Aussie Firebug

I’m so excited for this one today. There’s been a few potential Super changes put forth by the Albanese government lately and I wanted to get two different viewpoints on the podcast to debate the pros and cons of the changes. I also wanted to talk about Super as a high-level concept. What exactly is Super? What’s the purpose of Super? Is Super fulfilling its job? etc. We have two returning guests joining in today’s discussion. CIO of The Motley Fool Australia, Scott Phillips and Economist Dr Cameron Murray. I’m playing moderator between these two as they give their different opinions on some of the following topics:What is the purpose of Super? (00:03:26)Is there an alternative to the current Super system? (00:11:38)Thoughts on how we could fix the Super system (00:19:27)Do we actually need to have both Super and the Age Pension? (00:39:48)LinksCameron Murray - SubstackCameron Murray - TwitterCameron Murray - FacebookScott Phillips - TwitterScott Phillips - Facebookwww.aussiefirebug.com/podcast

Today my guest is Queenie Tan. She’s a 26-year-old Sydneysider who has amassed over 350K followers on various social media platforms. Raised by a single dad in Sydney, Queenie was earning $400 a week after she moved out of home at just 19. A few years later she was able to save a $100,000 property deposit and now at age 26, has a net worth of half a million dollars.Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are:Queenie's upbringing and relationship with money (00:02:12)How Queenie built her net worth to $500K by age 26 (00:10:03)Dropping out of uni to start earning money (00:15:40)Changing jobs every couple of years (00:21:11)Queenie's thoughts on the term “Finfluencer” (00:46:28)Financial content creators and the ASIC guidelines (00:51:09)Sydney housing markets and financial freedom (01:05:34)LinksWebsite - Invest with QueenieYouTube - Invest with QueenieInstagram - Invest with QueenieTikTok - Invest with Queeniewww.aussiefirebug.com/podcast

My guest today is Brandon Ganch who is better known in the FIRE community as the Mad Fientist. Brandon is an ex-computer programmer turned blogger and podcaster who reached financial independence at the ripe old age of 34 with his wife Jill. It’s always a pleasure to speak with Brandon as one of my financial/investing heroes and someone who’s been on the scene since the early days when I first discovered the concept of FIRE.Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are:The life changing event of becoming a parent and how FI has helped (00:07:10)Did Brandon really crack the Billboard Top 40 list with his debut album? (00:16:15)How to raise a money conscious kid (00:20:13)What’s life been like since Brandon quit his day job as a programmer? (00:30:03)Difficulties switching from portfolio accumulation to consumption (00:36:50)How the utility of money changes as you get older (00:40:22)LinksWebsite - Mad FientistSpotify - 1=2www.aussiefirebug.com/podcast

Today my guest is Liz Thames who is better known as Mrs Frugalwoods. Liz is a mother of two who lives with her husband Nate on a 66-acre homestead in rural central Vermont USA. She’s the author of the popular FIRE book called “Meet the Frugalwoods: Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple Living”.Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are:Liz’s motivation behind writing a memoir-styled book (00:02:44)How to transition from saving to living off your investments (00:07:39)What does FIRE mean to Liz? (00:11:36)How Liz and Nate achieved financial independence (00:15:37)What does the Frugalwoods investment portfolio look like? (00:31:03)Financial privilege. Can everyone achieve FIRE or is it only possible for a lucky few? (00:41:35)How FIRE helps when raising two young girls (00:47:19)Tips for buying a home (00:55:47)LinksWebsite - FrugalwoodsBook - Meet the Frugalwoods: Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple LivingFinancial consultation services with Liz Thameswww.aussiefirebug.com/podcast

Today I’m talking with the Chair of the Australian Electric Vehicle Council, Tim Washington. Tim has also co-founded two companies - JET Charge, who specialise in supplying and installing EV Chargers and Charge Fox, Australia’s largest EV charging network.EVs have been a hot topic in the FIRE Facebook group lately and I’ve had a few episodes on EVs in general but none that dig into the charging side of the equation which is a big part.Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are:How does a home EV fast-charger work with your home solar system? (00:21:29)How will the new FBT legislation affect the cost of EVs in Australia? (00:23:44)How much does a EV fast-charger cost to buy and install? (00:26:09)Is vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology currently an option for Australians? (00:32:27)Turning your car into a money-making asset instead of sitting idle 90% of the time (00:34:24)Can Australia’s electricity grid handle the upcoming transition to EVs? (00:46:59)Hydrogen cars (01:01:11)LinksWebsite - Jet ChargeWebs

