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Managing Business Financials As A Minimalist

It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the fallacy that acclaim and success are direct outcomes of how much we earn, or how complicated our affairs are.

Accomplishment isn’t linked with complexity. We can merely “work to live” and still make major bank with the simplest of systems, workflows and personal productivity ethos. I do every month.

It’s almost comical how simply I manage my business financials as a minimalist. People often think I run an action-packed show, full to the brim of backend sorcery and financial formulas that keep the FIRE journey ablaze.

Does that mean I don’t work hard? No. Does it mean I’m not ambitious? No.

It simply means that my startup phase of working consecutive 80-hour weeks are behind me, because I know how very possible it is to achieve low-touch profits.

My four simple hacks for managing business financials as a minimalist, all yours.

Uncomplicated profit statements.

There’s nought more important in a small business than the ability to make money. And in the absence of a regular paycheck, this amount can fluctuate dramatically between seasons, recession periods, and even month-to-month.

So, keeping track of it all helps with forecasting – think basic budgeting, but also measuring periodical trends for dips in cash flow (so you can squirrel cash away for those times), and an idea of your tax liability so you can save (or invest more in the business) ahead of time.

Cue simplicity. I use a basic Excel formula that contains:

  • Who the client was;
  • The payment gateway used;
  • The full amount earned for that client in the calendar month;
  • Whether they’ve been invoiced;
  • Whether I’ve been paid;
  • How much I’ve sidled aside for tax, super, important insurances and HECS for the month.

I try and always send final invoices at least a week before the end of the month so that my payment terms (7-days) are honoured within the month, but if they go over, I move it into next.

I track my financials by when I get paid, not when the work was done. Why?

Because labour is fluid, but income is concrete.

Income from my shares doesn’t get logged here because we reinvest them (although tax needs to be paid on the dividends – I organise that with my accountant separately), however I do include side hustle income on this spreadsheet.

Tax time made easy-as-pie.

Very little strikes fear in the heart of the free agent as June 30.

Tax time, for many, is a frantic hurdle race to collate receipts, measure up profit vs loss, calculate GST and cry a lot over a mentally prepared potential tax bill.

But it can be a lot simpler than this.

Firstly, I know what’s tax-deductible and what isn’t, because I’ve asked a lot of questions. Thanks to my countless hours on the phone to the ATO, or running things past my accountant, I’ve kept a simple Google Doc dot-point run sheet* and refer back to it whenever I’m iffy on a business purchase.

I use that clarity to make decisions on what and how to spend on and in my business, and I track every expense as-I-go using an accounting software that has a screenshot uploading feature.

Digital receipts are perfectly legal, according to the ATO, and it means that I can recycle the paper version straightaway, instead of letting them clutter up (and fade anyway, as they always do).

I categorise expenses really specifically (payroll, marketing, administration, travel, rental overheads etc), which helps me gauge a monthly breakdown of where I invest most in the business, and at the end of the financial year, I pull a report and reconcile it against what I earned. It takes all of ten minutes.

*On the note of “tax hacks”, I also leave hints on things I’m likely to forget over the year, like how I treat international clients for tax purposes, how to easily report on my share or property earnings or how many cents per kilometre I can claim on my car.

I forget every year, and it saves me from annoying my accountant with an annual Groundhog Day series of questions.

Work with a small business-focused accountant.

I’ve always been my own book-keeper, so that I can maintain total oversight into the day-to-day money management, but when dealing with Uncle Sam, I defer to an accountant who has both a small business background (owning their own) and managing the financial affairs of others like mine.

I think staying away from mainstream accounting firms is a smart move.

Working with someone who has a deep knowledge of specific SMB taxation policies and laws (including how they change) can help avoid costly mistakes if randomly audited.

For me, it’s a tax-deductible expense and as it’s a person who I have a relationship with, I can ask questions any time via email or phone and she gets back to me quickly with everything I need. 

Keep subscriptions to a minimum.

There’s no award for spending the most on exxy softwares, no matter how flashy they seem. That’s not to say that some aren’t worth paying for (even at a premium), just that they aren’t all.

I have the basics – obviously email, my website hosting, a robust accounting software… but in any case, it’s not that expensive software keeps me organised and minimalist.

On the contrary, keeping things simple and efficient is what gets me away with using the free version of the software. So it’s cheaper. And as a digital business, I need a good tech stack – I have lots of things going in and out all the time, but I don’t need to make it overwhelming with toolkit clutter (I natter on about my tech stack more via that link).

The most complicated part of running your business should be anything and everything external. Like clients, or customers… the weather, even. Nothing you can control, like money and expenses and tax. That’s all well within your hands.

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Let’s Talk Money, Honey: Honeymooning On A Budget

The wedding bells have finished chiming, the once-chinking glasses are all back in the special cupboard and it’s time for a little one-on-one, just you two. But how do you think about honeymooning on a budget when everything seems geared to cost so much?

On one of the most memorable trips of your life, the biggest planning hurdle is usually money. Different wants, mixed with varying expectations for each couple means that meeting-in-the-middle money management can suck the joy out of planning.

How much do we take? Is it possible to save on anything? What’s an average daily spend – particularly in different countries? What should we splurge on?

It is possible to honeymoon on a budget if you follow a few simple rules. Most importantly, remember that the honeymoon is your experience. There’s no right or wrong way to do it and no amount to spend that justifies it as a ‘honeymoon’.

We included our honeymoon in our wedding budget from the get-go, and clearly segmented how much we wanted to spend on each. This really helped us not to go over on either category, knowing it might eat into the other.

And although we didn’t ask for gifts for our wedding and made it clear it wasn’t expected, many people thoughtfully left us cash which helped pay for our trip. If you’re still in the wedding stage, I would highly recommend this over a registry. Experiences over things.

No rush, wait it out.

If you’re married in peak season, you’re probably travelling in peak season (if you go straight after the nuptials). So, don’t go right away – wait until low season and travel then, it’s much cheaper. Our wedding was in October but we didn’t head off on our honeymoon for another 7 months afterwards, and this also gave us extra time to save.

Keep a cash reserve to take advantage of deals.

Jump on deals as soon as they pop up, which might mean having a cash reserve ready. Virgin Australia announced a round-the-world ticket for $999 early in the year, and it was for two days only. Every other ticket I’d looked at beforehand was triple the price, so I jumped on it. Likewise, we booked a Eurail ticket at 33% off on a flash sale.

On a side note: we railwayed our way around Europe and this alternate mode of transport saved us a bunch – had we flown between every destination, we would have spent thousands extra. A simple flight from Vienna to Germany was over 400 Euros. Certainly not conducive to honeymooning on a budget. No thanks.

Plan what’s important to you.

I can’t stress this enough… agree on what honeymoon you want. This does the heavy-lifting of your budget for you.

  • Adventures and tours: Will you be out and about a lot? Consider that most attractions (even state-run or national trust) will have entry fees.
  • Hotels: Do you look at the details of hotels – the amenities, the towel thread count – with an eagle eye? If so, a more luxe hotel might be where you want to divert your funds.
  • Food and alcohol: Mega foodies need to make sure they have a significantly higher daily food budget.
  • Shops: Buying big-ticket items can be great to do overseas if the local currency is weak and the tax is refundable when you go home.

We got super clear on the honeymoon we wanted to have in three words: adventurous, exciting and busy. One of the few must-haves on our shared “joy list” (the things we’re happy to spend on) is travel experiences, so our budget had to account for that.

We were happy to stay in quirky hotels, not luxe ones. Food wasn’t a priority because I’m pregnant and vomiting food up really is a fun game of Will-I-Won’t-I? (Best-Get-A-Bucket-Just-In-Case). Shopping included a couple of items we had been looking at and researching for over a year (we saved hundreds buying overseas).

Limit eating out.

On the vein of food, eating out is actually really boring after a while. Traipsing around to find somewhere that suits both dietary requirements and looks like somewhere you’d actually want to eat three times a day sucks. We had at least one meal a day from supermarkets or deli counters which saved us an absolute bomb.

Look at travel sites as a guide only.

I never look at trip forums when asking the question “how much do I spend?” Why? Because it’s like asking a stranger how long a piece of string is. What constitutes a shoestring, average or luxury budget is completely dependent on the person and the variability is way too high. That, in money terms, is risky.

Instead, I research individual things. I look at the cost of restaurant menus of places we’d eat at, I look at attraction or entry prices for things that would generally interest us and the cost of transport for varying trips. When you’re honeymooning on a budget, this builds a picture of what it would really cost to be tourists, holidaying in the way that you want.

