Who I am
Call me Rob. I’m a 35-year-old Aussie solo developer currently living in the Greater Sydney area, which has the highest cost of living in Australia. After work, I enjoy hiking, swimming in the ocean, or working out at the gym. For me, health is as important as finances, and investing in it takes just as much time.
As the world economy changes and the economic cycle moves into a downward phase, more people focus on things like passive income, early retirement, and scrimping and saving to maintain positive cash flow. I have been similarly affected by these, and it has made me start thinking about how to plan my life.
Learn about early retirement
As an observer of passive income and early retirement (part of FIRE movement), I wanted to use this site to document my personal growth. Through nearly 5 years of hard work, I have gradually achieved the early stages of Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE). It is not an easy process, especially when living in the Sydney area where the costs of both rent, transportation and food are on the high side. Early retirement is not an easy thing to achieve, and I want to document and share the rest of my journey in the hope that it will help more people.
I follow the principle of simplicity in life, but I’m not so paranoid about pursuing the “ultimate” in everything. For example, simplicity makes people think of a minimalist life, which I don’t have. Personally, I am looking for a balance that goes with the flow, tilting in the direction of what I want to pursue. Maybe it’s ‘simplicity that goes with the flow’. In life, buy fewer things, those that are of high enough quality for long-term use, and those that are disposable for short-term use (e.g. cotton disposable underwear for travelling). Good products can really bring happiness.
Why did I create this website?
As I get older, the more I realise that time is so precious and I want to record my observations and thoughts about life. Writing is a great way to think, and more often than not, writing is a conversation with yourself, a way to bring peace to your heart.
Why do I write in public? I hope to have the opportunity to meet some new friends in the world who share the same interests. As I get older, I find it harder and harder to make friends. It’s so hard to match hearts and minds, and the world of adulthood is a funnel, filtering rather than changing.
I created the Money of Life website to share what I’ve learned about personal financial planning and to organise my practice into articles to share and find a balance between money management and life. I won’t lower my quality of life by aggressively saving money, or make myself feel a sense of emptiness by high spending. Also, using my knowledge, I create a lot of online financial calculators related to financial Independence, and they are all free. I wish to help people save some time.
My goal is to hopefully make this site a great part of your journey to FIRE.