‘This is your Captain Speaking’ is a series from the Financial Independence Podcast where CaptainFI provides updates on his journey to FI
Today I am sharing an update about my FIRE Journey – specifically all about my decision to stop work and leave flying, leave Sydney and move across the country back to my hometown of Adelaide, South Australia. I chat about what I have been up to, latest decisions in the portfolio, my family update and finally finish with a reader question
Podcast – This is your Captain Speaking #3 – Early Retirement Update
Transcript
[00:00:00]Captain FI: Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Welcome aboard the financial independence podcast.
[00:00:22] Get a and welcome to another episode of captain fire, the financial independence podcast, where I opened 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.
[00:00:51] Get a welcome on board. Another episode of this is your captain speaking. It’s a bit of a different style of episode now, rather than interviewing someone, this is just a [00:01:00] monologue and I’m going to be giving everyone a bit of an update about what’s been happening in my life. And how quote unquote early retirement has been panning out yet.
[00:01:08] So look diving straight in. The biggest one is I have stopped full-time work. I left my flying job in Sydney and I’ve moved to Adelaide and I’m all set up here now, which is good. I’m just renting an apartment in town, which is nice. And I’ve got my eyes set on, hopefully mining some land soon.
[00:01:27] But it’s obviously not that simple. As everyone in the community knows property prices are pretty high. No one really knows what’s going to happen with interest rates, but we expected, they might go up which lowers the bar borrowing ability, but for cashed up buyers, it’s probably a good thing.
[00:01:44] Everyone said that lowering interest rates, pushed equity prices up and propped up the market. And now that the government can’t really lower rights anymore they just started printing money. And now that’s starting to have some bad effects with the inflation. [00:02:00] They’re going to have to go back to raising interest rates or, who knows that they’re smarter than us.
[00:02:04] Maybe they’ll come up with a third technique, but anyway, so I’ve stopped flying. I am basically just day to day at home with friends and family. It’s been awesome to have a breather. I’ve just been, trying to focus on myself, my own physical and mental health and still enjoying working on a few projects.
[00:02:26] So all of my leave entitlements will be ending soon which basically for anyone that sort of fault has been following the blog I’ve worked for obviously quite a while and had built up quite a sizeable chunk of leave, which basically formed part of my emergency fund. And with that all being used up soon it’s kinda, it’s the big, scary, brave world of early retirement.
[00:02:50] That being said, I still am have been able to generate some income from my website portfolio. It’s not just captain fire. I actually have a number of different [00:03:00] websites. I think we’re actually up to 19 different websites now, different content sites. And they all work with very basic affiliate style marketing blogs, and.
[00:03:12] So the basis of it is you get yourself a domain and you throw WordPress on it and you start talking about stuff. For me, I decided to focus on blogs that I found really interesting. So I actually had one before captain fire, which is my my aviation site, and I still really enjoy I still really enjoy blogging about aviation and piloting ways people can become a better pilot.
[00:03:37] It’s good. Fun. I love it. And I’m actually thinking of starting a podcast soon because I know a lot of really interesting people within the industry and I think it would be fun to interview them and share that information. It’s especially aimed at newer pilots who are trying to break into the industry.
[00:03:51] Similar to how captain fire tries to help people that are new to financial independence. So as a part of a movie[00:04:00] cities, it’s you know, there’s obviously a lot of things that you need to consider. I’m pretty fortunate in that actually. I was originally an Adelaide boy when my parents separated my mum and my sisters and I, we we actually moved up to Adelaide and so I actually finished my schooling here.
[00:04:19] So being an Adelaide boy makes it a lot easier for me coming back in and understand. What everything is and how the city works. I’m absolutely loving being back here in Adelaide, obviously mad March is I’m just about to finish up and we’ve had a wonderful month with the fringe being here.
[00:04:38] It’s not usually something that I would go to just because of, the price. And if I’m honest, like the big crowds do make me feel uncomfortable. Especially now. Living in a, a post COVID world and having a family with immune disorders and on chemotherapy it is, I’ll be honest.
[00:04:56] It’s a bit of a nightmare. Dealing with [00:05:00] close contacts and isolation. It has certainly generated quite a bit of anxiety for me in the, the last thing we want to do is contract covert and pass it on to, either of my parents or my sister, especially. My niece and nephews only pretty young.
[00:05:15] But look, that’s just the reality of COVID times. But in, in general though it’s awesome to be back in Adelaide. It’s it’s nice to be able to get a park anywhere. I want to try somewhere. It’s awesome. That everything’s so close and yeah, I just feel like. So I know a lot of people do this, when they’re young, they, I guess they feel like they need to get out and see the world and try them on.
