Speaker 1: My name is Tatasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations
Speaker 1: woman and I'm here to acknowledge country t glennyan Ganya, Niana,
Speaker 1: Kaka yah Ya bin Ahaka Nian our gay in Nimbina,
Speaker 1: yakarum jar Dominyama, Umagahawakaman, damon imlan Bimba ban Gadabomba in
Speaker 1: and now in wakah ghana on yak rum jar Watnadaa. Hello,
Speaker 1: beautiful friends, we gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people.
Speaker 1: We thank acknowledge and respect the Aberiginal people's land that
Speaker 1: we're gathering on today. Take pleasure in all the land
Speaker 1: and respect all that you see. She's on the Money
Speaker 1: podcast acknowledges culture, country, community and connections, bringing you the tools,
Speaker 1: knowledge and resources for you to thrive.
Speaker 2: She's on the Money. She's on the Money.
Speaker 3: Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
Speaker 3: that's here to show you that investing isn't just for
Speaker 3: the rich, it is for you too. When we add
Speaker 3: She's on the Money team member Brooks Investing Diary. Something
Speaker 3: she said basically broke the Internet or our DMS. At least,
Speaker 3: she revealed that her investing strategy has her on track
Speaker 3: to retire at the age of thirty five. Yes, thirty five.
Speaker 3: She doesn't have that long until thirty five, you I have.
Speaker 2: Heaps of time. What do you mean. I'm very I'm
Speaker 2: twenty seven. That's recent, that's news. I know she was twenty,
Speaker 2: So happy birthday. Happy birthday.
Speaker 3: She didn't win the lottery though, which is kind of
Speaker 3: low key crazy given you're still Actually we don't.
Speaker 2: Know yet because I bought a ticket for last night,
Speaker 2: so we don't know right well, we COULDBC if she does.
Speaker 4: Will let you know. You didn't have a secret inheritance.
Speaker 3: You didn't grow up rich Sadly, Brook has built her
Speaker 3: portfolio step by step, following really clear rules and making
Speaker 3: smart money moves consistently over a long period of time.
Speaker 3: There's been no massive investment, there's been no big lump
Speaker 3: sum of money. It's been dollar for dollar. I'm Victoria Devine.
Speaker 3: I'm a retired financial advisor who is wildly passionate about
Speaker 3: getting more women just like you to start building wealth
Speaker 3: through investing. And after the response we got from her
Speaker 3: last episode, I thought it was only the right thing
Speaker 3: to get Brooke back in the studio and back on
Speaker 3: the show Brook Welcome back.
Speaker 2: Hello friends, Are you excited to do you back?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: It does feel a bit random. Usually I edit the
Speaker 2: videos of this podcast, so it's weird to edit videos
Speaker 2: of myself.
Speaker 4: I was about to say, do you enjoy editing the
Speaker 4: videos in myself? It's gross.
Speaker 2: It's actually way more fun to edit you guys, because
Speaker 2: I don't know what you're going to say, Whereas like
Speaker 2: when I'm editing myself, I know what I said, and
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, did I sound stupid? So if I did,
Speaker 2: just don't.
Speaker 4: Worry ignore it.
Speaker 3: I can't edit videos of myself. I can't really get
Speaker 3: them back to the podcast because I'm like, ill, who
Speaker 3: is that?
Speaker 2: I can actually like, do your voice in my head?
Speaker 4: Stop it. You don't want that. You don't want that.
Speaker 3: Look, we need to rewind to the moment in your
Speaker 3: investing diary that I guess everyone was like, wait, what
Speaker 3: the hell you said? Very casually, I might add, oh, yeah, like,
Speaker 3: if I keep investing the way that I am, I'll
Speaker 3: just be able to retire by the age of thirty five. Yep,
Speaker 3: And like I already kind of knew that, so that
Speaker 3: wasn't shocking to me. But like, God, that is kind
Speaker 3: of shocking.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: And now for anyone who's maybe listening to this and
Speaker 3: heard that in thought, sorry, what Brookie, you just like
Speaker 3: manifesting this like you're just hoping to retire by thirty five? Like,
Speaker 3: what's the actual investing strategy behind this? Can you tell
Speaker 3: us a little bit more about why that number and
Speaker 3: how that's actually going to work?
Speaker 2: Yep. So it's this concept called financial independence retire Earlier,
Speaker 2: or the fire movement. And I probably discovered this twenty
Speaker 2: seventeen and I found it on Reddit, and it's all
Speaker 2: these people that are buying index ones and ETFs and
Speaker 2: they're increasing their savings right, which is really important. We'll
Speaker 2: touch on it later. But they're increasing their savings rate
Speaker 2: to be well above the amount they're spending and investing
Speaker 2: the rest. So they're trying to live on as little
Speaker 2: money as possible, so they can invest pretty much all
Speaker 2: of their income early on and then slowly as they
Speaker 2: get older. Some people increase how much they spend, but
Speaker 2: who cares. They can retire really early because they're living
Speaker 2: expenses are low, and they've got an investment portfolio that's
Speaker 2: going to produce more money than they're going to spend.
Speaker 3: I feel like this takes significant sacrifice, but I also
Speaker 3: feel like you don't sacrifice your life that much. Do
Speaker 3: you really resonate with that financial independence early, save every
Speaker 3: single dollar or are you a little bit more lax
Speaker 3: with it than most.
Speaker 2: Well, in the beginning, I did. I literally have this
Speaker 2: fear that tomorrow I'll be homeless. I just never think
Speaker 2: that I will have enough money to survive, and I
Speaker 2: always worry about that. So when I first started investing,
Speaker 2: I did try to save heaps and heaps and heaps
Speaker 2: of money and definitely sacrifice a lot. And then now
Speaker 2: as I've got older and I've got a second income,
Speaker 2: I sacrificed less because I put my entire second income
Speaker 2: into investing. So now I feel like I can spend
Speaker 2: a little bit more and stress less, but I still
Speaker 2: keep my savings right really really really high.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I feel like you're also to give people a little
Speaker 3: bit more context. I wouldn't say that you're an impulsive shopper. No,
Speaker 3: Like that's not something. Is that something you've ever experienced?
Speaker 2: No, I like definitely like spend money, Like I'm not silly,
Speaker 2: but like my goal for this year was to buy
Speaker 2: one item, like one item of clothing or like beauty
Speaker 2: or anything a month. So that was like I could
Speaker 2: only buy one item twelve things for the year, and
Speaker 2: I've kept on track, except I did buy I think
Speaker 2: one or two extra things, but that were my birthday
Speaker 2: gifts to myself, which is like.
Speaker 3: I feel like that's fine, it's fine, and like, you know,
Speaker 3: you could reframe this and be like, well, I wasn't
Speaker 3: more to go.
Speaker 2: I could have been I'm not buying them new Like
Speaker 2: I'm a deep Hop addict. I spent every day on Deepop,
Speaker 2: even for my little friend Georgia. I find Georgia Deepop
Speaker 2: finds too, so it's like I'm not like I bought
Speaker 2: this jumper off Deepop. This is my item for July
Speaker 2: and originally one hundred and thirty dollars and I got
Speaker 2: a brand new with tags for forty, so that is
Speaker 2: a money win.
Speaker 3: I feel like I love talking about this side of
Speaker 3: things because I think a lot of people just assume
Speaker 3: that this type of lifestyle involves serious sacrifice and you
Speaker 3: feel like you're missing out. But I think it's about
Speaker 3: really reframing.
