Aussie Firebug

www.aussiefirebug.com/aff/In Today's episode we chat about:- REITs- Recommending certain investments to family members especially your parents- BondsQuestion (2:00)Hi Aussie Firebug,Since it’s Friday I thought I’d ask you a question:How do you feel about REITs? VAP has fairly stable growth and something around a 7-8% yield and would provide diversification across different types of property (commercial etc) and across the whole country. I think there are some tax implications in that distributions don’t qualify for franking credits, but since they may be gone soon anyway, does this really matter?I have also read that REITs are only loosely correlated to shares, which could be beneficial during market crashes.Thanks,LiamQuestion (8:33)Hey Aussie Firebug,Love the blog! Thanks for providing great content!I have a question about helping family to invest. My family are clueless about investing. Their idea of building wealth is to hide money under the mattress, they barely even trust their super and when they do make ‘’investment’ decisions, I don’t think they’re based on a sound understanding of the market.My parents are approaching retirement and luckily have a bit of cash sitting around that could be put to better use. The problem is I don’t feel comfortable telling them what to do with it. I’m new to this myself and don’t want to be responsible in case things go wrong.I’m even scared to suggest possible options (eg, Vanguard) in case they take my word for it, don’t do their own due diligence and then things go belly up.How would you handle this? Give them the info I have and let them decide, or don’t get involved at all?Appreciate your response!-Girl On FireQuestion (21:25)What is your view on bonds in your portfolio asset allocation?All the traditional advice is that 100% shares is not the best approach, yet I see over and over again people saying go 100% shares while you are young. Older, wiser heads that have gone through bear markets suggest a 60/40, 70/30 type split as a more responsible allocation.What are your thoughts on this?Do you plan to include bonds in your portfolio at one stage? Do you think a cash emergency fund or offset account for a mortgage is a substitute for the bond portion of a portfolio?-Matt

www.aussiefirebug.com/aff/In Today's episode we chat about:- Giving back to the community once you have achieved FIRE- Is the popularity of passive investing creating a bubble?- Sharing my experience of selling IP1 myself and would I do it again?Question (5:14)Hello,I saw this article pop up recently (link) from the co-author of Your Money or Your Life (a great read) and was wondering what your thoughts on this are.Have you considered or planned on finding ways to give back to your community once you achieve the RE part of FIRE?What would some of these ways be if you did?I know a lot of people talk about RE to have the time to spend on hobbies and family, but it's a rare thing to hear about giving our time to those around us and I think it'd be great to start that conversation in the FI community.-JacksonQuestion (16:52)Hi Firebug,Love the site and podcast. I am wondering if it concerns you how popular passive investing is becoming and the impact of large amounts of money flowing into companies somewhat blindly?BecQuestion (21:00)Hi Aussie Firebug,Thanks for the blog and podcast.Like you, we plan on transitioning from shares and real estate to all shares, EFT & LIC.To simplify things and increase income generation. We had planned on using one of the self listing options when selling our investment properties to avoid the agent's fees, so we were interested to hear that you had done this with the sales of IP1.Can you give us some details of the process and lessons learned? Will you do it again for IP2 and IP3?- Bradley

https://www.aussiefirebug.com/playing-with-fire-london-premiere/In today's episode, I'm speaking with two other Aussie’s (Tom and Ricky) who were with me at the premiere of the FIRE documentary ‘Playing with FIRE’ which follows 35 year old Scott Rickens, his wife Taylor, and their toddler Jovi as they embark on a year-long odyssey to understand the rules of this sub-culture and test their willingness to reject the standard narrative of adult life.I want to just congratulate Travis and the whole team who was involved in the creation of Playing with FIRE. The film is fantastic and I would recommend it to anyone as it’s a super interesting documentary starring so many of our favourite FIRE bloggers and surprisingly was very funny as well.Some of the topics we cover today include:The events that lead up to the PremiereOur initial thoughts after watching the filmThings we liked and things we wanted to see more of in the documentary Talked about how hard it must have been to fit an entire concept like FIRE within 90 minutes The Q&A session after the filmAnd pretty much everything else we ended up talking about!

https://www.aussiefirebug.com/the-escape-artist/Today I’m speaking to one of the most popular FIRE bloggers in the UK, Barney from The Escape Artist.Barney is a super interesting guy who is married with three kids, worked in Finance and managed to reach FI at the tender age of just 43. He could have done it much sooner too if he had discovered FIRE earlier in the piece which we get into in the pod.Since I’m now living in the UK, I was particularly interested in what the FIRE community is like here and if there are any major differences in approach. We also have chat about the film that could be a game changer for the entire FIRE community worldwide, that is, of course, the documentary ‘Playing with Fire’ which is premiering in London on the 12th of June! And yes I will be attending the premiere and would love to see some Aussie help me rep the FIRE community if you’re in the area.Some of the topics we cover today include:- Barney’s journey towards financial independence in the UK- What made him start The Escape Artist- How boredom can be the secret to creativity- Why FIRE seems to be more prevalent in the United States vs most other places in the world- The London premiere of ‘Playing with Fire’ which hopes to be a game changer for the FIRE communityAnd much more!

http://www.aussiefirebug.com/matched-betting-bonus-bank/My guest today is Nico who managed to create an online income stream through a technique called matched betting.But don't let the name fool you! Matched betting is not gambling but it takes advantage of the big signup bonuses amongst other things that the betting agencies used to lure people in. The closest thing I can compare it to is signing up for credit card point to use on flights but matched betting is a lot more lucrative and easier IMO.Nico runs Bonus Bank which is a website that helps Aussies with matched betting by finding the best opportunities out there. Make sure you stick around for the second half of the pod as Nico’s story about what life matched betting has enabled him to live is pretty cool and well worth a listen. So let’s jump into the world of matched betting.

www.aussiefirebug.com/my-mate-jimmyAussie Firebug has been discovered!Late last year I woke up to a message from someone who lived in the same town as me saying they knew I was the Aussie Firebug and that my secret was safe with them... I immediately jumped to the worse conclusion thinking maybe my boss had figured it all out 😱. But it ended up being my mate from high school who as it turned out, was just as crazy about all things personal finance and investing as I am!We've had countless chats at the pub multiple times about a whole bunch of stuff since that faithful message. Today's episode is two mates who went to high school together having a good old yarn about financial independence, investing, ETFs/LICs and much more.

https://www.aussiefirebug.com/what-is-retire-early-and-why-its-the-most-important-partWhy would anyone want to pull stumps at 30? Wouldn't you get bored? In today's episode, I set the record straight as to what retire early actually means in the context of FIRE and why it's more important than simply reaching financial independence!

https://www.aussiefirebug.com/podcast-nathan-birch/Are you ready to come down the rabbit hole? Investing in his first property at 18, and starting his first business shortly after, Nathan Birch was able to 'retire' at just 24. He has appeared on such programs as 7 news, Sunday Night and Triple J’s Hack and his story is so incredible it’s hard to believe! We delve into so much more than just investing today, Nathan has in his own words, some alternative views about the entire systems that we are born into and some really thought-provoking commentary in regards to money.We cover so many things in today's episode, and it was actually recorded in the middle of last year. I have been working through a backlog to get these episodes out to you guys but it’s just about finding the time. It’s a big one today so maybe grab a coffee, sit back and enjoy. Get excited to exit the Matrix and dive into the brilliant mind of Nathan Birch!

https://www.aussiefirebug.com/you-only-live-once/You Only Live Once!In today's episode, I chat about our decision to move overseas to pursue a bucket list item of ours.Yes, FIRE is important to us, but there are some opportunities that we can't let pass us by before we are 30. YOLO!