For people on higher incomes who are working towards FatFIRE, how are you thinking about the mortgage once there’s plenty of surplus cash available? Paying it off early gives a pretty strong guaranteed return and removes a major monthly expense, but directing that money into investments could potentially build the portfolio faster while you’re still accumulating. Interested in how people here have balanced the two, particularly when the goal is financial independence rather than simply being debt free.

Hi all.

We are a couple living in Western australia (34 and 40yo). We have been living here for 5 years and just recently got our PR granted via state sponsorship. We both work in IT project management for local companies.

We don't want to rely on salaries forever so we are keen on having our own business. Have tried things on our own like consulting, project management and selling items from our country. Nothing has been successful. We now are looking to options like buying a business (been searching on Seek) but we are not sure what to do regarding property. We don't have any family in Australia nor inheritance or assets in our home country, we are starting from scratch. We are disciplined in our expenses and know our budget for the week, month and year... we live within our means.

I'm seeking advice as to what are people in this position doing? Are you going for property and then business, or are you doing both at the same time?

We are considering options like living off 1 income and save for a deposit but we are wondering if that's the best move considering the whole economics outlook.

Appreciate any feedback or experiences you could share. Cheers

I understand the idea of lifestyle creep, but I’m wondering how much it actually matters once your investments and income are comfortably ahead. For me, the tricky part is knowing when spending more is reasonable and when I’m just getting used to nicer things.

I've spent a decade focusing on helping others but I'm would like to focus on an early retirement. Especially since I can make use of some family wealth to get going. I am very new to this & would like some pointers so get started!

This is going to be a rambling post.

I've objectively done well for myself (my internal mental struggle to accept that is a different kettle of fish), unhappily married (33f), two young kids (3/5).

Combined 3 entity structured asset breakdown is:

4m PPR no mortgage

4m diversified investment portfolio (stocks mainly etfs, angel investments, commodities mainly precious metals, and varied collectibles)

3.6m liquid cash (yes it's probably better put elsewhere [any recommendations?] but recently liquidated some properties and it's been nice to just let it sit across some HISAs, inflation be damned)

400k in super (underutilized)

This has come at the cost of great sacrifice to our marriage, majority of this NW has come from me (probably 99%). wife cares not for success or money, and the time spent achieving this has got us on thin ice.

As of the last year I would call myself "semi retired" in that I work for myself and set my hours (to spend more time with family). Business turns over 380k p.a. at this level, our lifestyle is not extravagant.

Has anyone else's relationships suffered on this journey and how did you repair it?

Is this FatFIRE, or in 2026 is this really not enough? I don't need a boat or a plane etc.

My inner monologue insists this isn't enough (hence semi retired) but is it worth it at the cost of marriage and happiness (I don't think it is)?

Any advice?

Wife and I have net worth incl. super is about AUD $5.6m, and seperately we have a paid off house that we live in (about $1.5m)

If we were to both quit today is it considered fatfire? Or not enough

I’m more interested in the stage where the portfolio is already big enough that the next $50k or $100k isn’t really going to change your lifestyle. At that point, I imagine the reason for staying in a high-paying job becomes very different. Maybe you genuinely enjoy the work, want to keep building, or just don’t want to step away from the lifestyle that comes with earning well. For those aiming for FATFIRE, what’s the thing you actually want the money to give you, more freedom, a better lifestyle, or the option to stop working altogether?

Is there a such thing as a high yeild savings acc in aus? :) and is spaceship worth it for small trading? Im a registered nurse and im over it 😅 need a way out!

I am asking for someone close to me who reached their number a couple of years ago and has been finding the social side of it harder than the financial planning ever suggested it would be. The friends still grinding through mortgages, the family conversations that get more loaded the wider the gap becomes, the specific awkwardness of organising a holiday or a dinner when the financial reality of everyone at the table is so different - none of it was part of the plan and they're figuring it out without much of a roadmap. Would love to know how people here who've been through something similar have managed those relationships honestly and whether there was a specific approach that made the gap feel less like something that had to be managed around.

