November 2017 | Enough Time To...

My FIRE is Sputtering

Posted on November 22, 2017November 22, 2017 by Mrs. ETT

This is not the post I was planning on writing for you today. According to my calendar, I should be delighting you with the simplicity of asset allocation. Instead, I find myself tired and lacking motivation. The path to financial independence is sloooooow. We are looking at 15 years if: We (continue to) work at it The sharemarket gods remain benevolent, or at least continue to provide the historical average return We don’t do anything stupid when markets drop, as they will at some point. We are still in Year 1 of those 15 years. Besides being slow, working towards financial independence involves making lots of little daily decisions. Day

Kiama – Bombo, Blowholes and Bluebottles

Posted on November 14, 2017November 20, 2017 by Mrs. ETT

Mr. ETT and I visited Kiama, on the NSW South Coast, home to the largest blowhole in the world (according to a single tourist website). Fact check fail! We’ve been to Kiama a few times before, but only always as a short stop on the way to somewhere else. We had never made the time to stay there. It turns out this was an oversight I’m glad we corrected. Initially, the idea was that I would finally get on the back of the motorbike for a reasonably long trip. Mr. ETT had suggested Tamworth—a bit ambitious considering it is 5 hours away! I quashed that idea pretty quickly, so we

October 2017 Spending and New Habits

Posted on November 6, 2017November 12, 2017 by Mrs. ETT

After our expensive year in 2016, we set ourselves a goal to reduce our spending by 10% in 2017. We want to do this because it has a double effect. Firstly, it frees up more money to invest for our future. Secondly, if we can live on less, then it brings that future much closer. In 2016, we spent $80,000. To generate that using passive income and the 4% rule, we would need $2,000,000 invested! Yet another huge surprise this month because we stayed below our target. “Big deal, Mrs. ETT,” I hear you say. “Why wouldn’t you?” Because our food spending was “YUUUUUGE”. It was beyond yuge, it was stratospheric.