[00:05:38] So their wild oats and in many respects, I feel like I’ve achieved that in my career, having lived all over Australia and spent times overseas, obviously spacings Yeah it’s been brilliant. I guess it’s been cool cause I don’t really have to pay for a lot of it either.
[00:05:52] She got paid to do it. So there’s a little life hack for you. Those of you that are maybe starting out and you want to travel more get a job where you can fly, if [00:06:00] you’re a cabin crew or a pilot or some other job, it’s a pretty cool way to see that. So of course I’m still sussing out, all the boring admin, like getting a regular doctor and finding, finding a dentist, I think I’m overdue for a dental checkup.
[00:06:15] Trying to find a good doctor is important. And not only, from a physical. Our physical space, but also from a mental space mental health is something that I’ve been really wanting to focus on. And I think this is probably a huge motivation for me to reach financial independence was actually to help manage some of the anxiety that I would get over uncertainty and change.
[00:06:38] And having that backup. Of an investment portfolio and passive income, something that you could lean on and rely on to get you through tough times. That was really important for me. And, when I have been speaking to counselors and therapists about this, the it’s something that has become aware that it’s star, that it starts very early [00:07:00] in life.
[00:07:00] And, as a. Toddler. My parents separating, whilst I don’t have a lot of memories of those very early years. You certainly do experience a lot of that household stress growing up. And, for me personally, it was really tricky growing up in poverty and, Having what you wanted.
[00:07:20] I’m very grateful for my mum because we always had enough. We always had clothes and food and electricity, and my mom did absolutely amazing. But because of the financial abuse that she suffered at the hands of, my father, avoiding paying child support moving internationally so that he didn’t have to actually.
[00:07:38] Pay his fair share that sort of directly resulted in a lot of those issues and negative money mindsets that I had as a kid. And so it’s been awesome to chat through this with a therapist and actually work on some of my mindset and behavior. Which has linked in a little bit to the training that I’ve been doing with Matt and Liz rod, [00:08:00] which, it’s been, it’s certainly helpful when they tell you the bricks and mortar of how to build a website and SEO.
[00:08:06] But what I find more important has been the, just the coaching and the mindset stuff. We talk about it in personal finance, you must save and you protect your savings rate, all determines how quickly you can reach financial independence. And, that focuses so much on the savings and investing side of the.
[00:08:25] When really it’s, the income side of the equation is probably way more important. There’s a finite amount of money that you can save, but, there’s no limits the amount of income you can generate. And that’s a big thing that Matt has been working with me to help me overcome that limiting belief, and mindset.
[00:08:43] So I think it’s been, yeah, it’s great. With every dollar I’ve paid, to be honest I think directly the stuff that I’ve been doing with them has been. More than already paid for the cost of the course. So I’m super glad I actually did it. It’s also great being accountable. So every Wednesday we have our our webinars and every Friday we have our webinars [00:09:00] and it’s just, it provides a little bit of structure for me for my time, these days, which is great because I as someone whose life had been ruled by the roster as we call it, Know, as you get more senior, you can pick and choose what, what flights you want to be put on.
[00:09:14] When you’re fairly junior, like I was you just sorta had to roll with the punches. And, so you end up with a lot of shitty tasks and a lot of, night flights and long haul and maybe stuff that you wouldn’t choose if you had a bit more a bit more control and seniority.
[00:09:27] So it’s been really funny to be at home and yeah. Living my own schedule. I think one day I dunno, I ate cereal for all three meals and I’m pretty sure I just wore on the pants. Like the day didn’t leave my apartment. So certainly been a few weird days where I probably would benefit from a bit of structure.
[00:09:50] So during the training course from that perspective is. So yeah I’m working through as most people know, I had an issue where I was like not being [00:10:00] paid correctly when I was flying. And so that was a huge sort of late. Drama to get that fixed. And what I found out is that whilst I was back paid and my super was was back paid.
[00:10:15] It wasn’t actually the super actually wasn’t back paid properly. That’s something that I’m looking into and I’m like having a chat to a lawyer about what I can actually do around. And interestingly enough you, when you do something as active as flying it’s pretty common for pilots to have issues with hearing loss.
[00:10:34] There’s a thing called tinnitus that occurs when you have exposure to like really loud noises. And you can get issues with things like, your neck because of things like G-Force constantly turning. And so look, unfortunately, I’ve picked up a few little injuries here or there hearing loss, tinnitus and issues from my neck and back from flying.
