Loading summary
Transcript141 lines
- [00:00]
Gemini Advertiser
Bitcoin might sound complicated, but the Gemini Credit Card makes it so simple. Use it like any credit card, buy lunch, gas or your weekly groceries and you'll earn up to 4% back instantly in Bitcoin or one of over 50 other cryptos straight to your account. No annual fee. And right now you can grab a $200 bitcoin intro bonus. It's the easiest way to start building your Bitcoin stash. Go to gemini.com card to learn more. Terms Apply Issued by WebBank in order to qualify for the $200 crypto intro bonus, you must be approved by June 30, 2025 and spend $3,000 in your first 90 days. Terms apply. Some exclusions apply to instant rewards, in which rewards are deposited when the transaction posts this content is not investment advice and Trading Crypto involves risk. For more details on rates, fees and other Gemini credit card terms, see Rates and Fees.
- [00:57]
Michelle
Get Smoother, Brighter Skin Instantly in one easy step, Dermalogica's Daily Microfoliant gives you the smooth, glowy skin you want without damaging your skin barrier.
- [01:06]
Courtney Harrell
This gentle exfoliating powder activates with water to smooth out rough texture and brighten skin.
- [01:12]
Michelle
It's powerful enough to deliver results, yet gentle enough to use every single day.
- [01:16]
Courtney Harrell
Even on sensitive skin.
- [01:18]
Michelle
See the results for yourself. Visit dermalogica.com and use code smooth at cart for an exclusive. A free gift with $65 purchase. A heads up before you listen this podcast is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. We are not financial advisors. You should always do your own research and consult your own financial advisor before spending or investing your money. Please note that all income, financial information and expenses in what we spend are self reported.
- [01:51]
Host
When do you want to retire?
- [01:53]
Michelle
It's changed. So originally when I first got into the Fire movement, I would have been like, ah, get me out of work as soon as possible.
- [02:01]
Husband
I hate this.
- [02:02]
Michelle
I do not want to be doing this. I think it was more like sticker shock of just like, I have to do this every day, five days a week. I'd only get two days to myself. I only have to spend a whole day just washing my clothes.
- [02:13]
Host
Yeah.
- [02:14]
Michelle
And so I was like what? How soon can I get out of this rat race? Because this is just not for me. Once I did all those calculations, that number sat pretty firmly at like 35. I'm 33 now. We would still be on track, give or take a couple of years to see out that plan and stop working at least as much as we are now. By 35.
- [02:44]
Host
This is Michelle. She's a self employed copywriter with two kids and she lives on the central.
- [02:50]
Michelle
Coast of Australia, which is about an hour and a half on a good day north of Sydney.
- [02:56]
Host
What does retirement look like? In Australia?
- [02:58]
Michelle
They call it Preservation age, which is just like such a horrible way to describe it.
- [03:02]
Host
Oh, they do in Australia, yeah.
- [03:04]
Michelle
Preservation age, it's a waffle.
- [03:07]
Host
Besides the name, one big difference between retirement in Australia and retirement in the US is that in Australia, employers are required to contribute 12% of an employee's income to what's called a superannuation fund. And then there's also a government pension for people without a big enough superannuation. What's not different is the retirement anxiety. How do I make enough money to retire? When will I be able to do that? But Michelle has tackled those questions head on and figured out how to move her preservation age decades earlier than usual. She did it by being part of the Fire Movement, which is an acronym for financial independence retire early. Now, 12 years after she joined Fire and made retiring really early a priority, Michelle is just a few years out from her original retirement goal. But as we'll hear this week, her life now and her vision for the future looks way different than she thought it would. I'm Courtney Harrell and this is what we spend. Before we dive in with Michelle, let's talk about the Fire movement. Movement is probably the best word to describe it, because it doesn't belong to one original mastermind and there's not one central group telling everyone what to do. Instead, it's a base philosophy. You should not have to spend most of your life working to survive, and you actually don't have to. And then over the last few decades, bloggers and vloggers and podcasters and financial gurus from across the world have popped up with the their own take on how to do that. Nobody seems to know exactly how this whole thing started, though there are some central texts. There's a 1992 book called you'd Money or your Life, which spread the idea that a life of financial independence without work was possible way later. In 2011, a blog called Mr. Money Mustache gave all the secrets to how the Author retired at 30, and it just kind of snowballed from there. Today there's a huge Reddit community, a million fire influencers, and now different subtypes of fire. What are the different types of fire?