Ditch the plastic.

Unless you have an amazing travel credit card setup, I’d ditch the plastic completely.

Otherwise, expect foreign transaction fees, standard merchant fees, cash withdrawal fees and high markup currency exchange rates (this is a mid-market rate, aka “buy and sell midpoint rate” with a margin). Instead, use cash as much as possible and leave cash deposits at hotels instead of a card authorisation. Even if the charge is held, your bank may well still charge an international fee for hypothetically processing the amount into sterling (as all non-sterling currencies need to be).



Pay online in advance as much as possible.

Even if you only know what you’re going to do the night before. Look online and see if there’s a cheaper ticket for pre-booking – then pay by PayPal or reserve your spot to pay in cash at the deal price when you arrive. We did this for a number of experiences and saved anywhere from 25-60% on any given thing. All of our hotels were booked ahead of time through deal sites like Trivago and Booking.com, scoring us some great hotel rooms for $100 a night.

Share with everyone for the freebies.

Share the news, far and wide when honeymooning on a budget. Honeymooners can boast things like room and experience upgrades, champagne, dessert and sometimes even gifts. But only announce it when you arrive – upsold honeymoon packages are a major rip-off in my opinion and I wouldn’t bother with them.

Other tips:

  • Look into the travel or hire car insurance that comes with your credit card (providing you pay for those things on the card). Some people don’t like credit card travel insurance, but we used our Suncorp Platinum insurance on a hasty return from a recent trip to India and they paid us back everything without any hassle. It depends on the underwriter.
  • Don’t feel guilty for not going out. We had entire days (sometimes in succession) where we’d stay in bed all day, reading, watching Netflix and napping. Enjoy each others’ company – I know my husband so much better now because we spent so many hours just talking, and that was my favourite part of the trip. You don’t have to be out all day, everyday just because you’re on your honeymoon.
  • Stay close to transport routes as non-conventional transfers to remote places can be expensive. The days you travel can also make a difference, so be open to taking unusual flight paths if they work out significantly cheaper – especially if you have extra time. And travel overnight if possible (night flights and sleeper trains – they save you on hotel costs).
  • Create two budgets. Live-Like-A-Local and Make-It-Rain. Use the first 70% of the time and the latter 30% of the time (…even while honeymooning on a budget, splurging occasionally is okay). Travelling should be equal parts plan and spontaneity, because what’s worse than spending guilt on holiday?
  • Keep a tally on your phone of how much you have left each day. It’s purely an admin function to help you keep it in check (you’d be surprised how fast you’d go over budget otherwise).

While it’s important not to debt yourself for a honeymoon, investing isn’t all about what you can grow tangibly. Emotional development, increased self-awareness and personal adeptness are also significant measures of growth you can bank in different ways.

I believe travel makes us better citizens, and directly increases our earning potential. We become more capable under pressure, stronger in experience and empathy (how we work with others) and better educated – all crucial soft skills for making moolah.

Travel is in my top-five fave investment vehicles, and by honeymooning on a budget you’re off to a great start.

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The Stages Of Financial Independence

A lot of folk say that financial independence doesn’t follow a linear path. That the stages of financial independence change.

I disagree, because actually, if you look at common themes in people’s finances across the spectrum, the trends are clear.

Personal finance is of course, always personal, but the “stage” we find ourselves in at any point in our life is often one of only five others. This starts at being completely dependent on others and ends at being completely financially independent from anyone.

Everything in between is where you make your money mojo.

Bear in mind, some people never move out of the first couple of stages, or sit comfortably somewhere in the middle anticipating a traditional retirement at 65. Some people get to the later stages, but fall back after major life catastrophes, and a small handful reach the holy-grail state of eternal passive income and are financially set for life.

Whatever your current stage, it’s not too late to progress it. Once you understand where you sit, the reality sinks in and you can start looking at where you want to be, moving out of the stage that doesn’t suit and into one that looks a bit better on you. Here are the stages of financial independence, from dependence to abundance, surviving to thriving.

Stage 0 – Dependence

Baby, you were born this way. This is what I’d call the newborn state, where your basic existence is funded by others – their financial generosity feeds you, clothes you, keeps you warm and well and covers your everyday needs. This is usually your parents, or carer – but shockingly, adults also fall into this category. It’s called debt; a lifestyle funded entirely by creditors, where you spend more than you earn and your income (if any) barely touches the repayments. If that life line was cut off, you’d sink.

Stage 1 – Solvency

The next in the stages of financial independence is called solvency, where you’re up-to-date on your bills and meeting your financial obligations as and when they come in. You don’t depend on handouts or credit, you’re not creating anymore debt with your lifestyle choices and by all accounts, you’re earning some sort of profit through your income – you’ve got some disposable cash. If you’re actively paying down debt – even if it’s a minimum repayment – you are paying down your bills so you are considered solvent (amazing work – this is the first step to building real, lifelong wealth).

Stage 2 – Stability

Stability is achieved once you’ve hit some basic financial goals – like being personally debt-free. Note that this is debt outside of that which is typically considered to have growth potential, like a mortgage, a business loan or student debt (this is still a priority to pay off but not as urgent as consumer debt). And if you’ve got some basic savings to cover an unexpected event, as well as continuing to support yourself with your income, you’re stable.

Stage 3 – Agency

You’re completely debt free! Congratulations. This is one of the most important stages of financial independence. You’ve paid off all debt, including a principle mortgage and you’ve got enough FU Money in the bank to walk away from anything at any time (my advice is to have this in your arsenal, anyway). You’re a free agent, not tied to anyone or any workplace entity to dictate your decisions. This is the last stage in the “surviving” category – from here, it’s all about building wealth. In my humble opinion, you can (and should) start this building wealth ASAP. It’s never too early to start investing.

Stage 4 – Security

So you’ve been diligently investing in a broad range of asset classes and now, your passive investment income (income you do not actively work for) covers a basic standard of living. Simple food, keeping that roof over your head (either rent, or because you’ve paid off your mortgage like in the third stage of financial independence – covers basic fixtures, repairs and annual home and contents). Maybe also medical expenses, new clothes when the old ones tatter, the bus fare to town. Not much more, but you could do this indefinitely.

Stage 5 – Independence

Those magical words – financial independence. This is where the standard of living you’ve become accustomed to, and those creature comforts you love, are both serviced by your investment income. You don’t need to work if you don’t want to. You’re living well above the poverty line in a modest and comfortable but fulfilling way. As you’ve probably been investing for a while, this way of life is not new and something you’ve grown happily accustomed to.

Stage 6 – Abundance

Although I write a lot about financial independence – financial abundance is really the goal with money, at least for us. Your passive income pays for everything, and then some… you can travel, build a passion business (with no expectation or need for it to become profitable), you can give wealth away to others, you can make guilt-free luxury purchases… the list is endless. You’re earning far more than you need so a huge chunk of that income is disposable. Ah-mazing!

 

Retirement ages on reaching the final stages of financial independence

 

How young can we achieve this? According to a U.S. LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute study, less than 1% of people will achieve retirement before the age of 54. Closer to home (ABS research), 8% will achieve it between the ages of 45-49 years, with presumably a smaller percentage any younger. Hopefully, though, that’s changing. 

So where do you sit in all of these stages of financial independence? Where would you like to be? What would best reflect your financial goals? I’d love to hear about them.

In the vein of sharing (and because we all love a little nosey into someone else’s stage), hubster and I are getting closer and closer to Stage 4. With the compounding benefits of our investments (that lovely interest on the principal sum as well as the accumulated interest already earned), will hopefully reach Stage 6 within the next decade.

Now, wouldn’t that be a nice place to exit stage left?

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The Beautiful Relationship Between FU Money and FI

There’s a common acronym within the financial independence, retire early (FIRE) community – and it’s used often. FU money.

For many, it’s a pipe dream they’re diligently working toward being able to say to a specific person, and for others, it’s a general vernacular they’ll carry in their arsenal for when the time comes.

FU money is having the power to dictate what you do and when you stop doing it, and it goes magically hand-in-hand with financial independence.

People’s definitions for it can vary, but on the whole, FU money is having enough in the bank to walk away from situations that don’t serve – whether they be toxic or, you know, just boring.

The reason it’s not quite the same as reaching financial independence is because FU money is really only a temporary stop-gap.

It’s breathing room while you remove yourself, take stock of your situation or life and reevaluate your next move. Eventually, you’ll need to go back to income-generating activities, but you’re not tied to a situation that isn’t serving you while you conduct that existential due diligence.

