  Choice in how you support yourself and perhaps your family financially, be that the type of work you do, the hours you spend doing that work, or whether you earn that income as an employee, or as a self-employed person. In developing an actionable plan to get you from where you are now, to your Financial Autonomy position, there...

In this episode, I talk to Joanna Maxwell all about career change.  Joanna has worked in a wide variety of jobs throughout her career and she helps a lot of other people change careers as well. She's now taken all that experience and recently gained a position with the Australian Human Rights Commission in the Age Discrimination Team. Joanna is the author of the book  Rethink Your Career in your 4...

Right now you're listening to this podcast, or reading the blog article. Why? You're curious, and have a thirst for knowledge.  You want to learn new things.  You want to improve yourself. We usually think of investment as being a financial thing.  But investing in yourself - your skills, knowledge, and health, can be just as important and impactful.  And just like a financial investment, diversif...

With Amazon now in Australia, we talk to John Candivish from FBA Frontiers on how to make a side hustle by becoming an Amazon seller. Before starting his Amazon Europe journey, John had zero experience with running an online business. After university, he joined the corporate world in London but rapidly realized that it was not for him. After launching his first Amazon brand in 2014, John was soon...

In the interview I did with Adam Murray in episode 20 , he spoke about how he reduced his expenses in a significant way when he worked through his employment transition and gap year.  And you might recall, he found living on less made him more happy, not less. Another key element in your financial independence plan is to have a financial buffer, an emergency fund, to get you through the unexpected...

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...