• Life,  Stock Market

    What I Learnt From Losing $40,000

    Back again guys! I hope everyone enjoyed my previous post – the one where I gave myself a good paper-cut and squeezed some lemon juice onto old memories just for your viewing pleasure. There’s been a fair amount of messages about that episode, mainly around what I did next, what I learnt, what I’m wearing when I type out a post. To be frank (Anne – come and find me, oh dear “shakes head”) I took that hit pretty hard. I mean it wasn’t like I blinked twice slowly and then continued with whatever I was doing, it was a good 18 months or so before I could contemplate investing again…

  • FIRE

    How’s Your Mindset?

    HAY GUYS – how are you? Ready for another post? Of course you are! Before I get in stuck in have to say I received plenty of public and private messages for the last post about FIRE. Looks like it’s a topic which strikes a chord with many people. Hats off to Banesan for pointing out that in order to retire early you can just move to a developing country, in fact it’s what a lot of people who have achieved FIRE do. The USD or AUD goes a long way in those places. Ooo also before I forget, I’ll sneak in a big thank you for everyone who’s read and supported…

  • FIRE

    How I Got Started With FIRE

    Wait, what do you mean how you got started with FIRE? Do you mean FIRE as in exothermic combustion? Careful there laddie, explain yourself. No sir, nothing as malicious as that – I meant FIRE as in Financial Independence Retire Early. It’s a pretty novel concept and sort of a movement which originated in the USA. Here in Australia though, I haven’t really heard of anyone achieving FIRE. Mind you, I don’t expect the ones who have “retired early” to sit home and play Call of Duty all day. I’m sure once you reach a level where you can retire young, you don’t. Life’s too short to sit around shooting…

  • Life

    What I learnt during the Melbourne Cup!

    And they’re off! “GALLOP, GALLOP”, “NEIGH, NEIGH” That’s the sound that stops a nation. Here in Australia, every first Tuesday of November, we have the world famous Melbourne Cup – a $6.2 million horse race which is watched all around the globe. It only lasts about 3 minutes, but the amount of money spent betting on this race day amounts to around half a billion. Strewth! Half a billion! What’s more is that you hear stories of the wins and success stories of the successful punters STRAIGHT after. “The big winners were everywhere on Cup day. One lucky punter has come away with $151,255 from a $50 boxed trifecta. Another…

  • Life

    Watch out! Here comes $30 million!

    A special shout-out this week to my friend Bugzy, he’s fallen on tough times and has commented on this blog a couple of times. “I just want to sail off to find Atlantis and exotic treasures and hot bar maids” he said to me this week. Poor guy “shakes head” – REALLY doing it tough right now. You know what would help him? $30 million. That’s right – $30 million is the megadraw for the Oz Lotto sweepstakes on Tuesday. I remember because a few work colleagues were remarking about it last week and my mum reminded me over the weekend. “Make sure you buy a ticket – you will…