Usually, it’s having 6-months worth of expenses saved up for what I like to call crossroad moments.

A boss taking advantage of your hard work; colleagues that define irritating, useless and narcissistic; one-sided relationships that are all take and no give; travelling curveballs where you no longer feel safe or happy, or even wanting to live overseas for a while.

The list is endless – and it can also be applied to FU’s on a smaller scale.

Getting a taxi all the way home at 2am in the morning when that first date romp has gone sour.

Booking a nanny and staying at a hotel for a few nights when you need a break from a non-stop screaming toddler.

Buying your own secondhand runaround car so you’re not dependent on anyone else on getting you around.

Having the ability to turn around and say “no, actually, FU” is a wonderful superpower to have and one that everyone should have the luxury of. It can be life-changing.

And the swear words are optional.

FU money is something that is an omnipresent force; a way of thinking.

Your FU might be a simple “I’m quite alright, thank you. I’ll see myself out,” so as not to burn any bridges if it’s an industry you love, people you want to maintain a relationship with, or in front of peers you respect.

In my financial world, it’s not quite so literal, particularly as I tend not to say those words to anyone.

I work for myself and as a business owner, I don’t have anyone to report to. Clients, sure – but I take a lot of pride in working only with clients and organisations where the relationship is equal.

I treat them with professionalism and respect, and I expect that in return.

But in a way, my FU money allows me to do that.

To look for warning signs in certain lead client interactions, and easily walk away without fear I won’t be able to make my mortgage payments that month, or pay off my credit card bill when it comes in… or live on baked beans and home-brand toast.

It’s the ability to walk away from anything at any time, slinging swear words or not, without life-altering repercussions.

And look, I’m sure some people might say “but we can walk away from anything, at any time, we all have that power.” And sure, I think this idea of agency is important, but unfortunately, without the cash to accompany, in many cases it’s idealistic at best.

Because the reality is, when we have no financial buffer, our ability to make large-scale decisions is halted and impaired. We become paralysed with the knowledge of how difficult things will be; even with the knowledge of how bad things are now.

And that’s enough to keep us chained to the present. Of course we can change our circumstances while we’re in a bad situation, but just like alcohol clouds our judgement, fear and flurry clouds our ability to take the next step.

Getting to multiple job interviews when in full-time employment isn’t easy.

Finding a new place to live when you’re stuck in a relationship where one person controls all the purse strings isn’t easy.

Booking emergency flights home during the trip from hell when you’ve already maxed out your credit card and have $300 to your name isn’t easy.

Financial independence is about bulletproofing your future with money, so that you earn an income separate from your day-to-day job. FU money is about bulletproofing your pride and your safety, so that you never have to depend on anyone but yourself right now.

As in today. So what the FU are you waiting for?

FU money? Yes, please! But how?!:

  • Saving 6-months of your salary seems hard. I GET IT. Especially if you’re currently paying down debt or are new to getting your money sorted.
  • But one thing that’s important to remember is that it shouldn’t be 6 months of salary as you’re used to right now.
  • Instead, look at the minimum cost of living you can get away with. The basics. Mortgage or rent. Bills. Food to fill your fridge. Bit of public transport money. Insurance premiums (TPD, life, trauma, pet and hospital cover – because emergency ambulances can cost up to $1,000, and air ambulances can run you $10,000).
  • Many experts actually cite this as usually being between 40%-60% of your current income.
  • That means if I earn $80,000 (the average Aussie income), I need between $16,000 and $24,000 to cover my basic expenses for six months.
  • At $1,350 a month, I could have six months of income saved in a year. If I live in an area with a lower cost of living, or have less outgoings – that would be less time, or the same amount of time but saving less commensurate with income.



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FIRE Burning, Retire Early: Saving Half A Million In 8 Years

My Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) journey began when I was a little girl. I would look at people working until they were in their 70’s, mostly when they didn’t want to, and feel so bleak about my own working future.

Still, everywhere I turned, working was a necessity, because there was no other alternative. Even more strangely, working until old age was just something that was expected.

This I didn’t understand… surely there were more interesting ways to collectively spend our precious time? And why would we choose to work until we could barely stand anymore?

It wasn’t until I was in the workforce myself many years later that these feelings became particularly profound.

Despite my earnest excitement to be earning a full-time wage (9.5% superannuation! Annual leave!), I couldn’t shake the thought that working until 70 was now the bottom-line of my life.

Sure, I might get lucky and always enjoy my roles – and in a hopeful economy, the income would be consistent and well worth what I spent on my university degree.

Still, I’d be in it for the long-haul because that was just what humans had to do at this point in history. 

To be honest, it really grated at me. I felt hopeless for a while.

Then I found FIRE, and I symbolically danced around it like the early homosapiens did a million years ago.

FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early; a term encompassing a whole community of people who were architecting amazing lives without the need for exchanging their time for a steady income.

This was the money-savvy elite; the personal finance prefects, who saved aggressively and invested it with as much fervour. In mere years, they had created income streams that were entirely passive.

Passive income, retire early def: “Passive income is income resulting from cash flow received on a regular basis, requiring minimal to no effort by the recipient to maintain it.” – Wikipedia.

In many cases, this passive income replaced (and sometimes exceeded) their day-to-day pay check.

It was through anything from share market dividends, rental yield, retirement fund payouts, interest payments from bonds and term deposits and even ad revenue or royalties from content.

Whether it was one, two, or all – the underlying outcome was the same:

Work was optional.

I’d always been okay with my money. I saved when I could, I stayed away from toxic personal debt and tried to live within my income bracket – but this was going to require a lot more dedication. I was committed and started straightaway.

Over the last 8 years, my husband I have saved over half a million Aussie dollars combined, pouring our earnings into investments that will buy our retire early “work freedom” decades before we otherwise could.

Now, we routinely invest 75% (or more) of our incomes each month into a very strategic investment portfolio across property, shares and stocks, superannuation, commodities and bonds.

We’ve seen some awesome returns so far and it’s spurred us to keep going.

Our (conservative) calculations show that we should be completely financially independent from our jobs at some point within the next decade.

These calculations take into account inflation (of which our investment returns should easily exceed) and any taxation implications. They also factor in the average cost of having and raising a child. We are trying to cover every base.

This isn’t by any means a definitive list, but it gives you a snapshot of the principles behind how we do what we do.

Live for the income you earn, not the income you want.

It’s money management 101, but it bears repeating – especially in this day and age.

While it’s never been more normal to self-deprecate and and laugh at our own misgivings, we’re also living in an age of total social fabrication. The Keeping Up With The Joneses mentality has transcended our immediate neighbourly boundaries and landed smack bang into our virtual ones.

We see highly-stylised lifestyle snapshots for people living in all corners of the globe. It looks effortless and abundant and we struggle to discern between what is product placement and what is truth.

Marketers are insidious; they find us anywhere and everywhere and will stop at nothing to make cart checkouts easier, fuller and more recurring. Loan providers are predatory and advantageous.

But we also have a responsibility to start spending more dutifully, too. When a 2018 survey of household comfort found that 1 in 10 Australian households overspent their income each month (with less than $1000 in savings to accommodate the shortfall), it was obvious where a lot of the culpability was lying.

Get to know every dollar coming in, and be ruthless in every dollar going out. Use a budget to account for important, non-negotiable costs, and eliminate anything that’s draining your money.

When income does rise, be careful not to inflate your lifestyle costs to go with it. My income varies as a small business, but my expenses do not. That means extra profit goes straight into investments. As for any loss? It barely touches the sides of my cost of living.

For those new to the retire early lifestyle, it might be easier to start with a very conservative savings rate of 10%. When this starts to become habitual (and easier), ramp it up.

Want to retire early? Have less in order to do more.

Being thoughtful, intentional and premeditated in the way you allow material things to come into your life is a very important pillar of financial independence. Granted, not everyone who subscribes to the FIRE methodology is a minimalist – but I think the most successful ones are.

The name of the game is personal abundance: finding joy in experiences over objects, and using the space created by decluttering to make way for more enriching pursuits.

For me, cutting out the consumer noise led to a greater appreciation for so much more beyond the stuff.

Not only did I make money in what I could sell, but I save so much in only buying what I need, when I need it.

I do not allow marketers to incessantly bombard me, I never kill time by meandering around the shops, and when I identify something I do need to buy, I compare widely and pay using cash for discounts (I also use cash-back apps).

