frkt83-blog

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Lessons Learned from Dividend Investing with HVST

Back in 2017, I recall being bullish on the Betashares Australian Dividend Harvester Fund (HVST), so much so that I had amassed a little over $100,000 in the ETF. One of the major attractions of this ETF was its high monthly distributions, paying every month and providing a distribution yield of about 8 per cent annually. My bullishness on this ETF really highlighted how serious I was back then…

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Retire and Go: The Geoarbitraging Minimalist Southeast Asia Slow Travel Lifestyle

I’d like to highlight a YouTube channel that I have discovered and have been watching recently called Retire and Go. Retire and Go is a YouTube channel created by an American named Chris. In the videos he describes how he has retired and lives off dividends in Southeast Asia. Below is a great video where Chris discusses how he was offered a job in the US paying $70,000 USD. After taxes,…

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Christmas 2025 and How You Can Use the Body Mass Index (BMI) to Measure Financial Success

It is another Christmas again and it is a reflective time of the year. In the lead up to Christmas, I was invited to some Christmas gatherings and engaged in small talk with various people. It’s interesting to hear about people in different life situations: some were going through divorce, some living with parents to save up, others juggling various expenses and responsibilities. Everyone has…

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Covered Call ETFs as Defensive Assets

Back in May 2023, I spoke about three new covered call ETFs released on the ASX by Global X (AYLD, UYLD, and QYLD). In my opinion, as someone gets older, their should transition their portfolio towards income-producing assets, and high dividend ETFs are a great way to easily gain exposure to high dividend ETFs. One type of high dividend ETF that tends to generate very high income yield is covered…

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I am a Multimillionaire Again

I use Google Sheets to track my net worth in real time. This means that at any moment I am able to see what my net worth is. Google Sheets has a GOOGLEFINANCE function that allows you to track the prices of certain assets such as ETFs, shares or crypto. The net worth update is not perfectly accurate because I need to manually update my margin loan debt as well as how much I have in certain bank…

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My New Year's Resolutions for 2024

It’s almost the end of 2023 and I am thinking about the year that has passed and what awaits for 2024. Financially, 2023 has been a good year thanks to a rebound in the stock and crypto markets. My net worth (including superannuation) at the start of the year was $1.47 million and today it is $1.73 million, which is a net worth increase of $260k for the year. Note that at the start of 2022 my…

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How to Resist Black Friday

I am starting to get many e-mails about Black Friday. There are many discounts on products on offer. Many people have been asking me if I have gone shopping to get discounts and generally I haven’t purchased anything because of Black Friday. I have written about this many times before but I believe that someone is much more likely to spend less if, instead of focusing on discounts, they instead…

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Covered Call ETFs on the ASX

Global X has recently issued three covered call ETFs on the ASX: S&P/ASX 200 Covered Call ETF (AYLD) S&P 500 Covered Call ETF (UYLD) Nasdaq 100 Covered Call ETF (QYLD) The US has for a long time been spoilt with choice when it comes to ETFs and especially income-focused ETFs. To appreciate how much choice Americans have on covered call ETFs, you only need to look at the Global X US website to…

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Is Now the Time to Buy Crypto?

Is Now the Time to Buy Crypto?

To be fully transparent, my crypto portfolio is down 83% from all time highs. My overall net worth is down 40% from all time highs. However, I started seriously investing in crypto in 2018 and my crypto portfolio is up about 700% from then. Now that 2022 is coming to an end, I have found that this year is the first year when my net worth has declined. In fact, from the start of this year to…

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Are Discounts and Sales Worth It?

Are Discounts and Sales Worth It?

During the Christmas and New Year holiday period, there would be many retailers offering discounts, and on the surface it makes sense to buy something when it is discounted. However, there are many times when I go into the shop with the intention to buy something and end up buying something else as well because it is discounted. Discounts create a sense of urgency and exploit FOMO. This is…

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The Formula for Working Out if You Should Buy an Electric Car

The Formula for Working Out if You Should Buy an Electric Car

I have created what I think is a formula for working out if it makes economic sense to buy an electric vehicle. You can find it below: I shared this formula on Reddit and mixed reviews. Some people raised very good points that I have missed in the formula, but I think overall the formula above is useful to know whether it makes sense financially to purchase an EV or not. Explanation of the…

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Living Through Inflation and Rising Rates: Leveraged Real Estate vs Living Off Dividends

Living Through Inflation and Rising Rates: Leveraged Real Estate vs Living Off Dividends

Now that interest rates are rising, there are many people who are wondering if they should fix or not. However, they are faced with a very difficult decision as fixed interest rates are higher than the variable rates. What we are seeing now is that rising interest rates are making many people realise that buying a house is not without risk. House prices now are indeed going down. Furthermore,…

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The Recent Economic Downturn Highlights the Importance of Reducing Risk as You Approach Early Retirement

The Recent Economic Downturn Highlights the Importance of Reducing Risk as You Approach Early Retirement

It’s been a while since I last posted on this blog, so I feel I should give an update especially as there has been a lot happening in the economy, and it has mostly been bad news. Inflation seems to be the main concern, and central banks are increasing interest rates in an attempt to control inflation. This seems to be associated with large falls in the stock, crypto, and possibly the property…

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How I Plan to Retire Early and Live off Dividends while Holding Debt and Crypto

How I Plan to Retire Early and Live off Dividends while Holding Debt and Crypto

Net worth is a figure that includes not just the shares you hold but should include all your assets minus all your liabilities. This means that, for many people, their net worth includes assets that they have debt against (e.g. a property), assets they do not have access to until they are old (e.g. a retirement/superannuation fund), and assets that generate no passive income (e.g. bitcoin or…

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How to Live off Crypto by Staking

How to Live off Crypto by Staking

I primarily invest in the stock market and aim to live off dividends mostly from ETFs. However, the cryptocurrency market is hard to ignore. The returns from crypto over the past few years have far outperformed all other asset classes, and institutions are starting to look into crypto. For example, Tesla invests in bitcoin, and the Commonwealth Bank has announced it will soon allow crypto to be…

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Returning to Living Off Dividends

Returning to Living Off Dividends

There is a large body of personal finance advice that states that investing for dividends is unwise and tax inefficient. The argument is that when a company pays a dividend, the stock price must decline by the amount of the dividend to reflect the declining assets on the balance sheet. Hence receiving dividends is no different to simply selling shares except the difference is that the company…

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Thoughts about the 2021 Crypto Crash

Thoughts about the 2021 Crypto Crash

The cryptocurrency market has crashed. It peaked sometime in May 2021 but has gone down since. Major cryptos like bitcoin and ether have gone down about 50% while dogecoin has gone down about 70%. What I find amazing is how negative people get when prices come down. Based on historical price movements in the stock, property and crypto makets, the downturns are usually great times to…