[00:10:54] It’s not major thing. But it is something I’m it’s a little bit scary. I have seen a specialist and [00:11:00] things on the cards were potentially like getting surgery, which was obviously pretty scary. But at the moment, just managing it with. With some painkillers and physio, which is working well.
[00:11:10] But yeah, again, potentially, maybe there’s some kind of avenue there from the medical issue is for some kind of compensation. I don’t really know anything about it or that to happen. But that’s a conversation that I’m having with with a legal specialist. So let’s see what happens.
[00:11:28] I’m debilitating over whether I should get private health insurance or not. I ran the numbers and for now it doesn’t really make a lot of sense for me to get it. And as I said, I’ve got some of these issues with my neck. And when I actually applied for one they wouldn’t cover it on the policy which was really frustrating.
[00:11:47] So you, you get into this sort of no man’s land where you’ve had an injury. You’re trying to get treatment for it. Nobody. You can’t get insured for it. And so it just becomes this liability. I’m fortunate in that [00:12:00] because I had private healthcare through my employer before I left work that I’m able to get treatment for that.
[00:12:07] And so that’s the, the physio and the met and the medicine pain specialists and that kind of stuff. But yeah, going forward that’s that’s just something I’m going to have to manage separately through them in those claims. Unfortunately it starts to get really muddled. But then the issue is, of course you want protection from potential new new claims.
[00:12:26] So anyway, I’m going to revisit my my private health insurance versus Medicare article soon. And just have a look at what changes I can make and feedback that I can give from my personal situation. But yeah, at the moment for me, I don’t think it really makes a lot of sense to get it, but my ears are open.
[00:12:43] So there’s a lot of people that are smarter than me, like doctors and that they all say you, we should probably have it. So yeah, it’s probably worth thinking about if you don’t have it. What else is new? So a combination wise I’m literally, I’m just renting a flat off of a friend, which is great.
[00:12:59] I [00:13:00] actually, I moved into a different apartment, but I had a whole bunch of issues with the landlord. They just did not want to do maintenance. And it was like, the bathrooms got really spongy, like inside the toilets, it was all like moldy. And there was like, I was calling in plumbers and tradies and spiky stuff.
[00:13:17] Every week there was a couple and I just thought like stuff this I’m not, I’m wasting so much of my own time. Project managing getting this apartment up to scratch for a landlord who just couldn’t kit two hoots about me. So I ended up breaking the lease and going to the tribunal which was really frustrating.
[00:13:38] And yeah ended up basically having to I got totally screwed. I had to pay up my bond plus they wanted extra rent and stuff. So I was really. I was really disappointed in that, but it actually ended up in a positive cause on the out renting this beautiful place off of a friend. And it’s not that much more expensive, so I’m pretty happy with that.
[00:13:57] I’ve got my eyes set on [00:14:00] some property. I would love to get a book lane in the hill spot. Rare as hen’s teeth, apparently, according to all the real estate agents. And it’s a bit tricky, you’re looking to borrow money in my position. Without a steady paycheck coming in, it makes things very tricky.
[00:14:18] So I’ve been building a property in new south Wales. So before I let’s see. A friend and I started a build together and we’re getting awfully close to completion for that, which is great. So I can’t wait to get a tenant in and get some income. And then, yeah, I’m talking basically with a mortgage broker about, how we can move forward, can I get a loan based off a business income from the website based off of a share portfolio and based off rental income.
[00:14:48] From the build, but only time will tell. So it’s a little bit of a case of hurry up and wait. But yep. Hopefully in a few months time that project will be finished. We’ll be able to get a tenant in there [00:15:00] and then we’ll make a decision as to whether keeping it as a cashflow positive thing or a, or selling it and either.
[00:15:06] Putting that as a deposit towards an acreage or just chucking it in the share market, just buying shares and having it for passive income. As much as I’d love to have a big property really it’s just a bonus, it’s not a, you don’t, I don’t need that. That’s more of a fat fire thing.
[00:15:22] And I’m pretty damn happy where I am. So relationship wise, I know a lot of people really interested to hear, like what’s going on with the love life. But haven’t had a lot of luck in love. I’m going to say I did meet someone pretty amazing really soon after moving back to Adelaide, but unfortunately things didn’t work out which crushed me for a bit.
[00:15:44] But Hey, say levy that’s, that’s what happens. It was worth the time that we had together. I did meet more recently a lovely girl, but unfortunately, again, things didn’t work out. I think like it just comes down to finding someone whose values aligns [00:16:00] with your values and.
[00:16:02] Without going into like too much of the dirty laundry, I think that was just like a bit of a clear misalignment of values. Like when it comes to like self care prioritization financial goals, life goals, that kind of thing. It doesn’t necessarily make someone a bad person just because, they don’t align with all of your beliefs, but.
