Nov 21 Update: $1,739,144.23 (+$33,236)

November seemed to fly by, I feel like I blinked and now here we are, Mariah Careys’ All I want for Christmas is playing in seemingly every store again. November was a very chill month for me, I feel like I did a lot of ‘vegetating’ and ‘hanging out’ but I also finally checked out a few cool things in Adelaide like the Barossa Valley Wineries when a friend visited from interstate, as well as a bunch of other touristy shit that you don’t really ever get around to doing in your home town until someone from interstate visits.

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Monthly Question from the Captain;

Do you cellar wine? I’ve always heard of it as an ‘alternative investment class’ but all my previous attempts have always ended up…. well… getting drunk.

CaptainFI Total Net Worth

CaptainFI net worth
CaptainFI Net Worth chart

CaptainFI Financial progression

CaptainFI networth progress
CaptainFI Net Worth Graph

CaptainFI personal update: Early Retirement?

Like I said in the intro, its been a pretty chill month. I did a lot of relaxing and even got out of the house a bit, enjoying the whole ‘Early Retirement’ thing. I did a few hours of work on the websites this month, as well as doing the twice weekly website training with Matt and Liz (although I did miss one week – oops!). My friend came over to visit from Sydney for two weeks which was lovely, and we went out and did quite a lot of touristy stuff around Adelaide (which its sometimes easy to forget about when you live here). Adelaide is basically a paradise for people looking for lifestyle design – away from the ridiculous prices and horrid hustle and bustle of places like Melbourne and Sydney, with all of the space, recreation, food and drink you could want.

For example the Adelaide Hills is home to some of the most spectacular views, quaint little towns like Handorf, amazing restaurants, wineries, orchards, dairies, chocolate factories, distilleries and pubs. There are multiple wildlife sanctuaries and a heap of weird and wonderful quirky attractions. We only scratched the surface going to a few, and then further north you have the iconic and globally recognised and awarded Barossa Valley wine region.

Kies winery Barossa valley south australia
Kies Winery in the Barossa, South Australia

Growing up, my grandparents had a huge rural property up in the Barossa (which my grandfather rehabilitated to native scrub and got listed as a heritage site), but because I left Adelaide to study and work interstate as a teenager, I had never really been back (to their property, or to do a wine tour). Unfortunately my grandparents are long since passed away, and the property has been sold, but it was lovely to visit again. I thoroughly enjoyed the wineries, and I even tried some Grange (Penfolds signature wine)….

penfolds grange tasting
Tasting a $950 a bottle 2018 Penfolds Grange

A bit different to the $3 Aldi precious earth Shiraz I was used to on my journey to FI, but if I am honest, for the price of the Grange, I much prefer a Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon – especially when nice vintages RRP for under $15 per bottle. Wynns or Riddoch Coonawarra both produce exceptional wines, and without a classical education in wine snobbery, I think these are easily some of the best wines in the world. Which isn’t to say I did not enjoy the Barossa wines – they were exceptional, I just figure my taste is better suited to cooler climate reds.

I visited an urban permaculture farm where I learned about poultry and grafting citrus, below is me getting a demonstration on how to graft a Nagami Kumquat (an exceptional eating fruit – the peel is sweet like candy, and the flesh is tangy and sour like a warhead) onto a standard flying dragon rootstock. We did two different styles of grafts, and I hope they both take.

grafting citrus cutting
Grafting Nagami Kumquat onto flying dragon rootstock
permaculture ducks
Holding one of the ducks used in the urban permaculture farm

I also got another lesson in Beekeeping, with my apiarist instructor coming over for lunch and to do a guided inspection of my hive. The girls are going well, and we got a little taste of honey which was wonderful. We couldn’t find the queen this time, but there was plenty of brood, uncapped eggs, and capped and uncapped honey which was very promising. He told me off for feeding them sugar out of a bowl (this can attract robber bees and cause fungal / viral / parasite infections to spread) so he gave me a feeder which slots into the beehive. I am noticing a huge increase in productivity from my balcony terrace food garden (masses of cherry tomato, cucumbers and zucchini currently) and come February we should be able to take about 10kg of honey (about $150 worth) out of the hive. A good strong hive should be able to make 40kg of honey per year ($600 worth) which is a pretty awesome return for a $300 outlay for a beehive! Plus you get wax to play around with (I plan to make wax wraps and some candles to use and gift). Beekeeping has been really great for my anxiety and stress levels, it is quite therapeutic to play with them or watch them fly about and I consider it like having 30,000 mini flying pet dogs.

