Aussie FIRE | Financial Independence Retire Early

About Aussie FIRE | Financial Independence Retire Early

The Aussie FIRE podcast is the ultimate guide to Financial Independence for Australians. Having started life as an e-book, then an audiobook, it's now reached its final form: a podcast that will keep on giving. The Aussie FIRE audiobook is brought to you by Pearler, Australia's favourite long-term investing community; and Dave Gow, the brains behind Strong Money Australia. Each episode explores a different aspect of Financial Independence, so stay tuned for new releases! https://pearler.com (https://pearler.com) https://strongmoneyaustralia.com/ (https://strongmoneyaustralia.com/) DISCLAIMER: We’re big fans of sharing experiences and talking about money. However, please note that any advice is general, and does not consider your financial situation, needs, or objectives. Consider whether it's appropriate for you, and if in doubt, speak to a licensed financial adviser. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Publisher

Hayden Smith & Dave Gow

Category

business · business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

22 Apr 2023

Latest episode

9 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

125 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   9 Oct 2026

   95. How to travel without killing your savings

   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 Hayden thinks a typical one-to-three-week trip can be roughly one-third flights, one-third accommodation and one-third everything else, and why that puts the biggest savings opportunities in two obvious places. 💸 How spending $5,000 instead of $15,000 on a trip can change what remains available to invest, and why delaying the most expensive destinations can be different from giving them up altogether. ⚡ Why the best low-cost airline deals can disappear within hours, and why flexible travellers may get better value by letting the deal influence the destination instead of starting with a fixed itinerary. 🏨 What paying an extra $50 for your own bathroom reveals about how quickly comfort upgrades can become automatic, even when you barely use the room. 🏕️ How hostels, pods, campsites and house sitting can make expensive destinations more accessible without turning every holiday into a bare-bones endurance test. 🧠 Why "travel inflation" can work a lot like lifestyle inflation, and how gradually expanding your comfort zone can change what feels acceptable to spend. 🏡 Why Dave sees taking annual leave and staying home as a legitimate travel hack, especially if holidays are becoming the only escape from a working year you do not enjoy. 📅 Why booking flexible accommodation early, checking prices again later and travelling outside peak periods can sometimes matter more than obsessing over small daily purchases. 🔥 How financial independence, semi-retirement and flexible work can create another kind of travel advantage: the ability to jump on cheap dates and inconvenient times other people cannot use. The thread through all of it is not that cheap travel is automatically better. It is that travel spending is another lifestyle choice where flexibility, timing and knowing what you actually value can matter just as much as the headline price. The more deliberately you make those trade-offs, the easier it can be to keep travel in the plan without quietly turning it into another form of lifestyle inflation. Questions, disagreements or your own scenario: hello@aussiefirepod.com (mailto:hello@aussiefirepod.com) or reach out on socials at Strong Money Australia and Pearler. Follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/aussiefirepodcast/) Watch on Youtube (https://youtube.com/@aussiefirepodcast?si=ECenJH2w2AoZFTDb) Ask a Question (https://airtable.com/appm1Qj814tgX3I0O/shr50DPEI7iKsbNrG) FI Case Study Request Form (https://airtable.com/appm1Qj814tgX3I0O/pagP8jSwwyeYskjRk/form) Pearler (https://pearler.com/) Strong Money Australia (https://strongmoneyaustralia.com/) Original Aussie FIRE e-book (https://pearler.com/learn/read/category/aussie-fire-ebook-and-podcast) Dave's books on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com.au/stores/author/B0BNL7WHM6) and Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/author/0XP2oVmixNv9sVfUd5riI6) Disclaimer: Any advice is general and does not consider your financial situation needs, or objectives, so consider whether it's appropriate for you. You should also consider seeking professional advice before making any financial decision. Pearler is an Authorised Representative 1281540 of Sanlam Private Wealth Pty Ltd AFSL 337927. Read the FSG available from https://pearler.com/financial-services-guide (https://pearler.com/financial-services-guide) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

2. 

