Financial Autonomy

Episode 60 – Mike Lewis - When to Jump Today in the episode, we interview the author of When To Jump, Mike Lewis. The book is about career change or starting your own business. In this interview we cover: Mike’s jump to being a professional sportsman His job and career before he became a sportsman Events that unfolded and didn’t go to plan when he left his career Framework: Jump Curves - 4 phases of taking a jump What made him decide to keep going Mike’s 2nd jump of writing the book When to Jump and how it unfolded How he strategized and made it happen When he started this idea Learnings from his jumps Details and overview about the book and its contents, including a sample case study Mike’s sense of things from the people he talks to The importance of planning in making a career change Mike’s plans for the next year or two.    Links mentioned in the show When to Jump Podcast When to Jump Instagram When to Jump Facebook When to Jump Twitter Mike Lewis LinkedIn

Episode 59 – The Beauty of the Worst Case Do you remember those Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbooks that were around everywhere about a decade ago? How to land a light aircraft if the pilot has a heart attack, or how to survive a bear attack. I don’t know if they extended to surviving a zombie apocalypse, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. They were good fun reads and made a great Christmas present. In today’s episode we’re going to explore how planning for the worst case can be liberating. How it can melt the ice that has you trapped in your current state. And the best bit? It’s not hard – just two easy steps. Planning for the worst case is a key tool in enabling you to gain the choices in life that you deserve. So let’s dive into today’s Financial Autonomy episode – The Beauty of the Worst Case. When investing, we know from history that the best investment returns come from growth assets – shares and property. Why then don’t investors have all their money, 100%, in shares and property? Why diversi

When I started my career in investment markets almost 20 years ago all the investment options were what we’d now call Active. We didn’t call them that at the time, it was just the standard way that money was managed. Passive investment had been around for some time, pushed primarily by John Boggle of Vanguard which first launched a passive index fund in 1975. But it took quite a while for enough data to come in, for investors to begin to appreciate why some hard questions needed to be asked about the focus on Active investment management. In more recent times the trend has swung in favour of the passive approach, and variations of that process, with ETF’s (Exchange Traded Funds) driving broad adoption. The increased acceptance and utilisation of passive investment strategies is almost certainly the biggest shift in investment strategy thinking since managed funds kicked off in Australia in 1955. So in today’s episode I’ll be sharing with you the difference between these two approaches, and how we apply these

Episode 57 – 4 Hour Work Week – still relevant today? Originally published in 2007, The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss, made some huge waves upon its release. It also laid foundations for its author that continue to this day. Indeed anyone who’s ever browsed the iTunes podcast charts will have come across Tim Ferriss, whose self-named show is regularly towards the top. As regular readers and listeners know, the reason Financial Autonomy exists is to explore how we can all gain choice in our lives. Without doubt The 4 Hour Work Week aims to deliver the same, albeit with a quite specific formula for success. Now I have to confess that I didn’t pick up the book when it came out. I can’t recall exactly when I became aware of it, but it was a bit like a movie everyone was talking about – I kind of felt I knew all the best bits, and with all the hype, I just couldn’t find the enthusiasm. 11 years on and with the hype having faded, I thought it was time to right that wrong. The first thing you need to know is tha

Episode 56 – Are you playing offence or defence? Today in the episode, we talk to Tim Lavrey’s career change story from being a bank manager to a preschool teacher. All sports have elements of offensive and defensive play. And whether you play Netball, soccer, cricket or basketball, your team must constantly strike a balance between the two. In pursuing your Financial Autonomy goal, you too must find a balance that will see your goals achieved in an acceptable time frame, whilst also enabling you to sleep at night, and not put you and your family at risk of living on the street. But whilst in sport the distinction between offence and defence if fairly clear, in the financial world, it may be less so. So in today’s episode where going to explore your options, so that as you develop your Financial Autonomy strategy, you’re considering both offence and defence, and finding a balance that makes sense for you. Offensive moves are typically attacking type moves. They’re trying to make something happen in your favou

Episode 50 – Tim's big jump - from bank manager to primary school teacher Today in the episode, we talk to Tim Lavrey’s career change story from being a bank manager to a preschool teacher In this interview we cover: Tim’s love for football The story of Tim’s career change and how he made his move and decision to leave the bank and teach His redundancy and how it contributed to his career change Going through self-doubt during the process Their 6-month period of planning for his career shift, finances, income and budget and their 3-month trial period before the big change How Tim prepared for university and teaching and the struggles he went through Examples of how he created opportunities for himself while studying and after graduation His feelings about his new profession as a teacher His thoughts about the things he’d do differently How good planning, structure, and discipline can help with your financial stability The story of how Tim’s wife, Mary Anne, made a big change in her career recently How teamwo