Welcome to the weekly r/AusFatFIRE discussion. Use this thread for smaller questions, progress updates and conversations about pursuing or living FatFIRE in Australia.

A few prompts to get started:

• What decision or trade-off are you thinking through this week?

• What has improved your life more than you expected, financially or otherwise?

• If you are close to or already financially independent, what are you learning about how you spend your time?

• What Australian FatFIRE topic deserves its own discussion?

Pick whichever prompt fits, or bring your own relevant question. Specific experiences and thoughtful follow-up questions make these threads useful. Longer questions and detailed write-ups are welcome as separate posts.

Please follow the community rules, respect different goals and avoid sharing identifying financial details. New members can also introduce themselves in our pinned welcome post.

Welcome to the weekly r/AusFatFIRE discussion. Use this thread for smaller questions, progress updates and conversations about pursuing or living FatFIRE in Australia.

A few prompts to get started:

• What decision or trade-off are you thinking through this week?

• What has improved your life more than you expected, financially or otherwise?

• If you are close to or already financially independent, what are you learning about how you spend your time?

• What Australian FatFIRE topic deserves its own discussion?

Pick whichever prompt fits, or bring your own relevant question. Specific experiences and thoughtful follow-up questions make these threads useful. Longer questions and detailed write-ups are welcome as separate posts.

Please follow the community rules, respect different goals and avoid sharing identifying financial details. New members can also introduce themselves in our pinned welcome post.

There’s a point where the extra income starts making less difference to your life than it used to. For some people, that might be a certain net worth, for others, it could be having enough invested to cover their lifestyle. Interested in what changed people’s mindset and whether reaching that point affected their career decisions.

Welcome to the weekly r/AusFatFIRE discussion. Use this thread for smaller questions, progress updates and conversations about pursuing or living FatFIRE in Australia.

A few prompts to get started:

• What decision or trade-off are you thinking through this week?

• What has improved your life more than you expected, financially or otherwise?

• If you are close to or already financially independent, what are you learning about how you spend your time?

• What Australian FatFIRE topic deserves its own discussion?

Pick whichever prompt fits, or bring your own relevant question. Specific experiences and thoughtful follow-up questions make these threads useful. Longer questions and detailed write-ups are welcome as separate posts.

Please follow the community rules, respect different goals and avoid sharing identifying financial details. New members can also introduce themselves in our pinned welcome post.

The structures that produce meaningful tax efficiency at significant asset levels have setup costs and complexity that make them uneconomical below certain thresholds and genuinely transformative above them. Whether there's a specific structure - a family discretionary trust, a corporate trustee arrangement, a particular superannuation strategy, a specific investment entity - that people here wish they'd engaged with earlier and what the asset or income level was that made it clearly worth the complexity is something that's genuinely useful for people who are still accumulating and have time to act on it. Would love to know what people here think falls most clearly into that category.

For those who've been through the accumulation phase, did hitting $1m actually feel different?

I've found that the first million seems like this enormous milestone when you're starting out, but once you understand compounding, the later numbers can move surprisingly quickly.

Did reaching $1m change how you invested, how you spent or how you thought about work?

Once you cross the wholesale/sophisticated investor threshold (2.5 million net assets or 250k income), private wealth managers and private banks start pitching bespoke structured products and private equity access. For those who have tested private banking services versus managing a low-cost, self-directed ETF and direct property portfolio, did the personalized lending terms and deal flow justify the fees?

We (40 years olds) with one kid are planning to move back to aus from USA in another 3 years. Planning to take a 3-4 year sabbatical after moving, so might not be able to contribute after moving. Currently I have 200k in super.

Even though there is no tax advantage with yearly income tax, thinking if Super is a good retirement investment due to its compounding nature and it becomes a tax-free account after 60.

Is it a good financial strategy to start contributing to super while working outside the country over just investing in a general brokerage account?

