Financial Autonomy

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 able to quit his job to travel the world and network with other successful Amazon sellers from around the globe. Today, he's generating 6 figures of revenue per month from over a dozen products in Europe. John's experience led him to develop a specific, step-by-step system to find success with every product launched. John developed FBA Frontiers because so many sellers he met had great businesses on Amazon.com, but had completely dismissed Europe. He's since made it his mission to help sellers overcome the barriers to entry in the EU and find success by bringing their products into Europe.   In this episode we cov

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.  Perhaps you already have this, but if not, you want to build this up.  Everyone’s needs are different, but you’re likely to need $2,000 to $10,000 in there to make you secure.  This assumes you’ve got appropriate insurances in place. Once you have that emergency fund in place, savings can go towards investment.  We’re not going to get into potential investment strategies in this episode, but the key point here is that the goal is to build up some investments, so that in future they can generate passive income for you, to help cover your expenses.  It might be rental property, shares, or if you’re real risk averse

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 people that generally use Trust structures What are franking credits Three case studies of how Shaun clients are using Trust for tax flexibility Case Studies as mentioned in this episode Scenario 1:  Couple approaching retirement / early retirement.  (Dramatically reduce tax) Distribute investment / business income to a 'bucket company' Allows for tax to be paid at the company tax rate - accrues as franking credits Funds pile up and are invested within the company Upon 'retirement' dividends can be streamed out with franking credits attached Draw down $13,000 each financial year to remain below the tax free thre

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 odd years ago that was the going rate. 4 years later and I’d meet my now wife, and it was time to move from a flat to a house.  We were starting to think about having a family.  So I sold the flat for $189,000. Now those straight numbers - $107,000 purchase price, $189,000 sale price, look pretty good right?  And they were.  It equates to 15% per year growth.  I wish I could say that I got that return due to a whole lot of research and planning, but the truth is it was pure luck.  I bought when I could afford to buy, and I sold when I needed to sell. But that 15% does not tell the true picture, and that’s what I want

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 you would look to use each one How bitcoin works and has the same value per unit no matter where you live Whether different cryptocurrency would merge together and their future specialised uses Why reputation is the most valuable thing in this space How cryptocurrency could be used in health and other industries A case studies of Shaun and Jimmy and their experience investing into blockchains How getting hacked increased their blockchain investment The concept of a wallet in the cryptocurrency world How you need to act like ‘the bank of you’ The importance of back-ups and password security How a lost hard drive loca

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’m going to take you through today is a multi-phase approach that I’ve built specifically for the Australian early retirement landscape.  Its aim is to use the opportunities we have, such as franking credits and superannuation, to get you to early retirement as quickly as possible. We’ve actually built a special PDF just for this post. I’ve put all of the diagrams in there for you.  You know what they say – a picture tells a thousand words.  And I certainly think visualising this approach is helpful.  So ideally have that in front of you as you consume this episode, but if that’s not practical, then at least download

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 journaling helped Ruby gain clarity when dealing with financial and career issues How she turned a new blog of helping people with their careers into a money making side hustle while on maternity leave Why job seekers are now seeking personal branding help The importance of understanding a position gets made redundant, not the person.  Listen to Ep 2 Redundancy - What a Great Opportunity episode Ruby’s tips for starting a blog and building an online community for your side hustle How she juggles balancing her full time job, being a mother and building a successful side hustle.   How automation and programs such as Hootsui

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 as an accountant at Price Waterhouse whilst establishing what we now know as Nike, and when he needed to spend more time on the business, he switched to become an accounting professor at his local university.  It was several years into the business before he quit his day job and devoted himself full time to his enterprise. So if businesses as enormously successful as these can spring from a side hustle, perhaps you can attain your Financial Autonomy goal by using the same approach.  Let’s take a look at what a side hustle is, and how you might be able to use this approach to gain the choices in life that you’re year

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 impacted his life The power of being present in the moment The focus on his health and how it impacted on his four key priorities How he managed financially to take a gap year How living frugally changed him and how it helped to develop a better understanding of what makes him happy How structuring his work around 4 days a week has allowed him to retain focus on his priorities after going back to work His journey towards self employment and his desire to make an impact The importance of designing a life on your own terms and creating a true work life balance Why you can only sacrifice part of your life only for a pe

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 realisation that the path from studying until around your early 20’s, then working in paid employment for the next 40 odd years, then retirement – the traditional path – was becoming less relevant, and a serious re-think was needed. Home ownership is an unspoken overlay applied to that traditional life path.  And whilst I certainly don’t believe that owning a home is a bad thing, in re-thinking how our life’s journey might unfold, I certainly think it’s worth questioning the place of home ownership as a core belief in one’s financial life. And it’s not even just the core assumption that we will buy a house, it’s the assum

