Aussie FIRE | Financial Independence Retire Early

Your FIRE plan might look perfectly reasonable on paper. But what happens when the share market drops, an investment property needs a $20,000 repair, interest rates rise or the government starts changing tax rules? And if financial decisions are keeping you awake at night, is the answer to change your investments, change your thinking or simply accept that some things are outside your control?

After a listener asks how Dave manages to stay so relaxed about money, Dave and Hayden explore why financial uncertainty affects people differently, how they deal with their own investing anxieties and whether...

Where should a retirement cash buffer live when most of your wealth is already in super? If you're aiming to retire in ten years, is it better to build your outside portfolio first or split your investing between ETFs and super now? And once you're already retired, does it make sense to sell a large share portfolio just to get more money into super before pension phase?

In this listener Q&A, Dave and Hayden work through three super case studies that show how quickly contribution caps, access to your money and tax can complicate what...

Travel is supposed to be one of the things money gives you more freedom to enjoy. But when a holiday can cost $15,000 instead of $5,000, how do you keep seeing the world without feeling like every trip is sending your finances backwards?

In this episode, Dave and Hayden compare the simple principles and slightly more extreme hacks they use to keep travel costs down, from letting flight deals influence the destination to shared bathrooms, camping, house sitting and even taking annual leave to stay home.

In this episode we'll discuss:

✈️ Why Hayd...

If the goal is to live off your portfolio one day, why bother selling investments at all? Could you simply build a portfolio that throws off enough income to cover your spending, ignore the 4% rule and leave the assets themselves alone? It sounds neat. But once you look past the appeal of regular cash flow, the trade-offs get more interesting.

Dave and Hayden explore what a higher-yield FIRE portfolio could actually look like, why income investing can feel so psychologically appealing, and where chasing yield can start creating problems.

In this episode we'll...

Retiring overseas might sound like a straightforward FIRE move. But what happens when your portfolio was built around Australia, changing tax residency could create a tax event, your partner has a completely different appetite for risk, or you finally start selling ETFs you have been buying for years?

In this listener Q&A, Dave and Hayden tackle three questions that show just how quickly a simple investing strategy can get more complicated once real life enters the picture.

In this episode we'll discuss:

🌏 Why home country bias exists in Australian por...

How much of your relationship with money was shaped before you were old enough to earn any?

In this episode, Dave and Hayden look back at their own childhoods and unpack how financial stress, family circumstances and the people around us can shape our beliefs about money. They explore everything from frugality and risk-taking to ambition, scarcity and the feeling that there is never quite enough.

This is a more personal episode of Aussie FIRE. It is not about finding the perfect investment strategy. Instead, it is about understanding where some of our...

Anthony Nguyen spent around a decade building towards financial independence. But when he got close to his target, he did something many people struggle to imagine: he stopped early.

After years in commercial banking, Anthony took a career break, stepped away from the corporate world, and discovered that financial independence wasn't really about doing nothing. It was about creating the freedom to do more meaningful work, build stronger relationships and design life on his own terms.

In this episode we'll discuss:

💸 How Anthony went from feeling the Sunday scaries in com...

Is the Aussie share market still worth it? Should a new investor wait for the next crash? And how much tech exposure is too much?

Dave and Hayden open the listener mailbag and tackle three questions that all circle the same problem: it's very easy to make long-term decisions based on what has worked lately.

In this episode we'll discuss:

💸 Whether broad Australian shares still make sense for long-term income, especially after a weaker dividend period had one listener questioning their strategy

💸 Why a high-yield Australian share ETF ha...

There are plenty of ways to chase higher investment returns. The problem is that most of them also come with more risk, more work, or both.

Dave and Hayden sort the sensible tweaks from the bigger bets, looking at ways investors might improve their long-term results without putting their whole FIRE plan on the line.

In this episode we'll discuss:

💸 Why quitting stock picking could actually improve your returns, and Hayden's two near-misses with Boeing and Qantas

💸 The brutal maths of individual stocks: a small number of huge w...

A few years ago mortgages were under 2% and cash earned you nothing. Now rates sit around 6% and every option looks different: savings accounts are suddenly respectable, offsets feel like a guaranteed win, and borrowing to invest looks scarier than it maybe is.

Dave and Hayden work through how a high-rate environment reshuffles the deck, and the mental shortcuts that lead people astray in both directions.

In this episode we'll discuss:

💸 Savings accounts are back, but interest is taxed at your marginal rate, and plenty of high earners forget that 5% is really mor...

