Aussie Firebug

www.aussiefirebug.com/aff/Question (5:37)Hi Aussie Firebug,Big fan of the podcast and blog. You're my favourite finance personality and I love following along each month and watching you get closer and closer to FIRE.Congratulations on selling your house! What do you plan to do with the funds now? Invest all at once or dollar cost average into the market?Thanks,RickQuestion (13:37)Hi Aussie Firebug,I just had a few quick questions:1) What is your FIRE goal/At what age are you hoping to retire, with what sort of income?2) How much do you currently work (at your 9-5) and are you planning to progressively cut back on work or straight retire?3) What is/was your salary at your 9-5?4) With the potential of a stock market/real estate crash, do you feel you will have to work a 9-5 during these tougher economic times?Once again, thank you so much for your generosity and sharing.Keep fighting the good fight.Take Care,TomQuestion (18:35)Hey Mate,I've been following your blog / Vlog / presence for 12 months now. I'm almost 23 and closer towards the start of my Journey (compared to yourself) however I'm a good saver and very frugal.I'd love to see you talk about a few things in particular.1. Your HECS Debt and what you did with it. (I'm in an industry that is performance-based and when I have a well performing month you really begin to feel the drag of a HECS debt). Would you suggest paying it off if you have sufficient funds to do so or let it run its course?2. Chasing the FHOG. If I was going to bother with it I'd wanna do regional as its 20k vs 10k. However, I don't really want to live in the property for 12 months. Moreover, the tradeoff in building in a regional area VS the appreciation had in an area maybe closer to Melbourne.I'd love to hear a little more about what you did towards the start of your Journey and any other obstacles you had to overcome etc.Regards,Jordan

All be finally be revealed after Investment Property 1 has officially been sold. So how much did we make? Why did we sell? All things covered in today's post https://wp.me/p5RUEb-6Cd

http://www.aussiefirebug.com/aff/Question (2:50)Hi,Just wondering what you have in mind for the structure if your portfolio once you reach FIRE? What do you think your asset allocation will look like, what percentage for defensive to preserve your hard earned and what percentage in growth to cover inflation and continue your income?What figure do you think you may want to keep in cash?Cheers,AlanQuestion (7:35)Hi AFBThanks for a great blog. It is really easy to read and understand.Obviously, your focus is on investing, but I was wondering if you could offer some insights into the other side of the coin and let us know ways you save money in your household. The everyday things like shopping at Aldi, rewards programs, etc (or however you do it).Thanks heaps!PamQuestion (26:09)Dear AFB,You continue to push out such great content.Two questions:May I ask your reasoning in buying MLT, as opposed to AFI which is currently trading a discount? I currently only hold VGS (started very recently) and am looking to buy my first LIC. My eventual portfolio is hopefully VGS (20%) AFI (40%) and A200 (40%).If you have an inkling the US stockmarkets bull run has got to eventually come to an end (2 yrs, 5 yrs, who knows), what would your plan be? I know its stay the course, dollar cost average, buy more during a crash, but would it make more sense to buy Australian shares now, then during US crash pump more money then?Thank you!H

#AFFhttp://www.aussiefirebug.com/ask-firebug-fridays-9/Question 1 (5:28)Hey Firebug,You've factored in the costs of owning and paying off a house in your investment strategy, but it seems all your income is in the stock market, and unless I'm mistaken, you're renting right now.When the time comes, how are you going to fund your house deposit? Are you going to save money towards a deposit in the first couple years, sit on it, and invest the surplus into stocks (effectively starting your retirement clock after the deposit is saved)?Are you going to reach your FI number and then save for a deposit? Drawdown from your stock portfolio?What would you recommend? I'm starting my FI journey and am in the exact same position.Thanks for all the content!LukeQuestion 2 (13:45)Hi Aussie Firebug,Loving the new podcast! :)What do you think about this whole idea of a "retirement number". Have you tried to calculate what number you need to hit before you feel comfortable with retiring? And once you do, do you think you will right away? Or do you think you would be inclined to work a few more years to increase that safety margin? Maybe even think "hey with a bigger asset base I can take on some luxuries down the road if I want to"?The reason I ask is I've been reading about this on the blogosphere and I can estimate my living expenses and how much I could live on, but if I picture myself today holding that bag of money I think I would be anxious to pull the plug like that. I wonder "hey what if a medical emergency came up and I needed to shell out 20k for a surgery?". Or some other unforeseen major expense came up... say a family member needed my financial support?What do you think?LanceQuestion 3(25:13)Hi,Loving the Friday questions.Often mentioned how important buying below the NTA, however many of the good performing LICs such as WAM are often at a premium and many which are at a discount are permanently under the NTA, so can’t see the benefit of buying at a discount if it’s permanently at a discount?Would love to hear your thoughts on this?ThanksDavid

#AAF 8Q1: 3:40Q2: 8:22Q3: 22:24

#AFF 7

The great Australian FIRE debate! ETFs vs LICs. Which one reins supreme? I also talk about stratgey three more and why we have moved to a dividend focussed portolfio.

Ask Firebug Fridays - 6 by Aussie Firebug

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Ask Firebug Fridays episode 4