- [05:32]
Michelle
Oh, gosh, like so many, there's for example, like fat and lean fire. So Fat Fire is where you, when you sort of Reach your earlier preservation age. You want to enjoy like a very high standard of living with lots of luxuries. And so you need to have enough to be able to afford all of those luxuries.
- [05:53]
Host
On the other end of the spectrum, there's lean fire, which is where you.
- [05:58]
Michelle
Just want to stop working, like as soon as possible. And they're looking at like, what is the fastest velocity to get to that point? Like, how do I. What is the minimum amount that I need? And I will just like skim the fat off of all of the sides of that. Like, I don't need much.
- [06:13]
Host
There's also chubby fire, which is the maybe self explanatory, happy medium between lean and fat fire. Then there's geo fire, which is when you achieve fire by moving somewhere really cheap. And coast fire, which is when you still try to save a ton for retirement. But then after you hit the point that you could theoretically retire, you keep working to a more traditional retirement age, but less just enough to cover your current living expenses. But in every type of fire, the system basically boils down to a few things. So you're just working really hard, you're not spending a lot of money, you're investing. That's like the whole thing, right?
- [06:56]
Michelle
Yeah. And I would caveat that by saying it's not even necessarily about working really hard, but more aligning where your money goes. You don't necessarily need to take overtime or power through, you know, and earn as much money as you can. Although that helps because you have more of a pot to sort of work with. But more than anything, it's just about being really intentional with your money, really understanding it, like understanding the flow of it, understanding in detail how much you make and how much you spend and.
- [07:29]
Husband
What you have left over and what.
- [07:30]
Michelle
You want to invest in, and then learning how to do that. That really is the crux of it.
- [07:34]
Host
So the fire way is think about whether every dollar you spend is helping create the kind of life that you want. Then you'll inevitably end up living more frugally than you otherwise might. And you can save or invest what you didn't spend. Then to figure out how much money you need to have before you can retire. People in fire tend to use an equation, the 4% rule.
- [07:56]
Michelle
The simplest explanation that I can give you is that you kind of pick a lifestyle that you enjoy. You try and sort of figure out how much that lifestyle would cost you per year. You take that number, you multiply that number by 25, and that's how much money you Want, want to have in your bank account or in your investment, you know, vehicles your asset base effectively when you retire so that you can withdraw 4% of that amount every year and never run out of money. It's really not rocket science.
- [08:32]
Host
It's not rocket science, but it does take money to do this. Michelle says that too. If you are someone just barely scraping by, you just don't have the luxury of focusing on the future. Michelle spent 12 years focusing on her future and completely changing where her money went. We're going to get into the details of that in a minute. But today her finances look a little less extreme than they used to. In the last several years she's had two kids. They're one and five, which changed both her income and her expenses. But she says thanks to fire, she's still set up to coast towards the future she wants. Let's get into her numbers. This year Michelle expects to make 150,000 Australian dollars. And she shares finances with her husband who works in government and makes 180,000 a year. For context, right now one Australian dollar is about 65 cents here in the U.S. so between the two of them, Michelle and her husband are making about US$214,000 a year. But for ease, we're going to run through their expenses in Australian dollars. Michelle and her husband own two properties. They rent out their first home, it's a two bedroom apartment in Sydney. So they get an additional $3,000 a month from that. Then they live in their four bedroom house on the coast together. The mortgages on the properties cost them $8,000 a month plus $100 a month for utilities and wifi and $700 a quarter for property taxes, transportation.
- [10:03]
Husband
So 50 to $60 a week on.
- [10:06]
Michelle
Petrol and then about $5,000 a year for insurance and maintenance. We only have one car. We have thought about getting a second, but it's going to double all of these costs and I don't really want to have to do that when we can just try and make it work with one, which is just what we've done.
- [10:21]
Host
Their phone bills are 110amonth, groceries are $3,000 a month and pet food and grooming for their dog and cat is 100amonth. Then there's childcare. Their five year old goes to a private school where the school fees shake out to about $665 a month and they spend $700 a month for their one year old to go to daycare four days a week.
- [10:42]
Michelle
And it would be more, but we get A thing called the childcare subsidy here. So the government covers the cost of some of it. We get ours covered about 50, just over 50%. So it would be double that cost if we didn't.
- [10:56]
Host
They spend $120 a month on a gym membership that her husband gets as a government worker called a Fitness Passport.
- [11:03]
Michelle
Which is like quite a heavily subsidized gym membership. As long as you have this little card or account, you can go to any gym that's on the plan for free.
- [11:12]
Host
Her therapy is $200 a month, and then she spends $150 a month on subscriptions for her business, like a transcription service and her Google suite. And they spend about $50 a month on Netflix, Disney and YouTube premium.
