Captain FI

Today, we are popping a bottle of champagne from the first lounge to celebrate an awesome achievement with 'A Purple Life'. Purple has just completed her journey to Financial Independence, and has reached early retirement at age 30.

Purple first heard about the FI/RE movement in 2013 when her partner discovered it on Reddit of all places - however she didn't think much of it initially. It challenged her way of thinking and confronted societies programming, and so like most people she then came up a bunch of objections and reasons why it wasn't for her.

She was working in client services and advertising, and managed to work her way up to achieve her dream job running her own advertising and media agency within the firm. However, she found that even once she had climbed the corporate ladder and got the dream job she had always wanted, that she wasn't miraculously any happier than before. It turns out her top job actually wasn't actually all it was cracked up to be.

Reflecting back on the FIRE community, Purple read everything she could find on the topic and even began blogging about it in 2015 where she talked about her experiences with Finance, Food and Travel. She set an ambitious goal to retire in only 10 years - circa 2025, and aged 35.

Well fast forward to today- by adopting a disciplined saving and investing regime, increasing her income, maximising her tax leveraged accounts, and using things like geo-arbitrage she was able to smash her goal right out of the park and been able to retire in only half the time - and officially left her job a few weeks ago aged 30.

Whats more? She did so without needing to resort to 'Hustle Culture' and burning herself out. Rather than adopting a number of time-consuming small side hustles, she adopted a laser like focus and put all of her efforts into professional development and advancing her career to increase her income - whilst maxing out all of her tax advantaged accounts.

As a woman of colour she has also overcome many issues that most of us could never understand, and has reached FI without all of the privileges that many in the FIRE community have. Purple's life has also unfortunately been touched by tragedy with the loss of many loved ones, which actually strengthened her resolve to Retire Early so she could spend time with those who truly matter.

I am so happy to be able to interview such an inspirational figure, and learn the valuable lessons she has to pass on to those of us still our own Financial Independence journey.

On board today we have two VIPs in the first class cabin. These entrepreneurs were able to light the afterburners on their own wealth engines through a number of successful business ventures. Coming from humble farming backgrounds, this couple actually met whilst studying at university and managed to spark each other's fire for financial Independence.

Dropping out of university in pursuit of Financial Independence, they learnt the harsh realities of the business world when they unwittingly invested their entire life savings into a failing manufacturing business! Neither of them being one to admit defeat, through hard work, sheer will power and at times a 90% savings rate they were able to reinvest almost every dollar they made to turn the struggling business around into a profitable venture.

From this trial by FIRE, they educated themselves in due diligence and to prove it to themselves they even began buying and selling small businesses, scaling up as they went. Eventually, they found themselves in the corporate space of Mergers and Acquisitions for High Net Worth investors and business owners.

One day they discovered the power and leverage of online business and how they could use them to escape the corporate world - and began building and buying their very own websites. Fast forward 12 years later to today, they have built an incredible portfolio of online businesses and investments which is now generating a 7 figure passive income!

Being true entrepreneurs, they are absolutely hooked on the game and admit despite being Financially Independent that they will never 'Retire Early', and so continue to reinvest almost all of their earnings into a diversified portfolio of business, shares, gold and real estate.

They now live in South East Queensland where they are raising a family, giving back to the community as prominent Angel Investors, and are passionate about educating people on the power of investing and online businesses.

When they aren't buying or selling websites or analysing potential investments, they run training courses teaching people how to do exactly what they did - using online business to transition out of a conventional job and reach financial independence.

I'm absolutely stoked to introduce you all to Mat and Liz Raad

On board today is a frequent FI-er and a bit of a celebrity in the Australian Financial Independence community, Dave from Strong Money Australia!

Dave and his partner are a regular Aussie couple from Perth, who maintained a healthy savings rate and regime of property investing over a ten year period.

One day they discovered that if they moved some equity from their investment properties into dividend producing index funds and LICs, that they could completely cover their cost of living.