Speaker 2: Like it's not missing outcause I'm helping future me.
Speaker 3: No, and we laugh a lot because it's kind of
Speaker 3: like peak consumerism, Like we laugh about the la booboo,
Speaker 3: like we think it's a like cost of living crisis indicator.
Speaker 4: Have you bought a la booboo?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 2: I do think about all the time. I wanted to
Speaker 2: get a little boobo on the work card because I
Speaker 2: couldn't just spart on my own gup.
Speaker 4: But she's just gonna put on my card.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 2: No, I was going to do it for a video
Speaker 2: for the She's and the money TikTok. But they've not
Speaker 2: become available. So unless we find a supplier, we won't
Speaker 2: be getting a lat boobo. But I thought the would
Speaker 2: want a latle boobo.
Speaker 3: We're not investing in la booboos. We are investing in ETF. Yes,
Speaker 3: when you found this on Reddit, what made you go
Speaker 3: far out? That's for me and I guess how did
Speaker 3: it shift the way that you about money and investing?
Speaker 4: Like, what were you doing before you discovered fire?
Speaker 2: Well, I wasn't really investing, like that was part of
Speaker 2: the beginning of my investing journey. The first time I
Speaker 2: found out about investing was through someone at work, and
Speaker 2: then I went home and googled a bunch of stuff
Speaker 2: and then found the fire subreddit. And the reason it
Speaker 2: stuck out to me was because there were very average people.
Speaker 2: At this time, I was earning fifty thousand dollars a year,
Speaker 2: so I wasn't earning good money, and I didn't think
Speaker 2: I could work forever because no one does. And they
Speaker 2: were all average people, investing most of their income and
Speaker 2: then retiring at like an earlier age than normal. Some
Speaker 2: people in their thirty some people in their forty, some
Speaker 2: people in their fifties. And I thought, oh my god,
Speaker 2: these are normal people doing this. Why can't I? And
Speaker 2: a lot of them were American, and I could. And
Speaker 2: the good thing is a lot of these people were
Speaker 2: explaining how they did it, and I looked at that
Speaker 2: and I thought, actually, that's a one off. And then
Speaker 2: I read some more and it wasn't a one off,
Speaker 2: and I was like.
Speaker 4: It's actually a legitimate strategy.
Speaker 2: It's a legitimate thing. And I thought, okay, well, if
Speaker 2: the kind of idea that I found was you need
Speaker 2: to increase your savings rate, so lower your fixedis spence
Speaker 2: is right, and how much you're spending every week, and
Speaker 2: increase savings rate as much as possible so that you
Speaker 2: can be like investing more than your earning. So my
Speaker 2: original goal was to get my savings right up to
Speaker 2: thirty percent. And then once I did that, I was like, okay, well,
Speaker 2: now what can I do? And I notoriously don't really drink.
Speaker 2: I stopped drinking like five years ago, and I did
Speaker 2: dorink for five years. So I saved so much money
Speaker 2: than the average person because everyone's sending two to ThReD
Speaker 2: dollars a week going out drinking and I wasn't so
Speaker 2: that money I was investing. So then I was say, hey,
Speaker 2: well my saving rate is going to go from thirty
Speaker 2: percent to forty percent and then fifty percent and.
Speaker 4: So on to try what is your what do you reckon?
Speaker 4: Your saving rate is?
Speaker 2: Now have exact figure. I did the maths for you
Speaker 2: guys last night.
Speaker 3: I think I was going to ask you about this
Speaker 3: a little bit later in the show, but like you're
Speaker 3: corregation need to know now.
Speaker 2: So my savings right, well my essential spending, So like
Speaker 2: my rent, my I give myself six years fun money.
Speaker 2: I give myself money to go out for dinner with
Speaker 2: my boyfriend and we love eating, so that's.
Speaker 3: That eating is like central, that's our sport. It's not
Speaker 3: just like you guys, though. I feel like everybody in
Speaker 3: the Shees on the Money team loves eatings and for Georgia, Yes,
Speaker 3: in Georgia, who are just yeah, but like their chicken
Speaker 3: nugget kids, and we kind of have we we love.
Speaker 2: Them because then we can go out for something enough,
Speaker 2: no one's stealing our food. I'm getting the scallops and
Speaker 2: I'm also getting scallops and everyone else is not. But
Speaker 2: that's okay.
Speaker 4: We believe them. They love the bread.
Speaker 2: My essential expenses come to thirty one percent of my
Speaker 2: income thirty one point eight eight and my savings right
Speaker 2: at the moment, as of last night is sixty eight
Speaker 2: point one two per day, and that's fully automated, so
Speaker 2: none of the money I can touch. Like I get
Speaker 2: paid monthly, so we get you're welcome. I get paid monthly,
Speaker 2: but I pay myself weekly, so I'm one month ahead
Speaker 2: in my judge at all times. So we get paid
Speaker 2: on the fifteenth. But every Friday, I pay myself, so
Speaker 2: I give I do Thursday. Why do you pick Friday
Speaker 2: because we typically well, I give myself Friday so that
Speaker 2: on the weekend I have money, because then I won't
Speaker 2: give into my savings. So on Friday, it's my coffe day.
Speaker 2: So my boyfriend, I take Jones. He on a Thursday
Speaker 2: go to get a coffee. On a Friday, I get paid,
Speaker 2: get up in the water and go get a coffee.
Speaker 2: And then I have on Saturday and Sunday to spend
Speaker 2: my money. And and really, if I spend all my
Speaker 2: money on those days, I've got to suffer till Friday
Speaker 2: because I cannot touch my savings.
Speaker 4: I try to see that's my mentality.
Speaker 3: But I think a lot of people are listening to
Speaker 3: this and they're like, that feels really restrictive. For me,
Speaker 3: it feels really freeing because I'm kind of like I
Speaker 3: don't have to think about the big picture. I'm not
Speaker 3: thinking about whether my bills are paid or whatever.
Speaker 2: It's aulated if I've.
Speaker 3: Blown all my money on a Sunday brunchf and it
Speaker 3: means that I can't have, you know, a cheeky croissant
Speaker 3: or something that I might go, oh, I deserve a
Speaker 3: sweet treat. Sorry, you can't afford a sweet treat, Victoria
Speaker 3: Like it's not in the budget. Yeah, And I think
Speaker 3: a lot of people just go and please don't get
Speaker 3: me wrong, I do clearly have a good income, but
Speaker 3: the way that I manage my money is on such
Speaker 3: a week to week basis that I've allocated that amount.
Speaker 2: You pay yourself first.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm kind of low key in my head. I'm like,
Speaker 3: I can't afford that, Like, that's not in my budget.
Speaker 2: I try to do my grocery shopping on the Saturday
Speaker 2: and Sunday, so then so that you can get the
Speaker 2: good stuff. I've already got all of my grocery sorted,
Speaker 2: and then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. I work from home, so.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a good deal for saving money too.
Speaker 2: I cooked dinner, and like I cooked dinner two nights
Speaker 2: a week, my way from will cook dinner two nights
Speaker 2: a week, and then we'll cook lunches, but we typically
Speaker 2: won't go out those days. You might go out for
Speaker 2: a lunch on a Friday, we'll go out for lunch
Speaker 2: or a dinner on a Saturday or a Sunday. But
Speaker 2: the midweek, I'm not really spending any money. I don't
Speaker 2: pay for money to commute because I work from home.
