Today I chat to Queenie Tan from Invest with Queenie. Queenie has amassed more than 400,000 followers through her social media channels and has helped so many people through her engaging content centered around money-saving hacks and personal finance in general.
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Queenie Tan
On board the podcast I welcome Queenie Tan, a Sydney-based personal finance content creator who you might recognise from her incredibly popular channel and profile, Invest with Queenie, where she has amassed nearly 400,000 followers across social media channels such as Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Facebook.
Queenie creates helpful, relevant content centered around money-saving hacks and investing to help your money go further and also shares how she’s building her wealth through earning, saving and investing money. Queenie had a modest upbringing and was raised by her single dad, leaving home at 19 years old.
Queenie was able to go from earning minimum wage to quickly earning 6 figures and in a few short years was able to save over $100,000 for her first home deposit.

Fast forward to today, Queenie has amassed a net wealth of over $500,000 and is well on her way to financial independence, building a thriving influencer marketing company, all by the age of 26.
It’s awesome to see that Queenie has been able to help so many people with her engaging content and I loved catching up with her once again! Jump on board!
Episode 58: Queenie Tan – Invest with Queenie
Show Notes
- You can find Queenie’s blog Invest with Queenie HERE
- You can find some awesome money tools on Queenie’s website HERE
- You can find Invest with Queenie on YouTube HERE
- You can watch Queenie’s YouTube video on Qantas credit cards and travel hacking HERE
- You can listen to Queenie’s podcast, ‘Invest with Queenie and Pablo’ HERE
- You can follow Queenie on Instagram HERE, on TikTok HERE, and on Facebook HERE
- Queenie’s recommended reading:
-
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
- McKeown, Greg (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 288 Pages - 01/07/2021 (Publication Date) - Virgin Books (Publisher)
-
SaleYour Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence: Fully Revised and Updated for 2018
- Robin, Vicki (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 368 Pages - 12/10/2008 (Publication Date) - Penguin Books (Publisher)
“My mission is to help your money go further and I do this by creating educational videos to help inspire you to create a better financial future for yourself and your community. Whether it be helping you save $10 off your grocery bill, or giving you the tools to help you buy your first home. My mission is to help you on your financial journey.”
Queenie Tan
Transcript
Episode 58: Queenie Tan – Invest with Queenie
Queenie Tan
Captain Fi: [00:00:00] Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Welcome aboard the Financial Independence Podcast.
Gday and welcome to another episode of Captain Fire, the Financial Independence Podcast, where I open the cockpit to some of the best and brightest in personal finance, as well as those who have reached or are on their way to financial independence. Before we get started, remember nothing said here is financial advice and you should always do your own independent research before making any financial choices.
With that being said, I hope you enjoy the episode and learn something new.[00:01:00]
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On board today is Queenie 10, a Sydney based personal finance content creator who you might recognize from her incredibly popular channel, invest with Queenie, where she has amassed nearly 400,000 followers across social media channels such as Instagram, Facebook.
TikTok and YouTube. Queenie creates helpful content centered around money saving hacks to basically help your money go further and also shares how she’s building her wealth through earning, saving, and investing money. Queenie’s from Sydney and had a modest upbringing being raised by her single dad leaving home at 19.
She initially earned 400 bucks a week working at Macs and studying. But later dropped out of university to pursue a career in marketing. Working as a corporate marketer, she was able to go from minimum wage to earning six figures, and then only a couple of years was able to save over a hundred grand [00:03:00] for her first property deposit.
Fast forward to today. Queenie is well on her way to financial independence, amassing a $500,000 net wealth and building a thriving influencer marketing company all by the age of 26 Queenie. It’s been a while since we last caught up in Sydney. It’s awesome to see you doing so well, and I’m stoked to have you on the show.
How you going?
Queenie: Yeah. Good. Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be on your podcast.
Captain Fi: Oh, my pleasure. It’s really interesting to see how you’re going and to dig a little bit deeper into the business and the personal finance. Before we get going, would you be able to tell the listeners a little bit about yourself?
Queenie: Yeah, of course. So where do I start? I guess I’m now a personal finance content creator. Recently got licensed a couple of months ago, which has been a bit of a process, but definitely worthwhile. I’m grateful to be able to talk about investing topics again and
I still have the same passion for. Saving money, [00:04:00] investing. So I’m really grateful for that. I wasn’t sure, I guess when I first started doing this will I still enjoy doing this in a couple of years time? So, safe to say I do still enjoy it. And
what’s been happening with you?
Captain Fi: Oh not much really. My partner and I we were just mentioning this before we started recording. We did some traveling over the last bit of last year in the first bit of this year. But I feel now I’m sort of getting back into a groove.