A few years ago this pivot let them reach Financial Independence and Retire Early at the insane age of only 28!

Dave writes about his experience with Early Retirement on his blog Strong Money Australia, as well as co-hosting the popular 'Fire and Chill' podcast with Pat Seyrak.

Dave has been a major influence on my own Financial Independence journey, and I am thrilled to invite him onto the show.

To reach Financial Independence, we all know we need to be investing our savings.

There are a wide range of financial products, investing tools and share trading platforms available today, making it difficult to know which is the right one for you.

To make matters worse, many of these have outrageously high brokerage, or even hidden fee structures which can seriously erode your returns.

To help demystify the investing landscape, I am going to talk about the share trading platform that I have personally been using for the last few years, and which is undoubtedly one of the most popular choices in the Australian FI community at the moment.

This is of course, Selfwealth. On board today is Jarrod Purchase, a general manager and marketing representative from SelfWealth. We talk all about the platform, its background, where it is today and the direction SelfWealth is headed in the future.

I ask Jarrod some tricky questions, but one of the most important things of the interview was hearing how Selfwealth plan to stay relevent and compete with newer entrants to the Australian Investing space like market disrupters Pearler and Superhero - who both offer reduced and even zero brokerage on some ETFs.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight. It's about an hour long and of course due to COVID the beverage service has been suspended.

On board today we have Amy Lunardi, an experienced property investor and buyers advocate. Amy is barely into her 30s and has already built up an impressive property portfolio which she continues to grow.

Initially working in the public sector, Amy devoted her evenings and weekends to researching, buying, renovating and developing properties. In doing so, she found her true passion and took a leap of faith to leave her comfortable government job and pursue her dreams starting a property business.

With over 6 years of economics and commerce study, and 10 years of practical experience, Amy now heads her own successful property advocacy firm. She provides buyers agent and vendor advocacy services to help people make smarter property investment choices. Amy is passionate about financial education, and even runs her own blog and podcast all centered around helping first time investors into the market.

Today we explore more of Australia's obsession with property, some of the mistakes and misconceptions I had, benefits and risks of property investing and how a property advocate might be able to help you make smarter property investment decisions. We also discuss Amy's personal property investing strategy and explore how she is using property to become financially independent

On Board today is Mike Staunton: Investor, Personal Finance Coach and the CEO and co-founder of Money like Mike. Mike lives in inner Melbourne, and after reaching Financial Independence he left a high stress career as an Engineer to pursue his passion of helping others take control of their wealth.

Mike has a pretty interesting story - originally from North Carolina in the USA, he trained and worked as an electrical engineer. Despite being in one of the highest paying career paths, he somehow only seemed to go backwards with money, ending up with over $100,000 in personal debt in his early twenties including loans on three cars - one of which didn't even run!

Mike needed a change, and after being inspired by Dave Ramsey 8 years ago, jumped on board his first ever aircraft flight on a one way trip to Melbourne, taking a chance on a transfer to his employers Australian office. Mike sold everything when he left to pay down as much of his debt as he could, and adopted a lifestyle in the city which kept his cost of living rock bottom enabling him to drag himself out of debt.

Through a combination of frugality, cycling, not having a car, being plant based and being alcohol free Mike was able to pay off his debts and start investing. Mike invests in both the US and Australia through his 401K, IRA, Superannuation, Mutual funds and a conventional brokerage account. Ultimately, understanding the difference between a want and a need enabled Mike to pay off his debts and Reach Financial Independence in only 8 years.

Now on the path to becoming a deca-millionaire, Mike shares with me some of the top saving and investing tips he uses with his clients. Although we don't exactly see eye-to-eye on everything, Mike certainly provided me with a refreshing perspective and I had a great time chewing the fat with him on everything from Cycling, 'the rules', getting out of debt, investing and psychology. Strap in because its a pretty long poddy!