beekeeping brood hive
Inspecting some nicely packed brood from the brood box (lower chamber of the hive) to try and find the Queen. Was unsuccessful

I went kayaking to look for dolphins in the Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary which was fun, with my friend in his Inflatable Kayak. It was pretty good, I am considering buying one because of the convenience aspect and the price is pretty good, however it is somewhat unnecessary purchase and is a lot of plastic of dubious recyclability. We didn’t see any dolphins however as it was low tide we saw a heap of Stingrays, oysters and fish.

dolphin sanctuary kayaking
Dolphin spotting in the Adelaide Dolphin sanctuary in the Intex Challenger inflatable kayak

For anyone interested, this is the link to Amazon for this exact kayak.

INTEX Challenger Inflatable Kayak Series: Includes Deluxe 86in Kayak Paddles and High-Output Pump – SuperStrong PVC – Adjustable Seat with Backrest – Removable Skeg – Cargo Storage Net
  • INFLATABLE KAYAK: The Intex Challenger K2 2-person inflatable kayak has a 350 pound capacity making it great for boating or fishing with friends. The kayak only weights 40 pounds and is U.S. Coast Guard I.D and TUV approved
  • COMFORTABLE: Comfortable and spacious cockpit with inflatable seats and backrests and a cargo net to keep personal belongings in the boat; Streamline design for easy paddling and removable skeg for directional stability
  • FEATURES: Inflatable I beam floor for comfort and rigidity, streamline design for easy paddling, grab lines on both ends, and made of rugged tough 30 gauge vinyl for durability; Noticeable graphics give a sporty flair and maximize safety on the water
  • KAYAK DESIGN: Strong molecular structure of this plastic makes it highly resistant to damage from abrasion, impact and sunlight with special PVC plastic material also allows more air pressure for greater rigidity while maintaining the PVC material's natural flexibility
  • INCLUDES: The easy to store and carry package includes the Challenger K2 kayak, 2 86-inch aluminum oars, High capacity/output hand pump with 2 quick fill, fast deflate Boston valves on main hull chamber, repair patch kit and carry bag; Kayak dimensions (LxWxH): 138 x 30 x 15 inches

Angel and I also went along to the Feast picnic in the park at Pinky Flat with some of the folks from my apartment complex. We literally sat on a picnic rug eating all day, the weather was perfect and couldn’t think of a better thing than a late spring picnic. There was some people dressed in how do I say this without offending anyone… provocative outfits. Angel was *NOT* a fan of the couple dressed as ‘Furries’ and she may have had a little growl and a bark haha (if you don’t know what a furry is go ahead and google it but don’t say I didn’t warn you!).

Feast picnic adelaide

I did a fun interview with Jesse the MoneyPal which was interesting for me because I am usually on the other side of the microphone. It was great to be able to spread the message of simple investing, living below your means and reaching FI. I consider myself a painfully average investor, and somewhat good with how I spend my money – by broadening my ‘wealth gap’ (the difference between how much you earn and how much you invest) I was able to reach FI before 30. It does give my old ego a boost sometimes to think that some people find this insane or that I am some kind of guru – but the truth is I am just an average guy who discovered the Mr Money Mustache blog and set about recreating it – I didn’t have any crazy high incomes or anything but just was pretty good with saving money and when I figured out what to do with it, plus make an awesome side hustle with websites, it was only ever going to end one way. Jesse and I talked a bit about my background and how I got into investing, and some of the biggest take-aways for people wanting to do the same.

I’ve been enjoying gardening on my balcony terrace, and have got quite a decent little garden growing now with a few hundred small plants, its a lovely green space to unwind and relax, as well as a great way to get fresh produce right on my balcony!

I also finally got to see a pain specialist which was awesome, and am working through a plan with the doctor, physio, psychologist and EP to get back on track. I’ve ditched all the meds now except the painkillers (on ‘as needed’ basis) and cut back on my alcohol (although the Barossa trip and having interstate friends visit was NOT kind to my liver) to focus on my health.

So the biggest take-away here was I didn’t really do much at all this month, just focused on family, friends, health and recreation, and the investments and business all continued to do their thing for me. There was a slight correction in shares but I barely noticed (only actually found out when I wrote this update).

