Welcome back to the Aussie Firebug Podcast, the financial independence podcast for Australians, where I interview interesting people on topics relating to financial independence. Today on the podcast we have Amy and her partner Matt from FI Freedom Retreats, a five-day financial independence retreat in Bali. This was a passion project born out of A…

Today we're joined by Ana Kresina, Head of Product and Community at Pearler and the Co-host of the 'Get Rich Slow Club' and 'ETFs for Beginners,' podcasts. She’s also just become a published author with the book “Kids Ain't Cheap”. Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are: Ana’s FIRE journey (00:03:37) Hitchhiking through Europe (00:07:09…

Today's episode is something a bit different. Terry, the host of the Wealth Time Freedom (WTF) podcast interviewed me a few months ago. The response was so positive from that episode that I decided to repost it on my show. In this episode, Terry asks me about becoming a dad, my recent pivot with work and my new perspective on FIRE. I found it to be…

Today, my guest is fellow FIRE enthusiast/podcaster/blogger, Captain FI! He’s actually been on the podcast before but I had to take that episode down due to ASIC’s 2022 guidelines. Cap came and stayed at the Firebug household after attending the Rask event in my hometown. It was a lot of fun meeting and greeting others from the FIRE community and i…

Today, my guest is none other than my accountant, Clayton! Clayton and I have talked about doing this podcast for a while. I pay him thousands of dollars each year to help with tax planning, structuring our investments and businesses and other strategic decisions that ultimately help me reach FIRE sooner. I thought it would be interesting to chat t…

I've been thinking about this post for the past 18 months, and to be honest, it's long overdue. So much has changed over the last 11 years since I first stumbled across FIRE. And if the podcast's feature image wasn't obvious enough, I recently became a father. So, now is the perfect time for a big update/recap on life at the Firebug household. www.…

Today my guest is Carl Jensen who is better known in the FIRE community as Mr. 1500. He’s a family guy living in Colorado with his wife and two young children and managed to retire at the ripe old age of 43. Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are: The story behind the name "Mr. 1500" (00:02:06) Investment philosophy and strategies (00:0…

Today’s episode is very special to me personally. I’m speaking with my dad about how he grew up and what money and life lessons he learnt along the way. He’s probably had the biggest impact on how I view the world (along with my mum) and set the foundations early on for me to be in the position I’m in today. Some of the topics we cover in today’s e…

I’m excited today to be having a conversation with Bryce Holdaway and Ben Kingsley who co-host the very popular podcast called The Property Couch. Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are: How Ben and Bryce originally made a connection (00:02:00) Property investing guidelines and regulations (00:12:37) Their investing strategy/philosophy …

My guest today is Dr Toni Lindsay. Toni is a clinical psychologist who works primarily with people who are at the end of their life or have a severe illness (usually young people!). In her own words: “My work has shaped how I think about all this FIRE stuff!”. Toni is also the author of multiple books but the one which probably has the most applica…

Following on from the previous episode, this is part 2 of the debate. There’s been a few potential Super changes put forth by the Albanese government lately and I wanted to get two different viewpoints on the podcast to debate the pros and cons of the changes. I also wanted to talk about Super as a high-level concept. What exactly is Super? What’s …

I’m so excited for this one today. There’s been a few potential Super changes put forth by the Albanese government lately and I wanted to get two different viewpoints on the podcast to debate the pros and cons of the changes. I also wanted to talk about Super as a high-level concept. What exactly is Super? What’s the purpose of Super? Is Super fulf…

Today my guest is Queenie Tan. She’s a 26-year-old Sydneysider who has amassed over 350K followers on various social media platforms. Raised by a single dad in Sydney, Queenie was earning $400 a week after she moved out of home at just 19. A few years later she was able to save a $100,000 property deposit and now at age 26, has a net worth of half …

My guest today is Brandon Ganch who is better known in the FIRE community as the Mad Fientist. Brandon is an ex-computer programmer turned blogger and podcaster who reached financial independence at the ripe old age of 34 with his wife Jill. It’s always a pleasure to speak with Brandon as one of my financial/investing heroes and someone who’s been …

Today my guest is Liz Thames who is better known as Mrs Frugalwoods. Liz is a mother of two who lives with her husband Nate on a 66-acre homestead in rural central Vermont USA. She’s the author of the popular FIRE book called “Meet the Frugalwoods: Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple Living”. Some of the topics we cover in today’s episo…

Today I’m talking with the Chair of the Australian Electric Vehicle Council, Tim Washington. Tim has also co-founded two companies - JET Charge, who specialise in supplying and installing EV Chargers and Charge Fox, Australia’s largest EV charging network. EVs have been a hot topic in the FIRE Facebook group lately and I’ve had a few episodes on EV…

Today I’m welcoming back property investor Scott O’Neill to the podcast. Scott and his wife are self-made multi-millionaires that created $300K in passive income by 28. Since Scott was last on the show, I received a fair amount of emails asking me to get him back to give a more practical guide on investing in commercial real estate. Some of the top…