Episode 54 – Pay off the mortgage or invest? A shout out here to Christine Calnan who emailed me about this dilemma – whether it is best to put your savings towards extra mortgage repayments, or should you instead be investing? This is one that does come up a lot when I’m working with clients, and it’s certainly not a question with a simple one size fits all answer. So let’s take a look at the factors you should consider to find the answer that’s right for you. Christine observed that whilst the question of whether savings should be put to extra mortgage repayments or investment is something faced by plenty of people, there’s not a lot written about it when you do a bit of Googling. And there’s a good reason for that – the real answer is “it depends”, and no one likes to give, or receive that answer. Arriving at the answer that’s right for you is very dependent on 2 key assumptions – what will future home loan interest rates be, and what will the return be on your investment. Boil it down and the question i

Episode 53 – Investment Power-Ups I was binge watching a fictional Netflix series last week about a group of 4 guys who had made an app that had become a huge hit, Angry Birds style. Each of the 4 guys had particular skills, and there was a scene where one of the guys was feeling pretty lost. He bemoaned to his friend how such and such was great at art, another coding, and the 3rd guy, the one he was speaking to, was great at game design. But he asked, what was he in the group for? His friend considered this for a moment and said, “you know what you are in the team for? You’re the power-ups. When we were just about to run out of money, you went out and found more. When Johnny went off the rails, you brought him back. You hired some key people without whom, none of this success would have happened. And you made us all rich when you found a buyer willing buy our business. So, yeah, you’re the power-ups”. It was a great scene and it really stuck with me. It also made me think about what the power-ups are in the

Episode 52 – Mini-retirements In several previous posts we’ve looked at strategies to help you achieve early retirement. I’ve often spoken about the fact that early retirement in our Financial Autonomy context doesn’t mean spending all day sitting on the couch watching the Simpsons. Our objective is gaining the flexibility and choice to pursue the things that we’re interested in, and not have our life dictated by the need to earn money. An alternate way to gain flexibility and choice is through the concept of mini-retirements. Rather than work, work, work until a particular age, and then give things away totally, the idea of mini-retirements is that during your working life you step away and take meaningful breaks, to refresh, recharge, and explore life and the world. A mini-retirement might be 3 months long or it might be 3 years, but the idea is that you will take this time, and then return back to the income generating world. Often people planning around this approach will target several mini-retirements i

Episode 51 – Can you pass the financial literacy test Want to minimise the chance of living off nothing but a meagre age pension in later life?   There’s a great proverb that I heard many years ago and have never forgotten “a fool and his money are easily separated”. So how do you ensure you’re not the fool? The solution is to have at least a basic understanding of the financial world. We call this Financial Literacy. That doesn’t mean you need to become an expert – you can hire people for that. But you need to know enough to be able to sniff out a bad deal, and to avoid those big missteps. You need to be able to understand the risks you are taking, and gauge whether the likely return adequately compensates for that risk. So, today’s post takes on a question and answer format. Let’s see how you fare when it comes to financial literacy.     Question 1 You log onto your internet banking and your credit card shows an available balance of $7,400 and an account balance of $2,600. Should you make any repayments on

Episode 50 – Mini Retirements, 3 day work week, self employment and more - Stuart Barry's Financial Autonomy success Today in the episode, we talk to Stuart Barry about his life story, his love for travel, his published book, his business and how he values his time. In this interview we cover: Stuart’s 35-year career journey in the finance industry How he started his current career as a financial planner Countries and places he has worked in Breaks and adventures or “mini-retirements” that Stuart has done The fears he faced about taking mini retirements How he managed to bring himself to take a break and travel The reason why he didn’t need much financial preparation during his 1st break The 2nd break he took with his wife and their financial state at that time The experience he had coming back from his first break to finding a new job Advantages of maintaining a good relationship with your employers The things that drew him to owning his own business and why he says building a business isn’t for everyone Co

Episode 49 – Bike paths, Bitcoin, and Risk Budgets I go for a bike ride most Sundays. Wherever I can, I ride on a bike path. Often there is a road running parallel to the bike path. Very often, cyclists are on the road when they could just as easily be on the bike path. Now I understand why they do this. It’s because you can go faster on the road than on the bike path. But the thing for me is, you don’t get killed on a bike path. No cars to get under the wheel of. I know it doesn’t happen often on the road, but cyclist definitely get hit, and occasionally killed by cars. So why would anyone choose to ride on the road when there is a perfectly good bike track option? I ask because I often see the same thing with investing. People could use a low risk option and achieve their objectives. Yet they chase higher risk options. So that’s what we’ll be exploring in today’s post - high risk and low risk investment options, and when it makes sense to use each. Because I suspect that when investing, some people ride on

Episode 48 – the 10 worst things you can do to prepare for retiring early So your financial autonomy goal is to retire early. For some that might mean retiring at age 35 and for others age 58. Often, especially for those looking to retire at the younger end of the spectrum, it will mean ceasing their current role, but still engaging in some income producing activities. So retiring early looks different for each of us. We usually talk about what you should do to achieve your financial autonomy goal, but today I thought I’d flip it and instead look at what you should avoid.     Want to ensure your early retirement plans never come to fruition? A good place to start would be to have no handle on your cash flow. Achieving any sort of retirement goal is a dollars and cents equation. If you boil it down, you need to solve how you will have enough money to meet your living costs. Now if you don’t know what your living costs are, how can you possibly know whether retirement is possible, how much you need to save, an