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 dying industry of journalism into writing advertising copy The interesting journey of getting better at her craft but getting paid less for the work The subculture of freelance creatives in the US The importance of consistency pitching for work to maintain constant cash flow Overcoming the hurdle of getting paid for your work as a creative The need to be constantly learning when entering a new industry Her time at VaynerMedia and what it is like working for digital thought leader Gary Vaynerchuk The role a Digital Creative Running an autonomously team in a HR focused digital agency Hiring from outside your industry to c

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 to you moving forward.  So with this in mind, I’ve done some research on strategies to overcome procrastination woes, and today I’m going to share with you the key things I’ve learnt. When it comes to achieving something great, something worthwhile, taking the first step is often the hardest part.  Perhaps it’s not knowing where to begin.  Or a sense of overwhelm – the goal feels like this huge inflatable ball – impossible to get your arms around and difficult to know where to grab it. Procrastination does not equal lazy.  It's likely driven more by fear of uncertainty or failure, or anxiety, which is often closely

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 you on the journey.  For whom debt obligations comprise a significant portion of your regular income. We’re going to look at some strategies you might be able to use to get to debt free status quicker.  And that acceleration in clearing your debt brings you closer to whatever your financial autonomy goal is. For the purposes of this article, I’m going to assume you, the listener or reader has debt, and debt you’d love to see the back of.  Given the title of this post, I’d imagine self-selection should deliver us this outcome. In the modern era, establishing yourself financially without taking on debt is near imposs

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 mind to it a bit more, you probably know that the share market is where people buy and sell shares in companies like Telstra or BHP. Maybe you have in mind that the share market is risky and people lose their money sometimes. Well, if this is about the extent of your share market knowledge, you’re not alone, and this episode’s for you. I think it’s fair to assume that you have an interest in achieving financial independence.  That is what we’re all about here. In working towards that goal, building wealth is likely to be an important feature. With wealth you can generate investment income with which you can then liv

Today’s episode is the 3rd 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 certainly something good for a laugh well after the fact. I’ve got 5 more for you today, so let’s dive in and help you avoid the most common financial mistakes. In episode 9 we looked at Jenny’s story, where her husband suffered pancreatic cancer and was without any personal insurance.  They had looked into obtaining personal insurance, and indeed Jenny had done so, but he took the “I’m tough as nails, it’ll never happen to me” attitude, to the detriment of their family. So the next common financial mistake I see is people not having appropriate personal insurance.  There are 4 types of personal insurance, and I’ve got expl

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 planning this post, I jotted down 12 ideas – financial mistakes I’d seen regularly over my 18 years as a financial planner.  Last episode we covered the three that I grouped together as investment related – procrastination, being too conservative, and trying to be a share trader.  In this episode I’m going to start with three more, that all have cash flow as a common theme. Hopefully you’ve listened to a few Financial Autonomy episodes by now, and if so you’ll know that a common pre-cursor to making progress on your Financial Autonomy goal is having a good handle on your household’s cash flow.  How much comes in, and ho

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 looming, or they’ve separated from their partner. So prospective new clients often come in to see me with some baggage. Something that’s not working, or that they’ve put off dealing with, and that’s why they need our help. Of course over that time you see some common challenges that people face. Issues that repeat again and again. So today I’m going to share some of those with you, the product of my 18 years of helping people, so hopefully you can skip over these common financial mistakes, and reach your goals sooner. We’ve talked a lot so far in past episodes about strategies you can use to help get you to your goal

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 Autonomy is about having choices in life, then how does that align with being fully reliant on an employer to provide you with the income that you need to keep all the balls in the air? Most of us do work for an employer, and that suits us very well, so how can we align the desire for financial independence, with the financial dependence associated with being a full time employee? I’ve called today’s episode The Security Illusion, because I think for many people, they overestimate the level of financial security provided by their employer.  So what steps can you take to truly be financially secure?  Well, that’s what

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 problem is that can lead you to a destination when you are perhaps in your 40’s or 50’s and with plenty of working life ahead of you, of middle management restructures, possible redundancies, and industries changing. Or perhaps the outlook for your profession is good, but will it take you to your personal goals?  How many people throw their whole life into their work, only to neglect their family and home life, and then one day find themselves divorced, or just distant from their kids and partner? So today we’re going to ask the question, “is your ladder against the wrong wall?”. So you’re climbing the corporate or profe

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 all take. Financial autonomy is about standing on your own two feet and not being reliant on others. Having choice. Part of that should be having the capacity to withstand adversity. Having the financial resilience to not lose your house or be forced to ask family for hand-outs. Lets take a look at Jenny’s story, I think there are some great lessons we could all benefit from. I met Jenny at a social function a few weeks back. Through the course of our conversation I mentioned that I had made a podcast called “Financial Autonomy” and told her a little bit about what that was all about. She said, “That sounds exactly