The Happy Saver Podcast - Personal Finance in New Zealand · Ruth - Personal Finance Blogger

99. Work, Life, Balance: With Plenty of Free Time!

·38 min·2 clips

Rob negotiated a 12-month career break, then came back working about 20 hours a week.

1. The Happy Saver Podcast follows Ruth's conversation with Rob, a 33-year-old plumber from Western Australia who is nearly financially independent. 2. Ruth is the host and a personal finance blogger in Aotearoa, and Rob is the guest because his money story is meant to be relatable and practical. 3. The episode asks what financial independence looks like in real life when someone wants time, flexibility, and work they still enjoy. 4. Rob says his parents were frugal, monitored spending, and regularly drove around looking at houses for sale. 5. He did not get pocket money, but he did get an early job at a local auction house earning $10 a day. 6. At 15, he read Rich Dad, Poor Dad and also The Barefoot Investor, and those books pushed him toward wanting to retire by 30. 7. He finished school at 16 and started a paid plumbing apprenticeship that paid around $13 an hour and covered his training. 8. Rob later built an automatic money system where his pay went to a separate account and only a set spending amount reached his main account. 9. That setup helped him save through rising wages because he kept living on the same weekly amount. 10. Ruth points to a Barefoot Investor chart showing that $5,000 a year invested from age 15 to 25 could grow to $1,044,000 by age 50. 11. Rob moved out at 18, learned what flatting cost, and recommends staying at home as long as possible without wasting the savings. 12. He says he never felt pressure to follow drinking culture and preferred spending time with friends over spending money. 13. Rob did not track net worth in his early years; he simply wanted to save as much cash as possible and work toward options. 14. In his early 20s, he wanted to become a businessman, become a supervisor, and maybe open his own business by 25. 15. That led to a home maintenance business started in 2017 on his days off, beginning with small plumbing jobs and then widening into renovation work. 16. He grew the business without debt, hired staff directly, used rental gear when needed, and relied on word of mouth and Google reviews instead of advertising. 17. Rob sold the business in 2022, which gave him a cash injection that increased his net worth and made more freedom possible. 18. After learning about FIRE and COAST FIRE, he negotiated a 12-month career break, travelled for three months, then returned to Western Australia and now works about 20 hours a week. 19. The conversation has an interview style that mixes Ruth's commentary with Rob's own explanations, and it stays practical rather than abstract. 20. Listeners who like FIRE, trades, saving systems, and flexible work will get the most from it, while people wanting heavy theory or detailed property strategy may skip it.

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