Speaker 2: And then I have I splurge a little bit with
Speaker 2: my Poliities membership, but that is for the mental health.
Speaker 2: But my savings rate is pretty high. But I don't
Speaker 2: feel like that's going papers full as well.
Speaker 3: And I feel like, yeah, if you're sitting there and
Speaker 3: you're listening to brook story and you're like, holy hell,
Speaker 3: Like I own one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a
Speaker 3: year and there's no way I could do that. I
Speaker 3: think for Brook it works because you started from a
Speaker 3: low base, and so I'm not saying I.
Speaker 2: Haven't changed my spending couch my first income.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think that that's for me because like
Speaker 3: I think I've shared enough about my journey where I
Speaker 3: got into a whole heap of personal debt and then
Speaker 3: I had to get out of it and I had
Speaker 3: to change my whole mindset around money and that was
Speaker 3: a struggle.
Speaker 2: You've kind of gone debt.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you've gone from low income and like, I can
Speaker 3: survive off this amount to every single time, like Brook
Speaker 3: is in the perfect position. I would say, every single
Speaker 3: time you've gotten a pay rise or a pay increase
Speaker 3: that has not gone towards life style creep.
Speaker 2: No. Literally, I'm so jealous. I cannot do it to myself.
Speaker 2: Like in my head, I tomorrow if I got knocked
Speaker 2: back down to my first salary. My savings rate would differ,
Speaker 2: but my living expenses and stuff wouldn't change. I'm not
Speaker 2: change any of that. I don't have a new car.
Speaker 2: I drive a twenty eleven High and thirty with custom
Speaker 2: number plates. But custom number plates I do, they're pretty bougie.
Speaker 2: I hate to brag, but I'm scared.
Speaker 3: Of custom number plates because I genuinely don't want people
Speaker 3: to like spot my car and be like, Okay, she
Speaker 3: can't drive.
Speaker 2: I know that I can't drive, but it's fine, But
Speaker 2: like I don't. I don't have a new car. I
Speaker 2: don't have a designer bag.
Speaker 4: Every new item a designer bag. You own a Chanelle.
Speaker 2: Oh no, that's my designer bag. It was a thousand dollars. Sorry,
Speaker 2: that's a designer bag. Okay, to the record, you have
Speaker 2: a Chanel bag, and I can guarantee carrier it's from
Speaker 2: my caraer on. It's my carry on. Oh sorry, that
Speaker 2: justifies it. Okay, No, this is making me sound out
Speaker 2: of such. I saved that it was a vintage Carl Lagerfeld.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you, But it's like, no, I don't
Speaker 2: go out and buy anything.
Speaker 3: Everything I buy everything to do is thrifitted or art
Speaker 3: throwing your under the bus for owning a bag, but like, sorry,
Speaker 3: a girl's got to live as well.
Speaker 4: And if that has been on your leg wish list
Speaker 4: and I.
Speaker 2: Saved for that, like that was my birthday present to
Speaker 2: myself three years ago, and it's my carry on every
Speaker 2: single time.
Speaker 4: Remember it was three years ago.
Speaker 2: It was three years ago. And because it's my laptop
Speaker 2: bag as well, I could have claimed it on TASS.
Speaker 2: I don't think I did, but I should have. I
Speaker 2: kind of low key love it.
Speaker 3: All right, let's move back from Chanel bags over to
Speaker 3: the fire concept. If you listen to our episode on
Speaker 3: how much Super You Actually Need, you'll know that there's
Speaker 3: like actually no magic number when it comes to creating
Speaker 3: your perfect retirement because your lifestyle and your needs and
Speaker 3: your values are completely unique. And you know, if Brooke
Speaker 3: and I swapped lifestyles, we'd have to absolutely.
Speaker 2: Reach how to crease budget.
Speaker 3: Well, it's interesting as well because since becoming a mum,
Speaker 3: I already shift well yeah, and I've decreased how many
Speaker 3: days I'm present in the office, so I now have
Speaker 3: Mondays off and I spend them with my son and
Speaker 3: that is expensive. Not because we're going out heaps, but
Speaker 3: like I end up going to lunch and I go, oh,
Speaker 3: I'm stuck in the house.
Speaker 4: You know I've done I've killed it.
Speaker 2: As mental health moment.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and like, sorry, what do you mean? A kid's
Speaker 4: toasted his twelve dollars? So most of the time I
Speaker 4: pack his little.
Speaker 3: Lunch because he loves a lunch box at this age.
Speaker 3: But I'm still going out going to you know what,
Speaker 3: I've been at home. I've done all the stuff I'm
Speaker 3: going to that's just self care activity. Yeah, And like
Speaker 3: I've had to reshift my budget, not just in terms
Speaker 3: of what I originally had budgeted for baby, because like
Speaker 3: I've done all the maths, right, Like I'd worked out
Speaker 3: on averages.
Speaker 4: Is what nappies are going to cost?
Speaker 2: This is what you call my God, it's so didn't
Speaker 2: I make so many calculations because until you're in that situation,
Speaker 2: you can't. Like my you would change too if I
Speaker 2: was in that s.
Speaker 3: The lifestyle stuff, So like I find the budgeting for
Speaker 3: the stuff that I can anticipate that's maybe not lifestyle.
Speaker 3: So like I knew that every season he's going to
Speaker 3: go up a size so like, you know, I did
Speaker 3: so much research and so much talking to JGBT and
Speaker 3: looking at like Reddit, just because I really wanted to know.
Speaker 3: But essentially, your baby will outgrow their clothes every three months.
Speaker 2: That is crazy. Two years pass away at the thought
Speaker 2: for the first two years.
Speaker 3: And so I worked out, Okay, well, if that's the case,
Speaker 3: how many ones is do you think I'll need every season?
Speaker 3: I was psychotic, how many? How many outfits? And like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I've blown the budget on that a few times because
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh sorry, like my husband, this is so lame.
Speaker 4: But we're going to a wedding in Bali soon and
Speaker 4: my husband has this.
Speaker 2: At the Padma.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, Bali at the Padma. Is this going out
Speaker 4: after that?
Speaker 2: It'll be September.
Speaker 4: Great, I stayed at the Padma.
Speaker 2: That's a big contentious topic in our office. If you
Speaker 2: want to know more, I'll make a TikTok for us.
Speaker 3: Actually, Brooke just straight out told me that that's Bali Bogan.
Speaker 3: But guys, when you have a kid, the Padma as
Speaker 3: a resort. Sorry, it has a petting zoo, it has
Speaker 3: an ice cream cut. You're selling it to your close
Speaker 3: to me, and you know what I'm not leaving that
Speaker 3: resort with my nearly two year old anyway. With your
Speaker 3: Padma review, when we were doing that, I was like, oh, sorry,
Speaker 3: I do actually need my husband and son for the
Speaker 3: recovery party of this wedding to have matching outfits.
Speaker 2: No, I think that that is an expense that I
Speaker 2: would have to approve to. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Fine, but all of those things I think you can
Speaker 3: kind of like sort of foresee. But it was like
Speaker 3: the mental shift of like, hold on, like I've realized
Speaker 3: that on the Monday that my son and I are
Speaker 3: at home on our own all day, I actually do
Speaker 3: want to go out for lunch. I do want to
Speaker 3: go out and get it toasty, and like we're not
Speaker 3: talking like super expensive, but like those budget shifts.
