Those lucky enough to be in Dave Gow’s position can sometimes even struggle. (Source: Supplied)
David Gow was working in a factory as a 19-year-old when he looked around one day at many of his older colleagues and had an “epiphany”. He couldn’t do what they were doing.
He didn’t like what he saw. And he didn’t want to be stuck looking like them in the decades ahead.
“I looked around at the workplace and people that were a lot older than me, like in their 50s and 60s, and they did not look happy,” he told Yahoo Finance.
“And I just thought, I can’t do that. I can’t live a life where I just work to exist and to pay bills and to wake up and do it all over again… I have to do something different.”
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A decade after that epiphany, the forklift driver who lives in Perth achieved what he described as “financial independence”.
“I define financial independence is just essentially building up enough assets and wealth where you don’t have to work anymore for a living, and you can basically do what you like with your time, whether that’s travelling or spending time with family or hobbies,” he said.
Gow made it to his thirties and was effectively able to retire.
“It’s been a really interesting experience, actually. I’m very glad I did it.”
Now in his mid-thirties, he has continued to channel his interest in personal finance into his second self-published book on the topic.
When he first knew he needed to do something different to have the life he wanted, he realised that meant either starting a business or investing as much as he could. He didn’t know anything about business, so he chose the latter.
His timing was perfect, investing in residential housing and later the stock market, which has been on an almost uninterrupted bull run since the global financial crisis.
“I invested in property for several years, and then later in my journey, I realised that even if the properties were paid off, the income from them is not very good in most places in Australia, because there’s so many expenses involved. I kind of didn’t really know that going in,” he said.
“So then I started looking at shares, and they seem to be a much better fit in terms of income to live off.”
Along with his partner, they pivoted from property and continued to live as frugally as possible and put all their money into the stock market. Initially entirely in Australian shares on the ASX with a hyper focus on dividends, before later diversifying into the US and global markets to chase more growth.
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“Then along the way, we both started earning some part-time income, which kind of helped as well, and we’ve kind of just been doing that ever since,” Gow said.
“At the moment, it’s like 60/40, Aussie and global shares, and it’s just basically index funds these days.”
READ MORE: Why I invest in index funds during economic uncertainty
Dave volunteers with some of his spare time. (Source: Supplied)
Gow has reflected on the position he finds himself in. He and his partner don’t plan on having any kids and are just enjoying their ample free time.
“I find a lot of people tend to struggle with the whole stepping away thing and I suppose the habit of accumulation and continually building wealth,” he said.
But for him, he can’t imagine ever going back to full-time work and loves being able to fully “curate” his existence.
“It’s really reinforced to me just how much I enjoy and appreciate free time and freedom. Like I do not miss working full-time whatsoever. I cannot even imagine working full-time again and giving up that much of my week to an employer,” he said.
“It’s a bit weird, but I find that you also tend to not be able to tolerate nonsense and other people’s shenanigans very well once you’ve been out of that kind of system for a while.”
Back when he was working, he used to tell a workmate at the factory about what he was doing in pursuit of financial independence.
“And he was like, ‘Man, you should write this stuff down’.” But Gow laughed off the notion at the time.
“I wasn’t necessarily coming up with anything new. It’s basically just my experience, plus what I’d learned from other people. So I thought, well, there’s nothing really that special about it,” he told Yahoo Finance.
But back then – around 2017 – there wasn’t actually a whole lot of content about pursuing what is now largely referred to as the FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early).
“So I thought maybe I’ll start a blog and start, start sharing it, because obviously I have a lot of free time, and I’ve felt like a worthwhile project to do, because obviously, if, if it helps people, then that’s a good thing, and that would give me a bit of like, meaning and purpose in my own life.”
He continues to blog and just self-published his second book titled, You’ve got money… Now what?
He told Yahoo his first book in 2022 – titled Strong Money Australia: How to gain financial independence and create a life of freedom – has been purchased 40,000 times, including the audio version which makes up a majority of sales.
There is clearly a large appetite among Aussies trying to tread a similar path towards early retirement. But arriving at the destination can bring new challenges, as Link Wealth Group financial advisor Josh Lee previously told Yahoo Finance.
“Where do you derive happiness? Where’s your energy gonna go? Where’s your passion? Because that’s the whole FIRE movement. You retire early. But then it’s like, then what?” he said.
“I think that’s probably the part that a lot of people miss in that whole equation.”
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