I didn’t get around to buying any Lithium ETFs yet, but it is still on the radar for the next few months, as well as an investment into a *dum dum duuuuummm* actively managed financial advisor fund (shock horror, I know!). I will explain more in due course.

For more information on how I am planning for Early Retirement you can read my dedicated transition to retirement financial planning process article. Although to be honest, with the success of the website portfolio, I may need to revisit this as it looks like I wont even need to dip into the investments at all, and I might be able to use these to buy a big block of land in the Adelaide Hills and start my farm rather than continuing to rent an apartment.

Captain FI Investments

My investments are split between nine investment ‘areas’. I decided to start reporting on the progression and performance of each of my investments separately so we can find the best way to Financial Independence once and for all.

  • ‘FIRE’ Portfolio (Global, US and AUS Index fund ETFs)
  • Hands-free Automated Investing (Roboadvisors)
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Microinvesting (multiple platforms, including Stock picking)
  • Real Estate (investment property)
  • Peer to Peer lending
  • Website Portfolio (Online businesses)
  • Angel Investing (Pearler)
  • Precious Metals (Gold and Silver)

‘FIRE’ Portfolio (Exchange Traded Index Funds)

My Financial Independence ETF Portfolio is a simple, low-fee passive portfolio which is split between three index tracking Exchanged Traded Index Funds (ETFs):

  • The Financial Independence Portfolio aims to hold an equal weight mix of A200VTS and VEU.
  • I now have this portfolio fully automated through Pearler which has been a huge gamechanger for me and a massive weight off my mind
  • I track my share portfolio using Sharesight, which means my accounting is also completely hands free using the Pearler API plugin.
  • This means I pretty much only need to log in to confirm all the trades and dividends over the year when needed for my tax return, however I also choose to log in each month to produce these monthly updates for you guys.
  • I have had questions about the tax efficiency of VTS and VEU due to the double tax or withholding tax drag because they are US domiciled funds. This is something I will be looking into. My limited understanding at the moment is that this tax drag creates an ‘effective MER’ of closer to 0.5% which might mean there may be a lower cost alternative that is better than these ETFs – something I will be investigating.

Sharesight monthly update

A bit of a small correction and then a recovery over this past month, with Aussie shares finishing in the red and dragging the portfolio down by a thirty basis points. Not much to worry about. Pretty cool to see the US equities raging ahead, although I think this will be correlated to high inflation in the US due to the money printing, so the gains aren’t really as good as they look (inflation will hit us here in Aus too, and I’m already seeing it with my property build prices increasing).

sharesight invest captainfi november
Portfolio performance – This Graph is generated by Sharesight

Sharesight rolling 12-month performance

A very nice looking rolling 12 month performance again, slowly getting back closer to an average long term healthy figure, with a predictable split of capital growth and dividends. Nice to see almost an average of $1000 per month in dividends alone (enough to cover the rent, or mortgage on a reasonable apartment or rural home).

sharesight invest captainfi
Rolling 12 month FI Portfolio performance – This Graph is generated by Sharesight

Sharesight since inception

Nice total returns, great so see the ‘hockeystick’ shape coming in here and looking forward to seeing 2022’s returns added in another 12 months time to my sharesight reporting. I wonder where the portfolio will get to by then – hoping I can crack the half a mill in index funds! (although, I am looking to buy the farm in the next few years so this may mean sacrificing some of the portfolio…)

sharesight captainfi
Rolling Index Portfolio performance – This Graph is generated by Sharesight

Portfolio vs Target – Pearler chart

I am still heavy on Australian shares through the A200 fund because early on in the journey I was chasing the franked dividend yields for a baseline level of stable, tax effective income for Financial Independence. I am now working to balance this home bias concentration risk by an automated purchasing of VTS and VEU through Pearler, using income from my website portfolio and dividends. I don’t really want to sell A200 to rebalance (although in hindsight, if I had of done this earlier I would be in a much better position due to the growth of VTS).

I have also made a $10,000 ‘Angel Investment’ into Pearler. This is a private equity investment into the actual brokerage tech company itself. This should hopefully go up as the company gets larger and has higher valuations. Up to you whether you consider this a conflict of interest.