Speaker 2: Are different a different friend stage or.
Speaker 3: At different life stages, so I think it's important to go, oh,
Speaker 3: what's the perfect retirement. I'm well, it's going to look
Speaker 3: different for me and different for you because we also
Speaker 3: have different lifestyle goals and we live in different states.
Speaker 2: Like if Melbom's notoriously more expensive if you pay for tolls.
Speaker 2: I found out the other day how much tolls were,
Speaker 2: which is crazy scenes here, but like that's something that's
Speaker 2: never going in my budget.
Speaker 3: No, no, And I think that that's where we go
Speaker 3: back to this concept of financial independence. Retire early, like
Speaker 3: your personal fire number isn't just about hitting like a
Speaker 3: million dollars and being like, Okay, well I hit the goal,
Speaker 3: or retiring by a certain age. It's about designing a
Speaker 3: life that works for you and then building an investment
Speaker 3: portfolio that can support that version of freedom. And whether
Speaker 3: that's like, you know, really luxury or really minimalist or
Speaker 3: like you're like semi retired or something or anything in between. Like,
Speaker 3: it's going to look different and you have to work backwards.
Speaker 3: So Brook, what version of fire are you currently working towards?
Speaker 3: Like once you hit thirty five? Sorry, I need to
Speaker 3: know the gritty details.
Speaker 2: Why would your lifestyle look like? It depends because I
Speaker 2: know that realistically, before the time I hit thirty five,
Speaker 2: I'll probably have kids, get married, except I would never
Speaker 2: do a big wedding, which why would you do that?
Speaker 2: That's so crazy?
Speaker 4: I would never spend lots of there doesn't.
Speaker 2: All like aligned to my values. I'm a kind For
Speaker 2: those of you who don't follow me on social media,
Speaker 2: which is huge, a significant amount of money on over
Speaker 2: right nothing. But to me, I could never justify that.
Speaker 2: I would justify loping and spending twenty can a really
Speaker 2: sick holiday for me and my part families. I would
Speaker 2: just never have a big wedding. It's not mine.
Speaker 4: You like, can I come to the wedding?
Speaker 2: You can't. But that's okay, that's weird.
Speaker 4: Okay, let me.
Speaker 2: Set this boundary here. You won't be attending my single elopement.
Speaker 2: This is bullshit. But for me, my fire mentality right
Speaker 2: now is I would love to get to two million
Speaker 2: by thirty five and then be able to have like
Speaker 2: a full eighty thousand year income, which would be a
Speaker 2: four percent draw down rate. But I'm realistic that I'm
Speaker 2: not going to retire at thirty five because.
Speaker 4: I really will have a number that you want to
Speaker 4: which is two millions.
Speaker 2: So that's a work optional then. But I would also
Speaker 2: think about doing something called coast fire or barrista fire,
Speaker 2: which is where your investing portfolio will give you like
Speaker 2: a part time income, so would would be a barista file.
Speaker 2: This is my favorite concept. Do georgially talk about this
Speaker 2: all the time, which is like you kind of get
Speaker 2: to a point where okay, well, I've experienced the corporate
Speaker 2: highs and lows. I've enjoyed doing my career and growing that,
Speaker 2: but now that doesn't serve me anymore. I want to
Speaker 2: do passion projects. I want to do this.
Speaker 4: So you then get into CEO who then becomes yoga teacher.
Speaker 2: Exactly, and you can live on a lower income but
Speaker 2: continue to have your lifestyle because your investment portfolio will
Speaker 2: prop you up. So say my my Barista fire number
Speaker 2: would be one million, one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars,
Speaker 2: which would then get me forty five K year income.
Speaker 2: Then say I have a fifty K year salary. That
Speaker 2: means I'm still earning one hundred and five thousand dollars
Speaker 2: a year. Okay, but I'm working a fun job that
Speaker 2: I find like, I feel passionate about it. And then
Speaker 2: if I wanted to take a little sabbatical and I
Speaker 2: wanted to go overseas for a couple of years, I'm
Speaker 2: still earning forty five K. So you can coast towards
Speaker 2: your fire and now you're still increasing your savings rate
Speaker 2: because of that forty five thousand, I still spend like
Speaker 2: I spend less than that a year. I spend like
Speaker 2: thirty grand a year or something, I would still be
Speaker 2: contributing towards my investing fund. So my investments are still
Speaker 2: growing as I'm getting closer to that main fire number.
Speaker 3: I love that, and I feel like just knowing your
Speaker 3: fire number is only one piece of the puzzle. So
Speaker 3: we're going to take a very quick break, and when
Speaker 3: we get back, we're going to dive into a little
Speaker 3: bit more of the juicy stuff, the strategy and the
Speaker 3: things that you need to think about if you actually
Speaker 3: want to retire early.
Speaker 4: So guys, don't go anywhere.
Speaker 3: All right, we are back, and it is time to
Speaker 3: jump into the strategy that you have behind retiring early.
Speaker 3: When most people start their plans for retiring early, say
Speaker 3: around like I don't know, sixty five is what people
Speaker 3: are like working towards On average, they often work out
Speaker 3: a draw down rate of around five percent. You mentioned
Speaker 3: that your draw down rate was four percent before, just
Speaker 3: for context, and that's because their investment portfolio only needs
Speaker 3: to last like twenty or thirty years for them.
Speaker 5: But when you're.
Speaker 3: Planning to retire much earlier, you're in investments actually have
Speaker 3: to support you for longer, and that money has to
Speaker 3: stretch further, and you need to be a bit more conservative. Yes, Brook,
Speaker 3: you mentioned that your draw down rate was four percent
Speaker 3: when you calculated your fire number. Why did that draw
Speaker 3: down rate make the most sense for you?
Speaker 2: I just try to be as conservative as possible, because
Speaker 2: then if I could actually draw down more, that is
Speaker 2: a win. A win is a win. I will take that.
Speaker 2: I'm always going to base my calculations on the lowest possible,
Speaker 2: like obviously it's not the lowest possible, but the most
Speaker 2: reasonable and lowest amount, so that then any extra it's
Speaker 2: a bonus. Yeah, it's like a little this is your
Speaker 2: annual bonus. Great. But if I factored my draw down
Speaker 2: rate is like six percent and realistically I could only
Speaker 2: draw down four percent, that I would be disappointed. So
Speaker 2: if I am low and land.
Speaker 3: High money win. We want to set our expectations to
Speaker 3: be exceeded. When I was a financial advisor, I always
Speaker 3: did that because I'd always be like, I really want
Speaker 3: to impress you, and I'd prefer you to be happy
Speaker 3: with me. I'm the promises of a deliver exactly. Now.
Speaker 3: You have mentioned that you want to retire at the
Speaker 3: age of thirty five, which means that your superannuation actually
Speaker 3: can't come into this conversation. Yes, but we will have
Speaker 3: that when we turn sixty five and when we're a
Speaker 3: little bit older. I want to know that combination because
Speaker 3: at the moment your fire number you mentioned two million
Speaker 3: dollars that would not be including any super because you
Speaker 3: can't touch that. Just because you decided to retire does
Speaker 3: not mean that.
Speaker 2: The government gunners. Oh yes you are retired. Yes, good job, Brooke, here,
Speaker 2: I have it all early. You've done amazing. Unfortunately, that's
Speaker 2: not it.
