How good would life be if you were debt free? No mortgage payments, or car loans. No credit cards. Imagine the weight off your shoulders. The financial freedom you would gain. The financial autonomy. Of course many people, probably most people, achieve debt free status over their working life. This episode is not for those who have already achieved this milestone. This episode is for those of you on the journey. For whom debt obligations comprise a significant portion of your regular income. We’...
Oct 17, 2017•16 min•Ep. 16
If you catch a snippet of the radio in the morning on your way to work, you’re likely to hear what happened to the Dow Jones overnight. If you read your news online or watch the news on TV it’s likely you’ll hear about the All Ords or maybe the ASX200. You might even come across acronyms like the NASDAQ and the FTSE. Probably, you know this is something to do with share markets. If you turn your mind to it a bit more, you probably know that the share market is where people buy and sell shares in...
Oct 03, 2017•15 min•Ep. 15
Today’s episode is the 3rd and final look at the most common financial mistakes I come across when advising clients. Thanks for your comments and feedback on the previous 2 posts, it seems that many of you have battled with some of these issues yourselves, and there were a few other mistakes that you’ve managed to make that, whilst being proud of them is perhaps not quite right, they are certainly something good for a laugh well after the fact. I’ve got 5 more for you today, so let’s dive in and...
Sep 20, 2017•15 min•Ep. 14
Welcome back. In the last episode we explored common investment mistakes people make. It’s not really essential that you listen to Part 1 before giving this one a listen, but if you haven’t listened to that one yet, perhaps make that the next episode you grab. Today we’re going to explore common cash flow mistakes that I see people make. I mentioned in the first episode that when I was first planning this post, I jotted down 12 ideas – financial mistakes I’d seen regularly over my 18 years as a ...
Sep 06, 2017•13 min•Ep. 13
Enough people have hit their thumb with a hammer for you to know that it hurts quite a lot. You don’t need to do the experiment yourself. I’ve been helping people as a Financial Planner now for almost 18 years, and I’ve meet many, many wonderful people. Often people put off seeing a financial planner until they’re at some sort of cross roads – they’ve been made redundant, or retirement is rapidly looming, or they’ve separated from their partner. So prospective new clients often come in to see me...
Aug 23, 2017•14 min•Ep. 12
Having a job and a regular wage is comforting and secure, except if you lose that job. UK stats say that 45% of workers will be made redundant at least once in their working life. I’d expect the Australian numbers would be much the same. In that sense, being a full time employee is very binary. Very secure and reliable whilst you’re employed, but when you’re not, there’s nothing. If Financial Autonomy is about having choices in life, then how does that align with being fully reliant on an employ...
Aug 09, 2017•13 min•Ep. 11
How long since you’ve taken a step back from your professional life and considered where it’s taking you? Is your current professional activity taking you to somewhere you want to be in 10 or 20 years? Is it leading you towards inner happiness? It’s easy with the pressures of mortgage repayments or rent, perhaps kids, and just the normal expenses of life, to push on, head down bum up. The problem is that can lead you to a destination when you are perhaps in your 40’s or 50’s and with plenty of w...
Aug 02, 2017•11 min•Ep. 10
When thinking about financial autonomy we are typically talking about medium to long term goals, and then developing strategies to get to those goals. The transition then is a planned one. What if your transition was thrust upon you? I met someone recently who faced this challenge, and with her permission, I thought it was worth sharing with you a little of her story and the learnings that we can all take. Financial autonomy is about standing on your own two feet and not being reliant on others....
Jul 26, 2017•17 min•Ep. 9
Financial Autonomy is about managing and planning for major transitions in life. A transition that many of us face unfortunately is divorce. I understand researchers have found that going through a divorce can be one of the most stressful things you can experience in life. As a financial planner, I often work with clients who have been through or are going through a divorce, and assist them in the planning necessary to get them back on their feet financially. In this post I’ve broken down the th...
Jul 18, 2017•14 min•Ep. 8
Many people that I speak to seek freedom from the need to clock on and clock off. To not be answerable to a boss. To not having to devote time and energy to things that they’re not passionate about, just for the pay. The dream therefore becomes to retire early, and the sooner the better. In Australia superannuation is the primary vehicle that we use to save for retirement, and access to superannuation is available from age 60. So, when we’re talking about early retirement, we’re referring to ret...
Jul 12, 2017•18 min•Ep. 7
I’ve known Nish for over 25 years. He was there when I started my first job out of school, and over the years our careers and lives intersected. These days, as well as being a friend, Nish and his family are also clients. For many years Nish was a financial planner, even running his own firm for a period. To have someone with that professional skill and background decide to engage me and my firm to act as their financial planner is to me, one of the greatest professional compliments you can rece...
Jun 20, 2017•14 min•Ep. 6
Starting a family is a huge step in a great many of our lives. Bringing a new little human into the world. So much hope. Scary too! Completely life changing. Financial Autonomy is about you taking control of your finances, and not being controlled by your finances. The focus of this audio blog is to think through the financial implications of taking this big leap, and what you can do to prepare for this major transition in your life. Also, if you’re reading or listening to this during the pregna...
Jun 20, 2017•15 min•Ep. 5
One fantastic and I find often overlooked way to achieve financial autonomy is to buy an existing business. In comparison to starting your own business where cash flow starts at zero and you need to support yourself whilst the business becomes self-sustaining (refer episode 1), when you buy an existing business, you have cash flow and customers from day one. Buying a business is something I can talk about with quite a bit of experience. I’ve bought two businesses, and for a couple years I was a ...
Jun 20, 2017•21 min•Ep. 4
I’ve named this podcast Financial Autonomy. So what is Financial Autonomy? What does it mean? Well that’s what we’re going to explore in today’s podcast I’ll give you a big hint – Financial Autonomy is about gaining choices in life. Buckle up – let’s dive in! Financial autonomy or financial independence if you prefer, is about being in a financial position to have CHOICE. In my role as a financial planner, every day I talk to people about their financial plans. In almost all cases, amongst their...
Jun 20, 2017•13 min•Ep. 3
Redundancy – not something most of us like to contemplate. Yet it is a reality for many of us in our working life. So rather than redundancy being seen as something negative, let’s flip it around - your redundancy could be the best thing that has ever happened to you. Financial autonomy is about building financial strategies to give you choices in life. And very often these choices present themselves at moments of transition. In this case, your transition is leaving the comfort of a work place y...
Jun 20, 2017•14 min•Ep. 2
So you’ve decided you’re ready to take the big plunge and start your own business. Congratulations. Having transitioned from being an employee to running my own business, I can tell you, you will be in for some challenges, but also many rewards, not least of which is flexibility in how you manage your time. I know of self employed people who like early morning, quiet, thinking time, and so choose to work for 2-3 hours from 6am, then take a break, do some exercise, have something to eat, and sit ...
Jun 14, 2017•17 min•Ep. 1
A brief outline of what we'll be doing in the Financial Autonomy podcast.
Jun 14, 2017•3 min