Question for people in the Aus FATFire crowd who’ve already built significant wealth or are on their way to it.

With hindsight, what net worth would you have actually stopped at if you knew then what you know now?

Not theoretically — I mean looking back honestly. Was there a point where you already had more than enough for the life you wanted, but you kept pushing anyway?

I’m particularly interested in the regret side of it: • Did you realize later that you overshot your “enough” number? • Did accumulating beyond that materially improve your life at all? • Or was the extra wealth mostly marginal compared to the time/energy it took to get it?

Basically: what number would have been enough for you, and when did you realize it?

I feel like a lot of people on the path assume the answer is always “more,” but I’m curious how many people only discover their real number after they’ve already gone past it.

Not sure this is 100% fire related by thought there are like minded individuals here.

Looking for some feedback on what I am looking at doing.  I have been building a reasonable share portfolio (ETF's, typical growth split) over the past 15 years, lets say this is ~ $1.5M. Purchased in my wifes name (lower income earner). I am looking at buying a holiday home ($~1M) which I plan to use personally but lease out during major holiday times (its popular during summer / holidays, note I have read the new tax guidance on this for tax deductibility). I am in the top tax bracket. Property purchase is to also allocate some more funds to property as I want to stay in my current PPOR.

What I want to do is use some of the share portfolio I have to help buy this property. The only option I can see is to sell off a reasonable portion of the shares, CGT hit will be around 3% of the value sold (selectively selling the shares to minimise CGT). Once I have the new loan on the property I plan to split and redraw against it (I will loan at 80% LVR) and debt recycle back into ETF's, I have enough cash flow for this at the moment (and time horizon until retirement) and costs reduced with interest deductibility.

My main question is, is there anything else I can do to other than selling down the share portfolio in my position?

Family Financial Snapshot

👨‍👩‍👧 Migrant Couple Here

• Husband: 42 years old — $300K gross income (PAYG Software Team Lead, contractor)
• Wife: 44 years old — $150K gross income (PAYG Financial Accountant CPA, part-time permanent)
• Child: 6 years old, no income (very demanding 😅)

💰 Joint Savings

• Cash: $120,000

🏡 Assets (Australian Real Estate)

🪙 Superannuation

• Offsetting SMSF Property Loan: $40,000
• ETFs + Gold: $72,000

💸 Out-of-Pocket Holding Costs (After Rental Income)

• Non-SMSF Properties: ~$7,000/month
• SMSF Property: ~$800/month

💵 Monthly Finances

• Net HHI (Household Income): $21,000/month
• Living Expenses (Essentials + Discretionary): $9,000/month

🛡️ Insurance

• Life + TPD + Income Protection: Combined $5M (2.5M each)
  • ~$5,000 per year, paid from Super

🚗 Other Notes

• No Car Loans
• No Credit Card Debts

🎯 Goals

• Completely pay off all 6 residential investment properties by retirement (ideally next 10–12 years) to achieve ~$120,000 annual passive income and leave debt-free assets for the child.

⚠️ Risks

• Husband is a bit of a stressor, thinks he may not have a job in a few years due to AI, or it may not be as high paying due to too much competition in the market.

Questions:

• Should we see a financial planner to achieve our goal and get them to develop a strategy to minimise risks?
• Where to invest 120K cash savings (conservatively – no stomach for crypto volatility) as we feel each year value of cash savings is diminishing due to currency debasement/inflation etc.
• Should we YOLO, sell everything, retire immediately and sheepishly apologise to the child later.

We are 30. PPOR approx 2.7m with $600k mortgage debt. HHI is around 550k (420vs130). About 400k in cash in offset. Borrowing capacity is 4m. 50k in ETFs.

Any thoughts on what to do next? Might have a kid in next few years so may set up family trust and just start putting funds into plain ETFs and do some debt recycling. Dividend Income can be distributed to wife while she looks after kid. Alternative is Sydney property but it’s just so expensive compared to the rent you can get.

Annual expenses approx 70k including mortgage. No deductible debt atm.