We’ve got a place together. Everything’s a little bit more stable for us now, and Yeah, we’re looking forward to ideally buying a block of land in the not too distant future and, thinking about starting a family soon, which is pretty exciting.
Queenie: Oh my gosh, that is amazing. And that’s what financial independence is all about, like just having that freedom to be able to do what you want in life.
So yeah, it’s really amazing that you are teaching your followers and subscribers that because yeah that’s all we could ever really hope for in life, like being able to do what we want. Yeah,
Captain Fi: it’s definitely changed my life. A lot like the decision to, I guess step [00:05:00] away from full-time work and just sort of focus more on, on family and health.
It’s been awesome And yeah, wouldn’t have been able to do it if I didn’t know a little bit about money. And that’s the thing is you don’t really need to know a lot about money. And it’s ironic in that sometimes the less, the better. If you’re just gonna keep it simple, that is I’ve definitely been guilty of overcomplicating things and, the more I’ve sort of do this, the more I found out the KISS principle is really important when it comes to finance.
Queenie: Oh, I totally feel you. I was reviewing the auto investment portfolio that we have, and we usually just auto invest every month into a few ETFs, and my investment portfolio was so complicated. I had five different ETFs. I was like also researching different stocks to buy every month and I was just like, wow.
Now I only have two ETFs that I invest in regularly and. Just keep it simple because it really does not have to be that complicated
Captain Fi: hundred percent. Now, Queenie, we’ve talked a little bit about this in the [00:06:00] past, but would you be able to tell us a little bit about your upbringing and how it has shaped your relationship with money?
Queenie: Yeah, so I had a bit of a. Weird, strange kind of upbringing because, well, for one, whenever I was at school and somebody would ask me, so what do your parents do for a living? I would say, oh, I don’t actually know how to answer that, because I was raised by a single stay at home dad. My mom was unable to take care of me at the time, so my dad got custody of me and part of the court orders was that he had to leave.
His job in order to take care of me full-time. And luckily he did have investments, so we were able to still live, but it wasn’t like a crazy lifestyle. it was pretty basic, like we didn’t really go on holidays. I went to public schools. We didn’t have a fancy car or anything.
Didn’t really go to movies or eat out and things like that. But he still had, enough money to. To feed us, and do all the essential [00:07:00] things like take me to school. I still did hobbies and things like that. So yeah, it was a bit weird answering that question cuz I was like, I don’t know.
He doesn’t really do anything now, or sometimes I would say he’s an engineer even though he didn’t do that when he was raising me. So, yeah, it was a bit different, I guess.
Captain Fi: Yeah, it’s kind of like you’ve actually done the lean fire thing. So, doing fire before it was even cool.
Queenie: Yeah, I know. Yeah.
Sometimes I think back to it and I’m like, yeah, he literally was financially independent or like part of the fire movement. And yeah, it was quite cool, I guess learning about money growing up and as I started to get older, just learning about the things that I wanted to keep from my childhood, like all the really important money lessons that I learned from my dad, but then also trying to.
I guess let go a little bit sometimes. And I think that was a bit of a process for me, like realizing it’s okay to spend money on things that make you happy or to go out to the movies or to go out for dinner every now and [00:08:00] again, so yeah, but also having a bit of a balance, not being too much one way or the other.
And what about you, cuz you’ve got a very interesting upbringing as well.
Captain Fi: Yeah, look, I think that is the balance that you’re talking about striving for, it’s so important. I guess similarly, I sort of grew up with not a lot of money. Mom worked part-time as a teacher had a lot of kids to to feed.
And yeah, my dad wasn’t in the picture at all and he didn’t support us financially. Actually moved overseas to get out of child support, which was pretty heartbreaking. To learn when I grew up. And I think, yeah, it definitely shaped my money mindset to be coming from a scarcity mindset.
So I, I always really did feel guilty about spending. And so for me, I guess being a saver and investing as just kind of, where I tend to default to. So I’m trying to learn how to , spend a little bit more freely and not feel guilty about it.
Queenie: Oh yeah, same here. but sometimes I go a bit too far the other way and I’m like, gotta reel myself back in.
It’s definitely a process, isn’t it?
Captain Fi: Yeah. [00:09:00] My partner and I we’ve been buying some things on Amazon lately. We have may have gone overboard like bigs for the dog jackets and stuff for winter. Oh
Queenie: my gosh. I saw this meme the other day and it’s you know when you search for something online and then suddenly the internet’s just you want this?
You want dog jackets? Look at this dog jacket. Look at this. Isn’t it like that? Like you search for one thing and then it’s says everywhere for the next month.
Captain Fi: Oh, absolutely. And look who better to be answering questions about that than yourself. So Queenie, you had an awesome career in marketing, which you mean you dropped out of university to pursue a career in marketing.