- [11:27]
Michelle
I would play Ms. Rachel in the car because he, my baby because he hates the car. So I'd put Ms. Rachel on for him. And I didn't. I hated all the ads. So I was like, that is just, I'm just gonna swallow that one for a while.
- [11:37]
Host
They spend $3,000 a year on a combination of landlords and business insurance. And they have universal healthcare in Australia. But Michelle also pays for private insurance to cover any emergency hospital expenses or specialists. That insurance is $298.50 a month. What was money like growing up?
- [12:01]
Michelle
Money was fine. I don't remember my parents really. We had everything we needed. We didn't have like a lot. We lived in a very, lived in, grew up in the uk. We lived in like a semi detached house in a very small, kind of like rural village just outside of Essex, which is a county in, in the uk. I don't remember like really struggling with money.
- [12:25]
Host
Things weren't extravagant, but they were comfortable, always secure, with occasional vacations. Michelle's mom was an occupational therapist and her dad both had a full time job and then at night went to engineering school.
- [12:38]
Michelle
And my nan worked very hard too. I remember her like I was very involved with my nan growing up and she ran lots of like pubs. She was a busy publican in London. And that's hard graft. That's like a lot of elbow grease to run a, a busy London pub.
- [12:52]
Host
Sure.
- [12:53]
Michelle
Yeah. So we didn't struggle so much with money. It was more. What I remember was the amount that they worked. Like they worked a lot.
- [13:01]
Host
What did that make you think about what you wanted work to look like for you?
- [13:05]
Michelle
Oh, I just didn't want to do that.
- [13:06]
Host
Even as a kid.
- [13:07]
Michelle
Like, I did not want to work like that. Yeah, I just knew that there had to be more to life than that, you know, like, they just work so much, and they, you know, had a really happy childhood, and they did what they could for us, and, you know, we did go on little trips and we did, you know, we had beautiful Christmases and all that kind of stuff, but they just worked. They were tired, you know.
- [13:32]
Host
Yeah.
- [13:33]
Michelle
I just remember, like, I don't want to work like this. I just feel like this is not, like, where's the fun? Where's the, like, downtime? Where's the relaxing? Like, you know, And I always. I remember always thinking like that. And I remember, like, really, like, I found a diary entry once, and it was like, when I grow up, I want to laze all day, which has changed. I don't want to lays all day. But it was obviously there. The seed was planted.
- [14:01]
Host
And then when she was 21, she was working at a tech startup and a co worker watered the seed.
- [14:07]
Michelle
And I remember, like, talking to him about, oh, God, wouldn't it be nice if, like, we didn't have to work so much? Yeah. And he was like, yeah, you know, some people don't. I was like, oh. He was like, have you ever had a fire? I was like, no. And then he sort of, like, gave me a brief explanation, and I literally went home and just, like, gobbled up everything I could read about it. And I just remember thinking, like, this is doable.
- [14:34]
Host
Michelle started researching all the time. She started with Mr. Money Mustache, that blogger who retired at 30, and then moved on to other bloggers. She was watching YouTube videos while she was getting ready in the morning. YouTube videos during her lunch break. And she was like, you know what? I make good money at this startup. I'm going to retire at 35. And so what did you change about your life to start moving towards that? Okay, I want to be done in my 30s.
- [15:01]
Michelle
Everything was telling me that, like, I needed to, like, really peel back the expenditure. And I was super young and, like, buying everything. And I remember thinking, like, I've got to cut this back. I'm not sure how I'm going to do that. Yeah. So I remember printing out a bank sheet and, like, looking through all of the expenses on it, and I could not remember what they were for. Most of it was just. I just couldn't remember what it was. And I was like, imagine if I just got rid of all of this. This would have left me 70% of my paycheck to actually invest.
- [15:37]
Host
And that's what she did. She stripped everything away and started saving 70% of her income. And Then she showed her husband they were just dating, then her spreadsheets and was like, join us, the water's fine. And so then he starts saving the majority of his income too.
- [15:54]
Michelle
The money was just accruing really quickly. It was going from like 5,000 to 10,000 to 20,000, like 50,000 to 70,000. It was becoming a bit obsessive. And then I was finding that I was like saving on things that I shouldn't have been because there were things that I enjoyed and I was saying no to things that I'm like. But actually that's really purposeful for me. Or like I love seeing friends or I love spending time with this particular person. And I've said no to that because I don't want to spend money. And so there were just periods where, where I just went too hard. And I do remember saying like, I've got to chill out on this and actually try and enjoy the journey.