Today my guest is city planner and urban designer Jeff Speck. Originally trained as an architect, Jeff is most famous within the FIRE community for his award-winning 2012 book: ‘Walkable City: How Downtown Saves America, One Step at a Time’. It’s amazing how such a small detail like walkability can touch on so many tenants within the FIRE ethos. Th…

Today I’m talking with financial educator and podcast host Kate Campbell. Kate grew up in country Victoria and joined the defence force as a teenager before changing careers to finance and investing later on. She’s probably best known in the FIRE community as a co-host for many of the very popular podcasts that Rask Australia produces. Some of the …

Today we welcome back Dave Gow who retired at the ripe old age of 28. He’s better known online as Strong Money Australia where he blogs about early retirement and how to live a happier life. It’s a really light-hearted chat today where we mainly talk about Dave’s new book which will be available on the 1st of December 2022 which is very exciting. B…

Today is a very special episode because if you had told me 10 years ago that I would be chatting to Steve McKnight on my own podcast, I would have never believed you. Steve is a professional investor, media commentator and online entrepreneur. But he’s probably most famous in the FIRE community for his book “From 0 to 130 Properties in 3.5 Years”. …

Today I’m talking with Brad Smith. Brad is an entrepreneur and former young Australian of the year for Tasmania who founded a motorcycle company Braaap in 2005 at the ripe old age of 18. Entrepreneurship is sometimes popularised as a quicker way to reach FIRE with the added benefit of doing something that you love. But it doesn’t always work out th…

Today I'm joined by my high schoolmate Luke. Luke and I attended FinFest and the Sydney FIRE meet-up over the weekend. I thought it would be fun to recap the event/meetup because we both had a blast. Some of the topics we cover in today's episode are: The FinFest event (02:51) The presentations on the day (08:05) Food truck lines (09:18) Bumping in…

Today I’m talking with Dr Cameron Murray. Cameron is a father of two currently living in Brisbane and holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Sydney. You may have seen Cameron in a collection of print media outlets and in TV programs such as Q&A on ABC. This is a big episode today because Cameron has such a breadth of knowledge across so ma…

Today my guest is a legend in the Australian personal finance space. Noel Whittaker has been educating Aussies in money management and investing for over 50 years. He’s probably most famous for his international bestselling book "Making Money Made Simple" which has sold over a million copies worldwide! Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode…

I have an interesting episode for you guys today and I think you’re really going to like it. My guest today is Scott O’Neill. Scott bought his first investment property in 2010 with a $60K deposit after saving for 5 years. Just 8 years later, Scott and his wife had 28 properties generating $300K of profit each year plus around $7Million of equity. …

Today I’m chatting with chemical engineer/home energy advisor Tim Forcey. He’s probably known best in the FIRE community for creating the extremely popular Facebook group, My Efficient Electric Home (MEEH) which currently has over 65,000 members. I’ve always said one of the most common traits in FIRE community is hyper efficiency of everything we s…

Today we’re talking about two popular career paths - starting out at one of the big four or going into a government role. The Big Four is the nickname used to refer collectively to the four largest professional services networks in the world. These include Deloitte, Ernst & Young (EY), KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Joining me in this disc…

Today we’re talking about succession planning with the one and only Terry Waugh. This is a pretty big topic but we’ll be focusing in on areas such as: What is succession planning and why should we care? (02:22) What are some of the available options for succession planning? (04:19) Wills (07:06) Testamentary trusts (13:31) Succession planning withi…

Have you ever been ripped off by a financial advisor? Today’s podcast is all about identifying the tactics financial advisors use that put their interests ahead of yours. Joining me in this discussion is Phil Harvey. He’s an independent financial advisor and one of the founding members of PIFA which stands for the Profession of Independent Financia…

My guest today is Matt Ridley, a British science writer, journalist and businessman who holds a PhD from Oxford in Biology. He’s worked for many famous publications such as The Economist, The Wall Street Journal and The Times (London). Matt is probably best known within the FIRE community for his award-winning book, The Rational Optimist, published…

In this episode we’re not talking about money or investing but rather touching on the sustainable side of the FIRE movement. Today my guest is Anthony Broese van Groenou, a sustainability expert, environmental scientist, PhD researcher and the co-founder of the Good Car Co. This company's goal is to accelerate the uptake of Electric Vehicles in Aus…

Today I’ve invited Terry Waugh back on podcast to talk about a topic that’s very popular in the Aussie FIRE community. I recently published an article about how we (Mrs Firebug & I) are Debt Recycling and have received a lot of questions from the community about the details of how it all works. Terry is one of the most knowledgeable people I know o…

This episode is a follow up on my previous conversation with Vijay Boyapati about Bitcoin. Today Mark Monfort joins me to talk about other Crypto currencies, Web3 and DeFi. Mark has worn many hats in his career working as an equities and macroeconomic analyst in Melbourne and London and also spent time in sales at the ASX. Mark is a TradFi native t…