I. Which you then dropped out of to build your own business, which is awesome. Would you be able to tell us a little bit about, I guess, your education and early career days and how you were able to earn such a high salary at such a young age.
Queenie: Oh yeah, it’s honestly strange looking back because I feel like from a very early age, I just I think I also had a scarcity [00:10:00] mindset like you as well, and , I kind of felt uncomfortable asking my dad for money, so I just.
Didn’t want to ever have to ask him for money. And I felt like if I didn’t make enough money early on, , I didn’t know what I would do. So I was very determined when I moved out of home to, to do it. I think the biggest thing for me was not paying the loyalty tax. So I would switch jobs every year or two years or so, and I think it’s not genuinely because I wanted to earn more money.
I think it’s. Just because I’m somebody that likes changing jobs and likes taking on a new project, so I would move jobs every year or two years, and then I would ask for a much higher salary than what I was on previously. And it actually worked really well for I, I think I went from earning maybe around like 40, $50,000 a year.
Up to $120,000 a year in only a couple of years. So I think I left uni when I was 20 or 1920, [00:11:00] and then by the time I was 23, 24, I was earning like 120,000 just because I was work at a job like one or two years. Move, ask for higher pay. And yeah, it seemed to work out.
I guess it’s not for everyone though, because I know that some people don’t like changing jobs that often, some employees don’t look favorably on people that job change. But I still think it’s important. There’s this crazy stat. So new employees are paid on average, 7% more than existing employees doing the same job, and that’s not that much when you just look at it for one year.
But when you. Compound that over many years in a lifetime of work, people that job change earn on average over a lifetime, 50% more than people that tend to stay with the same job for multiple years. And I think what’s interesting about that stat is like maybe you don’t have to change jobs every few years and be like me, but I think if you’re not getting your paycheck increased, at least with inflation, I think it is worth, looking around on the market or trying to negotiate a higher salary, asking for pay [00:12:00] rises, things like that. So yeah. What are your thoughts on, I guess, salary and job changing?
Captain Fi: Yeah, absolutely. Look, I think. It’s kind of a necessity. I mean, at the end of the day, you are at work to make money. It’s not a charity. You’re not, donating your time to make these companies richer. So yeah, you should a hundred percent be paid what you are worth.
And I guess if you are not getting paid pay rises in line with inflation, then you are basically taking a pay cut each year. Yeah, for you to be able to double your salary like that within the space of only a few short years that’s awesome. Hey, and it’s way better returns than you would’ve got from investing.
You get way better returns by literally investing in yourself and your career. It’s probably the most powerful way. To generate money. And I guess that’s how we all have to do it at the beginning. We need to turn our personal capital or our working time and effort into money which we can then later use to invest.
And if you’re able to do exactly like you did and really work hard to increase your salary, then you’re gonna have a much [00:13:00] larger income trouble and it’s gonna make investing way easier.
Queenie: Oh yeah, so true. It’s actually pretty interesting because like you said the most you could ever possibly save of your income every year is a hundred percent of what you are currently earning.
And of course, that would be really hard to not spend any money. But if you earn more money there’s no real ceiling on how much money you can earn. So that’s why I think it’s really good to, to start thinking, I love this mindset, but I heard it the other day, forgot where, maybe it was a TikTok video, but thinking a bit more like a producer rather than a consumer.
So it doesn’t just have to be in increasing how much money you’re earning in your job, but maybe if there are any other ways that you could. Earn a bit of extra money or save a bit of extra money. It’s really cool. For example, I think one random side hustle that I did was I was having a birthday party and I wanted to buy this giant Jenga set and I was looking online to buy one.[00:14:00]
Everywhere was sold out. And then I saw in Facebook marketplace, there was this lady that was renting her giant Jenga set and she was renting it for 20 or $30. And then I saw the price of the giant Jenga set. It’s like $50 to buy brand new. But I had no choices everywhere. I was sold out. So I rented her giant Jenga set and then the light bulb went off for me and I was like, this lady is a genius.
She’s renting out a giant Jenga set that she bought for 50 bucks for 20 or $30. And her giant gender set was really old. It had quite a lot of use out of it. So I was like, I’m gonna buy one when they’re back in stock and I’m gonna start renting it out too. And I swear to you, I think I’ve made I mean it’s not crazy, but I think I made like 500 or $600 just from renting out this giant Jenga set and they ended up selling it for not that much.
Less than what I bought it for. So I dunno, just things like that. There are so many ways to earn money once you start opening yourself up to the potential of, different ways to earn extra money,
Captain Fi: that is an awesome [00:15:00] side hustle. And I know you’ve done a lot of really creative things when it comes to investing, saving money and earning money, and I guess that kind of led you to create, invest with Queenie where you were sort of sharing these tips and tricks.