Speaker 3: And I think that that makes it a little bit
Speaker 3: trickier than a traditional retirement because, as I've said time
Speaker 3: and time again on the show before, I think superranuation.
Speaker 4: Is the sexiest tax vehicle in existence.
Speaker 3: Like, at the moment, you'd be paying a relatively high
Speaker 3: marginal tax rate, but in subranuation you are paying fifteen percent.
Speaker 3: That is hot girl shit for most of us, unless like,
Speaker 3: and I don't want people coming at me and being like, well,
Speaker 3: my cousin accessed his super early. You can in really
Speaker 3: extreme circumstances of illness or injury or like.
Speaker 2: I think I'm eligible.
Speaker 4: Yeah no, no, you're just ill.
Speaker 3: But we can't access it until we sixty and then
Speaker 3: we can actually draw down on it properly tax free
Speaker 3: from sixty five. At this point, I do believe side
Speaker 3: note that that retirement age is going to be reset
Speaker 3: to probably seventy or seventy two. And the reason for
Speaker 3: that is just we are working later and later, and
Speaker 3: the government wants to push off retirement age.
Speaker 2: Business saves and money.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it would take significant pressure off the pension system
Speaker 3: because they're basically forcing you to work longer. But anyway
Speaker 3: back on track, if you're aiming to stop working in
Speaker 3: your mid thirties or maybe even closer to forty, you
Speaker 3: need a way to fund the next you know, years
Speaker 3: between that.
Speaker 4: And this is where the idea of like bridging buckets
Speaker 4: comes into it.
Speaker 3: And I think it's that part of the portfolio that's
Speaker 3: invested outside of Super and that's designed to cover your
Speaker 3: lifestyle until Super becomes available. But tell me, like, have
Speaker 3: you actually factored Super into the plow? Are we talking
Speaker 3: about that? Because like I do payroll every month and
Speaker 3: I'm paying your supers?
Speaker 2: So are youreful for it?
Speaker 4: Yeah? But are you watching it? Are you caring about it?
Speaker 2: I do definitely watch it. It's definitely in my I
Speaker 2: track my network every month just because I'm freaking insane.
Speaker 5: I love this.
Speaker 4: Also free network.
Speaker 2: It's not free, it's in the Vestry musk Strace. But
Speaker 2: the network track that's in the investing musklass I made.
Speaker 2: I was one that I use. Yeah, there we go.
Speaker 4: I was like, it's free hold on a bonus for
Speaker 4: our investing muster class.
Speaker 2: I feel that network tracker out every single month because
Speaker 2: I like to see it grow. But I do factor
Speaker 2: my SUPER in there. But it is not factored into
Speaker 2: my fire number at all because obviously the fire you
Speaker 2: can't access it. No, and the fire movement started in
Speaker 2: America they don't have super. So I've just always not
Speaker 2: included it, and I considered that my superannuation is a bonus.
Speaker 2: It's like when I reach sixty five, it's a thank you.
Speaker 5: Here you go.
Speaker 4: Do you know, like, what would your SUPER be sitting at?
Speaker 2: Like I'm not it would be in the millions by
Speaker 2: the time I get that.
Speaker 3: It's like sitting at a good amount for your age. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm assuming because you've always.
Speaker 2: Double it's more. Yeah, it's more than double what the
Speaker 2: average is. Okay, But I don't conflict see here, No,
Speaker 2: I just had I've always worked with. You don't make
Speaker 2: additional contract. I don't make any additional contributions because I
Speaker 2: really like to have control over my investments, and because
Speaker 2: I want to be able to be work optional by
Speaker 2: thirty five. I don't like I don't factor that into
Speaker 2: my investing. Obviously, I feel grateful to have SUPER, and
Speaker 2: if my SUPER was lower than the average, I would
Speaker 2: definitely contribute to it. But right now it's not part
Speaker 2: of my fire strategy. It's a nice to have when
Speaker 2: I turned sixty five, and I hope that that money
Speaker 2: will then just be things I could help with my family.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's kind of my strategy as well, just
Speaker 3: to flip it, because I think people are always like,
Speaker 3: well what do you do with your super?
Speaker 4: Victoria?
Speaker 3: And I too, Look, I think we've all heard that.
Speaker 3: There's two phrases that come to mind. Here, do as
Speaker 3: I say, not as I do? And then the other
Speaker 3: one is the plumber always has the leaky tap, right,
Speaker 3: And so I've never heard that.
Speaker 2: Have you never heard about the plumber? But no, I
Speaker 2: do agree because people that do a job, they don't
Speaker 2: necessarily do that for themselves.
Speaker 3: No, And I have always said if you're a small
Speaker 3: business owner, like you need to be paying yourself superannuation
Speaker 3: and I'm wildly passionate about that, but I also don't
Speaker 3: live with the fairies.
Speaker 4: And like, when I first started my business, I'm.
Speaker 3: Sorry, I did keep track of it, Like I knew
Speaker 3: what I should be paying myself in SUPER and sometimes.
Speaker 2: It's not realistic to worry.
Speaker 3: I didn't have any cash flow, and the decision, like
Speaker 3: Jess we've talked about was my first employee in She's
Speaker 3: on the money, completely separate from Zella. But I remember
Speaker 3: being like, well, I can't afford to take SUPER if
Speaker 3: I'm going to then be paying someone else's SUPER and
Speaker 3: actually getting this support in my business. Yeah, and like
Speaker 3: there were so many like, yes, you should be paying
Speaker 3: super as a small business owner, but also was a
Speaker 3: factors Let's be honest, No, I wasn't, but I did
Speaker 3: keep track of what I should have been paying myself
Speaker 3: in SUPER. And so when people are like, oh, do
Speaker 3: you make extra contributions, I'm kind of like, Okay, this
Speaker 3: is complicated, because yes, but the reason I do is
Speaker 3: to get back up where I need to be and
Speaker 3: what I quote in my head, oh myself, not because
Speaker 3: I'm trying to bowlk up my super because I would
Speaker 3: love for my husband Steve and I to be in
Speaker 3: a position ideally by the age of forty. Mine's not
Speaker 3: thirty five, because that's next year, by the age of forty,
Speaker 3: where we have that financial freedom to go. Actually, let's
Speaker 3: just a bashion prop.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and like the way that I have worked that
Speaker 4: out is same as you. Like I've gone.
Speaker 3: Okay, our number is x and thankfully we have a
Speaker 3: dual income household, so we're both contributing to this.
Speaker 4: No not dinks, double income.
Speaker 2: No kids, you're no kids. I'm not a dinkless with dinkless,
Speaker 2: which is really sad.
Speaker 3: I graduated from being a dink what eighteen months a
Speaker 3: great turn out of ten can recommend to the graduation,
Speaker 3: but not for the financial benefits, because as such there
Speaker 3: are none. I have a tiny free loader who basically
Speaker 3: he doesn't even need yours, no chores, and all he
Speaker 3: does is snack.
Speaker 2: Honestly, if I lived at your house, i'd also snack.
Speaker 2: You've got an ice machine to It's fantastic.
Speaker 3: When when I did my baby budgeting, I didn't budget
Speaker 3: for the amount of snacks this tiny gremlin demands.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know that's like, what do you mean?
