Family Time is Cheap and Makes You Happier!

When you are younger, having family time seems to be a bit of a bore. Yet, as you get a little older, many people start to realise just how important it is to spend quality time with your family and there's many things that prove that this is true!

According to this (Ted talk) longest study on human happiness (ongoing), the key to happiness is having good relationships. Now, not all of us are socialites and have endless amounts of friends, but there is one group of people who are given to you in life. Your family! Now, some people have already separated from their family and may already have other people to call their new adopted "family", whether it is close friends or other, but spending more time with your family can have several benefits, many of which align well with the early retirement philosophy:

• Building healthy relationships is the key to happiness, according to Harvard
• Spending time with family is often cheap
• Having support of family can reduce long term expenses as you pool resources and look after each other 

As discussed in the above video, having healthy relationships is the key to happiness. Oftentimes, when having a planned lunch or other with family, I often prepare for it expecting it to be a grudging and boring experience, for no good reason, I think that's just a carryover from childhood. However, I'm often pleasantly surprised after half an hour or so as the conversation starts to flow and you get to learn a few things from different people and have a healthy chat about anything and everything. Everybody wins and gets happier!

Spending time with your family is often cheap. Whereas friends may want to go to a pub or restaurant to catch up, family is quite often content with simply having a picnic in the park or a barbeque at someone's house. Everyone can cook something and bring it along and crack a few beers bought from the bottle shop, instead of paying $7 a beer at a pub, you can drink 5 for the same price!

Having support of your family can reduce your long term expenses. Pooling resources is a great way to save money, and stops the need for every household to own every item. Just a few weeks ago I learned to do an oil and filter change on my car to save on servicing costs, so I borrowed the tools that I didn't own from my parents. Of course, if I broke it, I would have bought them a replacement, but that didn't happen and I saved a healthy few bucks. It would be great if everyone got to know their neighbours for this same benefit, but it's not really a big part of our culture to be pooling resources with your neighbours, which makes family and friends a great option!
Also, when you get older, you will have a younger generation to look after you, provided that they see you taking good care of your elders and they see it as the normal thing to do. This is obviously going to be a great benefit for you.

So if it's been a while, organise a family get together at the park, beach or your house. It will make you all happier and it a great, cheap use of your time. Especially if you're retired and have lots of time!

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Early Retirement in Australia, is it possible?

Beautiful pictures like this induce the feeling of freedom,
which is exactly what early retirement is about

Is it possible to retire early in Australia? With our high cost of living, expensive houses and age pension which doesn't kick in until you're 67? YES!

I think Australia, like America, provides a unique opportunity to go against the grain and use society's norms to your benefit. Australia, one of the most expensive countries in the world in regards to cost of living, sounds like a hard place to build enough wealth to be able to quit work for good, but what exactly makes it so expensive, and just how do you go about retiring early?

It is entirely possible to be able to retire before the age of 40 in Australia and I plan to be fully retired at 36. To be able to have enough to be able to permanently leave the work force (if you choose), you need to accumulate about 25 times how much you spend every year. So, for example, if like me, you spend about $350 per week ($18,200/year), you need to accumulate $455,000, which will take you about 13.5 years to accumulate if you earn $40,000 and invest into index funds.

So if you start saving at 20 years old, you will be financially independent at the age of 34! If you're already a bit older, say 40, then even if you have no savings, then it's entirely possible to be able to retire at the age of 54. Better than 67 isn't it!

Now, some people earn less or more money, and spend less or more money, so is there a catch all way of figuring out when you can retire? YES! Your savings rate is what determines how long it will take you to retire:

Savings Rate	Years Until Retirement
10%	43
20%	31
30%	24
40%	19
50%	15
60%	11.5
70%	8.5
80%	5.5
90%	2.75
100%	0

This table assumes that you start with $0, get a 7% return rate (diversified stock portfolio), which is net of inflation and assumes a withdrawal rate of 4%, which allows you to withdraw your balance at a rate of 4% per year without ever running out of money (it keeps up with inflation).