[00:16:22] I think things like smoking and then like masses a debt, those kinds of things, like big red flags for me. So yeah, unfortunately we let that one go. So we’ll see what happens, keep keep an open mind and we’ll see what happens. Okay. Family stuff yep. So my mom’s treatment’s actually going really well.
[00:16:41] So she was diagnosed with terminal cancer about 12 months ago. And it was given somewhere from six to 24 months which was a huge shock. And if I’m honest was a massive reason why. [00:17:00] I wanted to leave work a while I needed more flexibility to come home. And it was like a huge psychological stressor for me.
[00:17:07] And I just felt like there was, I felt so powerless, especially when I was in Sydney, because there was literally like what can I do to help? I’m like a thousand or a thousand kilometers away. And couple that with my dad and his health issues, he’s not got long left.
[00:17:22] I really just needed to get home. So mom’s switched. She was on a PARP inhibitor and having Taj, and she was like a pretty strong pain relief. But they’ve switched it and went back to an IV drip Keylock, which is like a new a fairly new chemo. And it’s pretty good. She’s had two months worth of care infusions.
[00:17:41] Today and her cancel also for ovarian cancer. It’s called a CA 1, 2, 5 and her markers have dropped down significantly. They’re down by over a third, which is really promising. So the oncologist he’s really happy. And yeah, take switching to tajin from Oxy Oxycontin for pain relief has [00:18:00] been great.
[00:18:00] She was pretty like high the first few weeks. So we had to like Taylor, a out of it. So she deals with like off with the theories. But she’s doing much better. She seems to have much better pain relief. So yeah, like it’s going as best as it could like to shit situations, but we’re just trying to make the most of the time that we have.
[00:18:18] My dad, so he’s he’s stabilized, right? So he’s actually was surprised that he pulled her. Like he, it’s pretty amazing that he’s still alive. Unfortunately he’s lost his legs and he’s lost a leg and a half, these L one and he’s stable, but he’s continuing self destructive behavior.
[00:18:37] Poor diet alcohol smoking Which, amputees don’t really live that long. And then if you’re going to couple it with that kind of behavior, it’s it’s not really a good prognosis. So I’ve found it very difficult dealing with that. And. Yeah, it’s weird.
[00:18:53] It’s almost like this role reversal as a parent. Not that I ever had a dad growing up, but yeah, [00:19:00] all I can say is it’s, I’m like it’s a new territory and I don’t really know how to act or behave around. I feel a lot of like frustration and anger towards him, but then I also feel a of sympathy cause see it’s your family, right?
[00:19:12] So that’s a bit of a conflict that I’m still managing. But again, I’m glad that I’m here in Adelaide and I can physically do it, getting a car in 10 minutes and see him rather than, being in, in Sydney and it being much more of a difficulty. And the good news, I’m an uncle again really exciting.
[00:19:29] My, one of my sisters had a, her first, which was pretty cool, a little miracle baby. Born through IVF. My sister and her wife, they spent years and hundreds of thousands of years. On IVF and had this little amazing bundled joint now. And she’s just like the coolest little baby. I’m literally like weary of like newborns.
[00:19:52] I’m like not too sure around him, once once they get a bit a month or two around, I’m lucky, I’m like all for it. And they start like acting like [00:20:00] little people. Finger at the hands wrapped around your finger and stuff like it’s pretty cool. So I’m super happy for I’m super happy for her.
[00:20:08] And my sister-in-law it’s really cool. But yeah, COVID has obviously been like really tricky to balance with the whole family side. So because some of my nieces and nephews are like school age that, their close contacts from school. My brother-in-law is a therapist, so he, his job is like face-to-face counseling.
[00:20:28] And he’s often exposed and unfortunately him and, one of my sisters they’re actually a lost lighting with COVID. So thankfully the, they’re going okay. But it’s just, I can’t imagine how stressful and tricky it would be in that household. Two young children and all, if you’re dealing with COVID and then trying to work from home you know how hats go off to them?
[00:20:51] So the best I can do is like drop groceries and stuff at the door and run. But yeah, so look, that’s pretty much a [00:21:00] bit of a snapshot of my life right now. How am I spending my time? I’d say like maybe most days I would spend at least an hour or so working on, some of this website stuff with that, reading or training, or like writing some articles or, I’ve even started hiring writers for some of my other ones.