Speaker 3: And he's a money loss, he's a bottomless pit anyway,
Speaker 3: So it's an interesting problem. But we've worked out okay, cool,
Speaker 3: well this amount of money, we won't be debt free
Speaker 3: at that point, but this amount of miss so we
Speaker 3: have mortgages.
Speaker 2: I don't own a home, yeah, so for us, it
Speaker 2: won't it look different.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll have a financial independent number, but built into
Speaker 3: that islage picture of payments and like our living works. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and I just I look at it and I go, well,
Speaker 3: I don't know what life will look like. I don't
Speaker 3: know if like podcasting is going to be successful forever.
Speaker 3: Like honestly, that's why I have two separate businesses. I
Speaker 3: feel like this is like my fun, shiny one that
Speaker 3: hopefully will last for ages, and like, you know, I
Speaker 3: love financial literacy, but you never know. And then I
Speaker 3: have my more legitimate mortgage broking business, which basically every
Speaker 3: piece of income that goes into that gets reinvested into.
Speaker 2: That is the long term business.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So we then have our like investing like or our
Speaker 3: retirement number that we could retire at, but we won't
Speaker 3: be debt free. And I think that's an important thing
Speaker 3: to add because I think a lot of people think
Speaker 3: that you'll have to get to your retirement number and
Speaker 3: you'll have to be debt free.
Speaker 2: A mortgage by the time, Like obviously I'm looking to
Speaker 2: buy a house in the next few years, and by
Speaker 2: the time I would reach my fire number, I wouldn't
Speaker 2: be using that money to pay down my mortgage. I
Speaker 2: would be factoring those mortgage repayments in there. They're my costs,
Speaker 2: there are my cost there are my living expenses.
Speaker 3: And I think that that's an important call out because
Speaker 3: I think a lot of people, especially in the fire community,
Speaker 3: they can be quite aggressive about this, like they want
Speaker 3: to be at their retirement number, but also debt free.
Speaker 2: That's because in America housing is heaps cheaper. Like if
Speaker 2: I used to go and move to Missouri right now,
Speaker 2: I could buy a five bedroom match and for two
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars and I could pay all cash, you know,
Speaker 2: but you can't. It's not realistic. And I think that
Speaker 2: that's why it's different market, and that's why it's really
Speaker 2: hard with the fire subreddits because most of them are American.
Speaker 3: And that's why I was like, I really want to
Speaker 3: point out that, like stiff. I'm also working towards this.
Speaker 3: I think it would be a miss to not mention
Speaker 3: that I'm actually going to be debt. I'm going to
Speaker 3: still be in a lot of debt for our mortgage.
Speaker 3: But I'm actually low key fine with that because like,
Speaker 3: it's in your plan, it's in the plan. It's just
Speaker 3: it's our housing cost. And even if we didn't have
Speaker 3: a primary principal place of residence.
Speaker 4: Yeah, whatever we call it.
Speaker 3: So there are lots of different strategies, both internationally and
Speaker 3: in Australia that people are using to reach their fire number.
Speaker 3: I think some of them really focus on capital growth.
Speaker 3: And if you've listened to other episodes with Brooke and I,
Speaker 3: we both love Warren Buffett and like kind of subscribe
Speaker 3: to his investing methodologies, but we also differ a little
Speaker 3: bit in that my yeah, my priorities when picking my
Speaker 3: investments are more dividend yield and like you know, balanced
Speaker 3: with performance, whereas you're like, just shoot lights out, I
Speaker 3: want more performance.
Speaker 4: I don't give you.
Speaker 3: Rats about your didend your dividends. So everybody has a
Speaker 3: different strategy, which means building a portfolio looks in a
Speaker 3: different way, and that's okay. But the idea is that
Speaker 3: every single one of a building a portfolio that increases
Speaker 3: in value over time so that we can eventually live
Speaker 3: off either the dividends from our investments or for some
Speaker 3: people start selling off our investments and living off.
Speaker 2: That without raw down right.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I think some other people, like as we're saying,
Speaker 3: they really focus on income producing assets like me, But
Speaker 3: I'm not an income producing assets early in the investment
Speaker 3: property space, Like I think a lot of people go, oh,
Speaker 3: I could buy a rental property. That's fine, that could
Speaker 3: be part of your strategy, but that's actually not my
Speaker 3: circus nor my monkeys. I don't want to be someone's landlord.
Speaker 3: I don't think I've shared a lot about that, but like,
Speaker 3: over time, I've just realized that's that journey. It's not
Speaker 3: my journey. I just feel like that's not for me,
Speaker 3: and that's okay, but it is for other people.
Speaker 2: Brook.
Speaker 3: I want to talk a little bit about when you're
Speaker 3: building your portfolio with this fire methodology in mind, are you,
Speaker 3: like we've talked about it a little bit in that
Speaker 3: you're just after growth shares at this point in time,
Speaker 3: but like, how does that strategy impact the ETF so
Speaker 3: or the investments that you ultimately pick.
Speaker 2: I think because when I first started investing, I was
Speaker 2: like really young, I was in my early twenties. And my,
Speaker 2: when you read all of these things, and I have
Speaker 2: read literally every investing book on the market.
Speaker 3: I literally just like backtrack. I literally paid her to
Speaker 3: do that, to make Oh my god, we did so fun.
Speaker 3: We did not miss a bloody beat in our investing
Speaker 3: master class.
Speaker 2: Sorry, I spent like three months working on that.
Speaker 4: I was like, day in date, we can't have all
Speaker 4: these other investor what if we miss something that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it needed to be perfect. And I think I
Speaker 2: learned a lot in that, and even in my early
Speaker 2: twenties that I'm welcome.
Speaker 4: So I basically paid you to get a financial education.
Speaker 2: I know I would love to get a degree. So
Speaker 2: if you want to pay for that, true, I'll just
Speaker 2: draw like me. You'll get Georgian and make one and Adobe.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I learned that I have so much time for risk.
Speaker 2: So my strategy when I first started investing was high growth,
Speaker 2: high risk, because I have time for the market to
Speaker 2: go up, I have time for the market to go down,
Speaker 2: and I want to buy at every stage of that.
Speaker 2: I want to buy it when I said it's highest,
Speaker 2: I want to buy it when it's that it's lowest.
Speaker 2: I want to be buying it every single week. So
Speaker 2: my strategy from the beginning was to buy. I didn't
Speaker 2: care about dividends, high growth investments, and ETFs that were
Speaker 2: just high risk. I was happy with the risk. Everything
Speaker 2: was diversified and risky, but I wanted to make sure
Speaker 2: that I was getting at least ten percent return every year.
Speaker 2: Obviously that's averaged out over ten years. But now I
Speaker 2: look at my portfolio and I've been investing consistently since
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, and my strategy really hasn't changed.
Speaker 2: Obviously I've added in more ETFs, in more index funds,
Speaker 2: and some direct shares, but I really don't factor them in.
Speaker 2: My average return since twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, which was
Speaker 2: like six or seven years, is I'm up thirteen point
Speaker 2: seven nine per sex. Yes see, that's good, which is
Speaker 2: really good. So like, my strategy is currently working for me,
Speaker 2: and I'm still picking chairs and ETFs that a ligne
Speaker 2: in that sort of space. But as I get older,
Speaker 2: as I near closer to that fire number, obviously I
Speaker 2: will probably change the way that I invest because I
Speaker 2: don't want as risky options when I am actually beginning
Speaker 2: to draw down, I only want I'm not caring as
Speaker 2: much about the return.