How do you calculate your savings rate?
You take your annual savings, eg, $20,00, and divide it by your after tax income, eg $40,000.
Therefore, $20,000/$40,000 is 0.5, which is a savings rate of 50%, allowing you to retire in 15 years, starting with nothing.

The more you save, the earlier you will be able to retire, regardless of your income!

I'll give you an example of how I am able to have a savings rate of about 45% with an entry level job that requires no training or qualifications. I spend roughly $350/week (usually only $305/week but I put some away for annual expenses like registration and insurance) and earn $40,000 after tax. Here's a rough breakdown of my spending per week:

Rent $180 (my partner pays the other half)
Food: $50 (Click here for some of my cheap recipes)
Car rego, insurance and petrol: $30
Gym: $12
Internet: $7.50
Medication: $7
Alcohol: $9 (6 beers or a bottle of wine)
Electricity and water: $15 (half of bill)
Eating out, random purchases (eg new bike), bike maintenance, holidays: $40

There you have it, I live pretty lavishly and don't feel deprived at all. I think the only difference between me and everyone else who is struggling financially is that I stay away from debt! If you just spend the time to save up cash for your first car, you basically eliminate the debt cycle for the rest of your life. I do a lot of exercise, ride my bicycle to work and read a lot, and play music. I buy high quality gear if I feel it's something that I really need and therefore it lasts a long time and costs very little on a yearly basis. For example, I just bought a pair of leather shoes for $480, that are handmade and completely rebuild-able, they are Loakes, and the per year cost of these shoes works out to be much cheaper than if I bought $150 shoes every year, or second year even!

At this rate I will retire at the age of 36, because I started saving a little late, but I'm definitely well on my way!

If you have any questions on how to reduce your expenses or investment related questions, feel free to leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you!

Slow Cooked Black Beans with Garlic, Onion and Spices $0.60/Serve

187g (1 cup) Dried Black Beans ($1.10, half of 375g packet)
1 Large Onion, Diced (60c)
3 Cloves Garlic, minced with fork (30c)
1 Red chilli, sliced (birds eye if you like it spicy) (30c)
At least 3 cups of water, adding as needed
1 teaspoon ground cumin (5c)
1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds (5c)
Black Pepper, cracked
Salt
Total Price: $2.40 ($0.60c per serve)

Method:

1. Rinse dried unsoaked black beans under cool running water to clean, then place in medium saucepan
2. Add diced onion, minced garlic, sliced chilli and a few cracks of black pepper to saucepan (DO NOT ADD SALT YET! This will prevent beans from cooking)
3. Add 3 cups of water to saucepan and bring it all to the boil
4. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and simmer for about 3 hours, stirring occasionally, adding water as necessary. (you don't want it to completely soak up all the water until it's ready, so add half a cup if it starts getting dry and then simmer until thick around the 3 hour mark)
5. Add salt to your liking and a bit more pepper if necessary, you can also add more cumin and coriander seeds if you feel it needs a bit more flavour.

Serve either straight, as part of a mexican feast with guacamole and corn chips or on boiled or baked potatoes with sour cream.

This super easy, super cheap, super healthy meal recipe was given to me by a Spanish friend. It only costs a total of $2.40 to make, but could be made even cheaper if you bought the base ingredients in bulk. Still, only 60 cents per serve and you will get 12grams of protein, 20grams carbs and less than 2 grams of fat, nearly all from the black beans, the rest calorie-less flavour!

I've been experimenting a bit with beans and trying to increase my vegetable and fruit intake, while keeping my costs low, and I'm finding that even super healthy meals are rich in flavour and low in cost.

I've discovered that in terms of price of protein (necessary if you like to exercise) can be ranked, in terms of lowest price for roughly 20g of protein, as:

• Milk 50c (2 cups at $1/L)
• Beans, Whey Protein Concentrate: roughly 65c
• Eggs 75c (3 eggs)

 From there, you have the cheaper meats, like chicken breast, which is up at about $1.20 for 20g of protein, so beans are surprisingly cheap, especially since they are the same price as completely natural, unflavoured whey protein concentrate!

So give this recipe a try and see if you like it, it's a good way to add healthy legumes to your diet. It's a great side to accompany your meal.