Captain FI As seen on

About Captain FI

G’day – I’m Captain FI, and I flew my way to Financial Independence! I became work optional in 2021 and left full-time work in 2022 at age 30.

captain FI

I currently live in the Adelaide foothills in South Australia, and I am passionate about Financial Independence and the freedom it provides. I wasn’t always an investor, but through studying, earning, side hustling and starting a business, combined with living frugally, I was able to save and aggressively invest over 80% of my income.

After 14 years in the workforce I was able to build a seven-figure investment portfolio and build passive income to more than cover my cost of living, and by starting an online business (portfolio of content sites), I was able to achieve that same milestone again within 3 years, allowing me to semi-retire, work on passion projects and continue to invest towards the goal of ‘Family-FIRE’ (Fat-FIRE) and buying my dream hobby farm acreage.

I currently invest in Real Estate, Shares (primarily index funds), and online businesses (websites), and share my experience through Blogging, Podcasting, publishing my Net Wealth updates on the path to FI, and reviewing the tools that I have used along the way.

This website is reader-supported, which means we may be paid when you visit links to partner or featured sites, or by advertising on the site. For more information please read my Privacy PolicyTerms of Use, and Financial Disclaimer.

sydney
View of Sydney city skyline from a walking path across the water – the last 4 and a bit of my working years were in Sydney

Financial advice disclaimer

I am NOT a financial adviser. I do NOT hold an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL).

I only provide you with factual information based on my experience about my personal investing towards financial independence and that is for general informational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing I say on this website is intended to influence your decisions about any financial product. To be clear, I am NOT providing you with any financial advice. 

Please do not ask me for any financial advice. I am not qualified nor licensed to provide you with that advice.

I strongly encourage you to do your own research, consider your own personal circumstances, and talk to a qualified financial adviser before making any financial or investment decisions. To find a licensed financial advisor in Australia, you can visit:

Furthermore, you can read my detailed discussion with a qualified, licenced fee-for-service and not-for-profit financial Advisor.

If I say anything on this website that may be interpreted as my opinion about or recommendation of a financia

Featured Articles

Captain FI As seen on

From time to time I have been featured in various magazines, newspapers and other media. It has been a lot of fun and I love sharing my story and passion for how Financial Independence can change your life. I have put a full list of media appearances in my resources tab here

About me

Despite living in one of the most expensive cities in the world (Sydney, Australia), I managed an average savings rate around 80% through practicing mindfulness, minimalism, self-sufficiency and sometimes just good old-fashioned discipline (border lining on obsession sometimes…) I first hit my ‘lean’ FIRE number, which is the amount of investments I needed to allow me to reach Financial Independence Retire and Early on a bit of a ‘tight budget’ while living the single life, and then I hit my ‘FIRE’ number which allowed a higher level of disposable income. However, I still wanted to raise a big family, so continued to work flying and part-time on my business towards reaching ‘Family’ FIRE where I can devote my time to raising a family on a farm of my own (sometimes referred to as ‘Fat FIRE’).

After a couple of serious family health emergencies, some unpleasantness at work and health issues of my own, I realized it was time to leave full-time work and move home so I could be with my family and support my parents through their terminal illnesses. Whilst I don’t fly commercially anymore, I still enjoy pottering about on my portfolio of websites and work part-time on this business, which is allowing me to continue to save, invest and diversify my investments in order to increase my passive income toward ‘Family’ FIRE and the dream hobby farm, as well as decrease my overall portfolio risk. However, these days I am trying to focus on enjoying the journey rather than obsessing on the destination.

motorcycle
I love riding motorcycles, but after attending too many fatal accidents as a first responder, I benched this expensive hobby.

How I became great with money

I have been able to do this through working hard, being mindful with my spending and investing smartly. This was initially borne from necessity, as I wasn’t always a pilot. I started my working career when I left home at 17 to become an Engineer (which thankfully I received a scholarship for) but I then had to cover the cost of my flight training which added up to over $300,000 over 5 years. I have since spent about another $50,000 on further aviation and postgraduate university education.

This is on the high side for pilot training – I hesitated a lot and it took me a while to get the confidence to take the ‘risk’ to transition from my secure desk job into the flight deck. I procrastinated by undertaking a lot of flight training I probably didn’t need: getting qualifications and endorsements such as aerobatics flying, low level flying, formation and instructor training on weekends while I worked the desk job. The training was expensive but I am proud to say I never resorted to debt or student loans to fund it – I lived on a shoe-string budget and found as many different ways of making money as possible to make it happen.