Today I’m welcoming back property investor Scott O’Neill to the podcast. Scott and his wife are self-made multi-millionaires that created $300K in passive income by 28. Since Scott was last on the show, I received a fair amount of emails asking me to get him back to give a more practical guide on investing in commercial real estate.Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are:What is commercial real estate? (00:06:32)Pros and Cons for both residential and commercial property (00:13:52)Why commercial leases are so so important and very different compared to residential (00:21:58)What about finding a tenant to lease your property? (00:29:02)Are there strategies specific to commercial property investing? (00:41:50)What to look for when doing due diligence (00:52:46)LinksWebsite - Rethink InvestingBook - Rethink Property InvestingPodcast - Scott O'Neill - Self-made $300K in passive income by 28. Marketing BS or the real deal?Podcast - Inside Commercial Propertywww.aussiefirebug.com/podcast

Today my guest is city planner and urban designer Jeff Speck. Originally trained as an architect, Jeff is most famous within the FIRE community for his award-winning 2012 book: ‘Walkable City: How Downtown Saves America, One Step at a Time’.It’s amazing how such a small detail like walkability can touch on so many tenants within the FIRE ethos. The economy, health benefits and sustainability are all areas that are impacted greatly by our poorly designed cities which are where the majority of humans on earth live.Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are:How Jeff became an expert in city planning. (00:03:25)What is urban design and city planning? (00:09:02)City development before the great depression and world war 2 (00:13:43)How do we solve this problem of a car-centric environment? (00:36:25)Health benefits of a walkable city (00:41:14)How we can change our roads to benefit pedestrians and reduce traffic (00:52:09)Different ways to make a city more walkable (00:57:48)LinksWebsite - www.jeffspeck.com

Today I’m talking with financial educator and podcast host Kate Campbell. Kate grew up in country Victoria and joined the defence force as a teenager before changing careers to finance and investing later on. She’s probably best known in the FIRE community as a co-host for many of the very popular podcasts that Rask Australia produces.Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are:How Kate got started in finance and investing (00:03:30)The importance of taking risks and just giving it a go (00:08:52)What does Kate’s portfolio look like? (00:23:12)Kate’s blog and podcast (00:32:04)How Kate came to work with Owen at Rask Australia (00:38:03)Common roadblocks people face with their finances (00:43:22)Financial hurdles women have to face (00:44:56)Money and psychology (00:54:04)LinksWebsite - How To MoneyWebsite - Rask AustraliaRask Investing & Finance Courseswww.aussiefirebug.com/podcast/

Today we welcome back Dave Gow who retired at the ripe old age of 28. He’s better known online as Strong Money Australia where he blogs about early retirement and how to live a happier life. It’s a really light-hearted chat today where we mainly talk about Dave’s new book which will be available on the 1st of December 2022 which is very exciting.But we also cover a range of other topics such as:Updates on early retirement (05:32)Strong Money Australia book (06:53)Publishing rights (12:58)Audiobook difficulties (18:23)Updates on the FIRE and Chill podcast comeback (34:15)Elon Musk buying Twitter (43:20)LinksWebsite - Strong Money Australiawww.aussiefirebug.com/podcast/

Today is a very special episode because if you had told me 10 years ago that I would be chatting to Steve McKnight on my own podcast, I would have never believed you. Steve is a professional investor, media commentator and online entrepreneur. But he’s probably most famous in the FIRE community for his book “From 0 to 130 Properties in 3.5 Years”. This was actually the second book about financial independence that I ever read and completely changed my life. Steve is one of three people who I’d consider as the most influential figures for me to come across throughout my investing journey so as you could imagine, this was a special episode for me personally.Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are:Burnout and seeking an alternative path (00:06:15)Investing in property (00:17:37)Vendor financing (00:20:51)Australia’s housing market is a Ponzi scheme (00:27:44)Online entrepreneurship (00:46:30)Finding meaning beyond financial independence (01:11:37)LinksBook - From 0 to 130 Properties in 3.5 YearsWebsit