Speaker 3: Yes, and like going back to my financial advisor career,
Speaker 3: that was very true of all of our clients.
Speaker 4: So like the clients that I had that were your age,
Speaker 4: they were very, very risky.
Speaker 3: And the older you get, the more capital stable you're
Speaker 3: looking for because you just don't have the time ahead
Speaker 3: of you. Like if you're like sixty and you're like Victoria,
Speaker 3: I'm here, got my super I've got my investments. I'm
Speaker 3: ready to start like gearing up to retire in five years.
Speaker 3: I'm not looking at you know, high growth, high yield funds.
Speaker 3: I'm looking at capital stable investments to really stabilize what
Speaker 3: you have built and essentially lock it in, Like I
Speaker 3: want to lock and load what you have got, because
Speaker 3: I don't want you to feel those ebbs and flows
Speaker 3: so much once you are retired, because once you're retired,
Speaker 3: you want consistency. You want consistency and you want to
Speaker 3: know that you can trust it. And I would prefer
Speaker 3: you to at that stage switch not everything like this
Speaker 3: is probably a little bit dramatic, but we're switching to going, okay, cool,
Speaker 3: we've got our five percent or our four percent draw
Speaker 3: down rate. I actually just want to be able to
Speaker 3: lock that in for you so that every single year
Speaker 3: you can go, no, I know, I will have an
Speaker 3: income of eighty thousand dollars or fifty or whatever.
Speaker 2: It's less about growing that capital.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's less about the capital increasing. It's more about
Speaker 3: having a consistent income. Because right now, if your portfolio
Speaker 3: is performing one year thirteen percent, the next year it
Speaker 3: could do negative five. And that's okay because it doesn't
Speaker 3: matterfy now. But imagine if you don't work. Imagine if
Speaker 3: you were like, okay, cool, I'm banking on this eighty
Speaker 3: grand coming in, and then the year after it's like, sorry, you're.
Speaker 2: Put down here twenty percent and you get nothing.
Speaker 4: You lost something. You also can't afford to draw down.
Speaker 2: On that, Like, then your life's soffix.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I feel like we just want stability at
Speaker 3: that point. So when you are a bit younger and
Speaker 3: you can ride that risk ride, great, let's do that.
Speaker 3: But it's never going to be And that's why I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3: I'm not.
Speaker 2: What a strategy forever. It's not certain forget, it's you
Speaker 2: need a free check.
Speaker 4: Like we can set and forget for twelve months, we
Speaker 4: can get for twenty four months.
Speaker 2: But not for thirty years. I think that's not. One
Speaker 2: thing that's really interesting that I found when I was
Speaker 2: researching for the Investing Masterclass. Something that America does really well.
Speaker 2: We don't really have it here, but I feel like
Speaker 2: in the next few years we might have it is
Speaker 2: target date funds. Yes, so target date funds. Basically, it
Speaker 2: might be a fund that's called year twenty to fifty
Speaker 2: and it's based on the year that you would like
Speaker 2: to retire, and you invest in that and then as
Speaker 2: you get closer to that age. So say the portfolio
Speaker 2: right now for a target date fund for year fifty
Speaker 2: might be seventy percent really high risk. But as you
Speaker 2: age and you people do it, they do the stage
Speaker 2: everything you forget a managed fund, they wind down your risk. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they slowly change it and rebalance the portfolio to suit
Speaker 2: where you're at in your life stage. I think that's
Speaker 2: such an interesting way of investing, and like we don't
Speaker 2: have access to that in Australia, but I think for
Speaker 2: like Americans, that's so good because if you don't feel
Speaker 2: educated enough to make all of those decisions about your risk,
Speaker 2: well okay, what are they doing? What can I look
Speaker 2: out and think, okay, well let's do that. So when
Speaker 2: I was researching for the Messy Masks, I remember looking
Speaker 2: at thing that's such an interesting way to invest and
Speaker 2: I think in Australia we might see something.
Speaker 4: Like that in the future.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're coming, They're absolutely coming. They're coming, and I'm
Speaker 3: seeing a lot of people, like I'm still on all
Speaker 3: of the edms for all of the financial advice houses
Speaker 3: because like I haven't left them yet. They're definitely being
Speaker 3: looked into if we pivot a little bit. I feel
Speaker 3: like fire feels heavy, Like for me, I'm investing, but
Speaker 3: I definitely wouldn't subscribe to saying that I am a
Speaker 3: fire person. Like, yes, I want to retire early. Yes
Speaker 3: I want to have financial freedom, but like I also
Speaker 3: I probably love my lifestyle a little bit more than you.
Speaker 2: Like I'm happy to sacrifice eaves.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and like I'm kind of just in that.
Speaker 3: Like, honestly, before kids, Steve and I were very good
Speaker 3: at being a little bit more frugal and getting stuff done,
Speaker 3: and like I was very aggressive getting out of debt
Speaker 3: and whatnot, and now we're kind of in the I
Speaker 3: can't even breathe sometimes, Like life is really stressful, work
Speaker 3: is really stressful, and like it's okay, that's definitely not
Speaker 3: a complaint, Like what a bloody privilege to be stressed
Speaker 3: by something I created.
Speaker 4: Like that's good, there's no complaints.
Speaker 3: But like that does mean I am a little bit
Speaker 3: more convenient with my spending, Like I am probably spending
Speaker 3: more on ub eats than I would like to. But
Speaker 3: I'm telling you right now, like for me, in this
Speaker 3: the heart of my life, I'm so.
Speaker 4: Happy to do that.
Speaker 3: But I want to know, is there like a specific
Speaker 3: have it or an investing rule or something you've put
Speaker 3: on yourself that has made getting closer to fight easier
Speaker 3: without feeling like you're compromising your entire lifestyle.
Speaker 2: Well, because I pay myself weekly, my investments come out first.
Speaker 2: So every Friday, I pay myself a spending money. I
Speaker 2: have a spending account. Money goes into my investments come
Speaker 2: out of my pay account, so I never see it,
Speaker 2: I don't touch it, and I never change it. So
Speaker 2: at a minimum, every single week, six hundred fift dollars
Speaker 2: gets put in that account, and if I get paid
Speaker 2: a bit more, or my side hustle pays off a
Speaker 2: little bit more, I put a little bit extra in.
Speaker 2: But I never invest less than six hundred fifty dollars
Speaker 2: every week.
Speaker 4: And that's insane to me.
Speaker 2: It's crazy, I know, but I think it's because I
Speaker 2: started just investing that little extra bit. So like when
Speaker 2: I first started average investing, like I was investing twenty
Speaker 2: five dollars a week, and then when I got a
Speaker 2: better paying job, it was one hundred fifty dollars a week,
Speaker 2: and then it was two hundred five dollars. But I
Speaker 2: literally haven't changed my fixed expenses at all. And then
Speaker 2: I was lucky for a period of time. When I
Speaker 2: moved back to Perth, I wasn't paying rent, so I
Speaker 2: had that rental income, that rental income that I had
Speaker 2: thanks Steslie, I invested that rental income into the share market,
Speaker 2: so I was investing in extra two hudred fifty dollars
Speaker 2: a week. Now that I am paying rent again, obviously
Speaker 2: i'm investing less because I have to pay rent, but
Speaker 2: I had that little extra, So every time I can
Speaker 2: give myself a little bit of a boost because compound
Speaker 2: interest is and time in the market is going to
Speaker 2: make more difference in how much I'm investing over the
Speaker 2: long term. So the earlier I can get the money in,
Speaker 2: the better. So if I can sacrifice a little bit
Speaker 2: now in the future, I won't have to sacrifice as much.