In this episode, we interview Sean Callanan, a podcasting guru, and owner of Sports Geek. After 15 years of working for IT, Sean started his company, Sports Geek, out of his passion for sports and his expertise for technology in 2009. He eventually started his own podcast in 2014 under the same brand. In this interview we cover: Background on Sports Geek and the podcast The start of Sports Geek The mentality Sean took to make 9 months without income work for him Overcoming the imposter syndrome The case study on Collingwood Football Club doubling their following on Facebook Goal setting and how it has helped him achieve his plans Managing variability in income from being an employee to owning a business and how he managed to make it work especially with a family Handling income when he doesn’t hit his monthly targets Inventing different ways and motivation of hitting your goals and targets Looking back, what Sean would have done differently? How adding personnel has helped his business Sports Geek in 5 to 10

 Whether it’s a stall at a local market selling hand knitted beanies for dogs, running an online store via Amazon selling rainbow coloured shoelaces, or designing the occasional band logo on 99 designs, I believe EVERYONE should have a Side Hustle. We’re here after all to find ways for you to gain choice in your life – that’s what Financial Autonomy is all about. And if it’s choice that you want, there are few greater enablers than a Side Hustle. So in today’s post, we’re going to explore the reasons why I believe everyone should have a Side Hustle in their life. I’ve come up with 6 reasons why I believe we should all have a Side Hustle. I’m sure there’s many more, but hopefully these ones will give you the kick along needed to start something of your own.    1.  The learning As I mentioned at the top, a Side Hustle can take all sorts of forms, and the one that’s right for you needs to align with your personal interests and skills. But let’s take as an example a simple online store. Maybe you sell through Ama

Financial Autonomy is all about gaining choice, and very often, attainment of that choice goal results in a career or life change. In past posts we’ve explored numerous ways that you might be able to get yourself into a position to gain the choices that you deserve. In today's post I thought it might be worthwhile stepping through a brief checklist of the things you'd want to plan for immediately before you take the big step. If making big changes in your life were easy, you’d have already done them. In fact I guess if they were easy, they wouldn’t be considered BIG changes. The parts that make these changes difficult, are precisely the reason why some good planning is essential. This is not a post on what your career or life change will be. I'm going to assume here that you've done plenty of introspection and have decided what it is that you want in your future. I'm also assuming you've done all the training, networking etc, and you're now at the point of making your change. So, let’s look at some key things

What a wonderful era that we live in where holidays and travel are a regular feature in our lives. I don’t imagine that through the bulk of human history there was enough surplus of time, food, and resources to allow you to just take time off to explore the world or relax, unless you were super rich. Even as recently as my grandparent’s era the only international travel done was to fight in World War 2. So we’re in an incredibly privileged time, where a return flight to one of our Asian neighbours costs less than your annual car rego. For the adventurous or curious, opportunities certainly abound. But there’s two key ingredients you need to truly satisfy that travel bug within you. One is money and the other is time. And that’s where financial autonomy becomes relevant because the choices it enables, can be the solution to both. My hopefully fairly uncontroversial observation is that people who listen to podcasts and read blog posts are those who like to learn - they're hungry for knowledge. And for many peop

As a kid, family holidays meant board and card games. Canasta was very popular, as was Monopoly, Cluedo, Squatter, and various other games. As an adult my love of games has continued and fortunately I’ve been able to convince my home tribe to join me (and usually crush me). Of the various games that we play, Settlers of Catan has to be my favourite, and I know I’m not alone. So today’s episode, is a bit of a nerdy self-indulgence, but I hope you’ll enjoy it. For those fellow Settlers of Catan lovers, hopefully these musings help bring your early retirement dreams closer to reality, and for those who’ve never had the pleasure of a great game of Catan, I hope this inspires you to put the word out amongst a few friends, and give it a go. One of the hottest trends circulating around the globe at present is board and card games in cafes and bars. Perhaps we've started to reach a tipping point with social media and screen time, where the appeal of getting out of the house, not a screen in sight, holds enormous appe

On the off-chance that you’re one of the few people who read the information sent out by their superannuation fund, you might have noticed that in recent years they’ve added an Ethical Investment option. Now the exact labelling of that option will vary – it might be called Socially Responsible, Sustainable, or just Responsible, all of which are interchangeable terms for ethical investment options. So given these options are popping up like mushrooms in a wet cow paddock, what do they mean, what’s happening under the hood that makes then different to other investment options, and bottom line – should you care? Each year the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia (RIAA) produces a Benchmark Report which tracks the adoption of ethical investment options, and their performance. In their most recent report (2017) they found that funds adopting a “core” responsible investment approach outperformed their peers over the longer term, both in the Australian share and International share space. That superior