I really loved instructing on the weekends, and it let me gain the experience to enter my current flying job, and earn a little bit of beer money to offset the cost of all the training. Since my flight training expenses have dropped and my income has now increased, I haven’t allowed my lifestyle to inflate with it – instead I chose to invest the difference in my future.

My income streams

The Income streams and side hustles I currently use or have had along the way have included;

  • Full time cargo flight operations
  • An aviation freelance and contracting business
  • Casual flying instructing
  • Warbird adventure and scenic flights
  • Index fund investing (Australia, US, and Total world markets)
  • Peer to Peer lending
  • Property investing and real estate developments (Australia)
  • Online arbitrage using eBay, Gumtree (craigslist) and Facebook marketplace: flipping vehicles, appliances, furniture and other items
  • Maintenance of a shopping center – i.e. cleaning graffiti, rubbish, gardening and general caretaker duties
  • Small ‘Cashies’ – payments for landscaping, fixing / repairing / maintaining vehicles, cleaning cars and houses, mowing lawns
  • A website portfolio that earns income from Advertising, Affiliate marketing and selling Digital Products.
  • Matched Betting
  • Gardening – growing plants and food to both supplement my groceries and also for sale or barter
  • Tutoring students in Science and Maths (HSC and University level) as well as ‘helping’ them with their assignments
  • E-commerce (such as selling Print on Demand T-shirts)

I am also a part time student and always learning. I’ve managed to use workplace educational grants to get a Bachelors and Masters degrees in Engineering for pennies on the dollar – Over $150,000 worth of Undergrad and Post Graduate scholarships at a total cost to me so far of around $28,000. I am a life long learner and after reaching my FI goals I am interested in doing a doctorate in the Space / Cyber industry. I also have a variety of other hobbies including Gardening and Permaculture, Cooking, Music and learning other languages.

My Career

Whilst I love flying, doing it professionally takes an extreme level of commitment; it is a constant learning environment where you grow and develop as an aviator, and it can be stressful at times. Ultimately it is a high stakes environment, especially considering you can regularly have over 100 souls on board, and are often flying in challenging conditions in all weather by day or night.

You are flying all over the world to new (and some tricky) destinations, which can be complicated by foreign Air Traffic Controllers for whom English is a second language. You also have to accept a wide variety of cargo, some of which can be dangerous and needs to be expertly managed to be transported safely. As a pilot I am away from home a lot, and exploring the world has been fun and exciting in my 20’s.

Realistically, I knew sometime in my 30’s I wanted to have the stability to raise a family, so a focus on Financial Independence allowed me more control over my life, my choices and my working conditions.

My goals

My main goal is to cover my cost of living with passive investments. The primary objective is to grow the passive ‘FI Portfolio!’ of index fund ETFs and LICs, and the secondary objective is to diversify this income stream through real estate developments, rental properties, web portfolios and online businesses. I wanted to reach my ‘Single’ FI goal of about $25K $32K per year in passive income, and eventually my ‘Family’ FI goal of about $70K per year in passive income.

This isn’t because I wanted to stop flying; I will never stop flying. Fair warning, aviation is a disease and on your first flight you will be hooked you can never stop. I want flexible work options in the future (potentially fly a reduced schedule/roster, or just flying for fun on weekends), so I can do whatever I want, whenever I want – including in the future raising kids and being the best Dad I can possibly be!

Why I started CaptainFI.com

From my time in aviation, especially instructing, I learned the value of teamwork and information sharing. When you can help people to get what they need, you can often work together and get what you need, too. I also want to keep myself accountable to my goals, and network with smart people who had already achieved or were well on their way to achieving the goals I was working towards. This is why I started CaptainFI.com.

Hopefully you can use the tips and tricks here to help you on your journey to Financial Independence – even if that only means being able to save a few bucks here or there, or questioning what I have said and sparking a fire in you to delve into some deeper research. Whilst its not financial advice (which I am certainly not qualified or licensed to give), this is just the experiences of an Aussie bloke trying to make a better life through financial independence.

For more details on my journey towards FI, check out my dedicated post here: My journey towards Financial Independence.

