

Aussie Firebug
Aussie Firebug
My name's Matt, I'm a country boy for regional Victoria who is on track to reach Financial Independence and Retire Early (FIRE) by my mid-thirties. I interview interesting people on topics relating to financial independence. You can learn more about the FIRE movement in Australia here https://www.aussiefirebug.com/start-here/
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jun 3, 2020 • 57min
Episode 31. Early Access To Super
www.aussiefirebug.com/early-access-to-super/Today I’m chatting to Sam.A financial planner from around the Byron Bay area who had a really interesting path before he landed in Finance. Sam reached out to me after my Super podcast with James from earlier on in the year and explained that there was so much more to cover when it came to Super and FIRE for Aussies.Some of the topics we cover:- Early access to Super and what it means- Eligibility to get early access - Circumstances where it makes financial sense to withdraw your Super early- First Home Super Saver Scheme (FHSSS)- Sam's approach to the classic dilemma of investing inside or outside of - Super even when aiming for FIRE

May 14, 2020 • 1h 4min
Episode 30. FIRE & Chill with Pat and Dave
https://www.aussiefirebug.com/fire-and-chill-with-pat-dave/ What a treat I have for you guys today.I’m joined by two of my absolute favourite bloggers who have been creating Australian FIRE content for years. We’re speaking to Pat from LifeLongShuffle.com and Dave from StrongMoneyAustralia.com.Both Pat and Dave have already been on the podcast before... in fact, this will be Pat’s third time.How greedy I know…😜Today we’re chatting how COVID has effected each of us, has anyone changed their investment strategies due to the recent events but most importantly, they have some exciting news that coming to the Aussie FIRE space next week and that’s a brand new podcast they’re starting called FI/RE and Chill.

Apr 29, 2020 • 56min
Episode 29. Starting an Online Business - Games Like Finder
https://www.aussiefirebug.com/starting-an-online-business-games-like-finderToday I have the pleasure of speaking to Sam from Games Like Finder.com which is a curated video game recommendation database where you can discover new games based on what you’re currently into. What I absolutely LOVE about Sam’s story is he took a passion and turned it into an online business that helps out over 10 million gamers and generates up to an astonishing $4K a month in profit. Some of the topics we cover:- How Sam came up with the idea for gameslikefinder.com- What were the steps from inception into a product- How does Games Finder make its money- How much does Games Finder make- How much time do you put in each month to keep it running- Tax benefits of having an online business- Sam's advice for anyone thinking about turning their passion into a side hustleA full transcription of this episode can be found at aussiefirebug.com

Mar 19, 2020 • 1h 14min
Episode 28. Coronavirus market crash with Peter Thornhill
www.aussiefirebug.com/coronavirus-market-crash-with-peter-thornhillI chat with Peter Thornhill about the current market crash and if this is any different to previous bear markets. Some of the topics we cover:- Peter's experiences with previous bear markets- Similarities to the GFC- What Peter's buying in this downturn- DCA or lump sum?- Is this just fear and confusion or maybe a financial reset?A full transcription of this episode on the blog

Feb 6, 2020 • 1h 26min
Episode 27. Superannuation and FIRE
https://www.aussiefirebug.com/super-and-fire/We’re kicking off 2020 with probably my most requested podcast topic of all time… and that’s Super and its role in the FIRE journey for Australians.This is an absolute monster of a podcast (nearly 1.5 hours long 🤯) where I’m speaking to Super Guru James Coyle. We cover so many things in this pod and the topics range from “I know nothing about how Super works” all the way into the nitty-gritty technical details that hopefully will shed some light for us FIRE folk and maybe will help some people out there that are weighing up the pros and cons of Super when it comes to FIRE.Shoutout to everyone who contributed to the questions on the Aussie FIRE discussion Facebook group. I did my best to tried to ask James the most ‘liked’ questions from the community but couldn’t get them all in.Also massive shoutout to Josh for the transcript below and Victoria who helped with some of the technical questions we had 🙏Some of the topics we cover today include:- The basics of how Super and the pension work in Australia- Tax benefits of Super- The tax-free environment within Super and how it works in practice.- The major differences between funds and what to look for- Children inheriting Super- How it works from the accumulation phase to your pension fund- Smart things to do if you're 50-60 and nearing your preservation age- SMSF, are they worth it for FIRE chasers?- Women-specific considerations to maximize the outcome of Super (great tip below)- How do minimum withdrawal rates work in retirement- First Home Super Saver SchemeAnd that's not even all of it I swear 😅