Speaker 1: I like it.
Speaker 4: We're just girls. So on the flip side, what are
Speaker 4: you not willing to sacrifice?
Speaker 2: Travel? If you know me, I've been to like over
Speaker 2: forty countries. I think I'll get to like forty seven
Speaker 2: this year because I'm going to Europe for three months.
Speaker 2: God bless. But I always say for travel. Every week,
Speaker 2: I save like two dollars a week for travel. And
Speaker 2: it probably sounds like I save a lot of money
Speaker 2: and then spend a lot on weird things. But my
Speaker 2: value is travel. So people drink, I didn't drink, so
Speaker 2: that money goes into travel funds. I will always have
Speaker 2: money to travel and do fun things like that. But
Speaker 2: that means if I want to travel, I need to
Speaker 2: be savvy with it. So ipoints HAC. I just booked
Speaker 2: flights literally yesterday with points to go to Takanana.
Speaker 4: I'm excited about it.
Speaker 2: You didn't tell me literally only literally. Yesterday we're in Tasmania.
Speaker 2: We go to Hoba. But then Connor and I are
Speaker 2: doing just getting shine see Harriet. We could we're doing
Speaker 2: a road job. I've never been Tasy my state. I
Speaker 2: have to visit. So I we're going to do a
Speaker 2: road trip in like early late December.
Speaker 4: I am going to give you my laundry.
Speaker 2: But I want all the recommendation.
Speaker 3: I have all the good coffee spots, I have all
Speaker 3: the good restaurants need I want to have all the
Speaker 3: good hikes. There's a hike that I will specifically send
Speaker 3: you to on the East coast. That is just it's
Speaker 3: Wombat Central. That's just see the animals.
Speaker 2: I want a little square poop.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I won't ever sacrifice in trouble, but I'll just
Speaker 2: be savvy with it. I'll be using shot back, I'll
Speaker 2: be using like points. I'm making sure that I can
Speaker 2: still do the things I want to do, but just
Speaker 2: in a savvy way. I don't care about a faster hotel.
Speaker 2: I've got no no rules about that. I'll just make
Speaker 2: sure I can still live my life. But I'm not
Speaker 2: spending money on you because I don't value you.
Speaker 3: I feel like a lot of people are listening to
Speaker 3: this episode and they would absolutely love to retire early,
Speaker 3: like they would love this, but they're like, this is
Speaker 3: just not feasible for me. And that's fine because I
Speaker 3: think some of us are too far down our financial
Speaker 3: journeys and our financial commitments. Take step back, to take
Speaker 3: a step back, and that step back would be you know,
Speaker 3: someone might listen to this and be like, holy gulco Moly,
Speaker 3: I am so inspired by this. I'm going to change
Speaker 3: my entire mindset. But that's a lot to ask for,
Speaker 3: because you're not just changing the way you think about money,
Speaker 3: you're changing the way that you would act with it,
Speaker 3: how you would live the like decisions self sacrifice.
Speaker 2: Yes exactly.
Speaker 3: But as I said earlier, like fire does seem relatively
Speaker 3: extreme for a lot of people. What would be your
Speaker 3: investing advice to somebody who's maybe gotten a little bit
Speaker 3: further down that track of like, you know, let's pretend
Speaker 3: I don't invest and I go well Brook, Actually that
Speaker 3: sounds slay. I have a mortgage, I have a husband,
Speaker 3: I have a kid, Like I actually have these financial commitments.
Speaker 4: What's your advice?
Speaker 2: Where can you cut corners that isn't going to make
Speaker 2: a big difference. So, like you said, you like Uber eatsing,
Speaker 2: I really don't Uber eads because I could just walk there,
Speaker 2: or I could you know, or maybe I'm changing my
Speaker 2: shopping from shopping at will Worse every day to shopping
Speaker 2: at Aldi once a week, or just make those little
Speaker 2: sacrifices so that I could slowly increase my savings rate.
Speaker 2: What could you change your savings by one percent? Because
Speaker 2: that one percent you're saving.
Speaker 4: Now now do not make me look at my budget.
Speaker 2: Literally, But if you could save that an extra one
Speaker 2: percent or that extra five percent and invest that, that's
Speaker 2: really going to pay off. Like those small amounts. If
Speaker 2: you use a compound interest calculator and you change how
Speaker 2: much you're investing by five dollars or twenty dollars, so
Speaker 2: Sidney can massive term If you invest one hundred dollars
Speaker 2: from the ages of twenty to thirty and then stop
Speaker 2: investing at thirty and reach fifty, the person that starts
Speaker 2: investing at thirty and invests consistently from thirty to fifty
Speaker 2: will never catch up even though you stopped investing after
Speaker 2: ten years. Yeah, like I'll make it's real for our
Speaker 2: Instagram to explain that where this goes out, we will be.
Speaker 4: Like all of that stuff is already in our masterclass,
Speaker 4: that it is hundred nine and you.
Speaker 2: Just have to make tiny little sacrifices to increase your
Speaker 2: savings rate. What ways could you increase your savings rate?
Speaker 2: Are you calling your phone provided to say, hey, I
Speaker 2: currently pay ninety dollars a month for my phone? Could
Speaker 2: you get it down to forty? Because I got my
Speaker 2: phone deal down to thirty nine dollars a month, so
Speaker 2: that extra bit? Okay, great, I'm investing it every little
Speaker 2: cent that you can using roundups? What can yet, what
Speaker 2: little changes could you make to increase that savings right?
Speaker 2: Just a little bit. That's why I would tell.
Speaker 4: You agreed, Brooke, we have run out of time very quickly.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for coming back on the show
Speaker 3: and letting us be very pervy about your investing journey.
Speaker 2: You're welcome.
Speaker 4: I know this episode, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I feel like, yes, I can do so many educational episodes,
Speaker 3: but the best thing is to learn from example and
Speaker 3: see what other people are actually doing, so you can go, oh,
Speaker 3: that would work or that wouldn't work.
Speaker 2: As theory is theory, and I think.
Speaker 3: That this will shift a lot of perspectives, not just
Speaker 3: around fire, but more around what's actually possible when you
Speaker 3: start investing with intention. So thank you for coming on
Speaker 3: the show and very sorry we've run out of time. Okay, guys,
Speaker 3: if you have loved this chat, please make sure you
Speaker 3: hit subscribe so that you never missed an episode with us.
Speaker 3: And if you've got a friend who's been maybe flirting
Speaker 3: with the idea of investing or retiring early, please send.
Speaker 2: This their way.
Speaker 3: We love a group glow up. So that is all
Speaker 3: from us today, but we'll be back in your ears
Speaker 3: on Friday. See than guys, spy.
Speaker 5: The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
Speaker 5: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
Speaker 5: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
Speaker 5: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
Speaker 5: If you do choose to buy a financial product, read
Speaker 5: the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards
Speaker 5: your needs. Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are
Speaker 5: authorized representatives of Money.
Speaker 2: Shepper Pty Ltd.
Speaker 5: ABN three two one six four nine two seven seven
Speaker 5: zero eight AFSL four five one two eight nine