To many, money is a taboo subject and not something that they ever talk about.
The financial field is a tricky one to navigate sometimes.
This can make it hard as an aspiring early retiree, to know how to build a financial community around you.
It is not socially acceptable to walk up to strangers and ask them if they plan to #FIRE. I vaguely remember there being discussion a few years ago on the MMM forums about adopting a secret sign or maybe a bumper sticker, so Mustachians could find each other. This actually wouldn’t be too bad an idea in my opinion.
But, just because it’s hard, doesn’t mean it’s not important.
Early retirement is not the norm. Which means, if you’re pursuing it, it can appear to be a lonely road. By building a great financial community, that path can not only be less lonely, but also a lot more fun.
Our Community
The biggest way we have built our financial community is through starting this blog.
Before starting it, I was a blog reader. My favourites were Mr Money Mustache and the Frugalwoods. However, both of those I found accidentally by seeing them mentioned on a different blog- I didn’t actually seek them out. I assumed there were probably a few other early retirement blogs out there, but didn’t think I needed to add anymore to my already full reading schedule.
Well!
How wrong I was! There are a lot of early retirement blogs out there, with more appearing every week. Many of these we have found through the comments on our own blog, or through retweets on Twitter.
Our readership is still small, and it doesn’t grow particularly fast (although our recent interview with Miss Money Box sent our stats through the roof). But those readers we do have who take the time to comment, send us an email or like our Instagram photos are wonderful.
We have learned so much from our readers and many of our readers write our favourite early retirement blogs. Mrs ETT, Miss Balance and I regularly have some great Twitter conversations and at times, I feel like these ladies are my real life friends. These connections are wonderful and we’re so grateful to everyone who stops by our blog.
It has helped us through many of our doubting moments, knowing the encouraging words that readers have passed onto us, and knowing that a similar scenario happened to one of our fellow bloggers and they got themselves through it just fine.
So if you’re reading this, thank you! We so appreciate you! And please take the time to comment, to let us know you’re here.
Your Community
We have done our very best to improve your financial community through our Australian Blogger Interview Series. We have asked every Australian financial blogger we can think of to participate in our interviews (do you know someone who maybe we haven’t asked? Let us know who!) and throughout this year, you’ll get to read almost a dozen of them.
By introducing you to these bloggers, hopefully we’re presenting you with new and fresh information, and fostering the community further. We also want the Australian financial blogger community to expand and grow, and we do our best to promote our fellow Aussie bloggers as much as we can.
How else have you built your financial community? Share your tips below!
Hi AwP! This is so true. Working towards FIRE is about making decisions – both big ones and on a daily basis. The research shows that constant decision-making is mentally exhausting, and this goes double for when you are making decisions against the norm. I know we are a global community, but I find extra value in hanging with people from Australia/New Zealand, because there is a lot about the path to FIRE that is specific to our great islands. Thanks for the interview series, I’m really enjoying getting to know everyone better. Keep on keeping on!
Glad you like the interview series, Mrs ETT. And thank you for all of your support since you made the very first comment on the blog!
Money is such a taboo subject in many cultures. I was just discussing this with my partner yesterday. It really does boggle the mind – it’s not like we are trying to brag about wealth, in fact quite the opposite we are trying to learn and share the ways we use to build wealth. Why reinvent the wheel everytime when you can actually collaborate and learn from each other? I prefer the aussie scene just because having more AU oriented advice is much more useful / direct than trying to wade through the advice for 401k despite the underpinning principles being the same. But I do read the global community’s posts too – after all, you never know what you might learn from somebody else!
This is true, Pia. The Aussie sites are excellent for specific info, but the global sites are also full of gems. I love Mr Money Mustache and the Frugalwoods and, even though they’re American specific, I have learned a lot from them.
I love the FIRE community – I’ve met heaps of people across the globe. People are pretty wonderful and it definitely helps to have people on the same path to encourage each other.
I have a hand written response to your interview series – I just need to find an evening to get it into an email and back to you! It’s happening, I swear 🙂
Handwritten? How cool. Send me a photo and I’ll upload that 😉
If only it was legible! I have handwriting a child would be ashamed of, I wrote it in an airport lounge and there are a few tear smudges on the page (you’ll see why)
The online community is a gem for us who don’t have anyone to talk to about money in real life. Like what Pia said, it still is a taboo topic. None of my family or friends will talk about it, unless they need help (which I think is too late). The online community gives me that support and information I can’t get from my real-life circle.
I also started connecting with American bloggers when I first started because it was so difficult to find fellow Aussies. I even attempted to start a series of sharing links from Aussie PF bloggers, but I admittedly didn’t have the time to keep up with that. Also, I only knew about 5 blogs then. I’m glad that our local community is growing and that we can talk about our own Super and markets. I love the global community, but like everyone said, local knowledge/info/support is more valuable.
I appreciate what you’re doing to introduce Aussie bloggers and in helping this community grow. Keep it up! 🙂
Thanks J. We are glad to offer a bit of Aussie camaraderie on this journey. We are so grateful for everything we have learned, both from fellow Aussies and from our global friends.
I’ve been a bit slack on my blog of late, too busy hustling to earn more…and then only have time to read/comment rather than the brain power to write a fresh post.
My fave blogs are now leaning far more towards Aussie’s than international these days, go us! It is super important for me to check in regularly and know I’m not totally crazy for throwing everything I have at this goal
I love your Australian interview series – I hope it will continue forever as new Aussie blogs pop up on the scene!
I really love that us Aussies seem to huddle together in a big sea of international bloggers, we really have our cake and eat it too of the great supportive international community, but also the smaller cosy Aussie side – we will always have a bond because our cost of living, lifestyle, tax system, etc.. we can always relate to each other on some level.
Mrs DDU
Ah the cost of living woes of being Australian! I just read Mr. Tako Escapes June expenditure and outside of childcare and mortgage they spent less than $500!! What madness is that!! Let’s all pick up and move to the States (and vote a new president while we’re at it)