I’d love to know like where did the inspiration come , to start posting and create, invest with Queenie?
Queenie: I guess the inspiration really started during lockdowns and Covid. I think I had this real opportunity to reflect, and I think a lot of us, that during the Covid period it was a huge period of reflection for everybody.
But I think there was this real, I guess, light bulb moment that went off a few times. The first was when I was. Running an e-commerce store on the side where I was selling false eyelashes, and that was like a side hustle. And I was also working full-time and one day I got this email on my false eyelashes business email and this lady said, Hey I would like to [00:16:00] cancel my order because I need money for food.
And after getting that email, I just felt really guilty, because obviously, I was trying to sell by false eyelashes, but I didn’t wanna sell it to people that. Needed money for food. And I don’t know, just at that point, it just didn’t quite feel right what I was doing. I felt like I wasn’t super passionate about makeup or eyelashes or anything, and I was just kind of doing it for the money.
And also at that time, I just felt so grateful to have a full-time job, to be earning as much money as I was at 2324 to. Be living in an apartment that I bought recently, and then I saw all the lands in front of Centrelink and I was like, oh my gosh, that could be me. That really could be me feeling shit about myself, feeling like, why couldn’t I hold down my job?
Or why am I unemployed? And I just wanted to, I guess, create content to. Help people or help myself. A couple of years ago [00:17:00] that was earning $400 a week. Having to pay for Sydney rent, having to pay for groceries and everything, and and being stressed about money. So I wanted to help that younger Queenie or like those younger people out there, just feel a little bit more confident, that even if times are hard.
That they will be able to get through it. And yeah that’s what started it. And yeah, I’m really happy that I did.
Captain Fi: And you’re still having lots of fun producing content and you’ve had some exciting changes recently. So you mentioned you became licensed. That’s a really big deal.
That means you can really start going into quiet. Deep dives talking about all sorts of different financial products. And you’ve also launched your website and are offering some educational courses. Would you be able to tell us a little bit about I guess those two things?
Queenie: Yeah, so I feel very lucky and grateful to be able to do what I do full-time. It was honestly a dream come true, [00:18:00] and we recently hired our first full-time employee, which is really cool. And it, it feels nice to be able to Give someone work. And then also they get to help us with their content.
And it just seems like such a nice, mutually beneficial setup and I’m really grateful to be able to do that. And also, yeah, licensed more courses, more products and yeah, just trying to build out as many like assets in the business as possible. We have a lot of free resources, but now we’re starting to,
get into, we’ve got a. Paid investing course and we’ve also created a bunch of free tools that you can check out on the website. So we’ve got a free net worth tracker. We’ve got a free investing cheat sheet and a free tax guide as well, so I can share some links with you as well. But yeah, it’s just really cool to be able to create, free and paid products as well.
And yeah, just. Be able to help people. And I’m sure that’s why you love it too. We’re really lucky be doing what we’re doing.[00:19:00]
Captain Fi: Oh, absolutely. It’s funny cuz you hear people say oh, when you love what you do, you don’t work a day in your life. And then you hear other people, they’re like, oh, if you do what you love, it doesn’t make it fun anymore.
I used to love flying, but my job. Became not fun anymore. And it sort of did suck the joy outta flying, but I’m still absolutely loving, blogging and podcasting it’s awesome. It’s a dream. So I’m really excited to hear that you’re having such a great time as well, and I’ll put links in the show notes as well to Queenie’s website and some of her resources
we will get back to the show in a moment, but for now, I wanna ask you a question. Do you have a side hustle? And if you do, is it scalable? My side hustle is building and running websites a form of digital real estate. Now, it might sound tricky to make money online, but really they’re just small online businesses that have low overheads, high margins, and which you can easily scale by outsourcing.
If you’ve ever read the Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss, then you’re on [00:20:00] the right track. What I love about websites is just like my investments, they’re working 24 7 to make me richer and I can put as much or as little effort into running them as I like. I can pay a writer to produce a piece of evergreen content, which is then edited and posted by virtual assistant.
Then it can be viewed potentially millions of times and easily updated by my editors over the years to remain relevant. If you want to learn more about this lucrative side hustle and retraining for the Digital Workforce revolution, then check out my article about making money online and read my review of the E-Business Institute and their online self-paced courses.
The E-Business Institute cover everything from total beginners. Right through to advanced web design and how to buy, renovate, run, and sell websites for profit. As a graduate of the E-Business Institute, I can’t thank Matt and Liz enough for the valuable web skills I’ve developed. And now I can enjoy growing my portfolio of websites [00:21:00] for semi-passive income.