   2 Oct 2026

   94. Can you just live off high yield?

   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 discuss: 💰 Whether living purely off investment income could offer an alternative to regularly selling assets under a more traditional FIRE withdrawal strategy. 📈 Why total return still matters, even when a portfolio's dividend or distribution yield looks attractive on its own. 🧠 Why receiving regular investment income can feel easier than selling shares, especially once your portfolio becomes your main source of spending money. 🇦🇺 Why Australian shares have traditionally offered more income than US shares, and how that can shape the way local investors think about retirement portfolios. 🏠 How rental property, commercial property, peer-to-peer lending, savings accounts, shares and ETFs could all play different roles in a higher-yield portfolio. 🧾 Why tax settings can influence the appeal of income versus capital growth, while also making it risky to build an entire investing approach around today's rules. 📊 Why a 6% portfolio yield is not the same thing as a free extra 2% compared with a 4% withdrawal rate, particularly if higher income comes with lower long-term growth. 🏢 How listed investment companies can smooth income differently from index funds, and why the way they generate distributions can vary considerably. ⚠️ Why high-yield assets can bring their own risks, from loan defaults and property cycles to debt-heavy REITs cutting or freezing distributions. 🔄 Why Dave has moved away from a strong yield bias towards a more balanced mix of growth and income, while Hayden is reconsidering where income might fit in his own approach. The broader tension is simple: reliable income can make a portfolio easier to live with, but yield is only one part of the return you receive. For long-term investors, the interesting question is not whether income or growth is universally better. It is how the trade-off fits the life the portfolio is meant to fund. Questions, disagreements or your own scenario: hello@aussiefirepod.com (mailto:hello@aussiefirepod.com) or reach out on socials at Strong Money Australia and Pearler. Follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/aussiefirepodcast/) Watch on Youtube (https://youtube.com/@aussiefirepodcast?si=ECenJH2w2AoZFTDb) Ask a Question (https://airtable.com/appm1Qj814tgX3I0O/shr50DPEI7iKsbNrG) FI Case Study Request Form (https://airtable.com/appm1Qj814tgX3I0O/pagP8jSwwyeYskjRk/form) Pearler (https://pearler.com/) Strong Money Australia (https://strongmoneyaustralia.com/) Original Aussie FIRE e-book (https://pearler.com/learn/read/category/aussie-fire-ebook-and-podcast) Dave's books on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com.au/stores/author/B0BNL7WHM6) and Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/author/0XP2oVmixNv9sVfUd5riI6) Disclaimer: Any advice is general and does not consider your financial situation needs, or objectives, so consider whether it's appropriate for you. You should also consider seeking professional advice before making any financial decision. Pearler is an Authorised Representative 1281540 of Sanlam Private Wealth Pty Ltd AFSL 337927. Read the FSG available from https://pearler.com/financial-services-guide (https://pearler.com/financial-services-guide) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

3. 

   25 Sept 2026

   93. Q&A: Optimising CGT, home bias and when spouses don't agree

   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 portfolios, and whether it still makes sense if you plan to live somewhere else. 💸 What changing your Australian tax residency could mean for a portfolio you have spent years building. 🧾 Why simply holding investments through an overseas brokerage account may not remove the Australian tax considerations discussed in the episode. 🤝 What happens when one partner is comfortable riding out market crashes and the other is much more cautious about equities. 📉 Why your theoretical risk tolerance and your actual reaction to a large market fall may be two very different things. 🏠 Why some investors can view highly leveraged property as "safe" while seeing share market volatility as risky. ⚖️ How couples with different risk tolerances might find a middle ground without forcing either person into a strategy they cannot live with. 🔥 Why getting to financial independence does not necessarily require massive investment risk or spectacular returns, particularly during the earlier wealth-building years. 📊 When you sell part of an ETF holding, how do you know which of the parcels you bought over the years you are actually selling? 🧮 Why choosing which ETF parcel to sell can ultimately become a question of when you pay tax, not simply how much you sell. The thread through all of it: FIRE can look beautifully simple in a spreadsheet. Then tax residency, relationships, leverage, market crashes and eventually selling your investments turn up. Understanding those trade-offs before they matter can make the real-world version of the plan a lot easier to navigate. Questions, disagreements or your own scenario: hello@aussiefirepod.com (mailto:hello@aussiefirepod.com) or reach out on socials at Strong Money Australia and Pearler. Follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/aussiefirepodcast/) Watch on Youtube (https://youtube.com/@aussiefirepodcast?si=ECenJH2w2AoZFTDb) Ask a Question (https://airtable.com/appm1Qj814tgX3I0O/shr50DPEI7iKsbNrG) FI Case Study Request Form (https://airtable.com/appm1Qj814tgX3I0O/pagP8jSwwyeYskjRk/form) Pearler (https://pearler.com/) Strong Money Australia (https://strongmoneyaustralia.com/) Original Aussie FIRE e-book (https://pearler.com/learn/read/category/aussie-fire-ebook-and-podcast) Dave's books on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com.au/stores/author/B0BNL7WHM6) and Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/author/0XP2oVmixNv9sVfUd5riI6) Disclaimer: Any advice is general and does not consider your financial situation needs, or objectives, so consider whether it's appropriate for you. You should also consider seeking professional advice before making any financial decision. Pearler is an Authorised Representative 1281540 of Sanlam Private Wealth Pty Ltd AFSL 337927. Read the FSG available from https://pearler.com/financial-services-guide (https://pearler.com/financial-services-guide) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Podcast Authority Score: 27 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

53

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

0

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