Why a Granny Flat? Early in 2024, the Victorian State Government made it easier to build Granny Flats by loosening the rules. They waived the need for a planning permit if the proposed granny flat meets certain standards. Not requiring a planning permit saves a lot of time and cost, which was enough incentive for … Continue reading Owner Builder Tips for Granny Flats
We’ve well and truely finished the Pan-American now. It’s been two month since we sold our van and left Chile. Now we’re on our way to Europe to spend summer there. I thought I’d write a brief summary of the trip with tips for anyone else who might be contemplating undertaking a similar adventure. We … Continue reading Planning the Pan-American (not)
In Australia I bank with Up Bank and Commonwealth Bank. The Up Bank App has a neat interface and they have an awesome developer API that allows me to pull all my transactions directly into MoneyLounge. I use it for all my day to day purchases. Commbank just kinda sits there as a sort of … Continue reading Foreign ATMs and Aussie Banks
The Great Melbourne Lockdown is nearly over. All going to plan we'll be able to leave the city in 5 more days, making it a total of 123 lockdown days. Considering that I was planning to cycle across the world this year it might sound like spending 4 months trapped in a little house in … Continue reading Moneylounge v2
As I write this note Melbourne is in a state of quasi Coronavirus lockdown. People can still wander around, schools are open. As are most of the shops. However people are increasingly working from home and normally busy streets in the CBD are empty. For those of us on the path to financial independence, or … Continue reading Imposed Frugality
For the last two months I've reentered the workforce on a 3-month contract, after having had the past 13 months off work. I'm working as a Project Manager in one of the big Australian banks, so it's very much a quintessential corporate IT gig. Before starting I actually calculated how much of the rest of … Continue reading Back to work……
After nearly one year since 'retiring', I look back on how I've been keeping myself busy and interested in life I finished up my last IT contract gig as a Project Manager in August 2018. Now it's May 2019 and I'm 10 months into early retirement. It's my longest break away from work since I … Continue reading How’s FIRE working out?
Financial Independence is a long term play that needs to consider macro trends affecting the world now and in the future. Two such trends that I've recently become very interested in are Global Warming and Automation. Whilst I can't predict what difference these trends will have on an FI portfolio I do note some behavioral … Continue reading Global Warming & Automation
Measuring my financial wellbeing lead me to create my own Mac App that gave me the skills to start iOS development which led to me starting Touchtech and running a business. Now it's time to create v2. I've been interested in Financial Independence since I was 21 and in the early days, I used MS … Continue reading MoneyLounge
A month ago I meet a psychologist whilst I was bike touring around New Zealand. He was from Switzerland. He was traveling around New Zealand with his wife. She was a consultant from Ernst & Young in Geneva and had taken a sabbatical from work to join him for 3 months down under. We got … Continue reading The danger of the sabbatical
Adrian Falvey 