Captain FY listeners can register for free access to some of their resources by following the link in the E-Business Institute review article on captain fy.com. So what are you waiting for? Start learning how to build a portfolio of digital real estate and use websites to make money today.
Now Queenie, I’m really interested to know so you obviously had a drive to start earning more but when did you start learning about investing?
Queenie: So I guess I started learning about investing through my dad, which is quite interesting. I don’t think he really ever properly sat me down and said, this is what investing is,
but just watching him just wondering how can we afford to live? If he doesn’t have a job. But I think that it was only really when I first moved out of home at 19 and I didn’t have much money at all, didn’t have investments.
And at the time I was also studying and working on the side. I [00:22:00] had a negative net worth and like hardly any savings. So that was when I really started to try and look at ways that I could be more financially stable. My dad invested mainly in property, so he had an investment property, which was like a restaurant.
So we would go there. I remember as a kid, we would go there to the restaurant to collect rent. And yeah, that was interesting. But I guess for me, I was more interested in shares because it’s much easier, I think for young people to be able to invest in shares cuz
there’s a much lower barrier to entry and then property especially. And yeah, nowadays you can do it on your phone, but I think property was still, it’s still an interesting area to look into, but I just think it’s like shares. I just find for myself personally, it’s just a lot easier to manage.
But yeah. What about you? I’m curious to hear from you.
Captain Fi: Oh yeah. Well, I think I picked up a copy of oh, I think it was like the Barefoot Investor, maybe like 2016 or something.[00:23:00] I’d graduated my pilot training and all of a sudden I guess I had some surplus income in that, I had regular income coming in.
I didn’t have this huge expense of flight training. And I knew I needed to Do something a bit better with my finances. So, I had tried term deposits and seeking better yields. I looked into managed funds and that kind of stuff. But yeah, I went down the rabbit hole of I went to this stock picking subscription service and I massively overcomplicated my investing.
It really doesn’t need to be that full on. Now look you mentioned that you had, you were kind of trying to simplify things as well with your investments. So I’m interested to ask what is your current investing style and what do you invest in?
Queenie: So I invest mainly in ETFs and I have an automatic investment that comes out of my bank account every month and goes into my investment portfolio.
And it’s so good setting up these auto investments because you don’t feel it and then you don’t forget to do it, which it’s honestly [00:24:00] such a game changer. And the investments that I currently make, so. I was talking to one of my friends in the US and they have this E T F called vt, which is the Vanguard basically it’s like the world stock market or like the total stock market.
It’s one E ETF that basically has everything and it’s like perfectly balanced at different kind countries in the world, different segments and things like that. So I was trying to look into the Australian version of that, and what I found really interesting was that Vanguard actually doesn’t have this particular.
ETF in Australia on the Australian stock market. And so the closest thing I could find is like v e u and v t s as like a combination, but it’s still not perfect because I would like to ideally have a more ethical portfolio and non-vet in certain companies, but still something I’m working through.
But I kind of like how it’s just very simple. Only two ETFs that I need. I also need to find an ethical version, so that’s on my list as well. But [00:25:00] yeah, it’s just so interesting. Oh, and you know what I found super interesting in my research? So the reason why they don’t have VT in the Australian stock market is because Australia tends to have a bit more of a home country bias.
So a lot of Australian investors tend to invest like a lot more in the Australian stock market. Then actually is representative of the world, if that makes sense. , the Australian stock market is about 2% of the world’s stock market or gdp and. Yeah, a lot of Australian investors tend to, invest maybe like 50 or 60% Australian in their portfolio.
So I just thought that was super, super interesting. So yeah, still learning more like it’s never perfect, but I’m just enjoying the process of learning more and more about investing and investing passively. What about you?
Captain Fi: Yeah, look, I actually use those two ETFs as well. I think they’re brilliant.
And it’s funny, I’m feeling a bit called out Queeny. I definitely have an overweight to to my home bias as well. I I have another e [00:26:00] etf which is Australian shares. That’s the beta shares a 200. Or some people have Vanguard, b i s pretty much the same thing. Yeah, so I think I’m, maybe I’m not as bad as most Australians with the 50%.
And I currently have 25%, so I do 50% US 25% world xus and then 25% oz.
Queenie: Yeah, it is really interesting. I still like to have more of an Australian weight and in my portfolio I still do have a lot of Australian companies and a lot of the Australian stock market as well. But yeah, I just think it is interesting because I think.
It is good to have a bit more of a balance and to actually really think about, well, what do I want to invest in the future? So, yeah, it’s just interesting.
Captain Fi: And so do you still actively invest , in property? So one of the milestones you’re able to do as you bought a property at quite a young age.
Do you still have that property or what are your thoughts on investing in property in Australia?