Today I’m talking with Brad Smith. Brad is an entrepreneur and former young Australian of the year for Tasmania who founded a motorcycle company Braaap in 2005 at the ripe old age of 18. Entrepreneurship is sometimes popularised as a quicker way to reach FIRE with the added benefit of doing something that you love. But it doesn’t always work out this way.Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are:Brad’s background and family upbringing (00:05:53)What made Brad start a company so young? (00:15:11)Finding a manufacturing factory in China (00:25:28)The importance of separating personal finances from the companies (00:30:55)Dealing with adversity (00:34:20)Marketing vs engineering (00:39:09)Electric motorcycles (00:43:36)LinksWebsite - Braaap MotorcyclesThe Woke Salaryman - Stop blaming the poor for being poorBook - The Ultimate Sales Machine: Chet HolmesLinkedin - Brad Smith Braaapwww.aussiefirebug.com/podcast

Today I'm joined by my high schoolmate Luke. Luke and I attended FinFest and the Sydney FIRE meet-up over the weekend. I thought it would be fun to recap the event/meetup because we both had a blast.Some of the topics we cover in today's episode are:The FinFest event (02:51)The presentations on the day (08:05)Food truck lines (09:18)Bumping into others from the FIRE community (15:51)The FIRE meet-up (30:08)Noisy venues (31:06)Other content creators coming to the meet-up (33:20)www.aussiefirebug.com/podcast

Today I’m talking with Dr Cameron Murray. Cameron is a father of two currently living in Brisbane and holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Sydney. You may have seen Cameron in a collection of print media outlets and in TV programs such as Q&A on ABC. This is a big episode today because Cameron has such a breadth of knowledge across so many areas that affect our ability to retiree early. He has one of the most interesting and original takes on our Super system too which I think a lot of early retirees, such as myself, will be interested in hearing.Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are:Why Australia should scrap Superannuation since the aged pension is a superior system that costs less and delivers more (00:11:20)Housing policies and what changes need to be made to help affordability (00:52:46)Money creation and its role in inflation (00:58:27)Political corruption and what it costs Australians (01:25:52)How to become a better economist (01:31:55)LinksWebsite - Fresh Economic Thinking

Today my guest is a legend in the Australian personal finance space. Noel Whittaker has been educating Aussies in money management and investing for over 50 years. He’s probably most famous for his international bestselling book "Making Money Made Simple" which has sold over a million copies worldwide!Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are:Noel’s upbringing and first investments (00:02:19)What made Noel become an author? (00:13:41)Noel’s investment choices and experience (00:18:08)Noel’s thoughts on Australian Superannuation (00:26:50)Annuities in Australia (00:42:46)The big issue with Lenders Mortgage Insurance (00:48:37)What’s happened to the financial planning industry and how would Noel fix it? (00:50:38)LinksWebsite - www.noelwhittaker.com.auBook - Making Money Made SimpleBook - Retirement Made Simplewww.aussiefirebug.com/podcast

I have an interesting episode for you guys today and I think you’re really going to like it. My guest today is Scott O’Neill. Scott bought his first investment property in 2010 with a $60K deposit after saving for 5 years. Just 8 years later, Scott and his wife had 28 properties generating $300K of profit each year plus around $7Million of equity. And Scott is very adamant that he didn’t receive any financial help, gifts, inheritance, living at home rent-free until his late 20’s etc. He’s self-made and agreed for me to dive deeply into exactly how he managed to do it.Some of the topics we talk about today are:Scott’s background. What type of socioeconomic situation did he come from? (00:06:24)How did Scott come to be an investor? (00:11:41)The schools Scott attended and what type of career he had once he graduated from uni? (00:14:13)A timeline of Scott and his wife’s salary and savings rate during those 8 years from 2010 to 2018 (00:17:15)How did the banks let him and his wife load up on that much debt? Espe