Today I have Bill Perkins on the podcast who is the author of the very popular book titled “Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life.” The book challenges a few core FIRE beliefs and has definitely had an impact on the way I’m modelling for my retirement. Some of the topics we cover are: Who is Bill Perkins and what is he al…

Today’s episode is a summary of my blog post titled “ASIC Crush Independent Content Creators & the End of Ask Firebug Fridays”. The new ASIC guidelines have major implications for content creators in the FIRE and personal finance communities. This is why I wanted to share my thoughts and opinions on these new guidelines and what they mean for AFB m…

I have a really fun podcast for you guys today. It’s been 5 years since she was on, but I’ve finally managed to get Mrs Firebug back on the podcast. Sometimes it’s nice just to stop, turn around and look back at how far you’ve come. I thought it would be cool to get a life update from her perspective and just a general chit chat about her experienc…

Today’s episode is a summary of my “We Bought Bitcoin” article which is all about why we have decided to buy Bitcoin and how Bitcoin plays a part in our financial independence strategy. Some of the topics I cover are: Post-crash and General Feelings (04:51) Down the Rabbit Hole (06:46) Risk Verse Reward (10:03) End Goal (12:22) But Why? (14:00) Con…

My guest today is John Pidgeon. John is probably known best as the co-host of the very popular podcast, ‘My Millennial Property’ and has been investing in real estate for over 20 years. I had so much fun with this episode because John and I bounce around all different topics and we even get some footy chit chat in there as well. Some of the topics …

Today I’m chatting with Terry & Ryan from the Passive Income Project podcast. I’ve been listening to their show for a few years now and what I really like is their emphasis on the psychology of investing and money. They’ve recently gone deep into the world of crypto in their latest podcast series called “Decoding Crypto”. Some of the topics we cove…

My special guest today is one of the very first personal finance bloggers that I can remember. It’s J. MONEY from the 2012 Blogger of the Year awards “Budget Are Sexy”. J. managed to become a millionaire in roughly 10 years and has blogged throughout the journey posting his net worth each month which definitely inspired me to start something simila…

My guest today is Scott Phillips - a Sydney based investor with over 20 years experience. Scott holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Graduate Diploma of Accounting but is most famous for his role as Chief Investment Officer of The Motley Fool Australia. This is a monster episode where we dive deep into many different areas of investing. Some of the t…

I’m kicking off the new year with a little refresher and a summary of a new article called “10 Lessons I've Learned from 10 Years Pursuing Financial Independence”. Check it out! 1. The ultimate goal is to be happy. Never lose sight of this (03:50) 2. Find your why of FI (07:18) 3. Master behaviours, not spreadsheets (08:43) 4. Getting wealthy is si…

Have you ever wondered how far your donations to charities really go? I know it feels good to donate and we should all consider giving away part of our wealth considering we Aussies are some of the wealthiest people on the planet, but I’m not sure many of us really go over with a fine-tooth and comb how the money is spent and how many people are af…

Today I’m speaking with Julia Druery, a mum of two, living on the Gold Coast who was studying to become a financial advisor before a tragic event hit her family back in 2016. Julia’s husband Kent suffered from an acquired brain injury which left him with several permanent disabilities and no longer able to work. Thankfully Kent had various insuranc…

My guest today is fellow Aussie, Vijay Boyapati who is an Ex-Google engineer and the author of The Bullish Case for Bitcoin. Vijay’s book has been translated into over twenty different languages and is said to be one of the most read pieces of literature on Bitcoin. This is a monster episode and we go deep into so much more than just Bitcoin and th…

Today I’m speaking with Chi Lam, an ex team-lead in the medical devices industry who lives in Sydney with his wife and 2 daughters. Chi was recently featured in an ABC Everyday article where he shared his story about how he quit his full-time job in his mid-thirties and redesigned his life so he could spend more time with his family. Some of the to…

It’s my absolute pleasure to welcome Ruth onto the show today. Ruth lives in New Zealand and is better known online as The Happy Saver. She has a very popular podcast and blog where she writes about managing money, living the good life and not working too hard. Some of the topics in today’s episode include: Who is Ruth and why did she create The Ha…

Today I’m speaking with Terry Waugh who you may know as Terry W from his online legal and tax tips. Terry is admitted as both a solicitor and barrister to the Supreme Court of NSW as well as the High Court of Australia and holds specialist qualifications as a Chartered Tax Adviser. He operates as a lawyer specialising in tax, estate planning, asset…

Today I’m speaking with Paul Benson from the Financial Autonomy podcast. Paul is a tertiary-educated financial planner with over 20 years of experience. We talk about the role of a financial planner and Paul gives us some real-life examples of how financial planners are able to assist us with our FIRE journeys. Some of the topics in today’s episode…