Queenie: Yeah, I still do have the property and it is an apartment. It’s currently being rented out because last year [00:27:00] we went overseas for a couple of months and we just didn’t wanna lose money on it, so we decided to move out and rent it out.
And we’re currently renting as well, so rent, vesting, and yeah, I would like to purchase more property in the future. That is definitely the goal as I want to, start a family and things like that. I think property is a good investment and I personally do want to invest more in property in the future. But yeah, I guess the barrier to entry is quite high and the places that we’re looking to buy to live in are quite expensive, so still gotta go back to the drawing board a bit and try to increase our income more.
And I’m sure, as you would know, I guess now that we are self-employed, It does make it a little bit harder to get, things like mortgages and loans and things like that. So, yeah. What about you? What are your thoughts on property?
Captain Fi: Oh yeah. Well, I’ve just recently finished a small property development.
We built a couple of duplexes and yeah, they’re like cashflow neutral, but as the rates keep going up, they’re starting to cost a little [00:28:00] bit, so become a little bit negatively geared. And as someone now I’m on quite a low taxable income the sort of the tax incentive for negatively gearing isn’t really stacking up for me.
So yeah, I’m not too sure what my goals are. I might potentially sell it because yeah, I find the cashflow from online business, like websites and shares to be a little bit better than the kind of constantly Kicking the can down the road and hoping for capital growth. But yeah, the short answer is I’m not too sure.
But I guess speaking about the future and your plans do you guys have a fi number that you’re trying to achieve? Like a target net wealth or a passive income that you guys want to generate?
Queenie: Yes. Honestly, I would love to reach a 1 million net worth, currently halfway there.
Last time we calculated it, it was 570,000, which is quite good. Considering that last year we went on a three and a half month trip. We did not invest that much. As well last year because that was the year that we actually went [00:29:00] full-time on our business and we weren’t paying ourselves a very high salary.
So I think it really goes to show that the first $100,000 is always the hardest. Then after that, it gets so much easier because I think a lot of that, $70,000 difference or $80,000 difference from. This year to last year was mainly from the growth of our investments, like shares and things like that.
So yeah, honestly feeling so grateful to invest early . And also even if you not quite where you want to be in terms of your net wealth it’s nice to know that it can really change, once you start to really get into it and, tracking it and things like that. So, yeah. What about you?
What’s your ideal? Net worth goal, cuz I know you’ve already reached financial independence, but do you have any goals? I guess in the future?
Captain Fi: Yeah. So one of my main ones was to, I guess, achieve quote unquote lean fire. Which I was able to achieve, which was awesome. And step away from my full-time job, which was I guess becoming a bit challenging, just reference like my own physical and mental health and my [00:30:00] family.
So that was super beneficial. But going forward, I think. The secondary goal that I really wanna achieve was kinda like, I called it family fire, basically fat fire. I wanted to earn about $70,000 a year post-tax passively to cover the cost of living of I guess running a small homestead and raising a family.
And yeah, that’s something that I’m hopefully gonna achieve soon. And. One of the things that’s been really helping me is online business. And I talk about this a bit. I’ve got a couple of websites that I run and it’s been really helpful. They generate money and it’s something that I wouldn’t be able to do as well if I maintained a full-time job.
So I guess the irony is that achieving financial independence and quote unquote retiring early it doesn’t mean that you’re no longer. Gonna work. And it can actually free you up to be a lot more creative. And it’s kind of cool to see you’ve stepped away from your full-time marketing role and now in the realm of running your own business.
And, I’m pretty confident that your net wealth is gonna accelerate [00:31:00] pretty rapidly. Queeny I’m looking forward to seeing you succeed.
Queenie: Oh, same. And you too. I honestly think that we’re at a point in time when I know things really suck for young people. Like I’m definitely not denying it, like things really do suck.
Like it’s a lot harder than it used to be to get a head, financially, to buy a property, to buy somewhere to live in. But, On the flip side, there are some really cool opportunities that we have in this generation, in this day and age that, other generations never had. The ability to invest from $5 on your phone with an app like instantly, that’s unheard of.
It’s pretty amazing that people can start building their wealth that way. . Even people, like 18 year olds can start doing that just with loose change here and there. And then also, like you said, businesses and online businesses. I also think that’s a way that young people can really start to build their wealth.
And it may not be the same path that I guess people in other generations have built wealth. It’s not the traditional path, but I [00:32:00] think it’s the path that. Will make more people wealthy, like not the traditional path. So yeah, I love hearing about online businesses and it’s nice to actually create something of value, something that actually helps people and then still earn money from that.
, it’s nice feeling to do that.
Captain Fi: Yeah, it’s definitely like a new challenges, but new opportunities. Now, something you mentioned earlier is you said that yourself and Pablo had basically you traveled around the world for months and months, and I know one of the topics you talk about is actually how you finance this.