[00:21:17] And hiring editors and, getting a bit more Gucci with the SEO. I want to spend a little bit more time podcasting. So like today I’m actually spent almost all of the morning and a good chunk of the afternoon recording podcasts. So not only the captain fire podcast, but also I’m jumping on as a guest.
[00:21:36] That was really cool. I’ve done interviews with a number of different podcasts now, including JL Collins, Nomad Numbers, Amy Minkley from FI Freedom Retreats, Karsten from Early Retirement Now and many many others, which is really fun. It’s always shit being a guest though. Like it’s hard when you’re on the other side of the microphone, because I’m so used to like, dictating how the conversation goes and I get to ask the questions and it’s cool.
[00:21:53] But then when it’s flipped and you just ah, you just, sometimes you feel like a bit of a deer in headlights and you hope you’re not going to say anything too [00:22:00] silly. So I probably need to take some advice from my friend Louise and get some media training, which I have actually not.
[00:22:09] Could you tell so maybe that’s something for the for the, to do list, but otherwise I’m really just trying to live a bit of a slow life, I’m doing some training twice a week for websites and are focusing on physio and rehab. So I regained some strength in my neck and my back.
[00:22:26] And yeah, really just trying to spend as much time as possible with with family. It’s really funny actually. I bought it in I’ve never really had game consoles, but I bought a Nintendo switching it’s called just off like Gumtree and market prices. It’s a couple hundred bucks and I bought it because I wanted something for my nephew to have when he came and stayed.
[00:22:48] And of course, he loves this game fortnight. So he’s installed Fortnite on it and he’s worked out. Like we can play together. So he logs in from his house and I can log in from my house and we [00:23:00] can actually like digitally hang in the metaverse. So I think that’s cool. And yeah, so we just talk, chill, hang out.
[00:23:06] And then of course, his parents kicked him off because you gotta limit screen time. So it’s just, I thought it was just a very interesting way that, you can still connect and hang out with your family from home during these sort of COVID. So it will be really interesting to see the growth of the metaverse and its effect on society.
[00:23:25] Everyone’s saying, oh yeah, I went three, like many of us, like it’s the new internet, but I don’t know those kind of multiplayer gaming things have been around for a long time. Like when I was in primary school, we used to play a game called rune scape. Which is it’s called an MMO RPG.
[00:23:43] Can I remember what that stands for massively multiplayer online role-playing game. It’s like it’s ladies a manifest, it’s a place where everyone comes together and digitally hang out. And so it’s interesting to see this come mainstream and how people are spruiking this alongside the whole [00:24:00] NFT crypto space.
[00:24:02] Yeah. Anyway, getting off track off topic. So investments wise everything’s pretty much as per usual. I have got as per my sort of monthly updates I’ve got the bulk of my investments just in boring bog standard. I did tweak my asset allocation somewhat. So jump onto the blog and see it’s all sort of public.
[00:24:26] But I basically realized I had a big home bias concentration for Australian shares. And so what I’m trying to slowly do is probably have a bit more of an exposure to just the U S stocks. And so over time, I’m probably going to just be putting a bit more money towards the U S stocks. Obviously there’s things in there that like impact it, like currency fluctuations and hedging.
[00:24:48] I try not to overthink it. I literally I’m just like, okay I’m going to aim for a slightly tweaked. So initially it was like a one-third of three splits. And I think just off, [00:25:00] stop ahead. I think I’m going to go for something like a 50% us 30% Australia and 20% VU or. Minus America or thereabouts.
[00:25:11] It’s fluid and we it changes as I go along. There’s no rules here. I’ve also puts invested some money into a managed fund. So I went and. To a financial advisor, actually three furniture license as it turned out. I spoken with with one and then pushed on to two within the same company which has actually been great.
[00:25:33] It was really reassuring. So I went off and just paid like a one-off fee for service for a statement. Which was great. It’s good to know that I was tracking in the right direction. But it’s quite interesting. They did counsel me that potentially I need to be a little bit more conservative on my investments.
[00:25:51] And I take that feedback on board. And I acknowledge it, but it’s almost like a yeah. Acknowledge continuing. It [00:26:00] was just something we say in aviation, if the other crew members say they’re concerned with something that you’re doing. Whether that’d be like a speed on approach or, you’re you’re getting close to a limit or a tolerance.
[00:26:10] And so they might bring that up and say, Hey, like a captain your SP is concerningly low or fast. And, and they may say acknowledged, continuing. So I acknowledge that my profile is probably more, more risky than it needs to be in that it’s, we’ve got a very heavily weighting towards growth stocks and now actually getting a decent little crypto balance which is funny for someone who’s totally bash script.