Hands-free Automated Investing Portfolio

The Hands-free Automated Investing Portfolio is a combination of the two largest Online investment advisors in Australia – Stockspot and SixPark. I think they are both pretty damn good, I have been fortunate enough to meet and interview the CEO’s of both companies and I don’t say this lightly but I 100% trust both of them

So, the difficult decision – which one did I go with? Well I couldn’t fault management, and both companies provide a fantastic user experience. To stay accountable and provide insights for the blog, I wanted to hedge my bets with an investment in both. This way I can analyse the performance of each against one another – comparing the results of asset allocation, and Chris Brycki’s choice to diversify with gold, against Pat Garratts’ choice to diversify with property and infrastructure.

I plan to continue to invest chunks into these investment companies when it becomes available, in addition to my regular ETF investments and investments into to the other portfolios and asset classes (including some speculative plays here and there).

Stockspot

After a successful trial with the Stockspot roboadvisor platform where they allocated me the Topaz portfolio (which is their most aggressive portfolio), I have increased the balance to $15K. One thing I would like to see is a total annualised return feature (which may already be available and I haven’t just figured out where it is yet) because it will make a comparison with other investments a bit easier.

If you want to learn more about Stockspot, check out the dedicated review I did on Stockspot – which I will be keeping updated with all the lessons from my personal use trial. I am trying to get the Stockspot podcast out this week too, which will be great to have live.

SixPark

The Six Park online investment is going well too, this month again showing a few higher percent returns than Stockspot. My guess is that SixPark might outperform Stockspot in terms of total amount, but SixPark may have higher volatility. But again, no one has a crystal ball, and this is why I decided to split my eggs into these two baskets to diversify and see how the experiment plays out.

SixPark investment captainfi

Cryptocurrency Portfolio

I purchased about another $200 of Bitcoin through coinspot, there has been a correction but as the graph shows it is still growing nicely from the start. I would like to see an ‘annualised return’ function on the crypto so will likely be linking this to Sharesight soon (because the native graph in Coinspot only shows total accumulation and doesn’t factor in that you have kept adding money along the way).

I also made my first (small) purchase using Bitcoins! Although the Sat’s consumed in the transaction was about AUD $25 made it an expensive way to buy anything, so I won’t be doing that again.

I did a podcast episode on Bitcoin with Stephan Livera if you are interested to learn more about it, and also recently did an interview with Andrew Fenton from the CoinTelegraph where we talked a lot about crypto and its application on the Financial Independence Journey. The Aussie Firebug has just released a great episode with Vijay Boyapati (Author of the Bullish Case for Bitcoin) which is well worth listening to – https://www.aussiefirebug.com/vijay-boyapati/

Micro-investing Portfolio

I have been playing with a few of the biggest microinvesting platforms mainly just as research for the blog, because I want to see how they all stack up against each other, and against the other portfolio’s in terms of % gains. It is really starting to add up – definitely because of the Tesla stock held in Stake which is now up nearly 80% (Gee with hindsight I wish I bought more!)

I will soon be adding Commsec pocket to the mix – so let me know which of the 7 ETFs you’d like me to try for my commsec pocket account and we will start tracking the performance of this on the blog. I’m keen to maybe try one of the niche ETFs outside of what I currently have.

microinvesting captainfi
CaptainFI Microinvesting portfolio. This graph generated by Microsoft Excel

Stake Invest

I just decided to go all in on Tesla (Elon Musk’s electric car company) through Stake. Its interesting as this is on the US stock market, so the currency fluctuation affects the value of the investment in Australian dollars, so its kind of a fun way to learn about currency risk and hedging. Tesla is now something like the worlds sixth biggest company and it looks like there may still be room for growth. I am glad I own a huge chunk of it with my VTS index fund through Pearler.

Stake invest
This table generated by Stake

Raiz Invest

Raiz aggressive portfolio – good split of ETFs, and a cheap option for small-ish balances at only $3.50 per month. To be honest the fee’s are more than my investment return, but the round ups from spending and the occasional affiliate click sign up bonus usually more than covers any fees, making it a weird pseudo-investment-pseudo-savings kind of account for me. I’m going to keep going, and once I reach about $1000, I think the investment returns should start to cover any fee’s and it will grow quicker. I like Raiz as a way for people to ‘get their foot in the door’ with investing.

Raiz invest
This graph generated by Raiz

Superhero Trading

I didn’t do any trading on Superhero this month, just let the ETFs do their thing. I want to check out some lithium ETFs on superhero over the next few months, currently thinking ACDC or something like that. I bought the Gold and Silver ETFs on Superhero, and whilst the gold went up, the silver has gone down.