For basically massive discounts using points hacking. Now I’m a complete novice when it comes to Tracking points and rewards. And I must admit, I’ve kind of been a little bit willfully ignorant head in the sand kind of thing. So would you be able to give me like a complete novice beginner rundown on what points and reward hackings could be?
And how you actually explain this on invest with queeny.
Queenie: Yeah, of course. Honestly, this is one of my [00:33:00] favorite topics. So the way that I learned about it was I was around 1920, I was working a job and then my colleague was telling me basically about how he does points hacking, and he said, I get into all the business lounges.
And I’m like the youngest person there, and I get in because of my credit card and I’m flying business class here and I’m doing this. And I was just like, wow, where can I learn more? So I started studying up more and more about it. And it sounds too good to be true, right? But it actually isn’t when you do it well, and I feel like.
You and also people that listen to your podcast would be the ones that can do it smartly. So basically what you do is credit cards have signup bonuses. This can range anywhere from 60,000 to a hundred thousand points. And for context, a point is equal to roughly 1.80 cents. So if you get a hundred thousand bonus points, that’s essentially $1,800 worth of flights that you can get.
There is a card fee. Usually this is around [00:34:00] $400, but you make your money back with a travel credit. Usually they’ll give you the same travel credit, like a $400 travel credit that you can use. And yeah, when you look at all the benefits, like the bonus points, the travel credit, free travel insurance, free business lounge invitations, like it actually is really worth it to have one so long as you are paying back everything you owe every single month on time, so you’re not paying a dollar in interest.
And if you are, keeping on top of your credit card statements, like still tracking your expenses to make sure you’re not going overboard every month, I think it is worth it for people that are, money savvy and yeah, we were able to get around. 10, $15,000 worth of flights for a thousand dollars per person, which it sounds wild.
Yeah, it’s actually wild. Flying business class, we’ll have living our best lives and yeah, it’s honestly, best thing that I’ve done, That’s
Captain Fi: so funny. I mean, I must admit, I was pretty envious. I saw one of your [00:35:00] videos and you were I think you’re in business class or first class or something with some a real fancy seats and food and I’m like, God damn it, I’ve been flying these plans and I don’t even get that kind of
Queenie: service.
Oh, it’s okay. Honestly, just get onto it. As soon as you find a rewards program that works for you it really does become worth it. And you’ll be like, why didn’t I do this sooner? Especially you because you’re really money savvy, you won’t get stuck in , the interest payments and things like that.
So, yeah.
Captain Fi: Yeah. Do you have a a particular video or post that I can direct people to that’s like your favorite about trouble hacking?
Queenie: Yes, I do. Yeah, I have this video on YouTube that I made, and it basically goes through everything from, credit cards and different other ways that you can earn points that are quite creative and even the value of a point, because it’s not always worth 1.80 cents.
1.80 cents is usually the lowest amount with economy, but if you get business class, first class flights, which are also a bit harder to get, but. Your points could be worth [00:36:00] anywhere from three to four to five, maybe even six or 10 cents per point. So yeah, you really get your money’s worth business class and first class flights if you can find them.
Captain Fi: Yeah. Awesome. All right, well, I’m gonna put a link to Queenie’s video in the show notes. So if anyone. This listening wants to check that out. Just jump onto the website. Just above the transcript, there’ll be a link to all of these videos as well as Queenie’s website and her other social media channels.
Now Queenie, it’s been awesome chatting and I know you have to head off in a second. But before we finish up, one of the things I love to ask people when it can be a difficult question. And I hope you don’t feel like I’m putting you on the spot too much. But by looking at what successful people are reading and listening to we can really help ourselves and our own personal education.
So with that being said, I’d love to know what some of your favorite books, podcasts, or blogs might be that we can all check out.
Queenie: Ooh, good question. So I’m currently reading this really [00:37:00] amazing book called Essentialism, and I think it’s really good to just get down to, I guess, the basics of what is essential in your life.
What could you be doing? You know how they always say 20% of the work yields 80% of the results? This book essentially helps you get to what is the 20% of work that gives me 80% of the results. Great book. And another one I would say your Money or Your Life is a really good book about financial independence and the whole fire movement.
I loved that one. And Dive With Zero was a really good book, I think is a follow one from your money or your life. And the psychology of money. Oh gosh, there are so many. There are so many books that are really good. Oh, another one. 101 essays that will change the way you think.
What about you? What are your favorite books?
Captain Fi: Oh, look, you can’t go past your money or your life. That is just such a game changer. I haven’t read Essentialism but I actually have been recommended that three [00:38:00] times this week. So I think I know what I’m doing. Once we get off this call, I’m gonna be going and borrowing a copy of that from my library.