Most people sit firmly on one side of the property versus shares fence. Dave Gow spent 15-plus years on both, building a property portfolio, hitting the borrowing ceiling, then selling down to fund the ETF portfolio he now lives off.

In this episode Hayden puts him through a barrage of listener-style questions on how the transition actually works, and why most property investors have never honestly audited their returns.

In this episode we'll discuss:

💸 Why the property-only plan stalled: maxed-out borrowing capacity, and cash flow forecasts that looked grim even wit...

Last episode Dave and Hayden covered the general idea of geographic arbitrage: take your Aussie wealth, live somewhere cheaper, retire sooner. This episode is the technical follow-up, and it's a sobering one. Brett Evans from Atlas Wealth has spent nearly three decades advising Australian expats across 65 countries, and he joins the boys to walk through everything that changes the moment you step on that plane. Fair warning: Hayden reckons it's the most information-dense episode they've published.

In this episode we'll discuss:

💸 The main residence trap: why selling the family home while you're a non...

After the recent tax proposals, plenty of people were half joking about packing up and taking their money overseas. Enough of them were half serious that Dave and Hayden decided to make an episode out of it. This one is the broad overview of geoarbitrage (or "geo-FIRE"): why people do it, who it actually suits, where they tend to go, and what it does to your FI number. The technical side, tax residency, visas, and how to structure it properly, is coming in the next episode with a guest who does this for a living.

In...

To kick off our FY27 tax-time series, Dave and Hayden are joined by Navarre Trousselot, founder of Navexa — an investment tracking and tax reporting platform (if you've heard of Sharesight, it plays in the same space). Because here's the thing: most of us agonise over what to buy, then put zero thought into how we sell — and selling is the part where you actually get your money back. As Navarre puts it, too many investors are "selling in the dark" and handing the ATO far more than they need to.

In this episode we'll discuss:

Would you sell your ETFs just to save 0.1% a year in fees?

In this episode, Hayden and Dave unpack some of the newest additions to the ETF marketplace, and work out where (if anywhere) they'd fit in a long-term portfolio.

They cover:

👉 BGBL vs VGS: half the management fee for basically the same portfolio, and why switching isn't free once tax enters the picture

👉 VDAL, Vanguard's answer to DHHF: all-growth and all-in-one, minus VDHG's 10% bonds, and when one-fund portfolios make the most sense

👉 EMKT and facto...

What happens to your job, your income and your investments when intelligence becomes almost free?

In this episode, Dave uses Hayden as his window into the tech world, unpacking what AI actually means for jobs, businesses and long-term investors.

They cover:

👉 How AI went from "write me a poem" to breaking big problems into bite-sized steps, and why the last 12 months surprised even the tech insiders

👉 Which parts of your job are actually at risk: why AI disrupts skills rather than whole jobs, and why the alone-at-your-computer work i...

Would you sell a property that's grown from $280k to $800k, even if it meant a six figure tax bill? In this episode, Hayden and Dave sit down with listener Lachlan to work through a big financial decision: whether to sell his investment property or keep holding on.

They cover:

👉 The equity Lachlan has built up on his investment property, and what selling would actually cost him in CGT

👉 Debt recycling and whether redrawing equity could achieve the same goal without triggering a tax hit

👉 Why simplifying from property to shares mi...

What if one of the biggest leaks in your budget is sitting in your fridge? In this episode, Hayden and Dave get honest about how much they're actually spending on food right now, and running through some hacks to eat on more of a budget on your path to FIRE.

The gap between a $15 and $25 daily food spend might not feel like much. But compounded over 20 years, that difference could be huge.

They cover:

👉 How much each host is actually spending on food right now (one answer is going to rai...

What actually happens to your portfolio when the world feels like it's on fire? In this episode, Hayden and Dave look back at how share markets have responded to major global conflicts, from WWI and WWII through to COVID, and what that history can teach us about investing through periods of fear and uncertainty.

They walk through the data most people have never seen: markets that fell sharply in the first six months of a war, only to roar back stronger than before it began. It's a timely reminder that the instinct to act during a...

When your landlord puts the property up for sale, the rent vs. buy question stops being theoretical. For Shyann and her husband, that moment became the push they needed to make a decision they'd been circling for a while.

In this case study episode, Shyann walks through how she and her husband approached one of the biggest financial decisions a FIRE-chasing couple can make, and what it actually looked like once they got the keys.

They cover:

👉 Why security and long-term control tipped the scales toward buying over rentvesting

👉 How th...