If it’s true that we overspend or impulse buy because we’re overwhelmed, time-poor and exhausted, then it stands to reason that eliminating or streamlining these triggers will do us a world of personal and financial good.

Start investing, and then do not stop.

Generally speaking, the average return of the sharemarket is about 7% (this has been even despite major economical dips and world events).

Other investments can do equally well (if not amazingly well) but are typically a little more dependent on other factors (for example, geography and uniqueness in the case of property).

I won’t list these all here because there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to investing – but, if you invest sensibly with the goal to make long-term return, the outcome will rarely be bad.

Long-term return really is that which is focused on growth (growing in value over time), and providing cashflow that exceeds the rate of inflation. Savings accounts don’t always do this – and sometimes you can even go backwards with your money “invested” through the bank.

Investing in high-growth investment vehicles with a moderate amount of risk is where a lot of retire early proponents carve their path. It’s certainly where we’re carving ours.

We learnt how to invest ourselves by reading widely, attending talks, speaking to financial professionals, and a little trial and error. It’s completely possible to invest well on your own (just like it’s completely possible to invest well with expert help).

It depends on the person and situation.

Our investment portfolio is a mix of property, shares (mainly Australian and US exchange-traded funds but some individual companies and classes), superannuation, and a few others. They’re in liquid and non-liquid vehicles – meaning we could pull out money in some without much hassle, and others with a lot.

But, we don’t really plan on doing that. Why? Because these investments are going to provide the brunt of our income one day.

In the future, we’re keen to start investing seed capital in startups, which represents a much higher risk. This is because I believe people and ideas drive successful shareholder returns, and I want to be at the forefront of finding great investments this way.

I also like having diversity across the type of investments we have (this makes it easier to weather the storm during market fluctuations).

Ultimately, how and where you invest is up to you. But start ASAP. I talk about this on my Instagram sometimes; how people often wait for ‘market drops’ and ‘share sales’. This is great if you can buy on sale (in fact, it’s my favourite time to buy), but if you haven’t yet invested… you probably don’t know what shares on sale look like.

And you won’t until you’ve had some time in the market, observing how it works. The best thing to do is to start.

Build an emergency fund that keeps you afloat.

Although savings accounts aren’t always great for investing potential, there’s certainly a place for them – at least in our journey.

In FIRE (and in everyday life), cashflow is so important. In particular, having access to money stored away that prevents you from reaching for lines of credit or putting yourself in compromising financial positions can make or break your efforts.

We call ours our ‘S*!# Happens’ account, and it makes up about six to eight months worth of our combined yearly expenses. We use it to cover unexpected bills and curveballs we didn’t anticipate, as well as act as a buffer in case one of us can’t work for a period of time.

The reason cashflow is important is because it keeps you liquid without penalty.

While it’s important to have some liquid investment assets, there’s no guarantee the market will be performing well when you want to draw them. Plus, there’s that pesky capital gains tax that might apply to the sale.

Having access to cold, hard cash bulletproofs you against the unexpected, and it keeps you afloat when you need it the most. It’s very powerful for your wallet and your sanity, and a high-interest savings account (with no withdrawal penalties) can at least earn you a little while it sits there.

We employ our savings to offset the interest applied to our principal mortgage, which for us far surpasses the return of a savings account, but it depends on your unique situation.

We invest first, save second, pay routine expenses third and spend last – this is a good formula to follow when it comes to saving your own emergency fund.

If you’re in debt, think about swapping out the investing part with paying down debt until you’re ready for that step.

Live to give.

This one is worth mentioning because it’s the right thing to do upon amassing more wealth.

When you start to get better with money, think about how you can better the lives of others with your changes. After all, the secret to living is giving.

Not only can it be super tax-effective, but it a core pillar of how many retire early followers plan to contribute to the world in absence of their work (should they choose not to work on anything).

The amazing thing about FIRE is that people don’t have to have great money stories to start doing it.

In fact, some of the FIRE followers who adopted the FIRE principles didn’t do it to retire early – but to speed up their journey away from stagnant debt. They did it to become more financially free. Often, just like us, they were everyday earners.

We’re not expecting a major inheritance or paying for everyday expenses with a trust fund.

While we earn good incomes, they are still commensurate with that of those expected in a major capital city. We have higher expenses for that reason, too.

We chuckle at times about how when we reach complete FIRE, we might choose we aren’t ready to retire early at all.

I enjoy running my business and he finds his work very rewarding – but that’s the amazing thing about the Financial Independence, Retire Early movement.

When something is based on opportunity, it’s hard not to start thinking about what you could do with all of the new open doors.

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Here’s How I Saved Over $1000 By Doing Frugal February

Finding extra cash by starting a side-hustle is about as mainstream now as mowing your own lawn. It’s a great way to upskill, network – and of course, earn more cash. Beautiful, lovely cash that can be used for paying down debt, investing into the stock-market, buying property, donating to causes you care about. But what if having more money in your pocket at the end of every month didn’t actually require extra work? Say hello to Frugal February.

Frugal February is all about creating more money every month just by making more frugal swaps in everyday life. By excluding some of our discretionary spending, the theory is that we can collectively find more money in our budget, instead of having to work to earn it.

I put this to the test in February this year.

By the end of Frugal February, I had almost $1300 extra in my bank account, and as a small business owner with a goal to retire early by investing widely, this cash was a welcome addition to my portfolio. Here’s exactly what I did through Frugal February to save and find more money, and what you can do too.

All discretionary spending went out the window.

To start, I went through my budget with a fine tooth comb to omit anything that I didn’t consider completely necessary.

This included many convenience purchases, which are so draining on the wallet. Think coffee, lunch in between meetings and door-to-door transport. I also cancelled and rescheduled any social outings – seeing as it was only a month, I figured that I could go without for a short period of time.

The next step was prioritising food and transport as necessities, but tweaking the way I spent on them. I walked frequently (or caught buses when it was too hot to do that), packed snacks and meals in my bag, and kept tea in a thermos to fulfil the coffee itch and ritual sipping I so enjoyed when working.

I’m a big fan of using subscriptions that have pause features (without penalty), so I put all of them on freeze, stopped drinking alcohol and planned everything in advance to avoid any last-minute temptations from striking up.

I stopped letting marketers target me.

It’s in a businesses’ interest to incessantly market to us, and we now live in a society where that’s so normalised, we struggle to identify when it’s even happening. I have conducted major email and browser cookie culls before, but was surprised at how many had slipped through the cracks since (and how many purchases I’d made without thinking).

I unsubscribed from everything, mercilessly.

It was strangely cathartic and opened up a new challenge of looking at local, free marketplace hubs for things I needed to buy. As it turned out, I was in the market for an iMac – which I found secondhand but in great nick for $140. Sure, it’s a 2007 version, but it works a dream, looks like new and had been completely refurbished.

I also made a new face serum using existing beauty products I had left over from other purchases. It took me half an hour and cost nothing. Honestly, it’s one of the best I’ve ever used so far for my skin.

Something borrowed, something re-gifted. Nothing new.

People often think that frugal people live like Ebenezer Scrooge, but anyone who knows me knows that I love treating people with gifts. It’s a real joy to give things to people you love and care about. But sentimentality can be expensive, and it’s only getting pricier.

So, instead of ducking to the shops in preparation for a dinner party, birthday celebration or Valentine’s Day – I turned my attention closer to home. In any given cupboard, I had unboxed candles, beautiful homewares with the tags still attached and lovely wines that had never been corked. And I’m not alone – how many of us have a bunch of stuff gifted to us from Christmas that would probably never otherwise see the light of day?


That wasn’t all, either. I went to a business dinner wearing a labelled dress I borrowed from a friend. And one other friend told me she borrowed camping gear for her first time in the wilderness (aka a caravan park). She hated camping so much she’ll never do it again… what a waste that would have been!

I jumped on the Do It Yourself bandwagon.

Something I’m definitely working on in my finances is calling in help for things I could do myself. I’m not averse to dropping off items to the dry-cleaner or alteration place, or using a house cleaning service or a car-wash – but for Frugal February, everything stopped.

I pulled out my dusty sewing kit for one of my favourite items of clothing when the seams tore, pulled up my sleeves to clean our car inside out on a weekend morning, and even braved the darkest depths of the kitchen sink cupboard to seal the water heater drip tray waste pipe when we realised it might be letting bugs in.

A lot of those things I’ll continue to do.

Discounts on everything became my modus operandi.