[00:26:35] And instead it was a whole load of shit. Now I’ve got, geez, nearly. $5,000 or something. Yeah. It’s around about that. Yeah it’s certainly more, I’ve got more crypto than I have got cash. And yeah, one of the things the financial advisers did mention is that I need to look a little bit more at bonds and fixed interest securities.
[00:26:56] And interestingly, people that follow, obviously, I’ve tried investments [00:27:00] with some robo-advisors as well. I have about 50,000 in these diversified managed funds. And between that, I think I have a pretty reasonable allocation to fixed interest securities now.
[00:27:12] So I’m not really too worried. And I’m continuing to run this sort of flood. Experiment have you will with my investing balanced and having everything public I’m probably gonna, I’m probably gonna shift down to quarterly updates. I know I’ve been doing monthly updates and people love it on the blog and it does generate like a lot of traffic for the website, which is good.
[00:27:33] Yeah. I guess it’s a vanity metric that I, I love seeing the analytics. I love seeing people people coming onto the onto the website. It makes me feel, get all the warm and fuzzy, same as viewers and three listeners and feedback that I get on the podcast. But really, I think I’m probably just going to pull that back to quarterly because I don’t know.
[00:27:51] I don’t think there’s really much difference in the value that it produces. And I think when we talk about investing and like psychology really like [00:28:00] it’s, you don’t need to Hawk out your shares. Like it’s, that’s a good way to let it get your emotions, get the better of you. So it’s better off to just focus on what you can control, which is your lifestyle and how much money you earn and your work-life balance.
[00:28:16] And then just let the investments tick off over in the background. That’s what I did. I’ve got like auto invest ticking over. So any income that I am generating in terms of commissions from the blogs earnings from like AdSense and earnings from media agency. So you can get like ad networks on your website.
[00:28:34] So that’s something that I’ve done and get paid a little bit more than AdSense. And any earnings from that, plus dividends plus any like contracting that I’m doing plus, money that I’d been getting paid out for my leave balance. I just been letting auto invest take care of that for me.
[00:28:50] So it’ll be interesting. I’m probably going to have to like, Rethink that soon. If there’s no stable income and then I’ll just execute my plan, right? Which the plan was always [00:29:00] to slowly sell down the shares over 25 years at about a 7% withdrawal rate to provide me with enough income for for a lean fire, a single.
[00:29:11] To tide me over until I can get my annuity. And then from from there access my super and happy days, we’ve got the investment property is the backup and the websites business as the backup. And then, worst case we live in Australia. So we have the age pension as the ultimate backup.
[00:29:27] So yeah, I’m not like super concerned, but it, it is there in the back of my mind often wonder should I. I have left it longer, but then I just think of my family and think I couldn’t have, I couldn’t have done this. Longer. I could potentially look at it at a flying job in in Adelaide here, the Pickens are a bit slim.
[00:29:47] COVID makes things tricky and I’m actually really enjoying having a break from aviation. Like it’s lovely to not. Check the weather and no tans every day and stress out about, ah, crap [00:30:00] bandwidth. Are we going to get here in like a fuel planning and, issues with maintenance on the jets and that kind of stuff.
[00:30:05] Yeah, I’m enjoying this enjoying the shift, but yeah, I just wanted to give you guys and girls all a bit of an update about what I’m up to. It’s pretty boring on a. Like Ari is not exciting. Like everyone, everyone thinks investing is like the sexy investing exciting thing, really it’s boring.
[00:30:23] It’s it’s just trying to add some more money spend less than yet and invest the difference in very boring index funds. And that’s what I’ve done. What has been a little bit more exciting, has been the business. So I’m probably going to punch out. I’m a bit more content about what I’m doing with my business, what I’m doing with my websites.
[00:30:45] Probably review some more of the tools that I’m using and that kind of. Oh yeah. And obviously I wanted to bring up there’s been some guidance from ASIC recently about discussing finance and financial [00:31:00] platforms online. So as far as I can tell, and from the legal advice though, that. Here in, in March, was that some financial affiliates or a bit of a no-go.
[00:31:11] So that’s things like brokerage platforms cryptocurrency trading platforms and I’m sure property platforms are probably gonna be. On the hit-list scene as well. In that you’re not supposed to be like dealing and getting like affiliate commissions without a financial license. So I, review a lot of the products and things that I use.
[00:31:31] For example, To, had reviews of like steak some of the micro investing platforms and the current investing platform that I’ve been using, which is Perla. And all of those had been offering affiliate commissions. So if you put an affiliate link on your blog and someone said, You get paid a couple of bucks.
