All Articles
August 6, 2021
NEW PODCAST
Super excited to announce a new podcast to the Financial Autonomy stream. Market Noise is a collaboration between personal finance YouTuber Justin Baldori and me, Paul Benson. We record each episode live on Youtube each Monday night at 8pm AEST, and then release to podcast version later that night. Justin and I each choose 2 … Continued
Investment
August 6, 2021
10 Ways to Save More
Financial Autonomy, this podcast and blog, exists to help you gain choice in life. To succeed with this goal, we need to put ourselves into a position of financial strength – debt paid off, investments generating income, and superannuation well-funded for our latter years. And none of that happens if our income doesn’t exceed our … Continued
Saving Strategy
July 13, 2021
Investment basics – Active vs Passive investment – what’s it about and, our approach
When I started my career in investment markets almost 20 years ago all the investment options were what we’d now call Active. We didn’t call them that at the time, it was just the standard way that money was managed. Passive investment had been around for some time, pushed primarily by John Boggle of Vanguard … Continued
Investment
June 30, 2021
Why is the best strategy also the toughest to pull off?
Accumulating wealth to gain choice is hard. As the well worn saying goes, “if it was easy, everyone would be doing it”. Why is it so hard though? For over 200 episodes now, plus the weekly GainingCHOICE emails, we’ve explored various ways you can successfully accumulate wealth. Surely it’s a simple matter of just putting … Continued
Investment
June 23, 2021
Artificial + ESG = Best Friends
This weeks piece spawned out of an item in the Brain Food section of our regular GainingCHOICE email that you are hopefully receiving (if not, go here). Ethical, sustainable, or ESG investing, it’s known by many terms, but this approach has been one that’s been a focus and embedded into my financial planning business for … Continued
Investment
Saving Strategy
Superannuation
June 9, 2021
What’s a Moat, and why do they matter when investing?
This week we’re going to explore the topic of moats. No this is not yet another weird acronym, though you do sometimes see it written all in upper case so if you’ve been confused by this you’re completely forgiven. The idea of a business moat is the same concept as a moat around a medieval … Continued
Investment
May 5, 2021
The most impactful tax deduction that is often overlooked
The end of the financial year is just a few weeks away. If you’ve had a successful year financially, perhaps you’re looking for ways to shave a little off your tax bill. We all know that paying taxes is important. It’s our contribution to a functioning society. But where rules and incentives exist that encourage … Continued
Saving Strategy
Superannuation
April 14, 2021
Discovering the Satellite – What are the Satellites in a Core-Satellite strategy?
Here at Financial Autonomy we follow the framework set out in the Financial Autonomy book. One of the pathways in that framework is stocks and within that section I explore the Core-Satellite strategy in some detail. It’s a strategy we use a lot with clients. In this post we’re going to dig in a bit … Continued
Investment
April 7, 2021
5 Strategies to Maximise Income for Couples
Couples can have a distinct advantage when it comes to building wealth and achieving financial autonomy provided they maximise the opportunities available to them. Here at Financial Autonomy we work to a proven framework that results in you being able to gain choice. We explore that framework in detail in the Financial Autonomy book, which … Continued
Investment
Saving Strategy
March 9, 2021
Financial Planning, coaching, and counselling – what’s the difference and when to use each
Financial planning, money coaching, and financial counselling. These are all terms you’ve probably seen or come across, but the difference between the three roles and when they are applicable is often not obvious. So in this week’s episode I’ll clarify what each of these roles do, and where perhaps they might be applicable in your … Continued
Investment
Saving Strategy
Superannuation
March 5, 2021
Best Australian Email Newsletters
I’m a big lover of email newsletters. My morning routine goes like this. Over breakfast I scan through the AFR so I’m across what’s happening in the business world. Hey, not everyone’s cup of tea I know, but for my profession I need to know what’s going on. Once that’s ticked off, I slide over … Continued
Uncategorised
March 3, 2021
The Age of Creators, NFT’s and Financial Autonomy
We are entering the Age of the Creator. The confluence of the internet, the tools it has produced, and blockchain technology, is delivering us from the Industrial Age to the Creator Age at speed. And for anyone interested in the idea of Financial Autonomy and gaining choice, that’s a wonderful thing. At the outset I … Continued
Investment
Self-Employment & Side Hustles