Captain FI on Social Media

I do hang out on social media a bit, so feel free to follow me on the socials if you want to join the community

You can follow Captain FI on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter or  join  the  Financial Independence Australia Discussion Group Below. I also just started the CaptainFI youTube channel and plan to add my podcasts and other short videos over there!

CaptainFI Youtube
CaptainFI facebook group

An (older) Interview with Captain FI

The following is a interview profile I completed a few years ago in 2019 which I think is still somewhat relevent, and what better place to post it than of course in the ‘about me’ page. Of course, a few things have changed since then which you will know from my regular updates – including my decision to retire early in 2022!

Can I use your name or are you anonymous? Anonymous

Where can people find you on the internet? Www.captainfi.com or on social media – Instagram: captain_fi and Facebook @theCaptainFI

How old are you (and spouse if applicable, plus how long you’ve been married)?
29, single and ready to mingle

Do you have kids/family (if so, how old are they)?
No kids, but want a big family (6 boys would just about do it I reckon, and justify that minivan I have been wanting)

What area of the country do you live in (can be as specific as you like)?
Sydney, NSW

What is your current net worth?
Just over (AUD) $1M (check out my Net Worth updates here)

What are the main assets that make up your net worth (stocks, ETFs, real estate, business, home, superannuation, etc.) and any debt that offsets part of these?
Super (ETFs and annuity), ETFs in a conventional brokerage account, investment property equity, websites

INCOME

Did you pursue tertiary education (Uni, TAFE, post-grad etc) and if yes, what are they?
A few certs and Diplomas, a Bachelor degree, Honours degree, Masters degree and aviation vocational qualifications. Think ‘project management, aerospace, systems, engineering, pilot and space’ stuff

What is your current job?
Pilot is my main income

What is your annual income?
Can’t disclose due to work contract – but you can probably figure it out if you get creative looking at the AFAP pilot award, pilot job openings advertised online and maybe if you get creative looking at my saving rates and spending.

How has your income performed over time. What was the starting salary of your first job, how did you grow your income (and what you did to make it grow), and where are you now?
First job in a shop $10 per hour, Have worked over 20 different jobs (many simultaneously) My total take home Income has grown by (at best guess) between 10-20% every year since I was 16

Would you recommend people to pursue the same career path? Would you choose a different job if you could go back?
No, Aviation is not for everyone. I spent about $340,000 on specific training courses between engineering and flight school and I have to work incredibly hard – you need a passion for flying otherwise you’ll give up or quit. You don’t do this job for the money

What tips do you have for others who want to grow their career-related income?
Specialise in your job role, study, professionals development, understand your worth and negotiate a raise. Expand your income streams – you should have at least 5 or 6 income streams that are not correlated to your job such as investing or side hustles like flipping items, dog walking or rental income.

What’s your work-life balance look like?
What work life balance? 😂 I work 60 to 80 hour weeks depending on what crops up at work, and then spend far too much time at home working on my side hustles and businesses

Do you have any sources of income besides your career? If so, can you list them, how much you earn with each, and how you developed them?
Yes, I go into these in detail on CaptainFI.com and during the monthly financial check ins. Income sources include flying wage, part time flying contracts, instructing work, consulting, dividend income, web portfolio income, flipping items (outsourced now thankfully), gardening / growing food / bartering, working on and flipping vehicles, Peer to Peer lending, Matched betting, and when I get a tenant, rental income on the IP1

EXPENSES

What is your (your family’s) annual spending?
Currently about $30-35K (roughly)

Can you break-down the main categories this spending relates to?
The bulk of this is rent for my apartment in Sydney (this includes all utilities and internet). otherwise I spend very little, ~$40 a week on food, about a thousand per year on the car (insurance, rego and some petrol) since I cycle most places now, and $150 per year on my cell phone. I don’t really buy ‘stuff’ and to be honest, I still have MORE than I should so continue to de clutter and sell things I have. I receive an allowance for meals etc when away for work, and this usually works out to be a spend of about $20 per meal and I can pocket the rest. I probably spend under $2000 per year on ‘going out’ / misc social things, about $1000 per year on Gifts and about $1000 per year on travel.  