Whilst it wasn’t the most enjoyable exercise, I spent an afternoon one day ringing around all of the subscription providers I had contracts with, and point blank asked for a discount. My goal was to haggle down my monthly fees, even if just a few dollars – it all adds up, especially if a few providers agree unanimously.

I began with open-ended statements like: “When I took a good, long look at my last bill, I felt like I was paying too much.” This was to see what they would suggest (perhaps it might be more than I was going to ask for, and I didn’t want to short change myself). If they didn’t immediately offer a better deal, I asked outright: “Is there anything you can do before I start shopping around?”

To my surprise, many were quick to comply, and were even happy to. Some needed a little more persuading, but ultimately, offered a small discount after a while. Overall, I’m now better off $600 for the whole year, which is around $50 per month in additional savings. All for the time it took to make a few polite phone calls.

Frugal celebrations only, thanks.

Frugal February falling on Valentine’s Day is both a blessing and a curse.

On one hand, it feels a little like you’re missing out – but on the other, you stand to save so much. Many retailers and restauranteurs will openly admit that the markup on their products and menus (often fixed price) is much more than they’d otherwise get away with charging – but on that day of the year, the demand very much exists.

This year, we replaced flowers, dinner and gifts for a homemade meal, cards made on Canva and a good old planning session of the next years’ share portfolio asset allocation. Sounds like a riot, I know – but to us it was actually fun. Just like the gift-giving thing above, we buy into the idea that the only way to show affection or appreciation is by buying stuff. It’s not.

We can have a great time and be thoughtful without digging deep into anything physical – and it doesn’t just have to occur over the month of February. Any month can be frugal with enough prep and motivation, so get out there and see how much extra you can accrue.

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Minimalism And Money: Peas And Carrots

Minimalism and money are two things that go hand-in-hand.

And while you might think that the notion of having fewer things, or maintaining more simplicity in your life has little to do with the way you manage your cash – you’d be wrong.

In fact, minimalism has everything to do with money. Minimalism is about the re-evaluation of priorities.

It’s about understanding our internal motivators, what brings us joy – and of course, what doesn’t – and cultivating spaces around us (physical, digital and psychological) that are conducive to a life more full of shiny feelings instead of shiny things.

As humans, we have very precious and finite energy stores, yet we spend so much of it on keeping up appearances. We reach for conveniences because we’re too time-poor to even have time to think about how time-poor we are, and we’re so used to being bombarded with products, subscriptions and offers that oftentimes we don’t even notice we’re being lured in until we’re within the predatory grasp of the sale.

This all comes at a major cost. Not just to our health and ability for self-awareness, which I truly believe erodes over time with too much clutter and overwhelm – but to our financial wellbeing. People think it’s expensive to be a minimalist. I think it’s expensive not to be one.

For many years, I have lived a life that is fundamentally minimalist, both in how I keep “earthly possessions” in the physical world around me, but also how I view situations and problems, treat others and prioritise things that matter to me. The benefit of this on my wallet has been enormous, so here’s how I apply minimalism to my everyday:

I don’t buy what I don’t need. Genuinely.

As in, I rarely buy material things ever – and when I do, I go through a rigorous thought process beforehand. Do I need this? Will it solve a long-term need? Is there something I already own that could do the job? Could I rent, or borrow this instead? Will it hold, or even grow in value (should I choose to sell it later on)? Rarely do things I want to purchase tick all of those boxes, and so I can filter through a lot of ‘nice-to-haves’ in order to find what I really do need.

Intentional spending gives you breathing room to properly, and fully, evaluate. It exercises your brain to think critically about things it is programmed through predatory advertising to normally have no say in, and affords you the benefit of time and purpose to help you conserve your money for things that are worth the exchange. That makes them all the more worthwhile when they come around.

I reuse and find other uses for the same item.

Many items are, by design, multipurpose. We just often don’t believe, or see it.

Certain oils are great for the hair, skin and for cooking. A myriad of cleaning products and laundry detergent can be created from simple soap bars and white vinegar. Jars can be used as storage and then pulled out for decoration later on. Toothpaste is good for everything from dental hygiene to burns to jewellery cleaners.

When you see the potential for second lives for your items, you negate the need to have something specialised for every purpose.

This clears space but also keeps your bank account looking pretty full, especially when you consider how brands typically markup niche product ranges. And when you couple this with being less wasteful, like bringing your own jars, bags and pouches when shopping, you’ll see just how damn expensive, and limiting, packaging can be.

I keep things simple online as much as offline.

My digital life is as simple as my physical one. Everything is neatly collated and categorised, and the second I’m finished with something, there’s no archive or memory bank – into the bin it goes. I love holding onto memories, but if I’m honest with myself, I find more solace in feelings instead of things.

I’ve realised that if my nature is to archive something away, then the likelihood of seeing it again before at least another year or two is very low. And besides the fleeting chuckle of looking at a physical photo of a day in my life I cherish, there’s not much else that happens other than I put it back away. So, for files I really love, I keep them in a single cloud folder on my Drive, but mostly, I don’t keep a hold of anything but money.

Because I used to work in the media, I like to stay informed and aware. But when there are hundreds of companies vying for my attention with their updates, I’ve learnt not to feel guilty about subscribing only to a select few media platforms I know and trust. This is the same with entertainment.

There’s something very satisfying about having clarity and direction in what you allow to burn through brain cells every day. It’s kind of like sitting on a bridge on a highway, watching the clouds move when all the cars are frantically speeding on the lanes underneath and around you.

And while some of these things cost, because we absolutely should be paying for ethical, impartial journalism, and really good entertainment, what I get is way more valuable than any subscription fee. I’m afforded the luxury of staying present and in-the-know without the constant, mind-numbing noise of literally everything else I don’t care about, but that I’d undoubtedly be ground down to spend on.

I throw complexity out the window when managing money.

People sometimes say to me a little sheepishly “I only have a few bank accounts where I store my money.”

Well, that’s a couple more than I have. I don’t believe that there’s a complex formula to saving your money as a minimalist; at least not one I know anything about. I have a personal banking account for everyday transactions, a business account for anything related to my business (which makes tax time a dream), a bonus interest rate savings account for anything that’s not applied to the portion of our primary home loan that’s set up as an offset, and a credit card.

Managing my money day-to-day is simple, because why make it hard – and hard to remember? I pay my regular cost of living, business and maintenance bills, I shelve 70% into savings and investments (through separate investment accounts) and I live on the rest. I carry cash very infrequently, because I like having my money where I can see it, and I don’t have complicated insurance structures set up. They’re simple, run-of-the-mill things because that’s all I need.

Money management should be habitual and repeatable; with the same actions happening over and over every month. It’s the only place mundanity will help you thrive, whether it’s saving up or paying debt down. Make it muscle memory.

I keep a simple investment portfolio.

Much like my daily money management processes, my investments tick along just as simply. I pick investments that I understand and don’t require me to be very hands on – because at this stage in my life, I can’t be.

Property is one that requires a lot of upfront work, but significantly evens out, minus the occasional maintenance job, and shares – particularly the kind we like, ETF’s and LIC’s – are all bought, traded and managed online, with easy reporting when we want a clear overview of how our holdings are performing. We set up reinvesting automatically upon purchasing new shares because that’s extra work we can take off of our shoulders, and we don’t need to draw our investments as income right now.

Superannuation is managed from the one account (if you’ve got multiple accounts – combine, combine!) and I contribute concessionally to the tax-deductible cap (which is $25,000 for people who are self-employed). This is a regular part of my savings schedule every month.

Because we are long-term investors interested in growth (two-dimensional investments that grow in value and pay out income), rather than defensive assets (just paying out income, like the high-interest savings account above, which earns interest on the base amount deposited), the simplicity around our investments helps us to stay on top of it and make contributing habitual.

Maybe later, I’ll look into seed investing in startups and real estate investment trusts (REITS), but right now, we’re only interested in things we can easily manage and keep an eye on. Applying minimalism to the stage of life we’re at when it comes to our investments helps us to stay focused and make it a priority.

If it all became a bit too overwhelming, we’d probably sit back and stop, which would mean we’d be missing out on our investment’s most important moneymaker: time.

Ultimately, we’re hardwired to feel a lot of guilt and fear for missing out. We want all the things. All the content. Knowledge. Experiences. But what we forget is that a lot of that stuff doesn’t even apply to us, and it certainly doesn’t fulfil us. It drains our energy as much as our wallet. In a way, this makes us compliant and easier to persuade – moving us further away from what we really want.