[00:31:51] Some of them were better than others obviously. And that sort of, I guess it led rise to a bit of a conflict of interest which I think is what assets are really [00:32:00] trying to hone in on. They’re trying to really focus on the people that are doing the most harm and there are. Actually assholes out here that are like actively trying to screw people over, trying to pump, cryptocurrencies or particular penny stocks.
[00:32:17] And a lot of that stuff is just immoral, unethical and illegal. That’s who they really going for. Whereas, I guess people like myself and there’s a lot of content creators out there who are really just explaining what they do, why they do it and reviewing platforms they use, like as far as I can tell, and from the legal advice that I’ve heard.
[00:32:37] That’s legit. That’s fine. However, just out of as a precaution, I have removed affiliate links to some products. You won’t be able to sign up for a pillar or steak or like any of the micro investing things and get you freebie. It used to be like, if you sign up with the captain VIKO and you got like free Bitcoin or free brokerage or something, But it’s just too messy and too [00:33:00] hard.
[00:33:00] So yeah. I’m not going to be not going to be doing that anymore, or at least not until we get some more guidance from from the regulator about what he’s actually legit or not. But I do love talking about financial independence and fire. The investing side of it is actually it’s pretty.
[00:33:17] When we think about it like that, it’s actually the behavior and the investor mindset and psychology. That’s actually important. It’s the earning the money. That’s important. It’s the saving, that’s important. The investing and the actual vehicle, like that’s really simple. You can literally just get a chest sponsor broker, figure out what your risk tolerance is.
[00:33:37] Grab a diversified exchange, traded index on portfolio and set up your automation. It’s dead simple. As long as you got low fees, and good exposure, according to your risk tolerance, you good to go. That’s something you can talk to a legit financial advisor about finding out what is appropriate for you, but it’s not complicated.
[00:33:56] You can go to a fee for service, independent [00:34:00] financial advisor, or like I have you pay your money, you get your statement of advice. And then the. Now you can either get them to manage it for you, which is always going to cost you extra money in terms of fees. Cause that’s how they make their money.
[00:34:13] Or you can go and do our it with the information that you’ve just received. All right. So a bit of a no brainer, right? But the important part. And I guess the part that I would like to see more discussions on is the other side of the equation, which is the earning and the saving and the psychology behavior.
[00:34:29] So I want to, I’m going to talk a lot more about like my career how I did what I did how I’ve like my different side hustles, that kind of stuff. Hopefully that will be, that we’ll be able to help more people. Cause the investing side of this stuff is pretty boring and I think that’s like how some people fall a foul because they over-complicate it like, I know I did otherwise oh, there’s gotta be some hidden gem.
[00:34:52] There’s gotta be a way to like day trade options or something to make them more. But really the secret solace is just [00:35:00] time, like compound interest is amazing, but you got to give it time to let it work. Its magic. Yeah. So anyway, that’s a bit of a snapshot. What I’ve been up to usually these kinds of segments I would jump in and answer a few people’s questions.
[00:35:14] So I’m going to have crack at least one. So I got an, a DM from Dane who basically. Okay. In this point of question, what is your opinion on ethical investing? Say look, I’ll be honest, ethical investing is something that I have avoided talking about for ages, because I don’t really know what I’m talking about here.
[00:35:35] I’m a really highly suspicious or skeptical by nature. And that’s just because that’s a trauma response, right? I’m normally really suspicious of everything and and when it comes to like finance, like you got to want to like water, peoples water, who was motivation, like why they trying to sell me this thing?
[00:35:51] Why are they trying to sell ethical investing? And greenwashing is like a big thing. And it’s where companies act like they’re green or like they changed their logo to [00:36:00] make it like, I’m not even joking. They changed their logo to a green color. Or they incorporate re the recycling.
[00:36:07] Arrows to make it look like their product is like recyclable when it may actually not be. So I’m really suspicious about like people that claim to be like ethical investors. And what’s ethical to you is not ethical to someone else. Okay. Yeah, but anyway, Look, ethical investing.
[00:36:25] It’s been on my radar for some time. I’m working on writing up a bit of a detailed article with some of my findings and opinions. And I’m actually working with some of the girls from beta shares. They’re going to come on and discuss like this exact topic. Since Spanish is has a couple of the more popular, ethical investing ETFs, like fare and ethene and those kinds of things.
[00:36:49] Again, like I said, I’m just, I am quite wary of the whole green washing thing where things that like sold as green or sustainable options without actually being that good. And I’m a LeWitt SaaS and how [00:37:00] they actually construct these ethical indexes. For ex for example, many of them seem to cut out like nuclear power generation, which is actually like from an engineering perspective, one of the safest cheapest and most reliable forms of power generation and, for all those people at, oh, you produced nuclear waste for, you can actually burn typical efficient reactor waste in a modern, fast reactor.
