If you had told me just 5 years ago that I would have been compelled to write a blog about my money management and mindset I would have probably given you the eyebrow and laughed. I was SO BAD with my money! No joke. Like, had literally no concept of the value of money and spent it as soon as I had it on random crap that probably added no value to my life 90% of the time. I had credit card debt which was accumulated for no good reason. I just used it as if it were free money when I had spent my wages for the month so that I didn't have to miss out on buying anything I wanted or going for dinners, drinks, clubs etc. with my friends at any given opportunity. I even went travelling around Asia for 3 months with not a whole lot of cash to my name and had to rely on credit card towards the end of my trip.
But if you also told me 5 years ago that I would be the happiest I had ever been working more than I ever have (sometimes 13 days on and 1 day off rosters for months) and in a manual labour job working in construction, I probably would've scoffed at the idea.
I honestly can't stress enough how bad I was with money!
Granted; I wasn't making a whole lot back then. By Australian standards, I was actually making a laughable amount for the type of work I was doing, I think. Actually, I know I was making a laughable amount for any sort of work now when I look at what earning potential I have out here. Sorry to be disgustingly cliché but Australia really is the land of opportunity! Cringe! But so true. To learn a bit about me, where I came from, what I did before I started working in construction in Australia and my FIFO money journey, click here.
My money values did a complete 180 in the space of a year I'd say. I went from being like "wow! I'm earning so much money I can do what I want!" to being pretty tight and watching my savings grow in amounts that just didn't seem real to me when I looked at my banking app. I'd never seen numbers that big! In fact, I'd often see a minus before the numbers a lot of the time in the UK, sometimes having my wages paid and still not bringing me out of my overdraft.
My partner certainly had a huge influence in this mindset and behaviour shift as when we were first dating, he spoke of his goals of owning multiple investment properties, building his superannuation to a well above average amount to live on in retirement and also how he didn't want to have to work the kind of working away from home jobs we met on for the rest of his life. His plan was to maximise his earnings while he is young to to set himself up for the future. He was also building a house when we met, which is the house we live in now. It's a beautiful house that has gone up in value more than he would have expected in the short 3 and a half years its been built (largely due to the huge property price increases through the pandemic). Just seeing his drive and plans of a secure financial future motivated me to get my finances on track as I finally had someone with clear goals and a pathway to achieving them mapped out to talk with about the future. This was something new to me, as money and future life plans isn't really something anyone I've ever known has talked about openly. It's almost a bit too boring to think that far ahead to some people and certainly younger me would have agreed.
Once we realised we could potentially continue working away on the same jobs together where we would both be making good money, we really started to put some saving plans in motion. We even found these budget planners in K-Mart where we would document our spending and savings each day over the week and assess our spending together on our bi-weekly Sunday off from work. We called this our "financial date", which is an idea my partner picked up from one of the property investment podcasts he'd recently got into (most likely The Property Couch, I believe).
What started off as small goals, especially for me who was basically starting from $0... has turned into me personally saving over $100,000 in 3 years and us just purchasing our first investment property which is an absolute banger of a property, if I do say so myself! I can't actually believe what an amazing location it is in and how much potential we have for good capital growth on our first investment purchase. It's actually insane. One day, when I feel comfortable enough sharing a more personal side on the That FIFO Money Instagram page, I will share photos and a video of the property but at the moment I'm trying to kick this blog off anonymously (is this imposter syndrome? 😬).
My initial goals were to build an emergency fund of $3000. Now, that's a very small emergency fund if you go on the rule of having 3-6 months of living expenses saved! My only real expense at that time was my piece of shit car that I paid $1200 for so this was an amount my partner suggested to start with as my only real "emergency" would be to have to replace my shitbox car with another. I was lucky that my partner paid for the house we lived in together (I'd say that was a smart money move on his part to protect his assets in a new relationship) and he wanted me to focus on saving towards my smaller goals. That way, when I'd achieved those smaller goals, I could start saving for us to buy a house together as an investment, which I thought was fair enough and actually a very good plan. We also, weren't really technically living in the house at the time as we were working away in another state where he got free accommodation which we both stayed in for a while, until I got a job in a site a few towns over and rented a room in a house with a colleague. I was only paying $150 per week and earning between $2000 and $2400 a week so saving for those small goals was achieved pretty quickly.
After managing to achieve my small goals in just a few months of working away, I suddenly felt more motivated than ever to learn how to make good money decisions and save as much as I possibly could. I could see how it was relatively easy for both of us as a couple to save a very good amount of money based on the amount we were earning, the time we spent working and the fact that where we were working was pretty remote so there was nowhere and nothing to really spend our money on.
I started saying no to unnecessary spending like meals at the local pub after work because they were crap anyway and I'd already decided I wasn't going to drink for a while so I just suddenly saw things I would've never thought twice about doing as complete wastes of money. I also started caring less and less about what my colleagues thought of me turning down these offers and being "tight" because I didn't feel embarrassed about choosing to stay home and save money. I actually felt like the smartest person in the room when I could see the difference in my goals and their lack of foresight. I realised how many people around me were completely wasting the opportunities we had making the money that we do on absolute shite. I've realised over 4 years in total that I've now been working in the construction industry that those same people are usually the ones that complain the most about work and life in general too.
That FIFO Money has really opened my eyes to so many possibilities for my life that I would never have considered if I'd continued in the normal 9-5, 5 day working week "normal" life. Learning to manage my money, set specific goals and work towards them and only spend money on what I find true value in, has changed all areas of my life. I feel more focussed, more positive and overall genuinely happier. Money is one less worry in life and is actually the most valuable tool I have in creating a life I want and am proud of. The day we settled on our investment property is to date, the proudest moment of my life because we truly have worked so hard to achieve it and seeing all that hard work pay off is so fulfilling.
I have spent a lot of time in learning about investing, particularly property investing, to a point that it has become a genuine interest and something I enjoy learning about that also will continue to teach me more ways to improve my life in the future. I have a small shares portfolio and my next goal is to turn this into a decent sized portfolio in the next few years to maximise my compound interest in the long term until I retire. We also want to continue in the property investing space and I am even going to start a property investment course to develop skills and knowledge that I may one day be able to put to professional use and help others achieve their financial goals.
I hear people say "there's more to life than money" and " you've got to live your life" when you talk about saving money or turning down events that you're not interested in because I see it as a waste of money..... but let's face it, those people are 9 times out of 10 the ones that don't have a whole lot of money sense. What's that saying? Something along the lines of "don't take advice from people who aren't living the life you want". Is that a saying or did I just make that up? I don't know but I truly believe this is great advice to not be led astray from what's important to you and your future life that you're building! Be that small percentage of people that are doing more, achieving more and ultimately, enjoying life more because of smart decisions they have made...! If this is the attitude you are down with, follow my journey along in this blog and let's make That FIFO Money work for us together!!
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