Minimalism and money just makes cents. Going through the process of streamlining and cutting out crap is one of the most powerful things you can do for your finances. Looking after your money by looking after your time, and guarding your surroundings, is so easily forgotten – but so easy to put back in place.

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We Didn’t Start The FIRE: Our Journey To Financial Independence

To start off our financial independence story, I’m going to take you back to a smaller version of me.

Still as curly-haired, still as gappy-toothed, but much less wrangled by the world. I would read books widely and voraciously (thanks for making reading such a big part of our lives, Mum), and had a particular penchant for books about magic, mystery and grown-up women kicking ass.

On the latter side of things, this usually came in the form of stories of young women entering the workforce for the first time.

They were well-educated, worldly, ambitious, strong-minded and unafraid to take risks and meet challenges head-on. Mostly, they were university grads, working an internship in a fabulous company – climbing up the career ladder to success, perhaps falling in love en route, wowing their boss, befriending the “uncool” colleague, and sparring with a major competitor (always female… why?!).

I wanted to be her. Not her, as a person, but what she represented. I wanted more than anything to work. I was hungry for professional grandeur. I was a diligent student, I enjoyed learning, I enjoyed the routine and the discipline and as someone who, despite a rebellious streak, tends to want to please people inherently – working was the perfect environment.

So, I studied hard, thought long about what I wanted to do, and eventually got my degree with a number of other voluntary professional achievements that would bolster my graduate applications.

As I turned out, I wouldn’t need to apply for much. I was offered a job with an events company right before I finished Uni – which was hell on earth, and I left within the month. Imagine being thrown to the wolves with zero training to organise a huge national conference, and then being asked two weeks into the job why no-one was signed on as a speaker yet. I bowed out pretty in a pretty undignified way from that gig.

Enter stage left the little voice in the back of my head: “Imagine having to feel that anxious for forty years?”

Be quiet, I told it. That’s not a good example, it wasn’t the right job. You don’t even want to work in events. That’s not what you studied. It was a stop-gap.

Next, a job as an editor that came after a writing internship. Difficult work, difficult people (that’s high-fashun for you) but rewarding. And there’s that little voice again: “Wow, I can’t believe you have to work this hard for forty years.” Again, I silenced it. Not a good example, remember – I won’t be here much longer. I’m cutting my teeth writing and I’ll overlook everything else for now.

Then, a dream job. Amazing boss, a revolutionary startup in the technology sector, an opportunity to build a team and solve a genuine problem to improve the lives of other people.

And what a ride it was for the next two years (I often credit this job to most things I know about leadership, growing ideas, communicating well and pivoting well from bad or stressful situations). Follow that by a few different roles within another startup, all with great learning experiences and relationships of its own.

But still that voice. “People die at 70, you know? Like, the time you’re supposed to retire. People die. You never know. Crazy that we all just accept that, right?”

Yeah. Right. Actually, yeah! Right! Cue emotional breakdowns in my living room at 10pm at night if I wasn’t too exhausted by the workday, sobbing into my husband’s arms. To me, there was just no other option. You work. You work. You work, says the robot. You must work until you’re old. And I didn’t like it, nor understand it. Something about it turned my stomach.

As a little bit of background, my husband and I had been good with money up to this point. This is not a typical story of being terrible with it, living with the silent marriage-ruiner; unsecured and personal debt, and making bad financial decisions.

Since we’d been together, we’d be saving routinely and often. By the stage of said emotional breakdowns, we had just moved into the home that we had bought in Sydney’s inner-west fringe (with a 20% deposit) during the peak of the property market in 2017, we were salary sacrificing for super, we had a nice little share portfolio ticking away, we had paid for our second-hand, but very nice Mazda CX7 in cash and were also about to cash-flow our new kitchen, and some of our wedding.

So my concerns weren’t about having enough money. In fact, it’s never really been about money at all.

Rather, it was the emotional weight of the longevity of work. It was the unknown of my future – what would happen to me, or my husband, my family, or even children we might have? Why wouldn’t we want to maximise our time and the hours in our day to enjoy the things we loved, now, rather than wait until “the golden years” later?

No-one could anticipate where we’d all be – and considering the known statistics on how people’s health and energy deteriorates by that age, being dependent on something external and out of my control to get there felt just so… illogical. But to my knowledge, there was no other way – and so I emotionally, and begrudgingly, just accepted it for many years. We had been saving and investing – but for a retirement we believed was out of reach for many decades yet.

When I first found out about FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early), I remember the warmth in my body, radiating and heating upwards from my toes to my head. It was Mr. Money Mustache’s blog and it was a passing recommendation made to me from one of the smartest people I know; an old colleague, and now (along with his wife) a good friend.

I remember reading his words, his maths, his reasoning, and just… everything clicked. The rest of that day (sorry old boss) I got my hands of every piece of material I could about him. Every podcast, every interview, every TED talk, every everything. And that was Pandora’s Box. It was the tip of the iceberg in terms of what the financial independence, retire early community was putting out there. There were bloggers! Women! Like me! My age! My income! Doing it (or already having done it).

FIRE opened up a world of possibility that defied the typical ideas of working for the exchange of time for money. It gave people, like me, a sense of control and financial empowerment. It gave people a tangible timeline, it allowed them to find abundance in simple things, to shake off the consumerist coat they were sweating in, and find joy in their daily work – knowing it wasn’t going to be forever.

For many, it allowed them (as they wound down to their financial independence date) the opportunity to volunteer, travel and work to completely better the life or someone else, without fear of lack of a paycheck. It allowed them to spend more and more time with their children, enjoying the little developmental things their children did that they otherwise never would have been around to notice; or relish in those important final days in a parent’s, or a friend’s, life.

Some people decided to keep working. Some had the flexibility to take time off to search for a job they had always wanted to do, but had never had the time to apply or network for. Others started their business, knowing it might not be profitable for a year or even more, and not worried about that in the slightest. Some filled their days gardening, turning a hobby into something they could monetise, or even not at all. But that beautiful notion of choice is inherent in all of these.

And something I have come to believe that every human fundamentally deserves. Because sure, we technically can do all of those things outside of a full-time job. But when you factor in the commute, the energy-sapping day, the after-school routine, the random life admin you only have time for outside of office hours and weekends… how much time do you really have? Not opportunistically. Not “make it a priority and just do it if you’re that unfulfilled”… how much time do we really have?

In 2018, I started my copywriting and communications business, Wordy and Smith. And to say that starting a business is the best thing I’ve ever done in my career would be an understatement. It is absolutely incredible. I love my work, I love how I have total control of my time, who I work with and what I earn. But that little voice you read of earlier? Still there. Loud and clear.

So it’s also incredible in another way. It proved to me that I was on the right track, and that my feelings and discontent with work were valid. That I don’t want to be spending my time working, beyond another decade at the most – but at least I can really enjoy the journey to get me there.

How does my husband factor into all of this? He’s not quite as emotional as I am, but this is certainly something he’s excited for. Did I get him onto the financial independence bandwagon? Yep. Did he teach me a lot about money management on the way, though? You bet he did. We complement each other in a lot of ways, and we’re now completely dedicated to this journey. He might have taken a little longer than me to come around, but what matters is he’s here now – and he’s really excited for the future of being financially free (he even has a few business ideas he’s mapping out).

We didn’t start the FIRE, but you know what they say, FIRE always spreads with a spark.

Hopefully this is yours. Welcome to our journey to complete financial independence.

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The Definitive List of Doable Side-Hustles You Can Start Today

I sing to the high heavens about side hustles.

They are powerful ways to up-skill, fill your time productively and of course, bring in a few extra dollars outside of your regular income. If your day-job is wrangling kids around town, a side hustle can still be one of the most flexible ways to earn supplemental income and help contribute to the family’s finances.

I’ve always had side-hustles, although for a long time; I considered them my day-to-day job. Before the mighty side-hustle became a coined, worldwide phenomenon, I was a baby-faced university student running from one gig to the other in order to save aggressively, fund holidays and make rent.

A patchwork of both virtual and physical gigs across the spectrum was, in a way, my full-time job – outside of studying and drinking, of course.

So when the Internet exploded with side-hustle popularity (including thousands of blogs about how to *$TART EARNING MILLION$ WITH DA ULTIMATTE $$$IDE HU$$TLE TODAY!!*), I felt like the Oprah of the movement. By that stage, I actually was in full-time employment, but I had still been keeping the mighty side-hustle going on for the most part.

There really is very little that beats the feeling of receiving money separate from the expected monthly deposit of your regular job. It’s an addictive feeling – and to say it can supercharge your savings goals is the understatement of the century.