Today Hayden & Dave are unpacking an email they received from a listener. He's 29, originally from the UK, drives trucks for a living and keeps moving on after a year or two because the passion just isn't there. He loves to travel, wants to build wealth, but struggles to commit to investing when the next adventure feels a lot more appealing to him. He also lost his brother 13 years ago, which has really changed his outlook on things.

They cover:

👉 Why losing a loved one can make the "now vs. later" question so much harder to...

In this episode, Hayden and Dave dig into one of the most overlooked parts of the FI journey: what to do with your investments as you get closer to pulling the trigger. Does your strategy need to change? And if so, when and how?

They cover:

👉 Whether you actually need to de-risk your portfolio before retiring, or whether it's just a psychological thing

👉 The difference between accumulation and drawdown, and why the same portfolio can feel very different depending on which phase you're in

👉 Cash buffers, offset accounts and other ways to p...

The episode was updated on the 30th of May to remove some comments around assumptions around tax losses in the new budget if an asset underperforms inflation, as well as removing some comments around tax deductions which were oversimplified.

The dust has (somewhat) settled on the Federal Budget, and Hayden and Dave are back to go beyond the initial reactions. This week they dig into the real numbers, the philosophical tensions behind the changes, and what investors should actually be doing differently (if anything).

They cover:

👉 If and how our investing str...

The Australian federal budget just dropped and there is a lot to unpack. Hayden and Dave dig into the changes that matter most for everyday investors and the FIRE community, cutting through the political noise to focus on what actually affects your money.

They cover:

👉 The switch from the 50% CGT discount to indexation

👉 The surprise 30% minimum tax floor on capital gains that nobody saw coming, and who it really hits

👉 Why the "death of debt recycling" narrative doing the rounds online misses the point entirely

👉 Negative gearing changes, what's grand...

The federal budget is coming, and there's already noise around two policies that could shake up the investment landscape: capital gains tax and negative gearing.

Hayden and Dave break down what's actually being floated, and what it could mean for your portfolio.

They cover:

👉 How governments "soft launch" policy changes before they're official, and why it matters for investors right now

👉 The current CGT discount rules and the proposals that could change what you actually keep when you sell

👉 Whether indexation could be a better deal than a flat di...

Chris is at a crossroads and unsure which way to go. He's spent time in his career working in real estate, and now he's trying to decide whether to buy a family home, double down on investment properties, or pivoting entirely into a more aggressive share portfolio.

He's got a good case of analysis paralysis, and Hayden & Dave are here to help him work through some of the numbers and thinking behind it all.

In this episode they cover:

👉 How much Chris saves & invests on a $170k household income

👉 His ul...

Got a property and wondering if it's time to sell, rent it out, or just… hold on? In this episode, Dave and Hayden tackle two listener questions that a lot of people are quietly sitting with. First up is a listener who bought their first home two years ago is now craving more flexibility to make some big career moves, and wants to know whether to sell or become an accidental landlord.

Then, they dig into the age-old question of house flipping and whether or not it still stacks up in today's market? They'll walk through th...

What happens if the market crashes as soon as you hit FIRE? In this episode, Hayden and Dave get into one of the most practical and underrated challenges of early retirement: actually living off your portfolio when things get rocky.

They cover:

👉 The stage of retirement where you're most at risk from market volatility

👉 The psychological shift from receiving a paycheck to relying on a portfolio, and why it's harder than it sounds

👉 Why having a backup plan before you need one changes everything

👉 Cash buffers, flexible income and expense...

What happens when a government equity scheme starts to feel like a trap? In this episode, Hayden and Dave sit down with listener Steve to unpack his property situation and map out a path forward.

Steve is a self-employed sports coach earning around $120,000–$130,000 a year, with a partner on $100,000. He owns an apartment worth roughly $570,000, holds a $200,000 ETF portfolio, and used the Victorian Homebuyer Fund to get into the market with a 25% government equity stake still sitting on his property.

In this episode they cover:

👉 How the Victorian Homebuyer Fund works and w...

In this week's episode of Aussie FIRE, Hayden and Dave are unpacking some listener questions around:

👉🏼 Selling shares to invest in solar panels at home

👉🏼 The 5% deposit scheme for first home buyers

👉🏼 Vanguard ETFs

👉🏼 And investing for high growth with a 5-8 year timeline

As always, they'll unpack it, share their thoughts, and come at it from a few different angles. Hope you enjoy it!

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Pearler

Strong Money Australia

Original...