Superhero review

Spaceship Voyager Invest

Spaceship Origin portfolio: Top 100 Global Blue chip ETF. This seems to be going alright but If I am honest, for a speculative punt I should have probably gone for the Universe portfolio which seems to be growing faster (but it is volatile) – I am hoping the origin portfolio might be more stable. Latest screenshot below after the recent dip showing annualised performance of 15%.

Spaceship review
This graph generated by Spaceship Voyager

Plenti P2P lending

Plenti Peer to Peer lending account. I have been thinking for a while if I should even be bothering with this, given interest rates on the platform are like 1.5% or something miserable. I have turned off my auto re-loan function, and when all of the money on loan is repaid into the holding account, I am going to pull it out and invest it instead. I used to like keeping a grand in here as I felt like I was at least getting a bit better interest rate than the bank, but honestly its so close to zero I feel like its not worth the inconvenience of not having instant access to it anymore.

Investment property

OK we have progress – the building is enclosed! This means we have four walls, a roof, windows and doors. However at what cost… 😂

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are three….

investment property build
Window frame with poor construction, marks and gaps.
investment property build
Cracked weatherboard and gutter that is angled in towards the house
investment property build
What do I even say about this. My nine year old nephew could probably do it better

All I can say is that I am very glad we spent an extra thousand dollars on an independent third party building inspector to check the builders progress. When I showed this to tradie friends of mine (builders) they first said “Looks like it was built by a blind person”, and then “A kid could probably do better than this” and then finished up with a much more realistic “It looks like they have let the apprentice have a go unsupervised and then thought they could sneak it past a payment milestone – ask to see their qualifications and check the sign in log to see who was on site”.

Its incredibly stressful, especially when I have now sunk just shy of $110K of cash into this build, as well as having a mortgage for $370K. I am grateful that we have a project manager and that my friend is taking the lead in chasing her up for any discrepancies. I don’t think I would be able to do this on my own, and don’t think I will ever do this sort of thing again.

Anyway, the builders and brokers say this is all normal and “it wouldn’t pass through handover inspections anyway” but the fact that we found it highlights the defect and we have possibly saved a huge amount of time given if progress continued and it effectively got ‘built over’ then it would take longer to unbuild that to rectify it. And since we are already horrendously behind schedule as it is, even a week or so saving is welcome news.

Rolling lessons learned:

It has taken a long time to get to this point, and boy have we made some embarrassing mistakes. Rolling lessons learned include but are not limited to…

  • Thinking we could save money by NOT using an architect on a house and land package we bought from a developer *WITHOUT DA* from council
  • Falling for the oldest trick in the book re: portable fencing hire (the fencing hire company stole the fences back and then tried to charge us for having them stolen)
  • Endless delays by not having DA and needing to relodge with council three times meant we were one of the last blocks to be built on, and hence became the neighbourhood ‘free rubbish dumping ground’ which we then had to pay to get the rubbish removed and pay tip fees for (A big fuck you to any dodgy builders reading this who have ever engaged in this practice)
  • Because we were the last to build, the ‘new neighbours’ objected to our build being two story due to shadowing – and we were forced to build single story instead.
  • COVID-19 delays and supply restrictions and union activity meant the builder essentially got a free pass to break contract schedule, putting us back by an extra six months with no penalty, compensation or damages payable – this further took money away from the ‘bottom line’ and made the build less profitable (may have just been better to stick money into index funds)
  • Lots of small (but not insignificant) expenses such as council fees, independent inspection fees and rates (even though the house isn’t build apparently you still have to pay rates…) add up to significant amounts over the project lifetime. Y
  • Independent inspections and checks are worth their weight in gold. I am talking design and plan reviews, soil tests, site inspections, construction and building inspections etc. Do not cheap out or try to skip these – they are very cheap insurance and great piece of mind and give you (legal) leverage over the builder, especially if someone is trying to pull the wool over your eyes.

I have not changed any of the valuations, still going off the banks final completed estimation of $560K, and with the mortgage the way it is at $370K leaves me with about $190K of equity in the build, meaning we currently make just under $70k of ‘manufactured equity’ with an investment of $120K over two and a bit years (not all of the cash was required upfront). This is an approximate projected annualised return of about 15%. This will come in handy after completion and tenancy as I will likely be able to access some of this equity during a refinance towards buying the dream farm in the Adelaide Hills. Not sure how refinancing is going to go given I am not flying anymore (but hopefully may be able to finance based off website income). When the build is finished and tenanted I will do a full article explaining everything and try to calculate the total costs and profit.