So without further adieu, here’s my definitive list of doable side-hustles that you can start today. It doesn’t include things like blogging, and starting a business – because the reality is – those don’t generate money straight away. And if you’re reading this, I presume you want those dollar bills to start rolling right now.

Instead, these are things that require low overheads, not a huge amount of skill and you can start immediately. Happy side-hustling!

Pet-sitting and dog-walking:

My personal favourite. If you love a puppers or two, this one’s for you, as well.

There are an estimated 24 million pets in Australia (which is almost on par with the amount of people in the country, according to the last census) – and with a large majority of these people working, going on holiday or having to run to interstate for emergencies, there’s a lot of furry friends needing companionship.

Some will ask you to have their pet in your home, some will prefer you to go to theirs (residing there, in some cases), and some just ask for you to take them for a little jaunt around the neighbourhood. You set your own rates and availability, and people contact you asking if you’re around. Normally, you arrange a meet and greet beforehand, so they can see how the animal responds to you (and check you’re not a psychopath) which is on your own time, but once everyone is happy – they book you in.

  • Finding work: PawShake, MadPaws, list your dog-walking services and a bio of you on a site like Gumtree, or chuck up a flyer in your local area.
  • Rates: It varies. I charge around $20 for a dog-walk, $50 for an overnight stay and around $30 per visit either going to them, or them staying with me.
  • Tips: Don’t do this if you genuinely don’t like animals. They’re intuitive little things and they’ll know you don’t dig ‘em, which is a waste of time for all involved. If you’re renting, check your by-laws around having pets (or do it… but know you might lose your bond) and be careful with any of your existing pets – you can’t assume they will like every animal that comes barging into their territory.

Babysitting:

Oh, baby. This one’s a goodie. Do your civil duty of giving exasperated parents a break of an evening, or help with the afternoon school run when they’re still hanging out trying to meet deadlines at work. Kids, for the most part, are great fun. I love their creativity and unique way of thinking, but again, you have to love this demographic to enjoy this kind of work. Fun fact: I once babysat for a couple in the UK who, when I asked them where they were off to that night, actually replied: “Nowhere. We’re having sex but we needed help with the kids because they always run in on us when we try any other time.”  I decided we’d all go get ice-cream very far away that day.

Meet the children beforehand, because some kids require much more time than others, and side-hustling isn’t meant to be stressful. I don’t babysit too much anymore as my copywriting business, Wordy and Smith keeps me pretty busy, but if I do, I’ll ask to meet up with the kids and the parents in a relaxed park setting, so we can sit down and chat properly. It gives me a great opportunity to see how the kids interact with their parents and each other in an environment that’s very exciting for them and that’s usually a great indicator of how they’ll behave with me.

  • Finding work: FindABabysitter, JuggleStreet, BabySits, BabySittersNow. If you are into the nanny thing (and looking for a more full-time gig), I met Michelle from MiniNannyAgency at one of the workshops we did at Wordfetti and highly recommend having a chat with her – she is such a gorgeous human.
  • Rates: Around $25 to $30 an hour is an average rate, but this will vary on things like age, experience, what’s required of you (i.e. are you going to be hanging out with babies and toddlers, or self-sufficient early teens).
  • Tips: If you don’t have the patience of a saint, this one isn’t for you. Kids are unpredictable, emotional and sometimes unreasonable little human beings, and they needs lots of love and attention. This isn’t a “do it whilst doing something else” kind of gig. Also note that you will probably need need police clearance.

Paid surveys and market research:

Opinions are like… you know what. Everyone has one, and sometimes businesses will pay for yours. There are a variety of ways to go about this, whether it be short, paid online surveys, or in-person, roundtable market research discussions. The latter are much better paid, but often only run in major capital cities or work hubs, and you need to attend in-person for an hour or more. All have stringent pre-qualification protocols, so this isn’t something you’d want to depend on for regular side-hustle income… although I’m pretty sure I made about $5,000 over a six-month period a few years back. Just got lucky, I guess!

Online surveys are just a series of questionnaires, taking between five and fifteen minutes to complete. Market research can be interviews, taste-tests, or a business launching a new product and wanting to run the way they market it past a focus group first. They might show you variations of different ad campaigns, or different photos of the product prototypes to see how they make you feel. Writing down: “This tub of chocolate mousse makes me feel sad” feels strangely right – and even more so when they hand you your cash-filled envelope at the end of the session.

  • Finding work: PureProfile, PaidFocusGroups and MyOpinions.
  • Rates: Online surveys can be anywhere from 50c to a couple of dollars, depending on the time you are allocated to spend on it. Market research is much better paid, and they often reimburse you for your travel. Expect anywhere from $60 to $120 for an hour and a half’s session. More frequently they are paying with gift cards nowadays, but these can still be redeemed at major supermarkets and chains.  
  • Tips: My friend Lucinda who originally got me into market research (who has an ah-maz-ing candle business FYI) told me, anecdotally, that they prefer female participants between the 24-35 age range as they have the most purchasing power in Aussie households. That’s not to say they aren’t looking for a wide range of profiles but, you know, inside scoop and all that.

Selling stuff around the home:

If you’re not on the KonMari, joy-sparking bandwagon, where have you been? Aside from being super popular, the concept of minimalism is very powerful when it comes to tidying up your personal finances. I first read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up a number of years ago, and as the title would suggest, it literally changed my life. I now keep things very simple and uncluttered in my home, in my work and in my accounts. Making no space for mess and complexity has made so much space for everything else.

One of the key ways to do that is to declutter – and then stop filling your home up with more stuff you don’t need. Go through drawers, under beds, through cupboards, bookcases, boxes, garages, cars and everything else with a nook or cranny, and pull out everything you haven’t been using for more than a year. Ask yourself genuinely: Do I need this? Will I use this? Do I already have one of these? Does it make me happy? If not – list it up for sale. People will often come round to pick them up, handing over their cash, and that saves you a trip to the charity shop bin and helps the environment.

  • Finding work: Gumtree, eBay, Facebook Marketplace and specialist sell sites (I’m currently trying to sell my wedding dress on one).
  • Rates: The general rule of thumb is to ask yourself what you’d be prepared to pay for an item if you needed it. You can also look at how much similar items have gone for, because the age old adage says that something is only worth what the market is willing to pay.
  • Tips: Be prepared to negotiate on price, and to have a degree of your time wasted. Don’t plan your day around someone promising to come around and pick something up, because you have a 50/50 chance they’ll show. Never ever meet up with buyers in unknown and unpopulated places, and if they’re coming round to collect something, use language that suggests you are not home alone (i.e. “yes, we will be home / we should be free then.”) I also ask buyers ahead of time not to bring big notes because I can’t break them and don’t store cash at home. Cashless societies for the win!

Freelancing with your skills:

This one I love on so many levels, because it’s essentially where my business sprouted from. We humans are pretty talented, multi-faceted beings, and at some stage of other, we’ve probably picked up a few key skills that we can use to help someone who either doesn’t have the time or know-how to do themselves. Whether it be writing, graphic design, SEO, digital marketing, web development, public relations, consulting, coaching, event planning, sales, virtual assisting, calligraphy, illustration or managing social media accounts, there’s likely someone out there willing to pay for your skills.

This is the kind of side-hustle that you can start today, as long as your niche doesn’t have huge overheads (like buying product or equipment, as in the case of catering or recording and animating videos). Things that also require huge software subscriptions (Adobe) aren’t ideal if you don’t already have them. Freelancing is great because it offers total flexibility and freedom, and in this game, word-of-mouth travels fast. It’s where almost all of my new leads come from – businesses telling other businesses that I’m a pretty top chick, or my existing clients reaching back out with a new project.

  • Finding work: Upwork, Freelancer, Fiverr – or specialist sites for your niche. You can also ask in your network, through somewhere like LinkedIn, whether anyone needs help in a specific field for an upcoming project.
  • Rates: Most charge per hour, but it depends on the field and specialty and your level of experience – so there’s no one-size-fits-all rate. You can always work out your salaried hourly rate by taking your salary, dividing it by the amount of work-weeks in your working year, and then dividing that by how many hours in your work-week (or, you know, using a calculator like this). Someone who is salaried at $60,000 would earn $28.85 per hour (assuming 52 weeks in their working year and 40 hours per week).
  • Tips: You’re likely dealing with people who have, to some extent, deliverables and KPIs – and they’re engaging your expertise with the expectation that you can deliver as you have said you can. Managing clients can be a big learning curve if you don’t have experience in client-facing roles. Goal-posts can change, people can sometimes be unreasonable under pressure and invoices can be paid late. But these things can be navigated around and with experience and the right upfront processes in place, they get much easier.