- [16:34]
Host
Based on that 4% rule, Michelle and her husband calculated that they wanted $5 million spread across properties and investment accounts and some cash to retire. Now with their two homes, their investments and eventually their superannuation, that's the Australian employee sponsored version of Social Security, they're on track to reach that goal probably in the next handful of years. Though these days they're just saving about 20% of their income and their spending looks different than it did before. Kids too.
- [17:04]
Michelle
I was a lot more restrictive back then. You know, back when pre children, I just had no other dependence. I had nothing else other than that on my brain. So that's all that I did.
- [17:15]
Host
Coming from that place where you're having so much success with something that's really important to you, you're moving towards this goal. Um, was it hard to decide to have kids?
- [17:26]
Michelle
Well, my son was a surprise, a happy surprise. So I didn't really get a say in the matter? Uh, no. I mean my children are my biggest joy. It changed my understanding of money in the sense that I for one, like everything I was doing was for them all of a sudden and not for me. So it was like a lot more kind of like emotional. There was a bigger emot side emotional price to it. But it just shocked me how much time kids take, which is time that you can't be working and time when you're at activities which are really expensive time that you're having to spend with them, which is lovely, it's a lovely thing to do, but it's just a huge time and emotional investment as much as the financial. And I think that really surprised me.
- [18:23]
Host
After the break, we'll dive into Michelle's week.
- [18:37]
Husband
Thanks for selling your car to Carvana.
- [18:38]
Michelle
Here's your check. Whoa. When did I get here?
- [18:41]
Host
What do you mean?
- [18:41]
Gemini Advertiser
I swear it was just moments ago that I accepted a great offer from Carvana online. I must have time traveled to the future.
- [18:47]
Host
It was just moments ago. We do same day pickup. Here's your check for that great offer.
- [18:52]
Gemini Advertiser
It is the future.
- [18:53]
Husband
It's.
- [18:54]
Host
It's the present.
- [18:55]
Husband
And just the convenience of Carvana. Sorry to blow your mind.
- [18:58]
Michelle
It's all good.
- [18:59]
Gemini Advertiser
Happens all the time. Sell your car the convenient way to Carvana.
- [19:04]
Michelle
Pick up.
- [19:05]
Host
Times may vary and fees may apply.
- [19:07]
Husband
Hey, what's up flies?
- [19:09]
Gemini Advertiser
This is David Spade.
- [19:10]
Host
Dana Carvey.
- [19:11]
Gemini Advertiser
Look at. I know we never actually left, but.
- [19:13]
Husband
I'll just say it.
- [19:14]
Gemini Advertiser
We are back with another season of Fly on the Wall. Every episode, including ones with guests, will.
- [19:20]
Host
Now be on Vimeo.
- [19:22]
Gemini Advertiser
Every Thursday you'll hear us and see us chatting with big name celebrities. And every Monday you're stuck with just me and Dana. We react to news, what's trending, viral clips follow and listen to Fly on the Wall everywhere you get your podcasts.
- [19:37]
Host
If you're an experienced pet owner, you.
- [19:39]
Michelle
Already know that having a pet is 25% belly rubs, 25% yelling drop it. And 50% groaning at the bill from every pet visit. Which Lemonade Pet insurance is tailor made.
- [19:48]
Host
For your pet and can save you.
- [19:50]
Michelle
Up to 90% on vet bills. It can help cover checkups, emergencies, diagnostics.
- [19:54]
Host
Basically all the stuff that makes your bank account get nervous.
- [19:57]
Husband
Claims are filed super easily through the.
- [19:59]
Michelle
Lemonade app and half get settled instantly. Get a'@lemonade.com pet and they'll help cover the vet bill for whatever your pet.
- [20:06]
Host
Swallowed after you yelled drop it.