Today I’m chatting with chemical engineer/home energy advisor Tim Forcey. He’s probably known best in the FIRE community for creating the extremely popular Facebook group, My Efficient Electric Home (MEEH) which currently has over 65,000 members.I’ve always said one of the most common traits in FIRE community is hyper efficiency of everything we spend money on, so I was very excited personally to have Tim on the show, especially with energy prices creeping higher and higher.Some of the topics we cover include:What made Tim become a home energy advisor? (00:02:25)What are the low hanging fruits to make our homes more energy efficient? (00:08:42)Is it true that electric air-conditioners are cheaper to run than gas systems for heating your home? (00:11:07)What is the “thermal envelope” and why is it important? (00:25:06)Building regulations in Australia and what Tim would mandate if he were in charge (00:37:46)What are heat pumps, how do they work and why has gas heating been so popular? (00:44:21)Tim’s thoughts

Today we’re talking about two popular career paths - starting out at one of the big four or going into a government role. The Big Four is the nickname used to refer collectively to the four largest professional services networks in the world. These include Deloitte, Ernst & Young (EY), KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).Joining me in this discussion is my old schoolmate Jeremy who did a cadetship at Deloitte where he worked for 6 years. Jeremy explains the interview process, culture, work-life balance and salary during his time at one of the big four.I’m going to be representing starting out in government as I spent the first 8 years of my working life in the public sector.Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are:What is the process of landing a job and what were the interviews like? (00:05:18)How does a cadetship actually work? (00:14:51)First year experiences (00:18:44)Salary progression (00:21:36)Big Four workloads and expectations (00:24:25)Government experience, expectations & work

Today we’re talking about succession planning with the one and only Terry Waugh.This is a pretty big topic but we’ll be focusing in on areas such as:What is succession planning and why should we care? (02:22)What are some of the available options for succession planning? (04:19)Wills (07:06)Testamentary trusts (13:31)Succession planning within companies (20:52)Superannuation - who gets it when you die? (24:15)SMSF - what are the key differences? (28:42)Life insurance inside superannuation (39:30)How to protect your kids in case you die (31:01)How much do these structures cost? (33:27)LinksPodcast - 46. Terry Waugh - StructuringWebsite - Structuring Lawyers Pty LtdPodcast - The Structuring PodcastFacebook - Aussie FIRE Discussion GroupForum - Property Chatwww.aussiefirebug.com/podcast

Have you ever been ripped off by a financial advisor? Today’s podcast is all about identifying the tactics financial advisors use that put their interests ahead of yours. Joining me in this discussion is Phil Harvey. He’s an independent financial advisor and one of the founding members of PIFA which stands for the Profession of Independent Financial Advisers.Some of the topics we cover are:Who is Phil Harvey? (05:41)Phil's personal experience with financial advisors in 2010 before the royal commission (08:01)What motivated Phil to help start PIFA? (11:20)What is an independent financial adviser? (13:29)Fee structure differences between independent and non-independent advisors (15:25)What percentage of all financial advisors are independent? (22:09)Red flags when vetting financial advisors (36:15)Phil’s tips on avoiding being ripped off by a financial advisor (55:11)LinksWebsite - PIFA (Profession of Independent Financial Advisers)Website - Construct Wealth - Independent Financial AdvicePodcast - Are Fina

My guest today is Matt Ridley, a British science writer, journalist and businessman who holds a PhD from Oxford in Biology. He’s worked for many famous publications such as The Economist, The Wall Street Journal and The Times (London).Matt is probably best known within the FIRE community for his award-winning book, The Rational Optimist, published in 2010.This is one of the best books I’ve ever read that offers a counterpoint to the prevailing pessimism of our age and proves, however much some people like to think to the contrary, that things are getting better.Some of the topics we cover are:How did Matt come to be a writer? (08:18)As a scientist, what attracted Matt to economics, business and politics? (14:17)The relationship between evolution and human innovation (16:39)Why did Matt write The Rational Optimist? (20:25)Matt’s famous TED Talk – “When Ideas Have Sex” (24:56)How much better are we living in the 21st century compared to our ancestors? (30:03)Is the 24/7 continuous flow of information good or ba