Look, there’s so many awesome books out there. Actually. I put together a reading list a while ago of some of my favorite ones, and I share that on my website. And then I recently asked some people online, I put some polls up about what their favorite books were and I ended up.
With a short list of about 170 books to read, and I’ve gotten through about, I’m ashamed to say I’ve only gone through about 20 of them so far this year. So I did spend more time with
Queenie: my head in the books. Wow. I love it. This is amazing, this list. I’m just having a look at it now. Best investing books.
I love it so much. There are so many things that I wanna read now.
Captain Fi: Yeah. And look disclaimer, they’re not ranked, there’s no order to them. And obviously some are probably better than others. So that’s the next job is to maybe try and put them in some kind of an order.
Queenie: That sounds good.
Captain Fi: Yeah, [00:39:00] Queenie finishing up today I’d love to know what your top three tips would be for someone on the path to financial independence.
Queenie: I think the first tip is to know that it’s not linear, it’s exponential. So your first $100,000 is always the hardest, and then it gets so much easier from there because of compounding.
So if it feels really slow and like you’re not getting anywhere, don’t worry because it’s not linear. It is exponential, and it will get easier. And my second thing would be that, Oh, some people will like you no matter what you do, and some people won’t like you no matter what you do, and it has. Nothing really to do with you.
It has everything to do with them. So I like to keep this in mind whenever I am, thinking of doing something in my life that maybe I’m worried, will people approve? Is this the right thing to do? Just keep that in mind because I think it’s really important to be yourself first. And my last piece of advice would be to not worry so [00:40:00] much about pleasing other people, but worry about pleasing yourself.
Are you actually, I. Somebody that you like. And that’s the most important thing I think. Are you somebody that you like, do you respect yourself? That’s who you should care about first at the end of the day. Not whether, I don’t know, some random person likes you. It’s what do you really think about yourself?
You know that has served me well. What about you?
Captain Fi: Oh, awesome advice. Queenie. I think, it can be very easy to get bogged down in the oh, we should shop home brand, or you should eat leaves for dinner to save money. Kind of style of thinking about our finance, but it’s really refreshing to really focusing on behavior as like one of the most important areas.
And certainly looking at your values because ultimately whatever you value that’s what you project. And so having an important, self worth and really standing for. I guess what you believe in, it’s a way to build that proper life, that lifestyle design. Yeah, I absolutely love it.
I mean, only other things, I guess, me personally that I would add [00:41:00] is just spend less than you earn and invest the difference. I feel like I have to add that. But it’s 80% behavior and 20% finance, if that. Right. So, which, you mentioned the Pareto principle from the book that you’re reading Essentialism, and it’s so powerful.
You really just gotta focus on your behaviors and , the actual finance and investing stuff. Gosh it’s probably not even 20%, is it? It’s probably like 1%.
Queenie: So true.
Captain Fi: Yeah. Hey Queenie, I’ve had an absolute blast chatting to you. Brilliant to hear everything you’re up to and yeah, I look forward to catching up again in the not too distant future.
Hey, you never know. Maybe we can travel hack a business class flight or something like that.
Queenie: That sounds amazing. I would love to do that. And thank you so much for having me on your podcast. It’s just amazing to chat to you. You have such great energy and really appreciate chatting to you. Ah,
Captain Fi: thanks very much.
Yeah, I appreciate your time. Look, Queenie, if people were listening, want to find out more about you or get in touch with you, whereabouts can they find you?
Queenie: You can find me on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. I also have a [00:42:00] podcast as well, and I have a website as well, which I update with free tools and resources if you’d like to check it out.
So yeah,
Captain Fi: exciting. Awesome. I’ll put links to all those places in the show notes and yeah, hopefully people can enjoy it as much as I do. I think you’re pacing some brilliant stuff. So once again, thanks so much for your time, queen, and have a great afternoon.
Queenie: Thank you. And you too.
Captain Fi: Thanks for listening to another episode of the Captain Fire Financial Independence Podcast. To read the transcripts or check out the show notes, head over to www.captainfire.com for all the details. If you have a question for the captain and make sure to get in touch, you might even make it on the airwaves.
You can reach me online through the Captain Fire contact form or get in touch through the socials. I’m active on Facebook and Instagram, as well as a number of online [00:43:00] finance and investing forums. And finally, remember the information presented on the show and the links provided are for general information purposes only.
They should not be taken as constituting professional financial advice. You should always do your own research when making any financial decisions and make sure it’s appropriate for your personal circumstance.
Captain FI is a Retired Pilot who lives in Adelaide, South Australia. He is passionate about Financial Independence and writes about Personal Finance and his journey to reach FI at 29, allowing him to retire at 30.