Do you have a budget? If so, how do you implement it?
I used to have a budget and went overboard with it all, but found a zero sum budget where I spent the left over was inefficient, and stressed me out. I switched to ‘paying myself first’ (aka buying investments at the start of the month rather than the end) and tracking my expenses and this works much better for me

What percentage of your gross income do you save and how has that changed over time?
I have an average savings rate above 80% and target 85%, however it has been a bit extreme so I am deliberately not tracking this as thoroughly any more on the advise of a psychologist. I’d be happy anywhere above 70% to be honest! My savings rate has steadily increased from zero as my income has increased – I’ve always been frugal – initially out of necessity, and now because I want to reach FI.

What is your favourite thing to splurge on?
FOOD! Awesome delicious fresh produce like mangoes, avocados and other yummy fruits. I try to eat mainly whole food plant based, so I usually don’t limit myself when it comes to fresh fruits.

INVESTING

What has been your investment strategy/philosophy?
Try to buy and hold assets for the long term that provide a good return on investment with ongoing and increasing dividends, below market value and good upside for capital growth – otherwise known as the ‘Holy Trinity’ of investing. Stocks = a broad index / dividend yield investing buy and hold property = cash on cash return, interest only loan, cash flow positive, new builds business = low overhead and good cash flow, systemisable and outsourceable

What has been your best investment?
Manufactured equity in a duplex build returned a cash on cash yield (pending) of about 30% annualised – although this is paper money and won’t be realised unless I ever sell. Otherwise I just get the market returns from my stocks – whatever the index gives me! When I was foolishly stock picking, It was a while ago but I think I might have made about 70% profit gambling on an almond company and Woodside petroleum recommended by the barefoot investor blueprint subscription

What has been your worst investment?
I lost probably 60% on one stock recommended by the barefoot investor blueprint, so this kind of all equaled out to roughly underperform the index. My other worst investment was in a property management / Air BNB business which crumpled in COVID-19 and cost me about a fair bit of cash and a lot of my time

What’s been your overall return?
Honestly, I don’t know. Probably the Index, most of my investments are in the index, so whatever the stock market gives me that’s my return. It’s not healthy for me to obsess over returns and something I’ve spoken at length with a psychologist about.

How often do you monitor/review your portfolio?
Once a month I do the net worth update (that’s probably too frequent! But I do it for the blog)

NET WORTH

How did you accumulate your net worth?
Working as a pilot and side hustles, slowly snowballing it – check out my Net Worth updates here to see the process.

What has been the biggest contributor to your net wealth?
Biggest contributor has been my man PAY-G wages for sure, previously an office role and currently my flying wage. I do earn a decent side hustle from other jobs etc, but this is much less than my working income.

What has been the biggest detractor to your net wealth?
$340,000 worth of student / training costs for aviation and out of pocket uni expenses (uni was a scholarship though)

What are you currently doing to maintain/grow your net worth?
Continuing to invest the majority of my flying pay, reinvest dividends, invest in property with leverage and create good cash flow businesses

What money mistakes did you make that we can learn from?

  • 9/10 businesses will fail but keep trying and eventually you will make one that works extremely well.
  • Don’t inflate your lifestyle and flex your money muscles just because your earning like a boss.
  • Don’t be an idiot like me and invest in very high MER managed funds through ‘investment professionals’
  • Don’t be an idiot like me and make offers on “investment properties” you knew nothing about!
  • Don’t be an idiot like me and try and stock pick like I did – I underperformed the index!

If you have a spouse, how have they contributed to your net worth?
I do not have a spouse but I would like one who could bring something to the table financially to aid in child raising, although it’s not a deal breaker and I will be able to cover it myself

Do you have a target net worth you are trying to attain for FIRE, will you quit working when you reach this?
Not a target net worth, a target passive income. At the moment it’s about $25K for ‘single FI’ which I’ve almost reached, but if I am honest, my dream goal is closer to a combined family income or ‘fatFIRE’ of about $70K for the ‘dream future’ with 6 kids on a homestead. Ideally there would be some contribution from the wife from her investments / assets. It’s difficult to equate this to a NW number, but I’ve got retirement estimations all planned out on the blog  

What are your retirement plans?
Writing, Slow Travel, Raising a family and homesteading, regenerating local bushland, and potential casual contract or specialist work in aerospace programs.