Online Business (websites)

The websites have kept doing their thing in the background, which is awesome. I am working with some awesome outsourcers now and the systems that I set up are all working great. I have a new writer starting soon, and plans to recruit a few more so I can increase the amount of content getting out across the portfolio. I only worked a few hours on the websites this month, but I did attend most of the scheduled website training (I may have miss one or two when I was off gallivanting about the wineries in the Barossa haha!)

With the Google core algorithm updates I saw a dip in traffic for some sites (this included) but on other sites over a 50% increase in traffic (and corresponding increase in adsense and affiliate revenue!). This is just Google testing the waters I think and its good as it basically serves to improve the user experience – at the end of the day Google is all about connecting people to the information they want, so the updates are always welcome in my books. Because it helps us get the feedback to improve our sites.

In terms of profit, the overall drop in traffic did correlate to a drop in revenue, and with an increased expenditure on outsourcers and content, the bottom line was squeezed a bit compared to previous months but I am still pretty blown away by being able to produce five figures every month! I have set an ambitious goal by the end of 2022 to get the profits into six figures per month, and am really excited to watch it scale. I have build the framework and the system, and all I need to do is add more fuel and it should really take off.

Its got me super excited because the prospect of generating so much revenue puts my dream property within easy reach mortgage free, and I can begin creating my charity and planting out my acres of food forest much earlier than I would have otherwise.

I have done a pretty comprehensive review of the eBusiness institute as well as interviewed Matt and Liz Raad about this on the podcast about online business and websites if you want to learn more about this lucrative side hustle. They provide a free introductory course for CaptainFI readers. I have also recently interviewed Liz Raad again on the pod about entrepreneurship, which is live now.

Angel Investing

Currently I have made an ‘Angel Investment’ in the Financial Independence brokerage company Pearler. This was the maximum allowable private investment of $10,000 (AUD) made in July 2021 with the number of ‘private equity’ shares based on their June company valuation.

This helps to fund Pearler’s capital investment pool and lets them grow and build their business – which is great for me since I have nearly $400K invested through them and I trust them to automate my investing for me.

As Pearler grows and builds its revenue, it will get an increasingly higher company valuation and my private equity will grow accordingly (i.e. it is not a free $10,000 loan, it is a $10,000 investment where I am buying a slice of the company).

Whilst this doesn’t align with my general investing philosophy of index investing and diversification, I feel I have a unique insight into Pearlers organisational and company structure and build a great rapport and trust with their executives, and I believe in this company and its genuine intentions to help people reach financial independence.

Also realise that while $10,000 does sound like a lot of money, but this is a small overall percentage of my total investments so my personal risk is actually quite low, and I would not encourage anyone to go out and make $10,000 Angel investments into tech startups. It is generally quite high risk (high risk = high reward). Make sure you don’t compare your financial ‘race’ with others (just think of it like a time trial where you are only competing with yourself).

The valuation of Pearler has gone up which is good, although I am not really sure what that means for my investment, I guess it has gone up, but I haven’t been told anything ‘official’ from Pearler yet.

Precious Metals

Gold has gone up by about 4% and silver has gone down by a few percent. Kinda wishing I had put this into Tesla stock instead! LOL. But this will be a long term play, so we will see how it goes!

As I said last month I have plans to get some lithium stocks because of the relation to Electric vehicle batteries and with all the greenwashing thats currently going on (ESG and ethical investing) I figure its worth a punt. It looks like I will be getting ACDC unless anyone can suggest a better one to go with for me to research.

Cash / emergency fund

Down to holding about $4k in cash in my personal name. The cash flow from the business is making me feel much more secure and not need to carry heaps of cash, and I am keeping about $5K in cash in the business account which I could pay out to myself if needed. I don’t include the business cash as my own personal money (because its not – it belongs to the business entity and to get it I would need to pay myself a dividend and pay tax on that money). But I just wanted to explain why it might look like I am keeping a dangerously low amount of coin at the moment given I am stepping away from work.

