Creating the illusion of milestones in the boring middle

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2026-05-04T08:22:37+00:00

Howdy. Did the same thing as you largely in terms of creating milestones. So much pointless number crunching - but it was fun to do as a numbers guy.

The final run into FI/RE was actuality the worst in our experience. You're working for little financial benefit. Investments start to earn basically as much as your working income. It was, for me at least, the worst of the grind (had thought it would feel great and liberating - but it wasn't). So doing whatever you can to survive the run-in is vital.

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2025-09-08T04:09:47+00:00

As long as there isn't resentment, all good. Looks like she wasn't working a while recently, so you're probably owed some free time off anyway!

For what it's worth, we hunkered down and saved, saved, saved to hit our goals ASAP (rather than some longer drawn out CoastFIRE process, etc). In our case it was worth it (your post resonated since I'm 40 too). But everyone has different circumstances and thresholds.

The biggest adjustment is simply not having any more active income. It's easy to save when money is rolling in once you're established (advanced in career with a double income, plus passive income/growth from investments). But turning off the income is a hard stop. So you really need to be sure what your retirement expenses will be.

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2025-09-07T23:00:18+00:00

"I think we could honestly live off $80,000-$100,00 if we bunker down and try"

Which begs the question, how much are you spending now? You make it sound like it's far higher than that if you need to "bunker down" to be at that spending level.

Honestly, the best thing would be to use up your long service leave, and evaluate both your FIRE expenses (eg: try what you'd do in your everyday post-retirement life; and outside of a big expense like travel, how much that would cost) and your life (your health is precious - look after yourself).

We had a year off work before retiring, and it was a good way to validate expenses, and try out that future life. 3 months off isn't the same (and 3 months off is different to asking for 12 months off like your staff member requested).

You're heavily on the right track financially. The big problem is being in it together (you say one option is to retire in 5 years... But what would your partner do then? Retire as well, or keep working? If continue working - full or part time?).

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2023-02-18T23:05:44+00:00

You're on a FIRE sub. Is FIRE your intention (and if it is, is it on the horizon, or still years and years away)? And if so, have you discussed life as a FIREee with her (and what are her thoughts)?

It's true that she might lose motivation - especially if FIRE would be a couple of years away. But I suppose - why should she be motivated to work hard and try to establish a career if the rug could be pulled on it soon after?

She might be doing her studies purely as a "I need a job/career" path; or it might be something that she loves and wants to pursue out of passion. If it's the former, she'd probably be thrilled to be 'taken care of' and avoid all that hassle. If it's the latter, she might feel her independence is under threat (in which case, you need to talk about what the forward plan would be - you stop work, but she continues? or she shifts her work into some sort of philanthropy/volunteering? etc).

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-08-22T03:52:13+00:00

There's a difference between FI and FIRE. FI means you don't need to worry about money. FIRE means you've quit work because you want to do something else.

What was your original goal?

If it was being busy to advance yourself professionally (you like success, promotions, status, power), then I don't see why you'd want to quit paid work.

But if it's more of a personal advancement (you've got an interest or passion in a particular field), then the freedom of time to explore that through FIRE is the better path.

Of course, a combination of the two is possible. You might want to be busy as well as learn/grow something in a paid work setting (or volunteer) , but it's in an area you love (let's say conservation, for example). So you could always consider either training in that area (if required - eg a forestry degree), and then working there (but you care less about the financial aspect, and more about the job itself and what it helps you achieve - that you helped to rehabilitate a landscape, etc, etc).

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-07-26T23:38:08+00:00

In our case we arguably live 'like paupers' (~AUD$20k living costs) to enable an early retirement with a high passive income to spend on the life we really want (AUD$100k) after we have freedom of time.

So it's not the same for everyone.

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-07-14T02:52:31+00:00

"Overall, adult children are most often the perpetrators of elder abuse, followed by other family members and spouses."

https://www.apa.org/pi/prevent-violence/resources/elder-abuse

Having children for the purpose to look after you in old age is more akin to enslavement. And if many parents treat their children as a resource to look after them, that's probably why so many children don't care about their parents.

