I came across a great story recently that got me thinking. A successful woman in her 50s observed that several of her younger colleagues at work, all in their 20s, were furnishing very expensive handbags. She realised that she'd never had a luxury item like that, and if these young folk could afford one, then surely after all these years of work, she could too. She mentioned this to a few friends, and they were all encouraging - splash out, enjoy yourself, you've earned it. She had a look around and found a Chanel bag that was to her liking. Apparently she even needed to make an appointment to buy the bag. But when the time came to hand over the credit card and make the purchase, she pulled back. She couldn't bring herself to do it. Spending thousands of dollars on a status symbol just wasn't something that she could do. In this week's episode I wanted to explore the idea of luxury, particularly as it pertains to financial autonomy. Once you've got yourself into a financially secure position, what use do you put that to? [Disclaimer] [Website]

What is Luxury?

Plenty of books, podcasts and blogs focus on building wealth – and that’s great, as far as it goes. But focusing just on wealth misses the point. 

I believe what most of us actually want is to have choice.

Choice in how much time we give to income-producing activities.
Choice about what those income-producing activities are.
Choice about where we live.
Choice about when we retire.
Choice about the ways we use our money to produce happiness.

In the Financial Autonomy podcast, I explore the different ways you can gain choice - from investing in stocks to becoming self-employed, starting a side hustle, or buying an investment property. I share learnings I've gained working with clients for over 20 years as a Certified Financial Planner, and interview others with interesting insights or experiences in gaining choice in life.

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I started this podcast in 2017 with the desire to put myself out there on what I felt was important in money management and wealth creation, gaining choice. My hope was that in putting that message out into the world, in time I'd attract people to our Financial Planning practice who shared this worldview. It took a while but I'm very pleased that this did indeed work. Why am I taking a break now? There's a few factors. [Website] [Disclaimer]

Melbourne to Manhattan: A Podcast Pause for a City Change

It's not uncommon I find, for people to arrive at the desire to achieve Financial Autonomy in their 40s or 50s. Particularly for those with kids, until this point in life it's largely just been survival mode. Money in equals money out. First it's saving a deposit for a home, then it's getting the mortgage under control. Usually either the first home isn't the forever home, or else renovations and improvements are required. Then you've got the costs of raising children. Layer on top this is the potential for divorce, and it's not uncommon for me to have people reach out wanting to achieve financial security but worried that it's too late for them. If you’re worried that it might be too late for you build wealth and achieve financial security, this episode is for you. [Website] [Disclaimer]

Am I Too Old to Achieve Financial Autonomy?

In this episode, we talk with David Tuckwell of Global X about a few interesting potential satellite ETFs. [Website] [Disclaimer]  

Exploring Investment Satellites with David Tuckwell of Global X ETF's

I received a question recently for my Ask an Expert column where the reader was comparing the annual income they received from their investment property, against the growth in the value of this superannuation fund. Their conclusion, looking at the numbers, was that they should sell the investment property and shift all the money to super. But their comparison was flawed on multiple levels. So in this week's podcast I thought I'd talk you through the differences across the main investment options to help you consider what the best path might be in your particular situation. [Website] [Disclaimer]

The Comparison Challenge - Super, Shares, Property

Investing is all about risk and reward. In endeavoring to build our wealth and gain choice in life, we take on risk with the expectation that we will be rewarded for taking on that degree of uncertainty. The Oxford Dictionary defines risk as the “possibility of something bad happening at some time in the future”. As investors that typically means a loss of our capital, either partially or in full. We think a lot about the potential rewards and the long-term outcomes that derive from the gains made by our investments, but this week I wanted to spend a little bit of time digging into some detail on the risk side of the equation. I've identified 8 different types of risk that are relevant for us investors. To be fair this list probably has more of a bias to stock market investors. I haven't included things like credit risk which would be relevant for bond investors, or risks that are unique to property investment. I'm hoping that as I go through these eight types of investment risk you mentally tick them off against your portfolio and reflect on whether you were comfortable with the level of risk that you are sitting at. [Website] [Disclaimer]

What is Luxury?

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