On Board we have Emily and Simon, the powerhouse couple behind Smashed Avo! They are an Aussie millennial couple from Sydney who like investing, and brunch! Emily incredibly started investing in property at the tender age of 18! While Simon, the Ying to Em's Yang, was mostly interested in the stock market; He regularly invested in ETFs, shares and managed funds. Being together for almost a decade, they have combined finances and purchased further residential and commercial property together as well as adopting a predominantly index style stock market investing approach to diversify their investments. Simon is an Aerospace Engineer and volunteer fire fighter, and Emily works in an executive management role, she is also a talented writer and is completing her Masters degree this year! Today we will explore;

•Who they are and what they do

•How they learnt to become great with money

•The touchy subject of combining finances in a relationship

•How they discovered FI/RE

•Their investment strategy

•Their specific tips to investing in Australian property and structuring finances,

•Their financial goals

•How they use superannuation

•How and why they want to help others and their top three tips to reach Financial Independence

Episode 5 of the CaptainFI podcast is a quick domestic hop to chat to another Sydney-sider, Nicholas G. Muscat - the Aussie Money Man! Nick has been fiercely independent from a very young age; at the incredible age of only 20 years old he has been able to produce an income of $10,000 (AUD) per month using multiple online businesses and eCommerce stores, investing in the stock market, peer-to-peer lending, and affiliate marketing. Nick has even written eBooks, and started the YouTube channel 'AussieMoneyMan' to help spread the powerful message of financial literacy, and now has over 7000 active subscribers to his channel. Today we chat about his upbringing, hobbies, education and what started him on the path to Financial Independence. We explore his income earning strategies, his saving strategies, and his investing style and strategy. We also delve into his YouTube success, and his experience starting multiple channels. Finally, we discuss some of the most powerful lessons he has learnt on his journey so far, alongside his top reading recommendations and the tips he would go back in time and tell himself! So sit back, relax, grab a beverage and enjoy the flight!

Episode 4 of the Captain FI podcast takes an international connection, stopping in London to feature none other than our very own, Aussie Firebug! The Aussie Firebug was one of the first Australian Financial Independence bloggers, coming onto the scene in 2015. He is a millennial trying to escape the 9-5 grind by reaching financial independence through investing in real estate, index funds and superannuation. He is from Melbourne, Australia and is currently on a working holiday in London as he and Miss Firebug near the end of their FIRE journey. Starting from zero net worth, through his blog and podcast, The Aussie Firebug has tracked his investing strategies, tools, decisions and net worth as it has grown from zero right through to an incredible $770,000. He has also shared many personal stories and lessons learned along the way, including his current experience of working abroad, and deep reflections on his path to FIRE and the impact it has had on his relationships and his own mental health. Its a whopper of a show we have for you today at 80 minutes, so sit back, relax and enjoy the flight!

Episode 3 of the Captain FI podcast features Shang from Savemycents. Shang hit her (7 figure) FI/RE number and reached 'Work optional' status at age 31, making her a Millionaire after only 11 short years in the workforce. Shang graduated from Harvard University and is an MBA. She now lives in New York, where she balances her free time between passion projects (like being a money coach and finance blogger) with being a new mum. Shang is the author of savemycents.com, and is a bit of an Instagram influencer now that her channel has nearly 30,000 subscribers. Shang is a woman of many talents; in addition to her writing and media skills, she is also a very talented musician. In this Episode we explore Shang's background and motivations for FI/RE, as well as the steps she took to reach it; including how she was able to shake self limiting beliefs and adopt a mindset of abundance and gratitude. We cover the common stumbling grounds of frugality and self deprivation vs delayed gratification, as well as stock picking vs index funds. Shang is also an experienced travel hacker, ruthlessly racking up points to fund around the world travel with her young family; we discuss how she was able to cover 95% of the cost of a 3 month long all-around-the-world family trip using only points. Shang delivers some valuable insights for those on the path to FI/RE, including her favourite blogs, authors and her top three tips for financial independence.