Captain FI net worth progression

The net worth progression graph is rather crudely constructed in Excel, but still demonstrates the ‘somewhat exponential’ journey over the past 13 years. You can access the archives for my Net Worth updates here to see how its gone over time.

Again I feel incredibly privileged that this started from ZERO, rather than from a negative. Unfortunately, a lot of people need to overcome a negative net worth whether that is due to student loans for their education or perhaps poor decisions with credit cards etc. This is a huge testament to how amazing my mum is and all of the sacrifices she made to support our family and prioritise our education, which allowed me to achieve so well during my final years of high school and ultimately score a scholarship at university (I got paid to study!).

CaptainFI Net Worth Graph
DateNet worthDifferenceSaving RateNotes
Jan 09$5,000.00 ?Estimate NW based on historical Super, Bank statements and assets at the timeLINK
Jan 10$24,000+$19,000?Estimate NW LINK
Jan 11$40,000+$16,000?Estimate NW LINK
Jan 12$92,000+$50,000?Estimate NW LINK
Jan 13$130,000.00+$38,000?Estimate NWLINK
Jan 14$161,000.00
 
+$31,000?Estimate NW LINK
Jan 15$200,000.00+$39,000?Estimate NWLINK
Jan 16$281,000.00+$81,000?Estimate NWLINK
Jan 17$340,000.00+$59,000?Estimate NW LINK
Jan 18$482,000.00+$142,000?Estimate NWLINK
Jan 19 $542,000.00+$60,000?Estimate NWLINK
Jul 19  $578,900.00 +$36,90084%Finally began tracking NW this like a proper adult.
Aug 19 $560,100.00 -$18,800.00 (-3.2%) 78%Share market slight correction, Ok savings.
Sep 19 $584,744.88  $24,644.88 72%Share market rebound, savings rate not so good.LINK
Oct 19 $600,386.00 $15,641.12 84%Good saving this month. Normal salary, plus allowances,  dividends from index funds, tax refund, eBay selling and was working abroad in asia where things are cheap.LINK
Nov 19 $612,917.21  $12,531.21 76%Falling short of my savings goal of 80%. Mostly domestic legs this month with higher costs. Also invested in hydroponics.LINK
Dec 19 $625,350.00  $12,432.79 76%Good savings of cash (for development) and investment, however higher spending due to Christmas period (Travel and Gifting).LINK
Jan 20  $865,212.00  $239,862.00 55%Super settlement was a HUGE boost to NW. $9K growth from stock market. Expensive month lots with lots of unexpected bills – weddings, travel, Booking flights, fines etc.LINK
Feb 20$851,802.0-$16,592 (-1.9%)52%Large increase in spending on myself this month, still managed to tuck away $5K to put into shares and property. Corona Virus market scare resulted in a correction and gave NW a small negative trend. Time in the market not Timing the market! Became Single again. LINK
Mar 20$819, 354.6-$31,806.95 (-3.7%)80%Another small step backwards in the NW due to the ‘corona crash’ in full swing. FIRE Portfolio of ETF/LICs down about 15% this month, however due to high savings rate and structure of my superannuation annuity the NW is only down 3.7%. Savings rate good at 80%, higher than usual income (with some slightly higher spending, too). Picking up shares on discount – this is the best outcome for someone in the accumulation phase with good income! LINK
Apr 20$847,023+$27,66885%$11,000 in rebound of stock market capital prices alone (up 6%), plus first quarter dividends paid (heavily reduced due to banks withholding dividends). Great savings rate due to COVID-19 lock-down = no spend. Increased entrepreneurial efforts and selling down of physical possessions provided side hustle income. Two standard paychecks from flying activity; domestic day trips only so no allowances. All cash unfortunately had to go into the property development due to contract timing, I am chomping at the bit to buy some more index funds before they go back up in price too much – hence why I am selling most of my toys! LINK
May 20$857,859+$10,83692%Some Great sales as I let go of my Super Sport Motorcycle, Some gym gear, expensive flying equipment and a few other various bits and bobs and invested this money. Flying still reduced, but increasing from April. The share market grew as I continued to make my fortnightly investments. I also wrote down the ‘value’ of some of my possessions (liabilities) such as my car, tools and furniture by around $10K to align them to market price (“tell him hes dreaming…!”). LINK
June 20 $858,650 +$79190%Small Net Worth gain as I continue to declutter and simplify my life, despite being off work due to a family emergency. Share market not doing much.LINK
July 20$888,218+$29,56868%Majority gain due to share market going back up, low spending due to being on the family farm and at home because of lock down.LINK