Are there any issues in retirement that concern you? If so, how are you planning to address them?
Not really, it all sounds pretty good really. Probably just a bit of a fear of the unknown but will only know when we get there. Potentially leaving employment and my company’s stable paycheck and benefits like the health plan is a worry, but I’ll look into what level of healthcare I need for myself and my future family when I cross that bridge – I’m pretty healthy and Medicare is pretty good [ https://captainfi.com/private-public-healthcare-insurance/ ] 

MISCELLANEOUS

How was your childhood? Was your family wealthy, middle class or low-income?

Low-income. I had an amazing childhood, it didn’t really matter that we were poor. Our family was below the poverty line for Australian household income, because my parents divorced (my Dad was an addict and abusive towards my Mum) and Mum had to do it all on her own.

She ended up managing to raise a big family on her, own whilst juggling work and some serious health issues within the family (such as my disabled sister, my ADHD and behavioral issues at school, my ageing grandmother who needed ‘high care’ for years and of course her own struggles with years of physio and rehab due to being hit by a car, as well as her battle with cancer). To this day I am still incredibly amazed at just how capable of a person and Mother she is.

If you want to read more about my upbringing specifically, I wrote about it in Reflections on an amazing childhood.

How did you learn about finances and at what age did you “get it”?

I was always great at stretching the budget out of necessity, so was always fairly good with money – but I would always spend it – I spent $340,000 ‘investing’ in myself (which was probably the best investment now I think of it!). When I was 25 I had completed my education and training per se, and was able to redirect that spending into investments – it took me another two years for the penny to drop and actually become a smart investor – so I’d say I ‘got it’ at age 27 (two years ago).

Who inspired you to excel in life? Who are your heroes?Straight up it’s my Mum. She did some down right incredible single mum magic to keep our family going and has done an incredible job despite numerous horrendous set backs like being hit by a car whilst cycling and having cancer. She is an incredible person and a fantastic teacher and I can only hope to be half of the parent she was. Secondly Well, despite all of my mixed emotions about my father, second is my Dad. He is one of the smartest, most capable, confident and charming people I know – he has also struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, and being a smoker with a poor diet his lifestyle is now catching up with him health wise … for all his negatives he is still an amazing and very inspirational person.
Thirdly, Commander Chris Hatfield – read the book ‘an astronauts guide to life on Earth’ and you’ll see why!

How do you think differently than the average person when it comes to money?
To me one dollar is not one dollar. I see everything in annualised yield, so that $1 gas station coffee is actually $25 – that is to say, it ties up $25 worth of investments for one whole year to cash flow that coffee from investment yield. Try it – it will surely cut down your spending and make you super appreciative of side hustle income.

Do you give to charity? Why or why not? If you do, what percent of time/money do you give?

Growing up poor, I was always ingrained that money is not something to be given away but something to be spent on essentials, or secretly squirreled away for a rainy day for when something invariably WILL go wrong. It has taken a while to try and change my money mindset and adopt an abundance attitude, knowing that I have more than enough and can give back more.

Currently, I have a weekly transfer set up from my personal savings for $100 that goes towards funding a school and medical missions in the Philippines, and other than that locally at home I donate blood and plasma, Do career mentoring for young pilots, volunteer in my local community gardens, and I do a lot of pro-bono work as a financial educator and “unofficial FIRE coach” (I am not a financial advisor so don’t give advice, but I have found so much about FIRE is more on mindset and behaviors than actual finance or investing).

Ultimately, I think we should all try and help people where we can, especially the less fortunate, but I do still firmly believe that charity begins in the home. You need to sort out a solid foundation for yourself and your family first – remember, you always fit your oxygen mask first before assisting others.

I do feel I need to be doing more though, so I do plan to join my local Rotary club and get more involved in community and charity organizations. Personally after working with many NGOs and charities as part of my work as a cargo pilot I am still a bit dubious about the efficiency and efficacy of a lot of them, so I prefer to either donate money or acts of services directly to causes I believe in rather than blindly giving checks to giant charity orgainsations.

Do you have any favourite money tools and resources you recommend (books, podcasts, apps etc)?
Mr Money Moustache, JL Collins simple path to wealth, the Madfientist, Aussie Firebug and Strong Money Australia are my hardcore OG list of FIRE bloggers and podcasters. These guys will change your life! There are more incredible bloggers on the scene now creating great content, but as a starting point visit these blogs. Tools wise, I have a resources page on my blog which explains exactly who and what I use, and I have detailed review articles on all of them to save you time.



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