Dec 26, 2019 • 1h 3min
Episode 26. Making Money On Youtube - Brandon
https://www.aussiefirebug.com/making-money-on-youtube-brandon/ Have you ever heard stories about some people being able to make a living by uploading videos to YouTube?You know what I’m talking about, those urban legends of a cat video going viral and the owner receiving thousands of dollar each month in passive income.Today I’m speaking to Brandon, a 24-year-old Physio from Canberra who also runs the Aussie Wealth Creation YouTube Channel that currently has over 45,000 subscribers and generates over $3,500 thousand dollars a month through YouTube Ad revenue. Some of the topics we cover today include:- Why Brandon started his YouTube channel- How to monetise a Youtube channel- What’s important when creating content- How much money you can expect to make per views- Other passive income techniques Brandon has tried- The Young Investors Podcast

Nov 26, 2019 • 30min
Matched Betting Feedback
https://www.aussiefirebug.com/matched-betting-feedbackToday's episode is about the feedback I've received from the matched betting podcast earlier this year. It's been over 6 months since I published the matched betting podcast and I've reached out to many of you who tried it through emails and surveys to get an idea of its success rate. Some are positive and others negative. I'm also addressing some criticisms that arose from that pod and to clear up a few things.

Nov 14, 2019 • 49min
Episode 25. Ted Richards
https://www.aussiefirebug.com/ted-richards Today I’m speaking to the former Fullback of the Sydney Swans, AFL premiership player Ted Richards. Although Ted has had an illustrious career in football, he is also passionate about investing and is currently the director of business development at Six Parks, an Australian Robo advisor investment platform. Today’s pod combines two of my favourite things which are investing and footy!Some of the topics we cover today include:- Investing as an AFL player- What Ted learned in footy that can be transferred to investing - The power of rules-based investing- Why understanding behavioural economics is so important- Six Park Robo investing platform - The Richard Report- Quickfire AFL related questions

Sep 24, 2019 • 39min
Election Results & Strategy… 2.5?
https://www.aussiefirebug.com/election-results-and-strategy-2-5/Like Steven Bradbury before him, ScoMo and the Coalition skated past the ALP for a come from behind victory and with it, the franking credit refunds will remain for the foreseeable future.Now that the election has passed, it seems like things should proceed as per normal right? Well... about that. Today's episode dives into our modified strategy for 🔥 and how this years election taught us a valuable lesson in legislation risks when investing.

Jun 16, 2019 • 55min
Episode 24. Playing With FIRE London Premiere
https://www.aussiefirebug.com/playing-with-fire-london-premiere/In today's episode, I'm speaking with two other Aussie’s (Tom and Ricky) who were with me at the premiere of the FIRE documentary ‘Playing with FIRE’ which follows 35 year old Scott Rickens, his wife Taylor, and their toddler Jovi as they embark on a year-long odyssey to understand the rules of this sub-culture and test their willingness to reject the standard narrative of adult life.I want to just congratulate Travis and the whole team who was involved in the creation of Playing with FIRE. The film is fantastic and I would recommend it to anyone as it’s a super interesting documentary starring so many of our favourite FIRE bloggers and surprisingly was very funny as well.Some of the topics we cover today include:The events that lead up to the PremiereOur initial thoughts after watching the filmThings we liked and things we wanted to see more of in the documentary Talked about how hard it must have been to fit an entire concept like FIRE within 90 minutes The Q&A session after the filmAnd pretty much everything else we ended up talking about!