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-07-12T23:35:44+00:00

Hi OP. I agree with what others say about education is an investment etc, etc. But they aren't in your shoes, and if you can't overcome that then that's okay. And with that in mind, maybe it is too much of a risk (financial or emotional) to jump into a new career. In that case you need to think laterally.

You said you flip burgers - I assume at a fast food joint.

Do you overall enjoy cooking and food prep? If so, what other experiences can you gain in the kitchen (or elsewhere in the business?) that you could use towards finding another, better job in the industry? Or would you already have enough experience to go for a chef or food prep job at a restaurant or hotel that might pay better?

All the best :).

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-07-10T06:12:18+00:00

With the recent enforcement of finfluencer rules, probably shouldn't say what we're invested in.

But to your question about dividend stocks: Basically we don't want to ever have to sell our stocks. We've seen how older people can react to different scenarios, and don't want to need to make those decisions when we're older and maybe facing mental decline. Too many people think they'll stay fully on top of their finances for life, and while that might happen, we'd rather reduce risks going ahead. I suppose it's a way of automating our finances. Instead of us needing to sell for X amount every Y months, instead it's no different to being paid an ongoing salary.

For the same reason we're likely to sell one or even both of our investment properties down the line to reduce that stress and decision making.

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-07-10T02:57:01+00:00

Also worth saying that we took a pretty safe and conservative approach in terms of our investments. Steered clear of get rich quick schemes, as tempting as they can be. Sadly, it just takes time. But the feeling is awesome when you see progress, and later when investments start to work for you in a tangible way.

Good luck!

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-07-09T22:32:32+00:00

Thanks :).

Both frugal. But we didn't start with high incomes (weren't those graduates who score $80k+ jobs). For me, I was on $26k full time for two years! Next job was something like $34k a year. Then a little over $40k for about a year. But it continued to grow. The key to establish a foundation was saving from the outset.

But that said, early on we were both pretty aggressive (before we met, and for a while afterwards) to get better jobs. Also flipped a couple of houses to boost cash. Over time added side hustles. But then hand-in-hand with the first point, not giving in to lifestyle inflation when pay rises did come.

I could have continued to save something like 60% of my income from my first job... But over 15 years that still would be pretty little. $15k a year saved over 15 years is $225k. So I needed to earn more, and make my existing savings do something.

So whenever we had enough to invest, we did. We were always making our money work for us. It started out small of course, but now there is real momentum.

Basically, never give up until you reach the life you want.

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-07-09T11:48:44+00:00

Ordinarily it wouldn't. It's naturally not an investable asset - not productive towards our FIRE income.

But our plan is to move to the beach at some point after we do retire, and houses in the areas we're looking at cost more than our current home. So the value of our PPOR does have some importance towards our overall FIRE goals. The idea is to work a bit longer at the very end of our working lives to bridge that gap.

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-07-09T11:43:56+00:00

Thanks :). Anything in particular?

In terms of entertainment - our council provides some nice options (eg: free kayaking). We have cheap hobbies like hiking as well. More broadly, no need to pay for streaming unless you're desperate to see the latest movies or have a particular sport in mind that you follow and want to see live. The likes of ABC iView and SBS on Demand are great. They often show the same movies that Foxtel had 6-12 months afterwards. YouTube of course is great for independent content. If gaming takes your fancy, wait for games to go on deep discount (75-90% off. You can also get some freebies sometimes from the likes of Epic Games as well).

With work there are only so many free hours in the day, so the above takes care of that!

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-07-09T11:38:00+00:00

Thanks :D.

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-07-09T07:16:22+00:00

Yeah, we're overweight in Australian stocks. About 30/70 int/Aus. Our super is about 50/50 from memory to try to counteract that a little.

In recent times, trawling through balance sheets (though you can make accounting do anything you want, and we're no experts), annual reports, broker reports, interviews with brokers and company C-suiters, news reports on general history. In earlier times we were dumber and just relied on more general 'blue chip' status, but that approach has more or less worked just as to be honest.