[00:37:22] So you don’t actually have these issues with, toxic waste, like you see on the Simpsons. And, obviously there are risks that need to be managed. Anyone who hasn’t seen the mini series Chernobyl needs to jump onto a streaming service and watch that brilliant series. I think it’s HBO really cool talks about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster with the RBMK reactors and just mismanagement about how.
[00:37:49] Those are reactors in the Soviet union would not appropriately managed or designed. So yes, of course there are risks, but anyway, I’m getting off topic here. But without [00:38:00] doing a deep dive just on face value, I’ve anecdotally seen that. Okay. Some of the awesome results of many of these ethical.
[00:38:08] R G in part to some very high concentrations in the tech sector, like Facebook or these kind of stocks a lot of companies which are flexible and progressive enough to comply with some of the ethical index employment and management standards, which are important, because it helps drive social change.
[00:38:26] I think the standards are awesome by the way. And whether they changed the way we invest I don’t know. All right. But personally, I don’t want my portfolio like overly concentrated on one specific asset class that makes it go against the core principle of diversification and spreading out my risk.
[00:38:44] I think the best thing you can do. Is to be an ethical consumer. Okay. Mr. Money, mustache has written a brilliant article on how to be an ethical consumer and why that is so much more powerful [00:39:00] for the world and, to help helping to combat things like climate change. And I’ll let you know when I sussed out a bit more about ethical investing and whether I’m going to like seriously invest in it or not.
[00:39:10] I did actually make a small investment in now. One is ethical funds through concept pocket, cause I was just like sucking. Concept pocket for my review. And that was like the market like tanked and tech got hit really hard. So I think I was still down 20% it ha it didn’t recover. It was down like half or something, but it recovered. So now, but it’s still obviously down. But I think that’s just like a perfect example of if you sort of stuff around with your portfolio too much, like you can. Make mistakes by overly complicating things. So by just keeping it simple is often like the best strategy, just the kiss principle.
[00:39:48] So there you go. Way long of a, of an answer. And I probably didn’t even answer the question so sorry, Dane, but there you go. Ethical investing. My jury is still out. Anyway, guys, I’m gonna wrap it up there. I hope [00:40:00] you enjoyed this. I hope this is the kind of stuff you want to hear a little bit more about like my personal life and how I’m dealing with like fire and early retirement.
[00:40:07] Let us know give us a review and comment on on the reviews. That’s always like the best way to show your support or jump onto the blog and you can leave a comment and start a discussion there. As always, if you’ve got any questions, send them through, I’ll Chuck it into the. If it’s a question that I haven’t gone through before then I’ll bring it up on one of these sessions.
[00:40:26] Take it easy as always spend less than you earn and invest the difference. Catch you later. Thanks for listening to another episode of the financial independence podcast. So read the transcripts or check out the show notes, head over to www captain fire.com for all the details. If you have a question for the captain, make sure to get into.
[00:40:52] You might even make it on the airwaves. You can reach me online through the captain fire contact. Get in touch through the [00:41:00] socials. I’m active on Facebook and Instagram as well as a number of online finance and investing forums and fall. Remember the information presented on the show and the links provided, oh, for general information purposes only they should not be taken as constituting professional financial advice.
[00:41:21] 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.
Have you read the following article….https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/finfluencers-bid-early-goodbye-after-private-asic-briefing-20220331-p5a9qj
There are some very strict rules around what you can say in regards to ANYTHING financial. Too heavy handed in my opinion. It even says all past content that breaches the ASIC rules must be removed. I really enjoy your blog and podcast! Will you continue doing these and risk the MASSIVE fines? Love to hear your thoughts on this topic.
Hey Peter, yes there is a lot of media circus going on at the moment with this, as well as a lot of misinformation and interpretations being conveyed as fact. To be clear, no regulations have changed. There have always been regulation regarding financial advice in Australia. I am not a financial advisor and never professed to be, this site just has factual, unbiased information and review content. I have gotten more legal advice and in the interests of full transparency and not only meeting but exceeding any of the requirements I am reviewing some of my content and have removed things like affiliate links (which has been suggested to be likely to be dealing by arranging, however, legal advice has actually suggested the opposite and these programs are widely used). I definitely love doing this and its my passion project, but I am carefully considering my moves and what risk this exposes me to. That might include taking down certain content or even removing the website and podcast. I am also going through the RG146 training package at the moment, and will explain more in this months NW update.