- [20:12]
Husband
Hello what we Spenders it is day one of my audio diary. It's quite late. I've just got the kids to bed so feeling pretty exhausted. Bedtime is definitely a divide and conquer job for us at the moment. And my 5 year old is an absolute chatterbox and gets all of his dreams and life contemplations out right before bed and just wants to talk about all of like the most poignant like mysteries of the universe like right before he goes to sleep. So it can sometimes take a while. But here we are. So today was a pretty heavy hitting day for us. We the first thing that came out first thing this morning was our mortgage payments and that always comes out at the start of the month. In addition to that, I also paid an Invoice for a cleaner that came yesterday, so that was 285. Her rate is 60 an hour and she was here for almost five hours, which I think is very damning on how much our house needed to be cleaned. Now, normally I do the cleaning. Like, I'm a big proponent of, like, if you can try and do it yourself, give it a go because you might save some money. But I'm finding now, with two kids, it's really hard to find the time and to keep on top of it. Like, it feels messy all the time in our house. And I really, I thought deeply about this and I thought, well, I could, you know, dedicate a day every week to doing this myself because that's really how long it takes me to do a proper clean. But I am better outsourcing that job for a couple of hours and working instead because I can actually make more than I'm spending on the cleaning and I know that it's going to be done really well and I have the energy boost on top of it because I actually don't exhaust myself with a deep clean job when I'm already really sleep deprived and pretty postnatally depleted in looking after and caring for two young children. And I'm so glad that I did because she came and did such a fantastic job and I felt my mood lift straight away when I walked into the house when she'd finished because it just looked so nice and organised, like a show home. And I was just like, yes, this is the definition of an investment. So I'm really confident with that decision. I'm going to keep going with that.
- [22:54]
Host
On day one, Michelle also paid the $63.50 for their fitness passport. That's the pass that gets them into a bunch of gyms and $365.15 for their youngest kids daycare.
- [23:07]
Husband
The only other thing that came out was canteen fees. So I make sure that my son has $5 that he can spend a day up to $5 at the canteen. He never spends that much, but I like to have that money on his account for him so that he can get himself a zoopadupa, which are like ice blocks in the summer months or like a milk or a biscuit or something hot or warm if he's really hungry and needs an extra bit of sustenance. So when his pocket money gets below a certain threshold, it automatically direct debits and I can keep an eye on everything and what he's spending. It's well within the cap every day.
- [23:50]
Host
With their mortgage payments her total for day one was $8,218.65. Then day two started with a few more bills and errands. She paid $180 for therapy, $52.34 at the grocery store, and $7.62 on a coffee. Then that night, Michelle's parents washed the kids so her and her husband could go on a date.
- [24:16]
Husband
So me and my husband went out and had an Indian. That's quite a rarity for us. We don't get to go out very much. We also went to see a documentary called Wilding. So that was $30 for two tickets. They had a special screening at a local picture theatre near where we live, which is a really lovely little picture theatre. And they had a Q and A after. But it's a documentary about this kind of, like, acreage, farmstead, historical kind of farm.
- [24:44]
Host
In the documentary, this couple, who inherits a piece of completely barren land, brings all these animals, like wild boar and wild cattle, to roam the land freely, and it ends up bringing the soil back to life.
- [24:58]
Husband
And I actually think, interestingly, there was a really good comparison to fire because they were talking about how animals are currently traditionally farmed. They've lost a lot of their natural instincts, and when you rewild them, so you let them run free and you kind of let them take care of themselves on lots of land, all of these beautiful natural instincts kick back in. And I think that's very similar, actually, to Howie. Humans operate because when you remove the mortgage, stress, the money, stress, the materialism that we're all obsessed with, the stuff that's taking our attention and focus, we're more able to. We kind of rewild ourselves. Like, we're more able to focus on what we love and what makes us happy. We're kind of like muted versions of ourselves when we're stuck in these nine to five rat races. And I think that's originally why I came to the fire concept, because the idea of that, to me, just seemed so bizarre, that we had been tricked into living like this and this was so normalized that, like, nobody was questioning it. And there's just this. We're scared to admit that we don't have a good knowledge of money, that we don't know how money flows, we don't know how it works. Like, most investing is really gatekept. Like, it's not as difficult as many people think it is. But we think it's difficult because that's the narrative that's been fed to us, that it's Only for a certain member of society, the elite, that's not right. And like in the very early days of me doing this, by the way, I would like interview investors. I would go to financial seminars, I would invite CEOs and bankers out to lunch and pay and ask them how they built wealth. And people were very free flowing with that information. And it was very helpful in the beginning because it helped me understand and there was, I could see the similarities and the patterns with what people were investing in and what vehicles, like asset vehicles they were using. That's kind of how I did it.
- [26:55]
Host
I have to say, of all the things about Michelle's financial life, this was actually the thing that I found most shocking. That she had the nerve and of course the access to say to people with money, how do I do this?
- [27:09]
Michelle
So I remember when I would be interviewing or talking to all of these kind of like known CEOs and investment bankers, thinking there's something that you're doing and I need to know what that is. Like there's something that's shooting the lights out. There's an investment strat, like you're all on a net and I need to know what it is too. And they all did the same thing too. Mostly. Anyway.