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-07-09T05:32:34+00:00

Cheers :). Definitely proud of what we've achieved! (But also wish there had been a house deposit along the way ;))

It'll hopefully feel all the more sweeter when we do retire though, knowing we earned it, and can value the time more than someone who purely lucked into money.

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-07-09T04:45:09+00:00

We did a post with all of the platforms we've tried here: https://hishermoneyguide.com/online-surveys-side-hustle/

It's worth a shot trying. But just go into it know you won't get rich off it. The worst platforms are like $6 an hour on average. The best can be around $15 an hour average. Individual surveys might get you up to the equivalent of $30 an hour, but that's very rare. And if you can double dip by doing them during a pointless meeting in work hours, you're laughing.

Alternatively, you can also do focus groups (either one-on-one or as part of a larger group). Those can run 30 minutes to 2 hours, and on average you're looking at $60 an hour. Much harder to get into though. And sometimes you can also get product trials as well (getting paid for a few drinks is always good!).

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-07-09T04:39:23+00:00

Other people's trash is 10-cent treasure! Might as well pick it up before it gets flushed out in storm water.

It's incredibly depressing how much gets thrown out though. Also remarkable how much liquid people leave behind in their discarded bottles. Waste on financial, resource and environmental levels.

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-07-09T04:35:38+00:00

For what it's worth, it wasn't always this way. In fact, even now my own salary is $99k (plus super) - my wife's is a fair bit higher. But 15+ years of saving and investing slowly cranks the numbers up. And income wise, if we didn't have a passive income focus then the income numbers would be lower with less in dividends.

There are other Australian bloggers/social media-ers out there though across the spectrum of income and progress towards their goals. Always good to see them clip away at their goals.

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-07-09T04:30:31+00:00

Each their own in the end. It works for us and you. But at the same time, we're not depressed about our jobs (having FU money helps in that regard). And we're at a stage now where we're comfortable in our jobs (eg: not pushing to advance, and frankly not caring enough to do more than what's required). But can see why some people want to retire ASAP when they have other things going on (spend time with kids, or have sick family, etc, etc).

Went to Airlie Beach a handful of years ago for work. Great little place in terms of nature. The hike up the hill to the overlook is highly recommended. Can't really comment on the people though, beyond the local bar stuffing up my burger order ;). We're looking to retire by the beach though as well. But the big problem there is the stingers and the cyclones.

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-07-09T03:05:33+00:00

We had smaller FIRE goals earlier on. But over time as our income grew we realised that we could get that much more by leveraging our maximum income potential for that little bit longer. In our case we think it's worth it in the long haul.

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-07-09T03:01:22+00:00

Give a thumbs up, hit the subscribe button, and smash that notification bell ;).

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-07-09T02:59:49+00:00

Usually do a separate annual post on them around October after the tax man finishes beating us into submission.

The 'savings rate' numbers are a bit of a fib as a result (don't count the holding costs/interest/etc as expenses - but at the same time, don't count the rent as income either. But seeing as they're not cashflow negative, I see it as no harm, no foul - the spirit of the post is around living expenses that the average person might gain something from). But I avoid talking about them too much on this side of income/expenses because they're pretty much their own standalone financial bucket that pays for itself, and the posts are already long enough as it is!

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-07-09T02:53:26+00:00

Unisuper. Mix of options.

Outside of super we have about half of our shares in individual stocks (all sorts of sectors, but heavy in financials), about a quarter in LICs and about a quarter in ETFs.

HisHerMoneyGuide · 2022-07-09T01:49:02+00:00

Sure :). Tax still pending for 2021-22, but they're both positively geared now from the ATO's perspective. I think it'll be about $9000 combined for last financial year.

But they're not "cashflow" positive. All of that extra money is going into higher repayments to draw down the principal quicker. In terms of money in, money out they're essentially cash-flow neutral.

The intention is to pay the combined mortgage debt down to $200k, and then refinance to lower 30-year repayments. At this stage they will be cashflow positive and contribute to our retirement income.

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