Driving:

Broom, broom said the little cash-loving car. Ride-sharing has surged in popularity over the last five years (literally pulling certain people around the world out of poverty), but it remains pretty controversial for reasons of safety and corporate responsibility. Still, if you have a car, and spare time, it can be a nice little income generator for you. I recently found out about Shebah through the Lady Startup Summer Series of podcast interviews, and fell in love. They’re a business doing amazing things and it’s female-only, so if that’s a worry for you, this is a great way to be involved in the process.

Many of these apps even have options nowadays where you can only pick up and drop off people travelling on your normal route. So if you’re heading into work or to a social event, and fancy making a cheeky bit of cash, you don’t have to go out of your way to do so. If you’re into the driving economy, you can also sign up to deliver food, which also has the added benefit of earning you tips and gratuities. Full disclosure: I have never done either of these (but friends have), mainly because a.) Sydney is Satan’s playground for drivers and b.) my husband routinely reminds me that if we ever did food delivery, he’d have to take a personal “bite-tax” out of every one. I don’t imagine we’d last long when all of our reviews came back with: “You ate some of my dinner you drongos!”.

  • Finding work: Uber, Shebah, GoCatch.
  • Rates: Finder have a decent calculator for Uber, and on their website, Shebah say: “you keep 85% of your fares, and enjoy higher rates than other rideshares. You earn more during peak times, and fares are inclusive of GST and tolls!”
  • Tips: Obviously there are safety concerns for women driving strangers around, especially at night – but platforms like Shebah combat this (and honestly, if you haven’t listened to George McEncroe being interviewed on the Lady Startup Summer Series, you’re missing out). Shebah also offer a free financial planning session to all drivers. You’ll get more fares in the capital cities but you have to be comfortable with city driving – and I’m not so convinced on their GPS efficiency, either.

Renting out a car, garage or room:

Never before has the concept of short-term leasing on someone else’s space or assets been so attractive. We live in an age where the cost of ownership is damn high, and you’re ‘in’, the cost of maintenance is just as astronomical. It makes sense for both owners and renters to utilise and benefit from unused or idle assets, and this can take the form of a spare room, a garage or a car.

Car sharing, garage sharing and room-sharing can come at a fraction of the cost of buying or owning outright (and saves them all the ongoing maintenance and management fees), so it’s a very attractive proposition. You call the shots with how you want to offer your assets, including short-term leasing, or, if you have a separate granny flat or home office, as a long-term commercial lease. Garages are great if you have a two-car space, but one car, and live in an area where street parking is difficult or expensive. Before we bought our own car, we regularly utilised the services of Car Next Door and found it to be a great way of getting around when we needed more convenient transport, like for food shopping.

  • Finding work: AirBnB, Car Next Door, Spacer, Just Park.
  • Rates: AirBnB depends on the area, type of property, whether you’ll be vacating completely or sharing the space and any other perks (like breakfast or a gift pack). You can look at other places in the same area for a better comparison. Car Next Door sticks to about 33 cents per kilometre and will charge a membership fee depending on usage amount. Garage sharing services take a cut of any bookings, and prices vary by location, ease of access and level of privacy.
  • Tips: AirBnB has experienced a significant decrease in bookings, at least in Sydney where we live. Many other AirBnB hosts have commented on how few bookings they receive than they used to; but Christmas is always a pretty safe bet. As always, good reviews are golden so try and help your guests or borrowers to have a great experience.

A weekend job:

There’s no shame in doing a little bit of extra weekend work for cash. I’d still happily do anything I did pre-university today, although I unfortunately know a lot of people in my professional circle who wouldn’t. That’s a shame, in my opinion, because it’s not only a great way to boost your income on a guaranteed basis, but you’ll meet some awesome people and learn new skills at the same time. Whether it be barista work, waiting tables, helping at a shelter or sanctuary drive, pool cleaning, handing out flyers at brand events, car-washing, working for a catering company on weekends or doing some admin and reception work – it’s all excellent income opportunity.

  • Finding work: Go and call up local cafes, offices and shelters and chat to the managers (stay clear of their busy times!). Hand in your resume or pop up flyers for pool cleaning and car washing in your local area.
  • Rates: You shouldn’t be getting paid any less than minimum wage in your country. In Australia, it’s $18.29 an hour, or $694.90 a week. From July 1 it will rise to $18.93 an hour, or $719.20 a week.
  • Tips: Be persistent, and try and avail yourself of a weekend if you can. This is really when most places, or 9-5 workers will need your services.

Mystery shopping:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: acting as a mystery shopper to visit a particular shop and provide feedback on everything from customer service, floorplan, product layout, dressing room aesthetic and cleanliness. You take all of this personal intel and write it up in a detailed report that needs to be sent back to the agency within a day – so there is a timeliness component to the task.

There’s two components to mystery shopping remuneration – one is the fee, and the second is the goods you buy that you get to keep (although sometimes you need to buy it with your own cash upfront, keep the receipt and they reimburse you). This can be great if you need something from that store anyway. I’ve heard about Kikki K’s $200 mystery shopping initiative, which is pretty generous – but I’ve personally never done it.

  • Finding work: Seek, MysteryShopping, The Realise Group.
  • Rates: On average, around $20 in a flat-fee payment, and then the cost of product. This can be capped, though, so keep that in mind.
  • Tips: Try and take jobs for shops you actually need to visit – otherwise you’ll end up with a bunch of extra stuff you don’t need (unless you plan on selling it for less than RRP – triple whammy).

Tutoring or translating:

Bit of a whizz in school? Got a knack for maths, science or English? Busy, working parents in your area who could use a hand with their kids homework and study need YOU. Now, this is unlikely to be the hardcore tutoring stuff (like, parents who want their kids to come top 1% of the country in their exams) because this requires either being a teacher or understanding the curriculum requirements deeply, but a little help with basic homework will suffice.

The same goes for parents who want their kids to be able to learn a different language that you natively speak. For this, you’ll want to have your own BYO language learning book so you have some kind of structure to your sessions, and leave plenty of time for back-and-forth practice.

  • Finding work: Speaking to local parents at a community meetup or pop flyers up, TutorFinder, Upwork for translation jobs.
  • Rates: Around $25 per hour is reasonable, with each session lasting 1-2 hours.
  • Tips: You want to be good with kids and be able to engage them in order to help them learn. Some parents will expect you to provide a police or Working With Children check at your own time and expense.

Rent-a-hand:

TaskRabbit’s mission statement of “find jobs you love, at rates you choose, make a schedule that fits your life” sums up the whole rent-a-hand gig economy movement. There’s virtually nothing humans aren’t willing to outsource when it comes to things they don’t want to do, so it’s worth scrolling through the jobs just for the laughs alone. You can filter by things that are nearby, and things you genuinely love to do (like organising people’s bathroom cabinets. I think I’d do that for free).

  • Finding work: TaskRabbit, AirTasker.
  • Rates: Variable (but negotiable), and the better your reviews, the better your chances of being able to do so.
  • Tips: Don’t do anything you don’t know how to do (or aren’t licensed to – like plumbing or electrics). Exercise general, everyday caution when going into people’s homes.

With all of these, approach with an opportunist mindset. I’m an opportunist, and this has always served me well. Ultimately, the more you get out there – the more you will find. With some of the lower-priced jobs, take that thinking of: “I don’t want to to head out today for $15”, and consider instead the opportunity cost of not doing it. What else could you find when getting out that will lead to more long-term earning potential?

You might not want to start with all of them, because there is a portion of time you’ll need to dedicate in setting up your profile, and applying for a few initial jobs (you’ll find you get less work in the beginning – but once you build up those testimonials, my experience now is that the offers often come to me). Instead of applying, I vet through around 15 offers for different things per week, and pick whatever I have the time and capacity for.

Remember, if you’re in Australia (as most of these links are for), our taxation system basically lumps all earnings into the same bucket: income. You will need to declare this income at tax-time and your tax payable will be calculated by your marginal tax rate.

If you don’t feel confident in lodging and declaring this income, it is highly recommended that you speak with a personal taxation specialist. There is also a consideration of whether you’ll be running this as a hobby, or a business – in which case, you may need an Australian Business Number (ABN). The Australian Business Register has a good ABN entitlement tool (so you can check your eligibility) but if in doubt, run it past aforementioned accountant.

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