- [27:28]
Host
Talking to people, Michelle saw a couple big patterns. One, they seem to be investing in longer term slow burn investments like property. And two, they seem to be looking for investments that would both keep growing over time and provide income on a regular basis, like when you get rental income on that investment property, which is also getting more valuable over time. Michelle applied those lessons to her own investments and she held on to the lesson at the heart of what she saw.
- [27:58]
Michelle
They just were very careful about their money and where it went. There wasn't a huge secret to it. But I do think the concept of wealth is very shrouded a little bit. And there's a lot of complex financial jargon and terminology. And when you couple that with people's money story, shame, just lack of financial literacy, the fact that they don't teach this shit in school, which just blows my mind, you know, they don't teach it to you.
- [28:29]
Husband
So it's day three. What we spend is today has been eventful. I'm pretty sick and my little one unfortunately has gotten really sick too. So I decided to keep him home from daycare today because he woke up sniffling and I just, I thought it'd be better to sort of stay home with him. So it was a bit of a juggle, to be honest, trying to, because I was on a deadline for a project. So it was a one of those like real, you know, like baby on the boob, trying to finished a piece of work, get it in before the end of the day kind of gig. But we managed and it's actually his birthday party this weekend, which is a bit of a shame because I'm gonna have to cancel it, I think. So I don't make all the other kids sick with what he's got. And to be honest, I'm probably too ill to actually organize myself, do all the meal prep and shopping and get everything. So I think it's for the best. But it's still a shame because, you know, it feels like first birthday always feels like a milestone, but such is life. So we actually had to pay for the cake today. So that's the first thing that came out that was 255.35 and that is quite a big cake. I don't know what we're gonna do with it, whether you can freeze it or maybe we can just see how long it'll last and then we might just do like a little contactless drop to some of our friends of some portions of cake.
- [30:13]
Michelle
I don't know.
- [30:13]
Husband
But we'll see how the weekend progresses.
- [30:20]
Host
On day three, Michelle also bought a Stanley cup and some Easter baskets and candy for $57. And then she paid her credit card bill bringing her total for the day to $3,844.87.
- [30:38]
Husband
Yeah, I'm going to end this one here because I'm pretty ill and need to get some rest.
- [30:53]
Host
Fun fact, you can't get pregnant every day. You're only fertile for six days, ovulation day and the five days leading up to it. Natural Cycles is the only birth control app that can pinpoint your fertile window by analyzing your hormone driven temperature trends. It's more than just a basic cycle tracking app. Natural Cycles is the only FDA cleared and CE marked birth control app and has helped millions prevent and plan for pregnancy naturally. Save 15% when you sign up today with code RADIO15. Learn more@naturalcycles.com this summer, Instacart is bringing back your favorites from 1999 with prices from 1999. That means 90s prices on juice pouches that ought to be respected, 90s prices on box Mac and cheese and 90s prices on ham, cheese and cracker lunches. Enjoy all those throwbacks and more at throwback prices only through Instacart.
- [31:44]
Michelle
$4.72.
- [31:45]
Host
Maximum discount per $10 of eligible items. Limit one offer per order expires 95 while supplies last. Discount based on CPI comparison.
- [31:56]
Husband
It's day four. I'm happy to be back. I've actually had a two week break so the last time I recorded I was probably sounding increasingly more sick. I had a bit of an episode. It all got on top of me, I think just work and life and kids and the busyness of everything. And in the space of two weeks my immune system just went and I needed to take some time off and really focus on recovery. I had impetigo viral conjunctivitis. I'd had shingles a few weeks ago and I had some oral thrush as well. So just a sign that yeah, I needed to take a break and I'm.
- [32:44]
Michelle
Really glad that I did.
- [32:45]
Husband
I don't normally do that. It's very hard for me to stop lifing altogether, like stop work, like outsource everything. There are some extra expenses that come with that, of course. And it's hard for me too because I don't, I don't get any sick leave. I'm self employed so if I take time off I don't get paid. But I'm really glad that I did it and it always makes me grateful when things like this happen that I have followed this lifestyle, this fire lifestyle, because it means that it doesn't, you know, hinder how I put food on.
- [33:21]
Michelle
The table or.
- [33:24]
Husband
Make bill payments by their deadline. I can still do all of that because I've got a reserve, I've got, you know, I've got an emergency fund. In terms of spendings though, we definitely were hit with a few big costs.
- [33:42]
Host
On day four, Michelle paid for a bunch of her medical expenses. She saw a doctor at a private clinic for $130, though she expects to get $80 back from Medicare. And she got charged $297 for a dentist visit, which is where she'd learned that she had oral thrush.