Aug 20$1,029,293+$141,07574%Became a millionaire. Achieved this massive milestone I set out for myself in Dec 2019. Included unrealised gains in my property development as well as website business. Good savings rate due to not much spending, invested in Aus and total world shares. Investing in my web business. Starting to shift focus away from $$$ and more into looking after my mental health. LINK
Sep 20S1,045,486+$16,19360%Officially took time off work for the rest of the year to be close and look after family during major operations. Continued to sell down physical possessions and work on digital business while at home. NW gain mainly due to valuation of websites.LINK
Oct 20$1,064,399 +$18,91380%Base income (retainer) and leave loading, dividend and websites provided income, as well as raiding my P2P lending capital. Significant bill for property due to design not meeting standards which effectively lowers my equity position, as well as fence being stolen.LINK
Nov 20$1,143,433+$80,39482%Big gains came from share market growth (influencing both the Financial Independence share portfolio and Invested superannuation), Business gains (due to increased earnings) and a $30K boost to my annuity thanks to me logging in and checking the fine-print on the accumulation stats. I only invested around $7K. Insane that in one month, I accumulated nearly more net worth than I did in four years from 2009-2012LINK
Dec 20 $1,152,920 + $9,487.3284%
Share market slight drop, Earnings from Business, Contract work, Selling possessions. No share market investments this month (oops! I forgot and money was tight). Invested a lot into the website business this month (way more than planned) and it is still running at a decent loss (plans to turn it cash flow positive in 3 months).
LINK
Jan 21$1,165,678+$12,75779%Great returns from the share market. Earnings from Business, Dividends, Flying wage, flipping items on consignment. Regular share contribution, investing in micro investing platforms, P2P lending, Investment property and big reinvestment into the business (still running at a loss)LINK
Feb 21$1,135,272 -$30,40676%Significant write down on property development due to council DA rejection and redesign requiring more money and creating less equity. Offset by small increase to Business value and investments. Simplified my investments and switched over to Pearler.LINK
Mar 21$1,155,594+$20,32271%Continued investment into the portfolio as well as growth of investments and business. Gave my notice at work and looking for part time job at home for ‘Barista FI’ LINK
Apr 21$1,242,220+$86,72774%Property development back on trackLINK
May 21$1,379,469+$137,24872%Massive gains in the website portfolio due to revaluation based on recent business income, big growth of superannuation due to annuity increasing (salary increment) and shares generally went up. Crypto went down by about 40% or so.LINK
June 21$1,469,989 +$89,75741%Quit flying role and moved to Adelaide. Great month for investments, websites producing serious income so accordingly they are valued higher. Spent a lot on furnishing the new apartment and on enjoying some more luxuries. Seeing a therapist to help deal with anxiety from leaving work. LINK
July 21$1,543,959+$74,732???Set myself up in Adelaide. Did basically nothing for the whole month except spent time with family, relax, sleep and go to doctors appointments. Massive boost to website portfolio AdSense and affiliate incomes, as well as general share market performance. LINK
Aug 21$1,624,116 +$70,156 ???Relaxed again, focused on mental and physical health, and spending time with family and my partner. Big increases to spending (too afraid to calculate a ‘savings rate’) but also big increases to NW through website portfolio income growth. Finally got the slab poured on the investment property (foundation). LINK
Sep 211,640,663.85 +$16,547???Stocks, super etc went down, but business income from websites increased, plus business valuation increased. Property build. got to frame stage, and I also got a dog! Expenses for vet surgery well worth it. Moved into a nicer apartmentLINK
Oct 21$1,705,907 +$65,24330%Big boost from website valuation due to securing new affiliate contracts for recurring income, shares went up nicely. No massive changes to this month. Calculated a savings rate and found myself pretty low due to spending a lot on my garden and going out quite a lot – I don’t think I will calculate this savings rate figure any more. LINK
Nov 21$1,739,144.23 +$33,236Hit FI don’t careGreat month. Relaxing (somewhat). Spent a lot of money doing ‘fun’ things like winery tours, a fine dining experience and self education. Shares moved sideways (well slightly down) but everything else went up. Building got to enclosed stage (roof, walls, windows and doors) but have had some issues with build quality and weather / covid delays.
CaptainFI Net Worth progression table
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