About Me

Welcome to Frugality and Freedom!

I’m Michelle, a mid-30s South Australian on the path to financial independence (FI). I write about what I’m learning on my journey to FI in an Australian context, having pursued this concept since 2012.

The perspective through which I view these ideas includes: having a modest income, being a single woman on this path, enjoying a semi-nomadic lifestyle, and taking a socially and environmentally aware approach to pursuing FI.

What do I mean by financial independence?

While there are subtle differences in interpretation, I subscribe to the following definition:

Financial independence is when your passive income (typically through investments) is enough to cover your expected annual living expenses on an ongoing basis.

Let’s look at each part here:

  • Passive income – income that requires little to no ongoing work from you to obtain; examples include share dividends or rental income from investment properties. Note: you may have had to put in work upfront to invest, but the income now requires little active effort on your part.
  • Expected living expenses each year – your cost of living each year, including if your spending fluctuates over time. Not to be confused with your salary; this is about what you actually spend, not earn.

Is this even possible? Yes! It does require saving and investing far more than the mainstream advice suggests, but as Mr Money Mustache points out, investing 50% of your income can have you reach FI in under 17 years. Simple share investments in index funds would do it, with 25x your annual expenses being the portfolio size you’d need for FI as a rough guide.

On this blog, you’ll find these themes (and more!):

  • Embracing frugality: Bringing intentionality to your spending, saving for your goals, being resourceful to solve problems, and increasing your self-reliance.
  • Growing wealth: Understanding investing in Australia, experimenting with side hustles and micro-businesses, and creating work you love.
  • Enjoying travel and adventure: A passion of mine! Getting to know how to travel affordably and authentically, including combining this with location independent work.
  • Practicing minimalism: Honing in on what you value most – in your time, money, possessions and energy – and then letting go of the rest
  • Ensuring alignment: As with minimalism, ensuring that how you live and how you use money aligns with your values and goals.

More about me

I semi-retired in 2017 at age 33, now splitting my time between seasonal event/festival work, remote freelancing and extended travel – adding to my 40 countries visited so far.

I recently completed a year of slow travel around USA from June 2018 – June 2019, meeting lots of fellow financial independence bloggers and enthusiasts on the way.

In addition, I enjoyed six-month mini-retirement trips in 2013 and 2017, exploring Europe and experimenting with what life could look for me after FI.

Looking ahead, I’m building up my remote work offerings, to better combine travel with location independent work. **If you need support with event planning, travel coordination, social media management or other virtual assistant projects, let me know!

Early Days

When my career path led me to the joyful world of events and the arts, I knew I’d need to get savvy to make the most of the modest income potential. I geeked out on learning to be in control of my money, discovering that personal finance doesn’t have to be scary or hard at all.

It also doesn’t matter how much (or little) you earn – the principles apply at any level and you can achieve great things for your financial health on even a lower salary. These generally boil down to reducing waste, making the best use of resources and knowing your priorities.

I discovered the concept of financial independence in 2012 at the age of 28. I became fascinated with FI blogs such as Mr Money Mustache, Early Retirement Extreme, Frugalwoods, and Afford Anything.

These down-to-earth bloggers showed that you don’t need to follow the conventional path of working 45+ years, chasing happiness through buying stuff, saving only as an afterthought (if at all), perpetually feeling time-poor, and putting off those adventures you dream of until you retire at 65 or older – hoping you’ll be in good health to enjoy them.

The alternative path of (achievable) awesomeness is to: increase your savings rates – to 30%, 50% or even 75% – by reducing your spending and/or growing your income. By combining this with investing simply and sensibly, you gain in financial freedom as your savings and passive income increases – until eventually, you reach ‘financial independence’ and working for money becomes optional!

You can shave years off your working life and enjoy ‘early retirement’ through financial independence in your 50s, 40s or even 30s. This opens up more opportunities for doing what you want, when you want – whether it is traveling extensively, volunteering, pursuing meaningful work, or spending time with family. This doesn’t exclude you from working if that’s what you choose – more power to you if you love your job! Instead, it gives you sweet, sweet options.

As Paula of Afford Anything points out: “You can afford anything, but not everything”. Decide on what is important to you and ignore the rest, including your perceived opinions of others.

Guest posts

I’ve been fortunate to tell more of my story on these sites:

Get in touch

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any questions or feedback, email me at michelle@frugalityandfreedom.com

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