- [33:59]
Husband
And she was like, oh my goodness, you are really unwell. You need to understand what's happening with your immune system. She also prescribed like a antibacterial mouthwash which I've been using. That was an additional cost so I suppose that was factored into the 297. I also spent $76.37 at Woolworths, so I picked up some groceries, I filled up the car with petrol. $101.91 on petrol? Yep. And then I spent $16.15 in Kohl's, which is another supermarket.
- [34:36]
Host
She also spent $19.95 at the pharmacy for an antibiotic and $2.03 on a baby chino, which is not a tiny pair of trousers, but more milk with cinnamon, bringing Michelle's total for the day to $643.41. Day 5.
- [34:57]
Husband
It has been a fairly easy day today. I actually only bought two things today, and by bought, I just mean spent. So the first was we spent $300 on a termite inspection because we saw some wood shavings underneath a window, like a black wood dust. And my husband was worried that it might be termites. We live in a really bushy area riddled with all sorts of creepy crawlies and insects. Termites is one of them. One of our neighbors has mentioned that they've had termites before. So we definitely. We know they're. They're around. But that was 300. And then the other thing was $61. 14 on a dog wash. Because my dog absolutely stinks. Every time I take her on a walk, she finds duck poo or rabbit poo and she just rolls in it really quickly to cover herself as fast as she can. She gets a mad dopamine boost from that, but it reeks. Yeah, it's absolutely disgusting. And it has gone to the point normally I do it, I wash her, but couldn't be buggered. And also, I don't do as good of a job as the professionals do when they turn up in their cool little dog wash van or whatever the heck that is, the little trailer. So I was just like, I'm just. I'm just gonna outsource that. So it's $61.14. And that's all we spent today.
- [36:31]
Host
Total for day five. $361.14. Day six.
- [36:38]
Husband
Today was a very, very expensive day because we went to the Easter show. The Easter show is like a big agricultural festival that's here. And during Easter, once a year, you don't go to save money. It's really, really expensive. But I had a chat with my husband before we took my son. I took my son. My husband stayed home with the baby, and my granddad helped him. And we, Me and him had a chat last night and we said, like.
- [37:11]
Michelle
What is our budget?
- [37:12]
Husband
Are we gonna have a limit? Because my son's five and a half now, so he's gonna. There's gonna be things that he wants to do, and he's probably gonna be asking every five seconds, oh, can I have that?
- [37:21]
Michelle
Can I have that?
- [37:21]
Husband
Can I have that? Because they obviously have to very little concept of Money. And he said to me, I just think you should just go and have fun because it's one day a year and you don't go there to save money. So just do the things that you want to do. And I thought, yeah, actually, I agree with that. I think that's sensible advice. Maybe not sensible financial advice, but the reality is, like, these things don't happen often. And so we just went and we spent $400. The tickets themselves were $50 for the adult, and then I think 30 bucks for the kid. So 80 bucks just for me and my son. I probably spent maybe like a hundred dollars on different types of, like, food things. And then, like to give you an idea, I spent, yes, 60, 70 bucks on rides. All he wanted to do was, like, the fun houses over and over again. Seven credits a pop. And I have to pay seven credits on me as well. So 14 credits for us just walk through a crazy house. But he really wanted to do it over and over again. So, yeah, Issa, show one, me zero. Yeah, like, you know, you can't win them all. I think sometimes just throwing caution to the wind a little bit, if you're in a position to do that, is not a bad idea. And we, you know, this isn't something that we do a lot, but we.
- [38:54]
Michelle
Had a great day.
- [38:56]
Host
Michelle and her kid ended up staying at her sister's place in Sydney, so they didn't have to make the long trip home after the Easter festivities. So her total for day six was $422.
- [39:09]
Husband
It's day seven, the final day of the Diaries. We're pretty tired after yesterday's huge day at the Easter show. We headed home this morning. Also spent 9.90 at Kohl's. On the way home, I just got some water and some snacks on the train for my son because it's a bit of a journey. My husband charged $12 to the credit card to the driving range, so.
- [39:41]
Michelle
I.
- [39:42]
Husband
Guess they have my card on file, which is why I was charged for that. So I think he went and hit some golf balls at the driving range, which fills his cup big time.
- [39:52]
Michelle
That's great.