What would you do if $1 million landed in your bank account tomorrow? In this episode, Hayden and Dave get hypothetical and things get interesting fast. From taking on a gelato giant to debating whether a swimming pool counts as a financial decision, this one's a little different. But buried in the fun are some genuinely useful ideas about how people at different stages of their FIRE journey think about sudden wealth.

Ask a Question

FI Case Study Request Form

Pearler

Strong Money Australia

Original Aussie FIRE...

In this episode, we answer two listener questions. One on ethical investing and ESG funds, and another on managing tech concentration in a portfolio. We'll unpack:

👉 Whether aligning with ESG principles means reducing exposure to Australian equities

👉 Why assuming the US market will always outperform Australia might be

👉 What the ethical ETF DZZF is

👉 Why defining “ethical” companies is harder than it seems

👉 The trade-offs of ESG investing

👉 An alternative approach: investing broadly and donating the fee savings?

👉 Why adding more ETFs might not protect a portfolio from...

In this episode, Hayden reflects on 10 lessons from 10 years of renting — covering everything from bonds and inspections to negotiating rent and managing agents.

After a decade of renting across share houses, sublets, and full leases, he shares the practical lessons he wishes he knew earlier.

👉 Why taking detailed photos when you move in can save your bond later

👉 What tenants actually need to do when cleaning a property at the end of a lease

👉 How bond refunds work (and why disputes are rarer than you might think)

👉 What to know a...

This week on the pod we're chatting with Natasha Etschmann, or you may know her as 'Tash Invests' online. We wanted to know what life was like for Tash before TikTok, Instagram, and “Tash Invests” became a thing.

Growing up in a house where money was openly discussed, saving felt like a game she wanted to win. That mindset led her to buy her first ETF at 18 and her first property at 22, setting the foundation for the strategy she continues to build on today.

In this episode we cover:

👉 What it was...

Should you buy your first home with a 5% deposit, or wait until you have 20%? In this episode, Hayden and Dave sit down with listener Khaing to unpack the numbers and the trade-offs.

Khaing is in their late 20s, earning $125,000 and saving around 50% of their income. With roughly $68,000 available, they are weighing up the First Home Guarantee scheme against waiting a few more years to build a bigger deposit and take on less debt.

In this episode they cover:

👉 How the 5% deposit scheme works and the potential savings on LMI

👉 Whethe...

Is the 4% rule still relevant, or has the FIRE movement outgrown it? In this episode, Hayden and Dave break down where the 4% rule came from, why it’s often criticised, and how it actually holds up for early retirees.

They unpack the assumptions behind the rule and explain why flexibility, adaptability, and behaviour might matter far more than the percentage itself.

In this episode they cover:

👉 Where the 4% rule comes from and what it was designed to solve

👉 Why early retirees worry about longer time horizons and sequence risk

Debt recycling can be powerful, but the details matter. In this listener Q&A episode, Hayden and Dave tackle common questions on debt recycling and investing mechanics, including when to invest, how to place orders, and how to stay on the right side of the tax rules.

They break down practical scenarios listeners are facing and explain the trade-offs between simplicity, optimisation, and risk.

In this episode they cover:

👉 Market orders vs limit orders and when each one actually makes sense

👉 Whether to wait to debt recycle a lump sum or...

Property has worked well for Andy so far. The question is whether it’s still the best path forward. In this case study episode, Dave and Hayden sit down with listener Andy to unpack a real FIRE decision point.

They walk through his full financial picture and explore whether continuing to leverage into property or shifting toward shares makes more sense for reaching long-term passive income.

In this episode they cover:

👉 Andy’s current position across property, ETFs, cash, and super

👉 The trade-offs between buying another property or diversifying into share...

Is taking a year off work a bold life move or a setback on the road to financial independence? In this episode, Hayden and Dave dig into mini-retirements and gap years, sparked by a listener question about whether stepping away from work is really worth it.

They break down the upside, the risks, and the real trade-offs of pressing pause on work while pursuing FIRE.

In this episode they cover:

👉 What a mini-retirement actually is

👉 The benefits of a proper break from work

👉 Why going back to work can...

Is your super quietly doing its thing in the background? That might be fine, but there are a few details worth paying attention to. In today’s episode, Hayden and Dave discuss all things superannuation and walk through the decisions and investing strategies behind their own portfolios.

In this episode they cover:

👉 How their super strategies evolved from default options to more intentional investing

👉 When and why they moved toward high-growth and indexed portfolios

👉 The role of international diversification inside super

👉 Tax considerations that influenced their investment decisions