- [39:53]
Husband
Happy that he did that. I also had another coffee for the train, which was $9, and I bought my mum one. And then on the way home, I spent $49.85 on hair dye. I used to get my hair colored a lot, so it just took hundreds to keep the color fresh and looking not brassy or anything. Now I just keep it up with a nice natural hair dye, which I like. Literally cost me 50 bucks pretty much for most of the year. And then I pre booked my son a slushie for a little leaders camp that he's going to, which is like a vacation care thing. But the curriculum is really cool and they learn a lot of resilience and like team building, which is nice. So I booked him a couple of days of that and he really wanted a slushie so I pre booked it. That was $3.
- [40:46]
Host
On day seven, Michelle also spent $5.80 on some mandarins at a fruit shop, 98.34 on petrol and 165 on a therapy session, bringing her total for the week to $14,112.92. What is your dream for your retirement now?
- [41:08]
Michelle
To be totally honest with you, Courtney, the funny thing is it doesn't look a heck of a lot different than the life I'm living now. I don't want to retire at 35. Having kids has definitely changed that. You know, being self employed has definitely changed that. It didn't in the beginning. Like when I first got into self employment I was still like, I don't want to do this forever. But now work is a really important part of my life since having children because it gives me purpose outside of motherhood. And so that's extended my timeline somewhat in a way that was a little bit unexpected for me. I think realistically now I'm actually happy to keep doing this working how I'm working and then just slowly as I get to my 40s and you know, maybe early 40s and then mid-40s just peel it back, peel it back, peel it back and get to the point where maybe like I'm 50 and I'm doing like, I'm just working on writing books. I'm not doing any kind of like client work anymore.
- [42:07]
Host
Do you ever have the 20 something year old Michelle pop into your head and be like, we should be putting more of our money towards that future savings? Like I guess I wonder how these two kind of pieces of yourself interact now.
- [42:24]
Michelle
No, I don't at all. Because she's dead. You know, she's gone. Like she's just. Yeah, she can't come to the phone right now.
- [42:33]
Host
Why?
- [42:33]
Michelle
Because she's dead. She's gone. You know, like that I'm a different person. Yeah, we go through like various iterations of ourselves in life. And the person and the circumstances that I have now and the life knowledge that I have now is not what I had then. Life is like beyond all of the money, beyond all of the stuff like life is is just about trying to find purpose and make it better for other people and enjoy the glimmers and like my life is a lot more purposeful now than it was back then. I don't see her popping in, going like, you should save more, you should do this, you should do that. Like, I feel in a way I probably am just grateful that I worked so hard early on because it's allowed me to relax a little bit now.
- [43:15]
Husband
Yeah.
- [43:16]
Michelle
And just enjoy the and just be present with my children. Like they're not going to be this young forever. I'm certainly, I'm deep in the trenches of it, that's for sure. But it's beautiful. Like, it's just, I could not have asked for more in this life than I have now. Like, I feel so grateful and happy. Yeah. The old me is like, she was right for her time. She's not right for this time.
- [43:41]
Host
If you want to hear more from Michelle, she has her own blog where she's talked about her fire journey. You can check it out@thatgirlonfire.com what we spend is an Odyssey original podcast. It's written and hosted by me, Courtney Harrell. Our producers are Margo Gray, Kristin Torres and Justine Dahm. Our editor is Jonathan Menhibar. Our executive producers are Maddie Sprung Keyser, Asha Saluja and Leah Reese Dennis. Theme song and original Music by Matt McGinley. Additional music from 8pm Music mixing by Pedro Alvira. Special thanks to Zach Clark, Maura Curran, Josephina Francis, Kurt Courtney, Hilary Scheff, John Cherry, Laura Berman and Hilary Van Ornam. If you want to be on what We Spend, we'd love to hear from you. Write us at WhatWe SpendPodcastMail.com we'll be back next week.
- [44:50]
Husband
Foreign.
- [44:55]
Courtney Harrell
And I've spent the last 20 years building, running and investing in some incredible businesses. I've co founded a multi billion dollar unicorn and had my hand in several other companies that have generated hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. The more success I've had, the more people started coming to me with questions. How do you start a business? How do you raise money? How do I bounce back from failure? So it got me thinking, why not just ask the people I aspire to the most? How did they actually do what they do? I'm so incredibly lucky to know some of the smartest minds out there. And now I'm bringing their insights along with mine, unfiltered directly to you on my new podcast, Aspire with em. Agreed. I'll dive into the big questions everyone wants to know about success in business and in life. Through weekly conversations, you'll get the tangible tools, the real no BS stories and undeniable little hacks and that actually help you level up. Listen to and follow Aspire with Emma, Greed and Odyssey Podcast available now wherever you get your podcasts.