Firebug Profile

97% of respondents are currently living in Australia. Singapore (7), UK (6) and New Zealand (5) were the next most popular countries

NSW overtook my home state of Victoria to take out the number 1 spot this year.

This was an interesting data point that wasn't in last year's survey. 53% of respondents live in a suburb and only 14% are from the country 🤠. I don't know why, but I expected a lot more city slickers for some reason. I might add some regional/suburban hubs in next year's survey to get a richer dataset and see if there are any FIRE hotspots (pun not intended) around the country.

Similar split of results from last year's survey. The bulk of respondents continue to be aged between 16 – 55 with a few submissions on either side. Shout out to the 12 submissions who were younger than 16. You guys have got a lot of years of compounding ahead of you 😁.

This data point is one of the most important to consider when looking at the results. There will be a toggle next to each visualisations where you can change the results to be at an individual/couple level. It was good to see a pretty even split amongst submissions.

The percentage of female respondents is actually up from last year's survey but it's still largely skewed towards males.

It's important to note that a respondent can be in a relationship but fill out the survey as an individual (separating all their numbers from their partner). This can skewed the results because IMO wealth building is a lot easier when you have a like-minded partner helping. If you want to get a clearer picture of the results from an individual point of view who is not in a relationship, you'll need to set those specific filters in the interactive dashboard (section 5).

Another important data point to consider when looking at the results. You can't slice and dice for every dimension in this website but if you really want to dig deeper into the data. Check out the interactive dashboard in section 5 (best viewed on a desktop screen)

251 respondents skipped this question which had one of the lowest completions rates for some reason.

This might be a bit surprising for some because it goes against the stereotypical FIRE chaser who doesn't want kids, lives in a tent and eats nothing but rice and beans 😂. It follows the trend from last year's survey though and it's becoming more apparent that the majority of the Australian FIRE community either already has kids, or wants them one day. I hope this data dispels some of the myths of the movement.

77% of the respondents are university-educated 🎓

Employed for wages was the biggest mover jumping from 73% last year to 85%.

The STEM industries continue to do well. I thought the options for industry pretty much covered everything so it was surprising to see 6% of respondents selected the 'other' category.

Wowee there's some rich folk out there...

The percentage of home owners continue to rise from last year's survey which is interesting.

Once again it's crazy to see the after tax income of the FIRE community. We all know optimising your savings is really important, but putting some time and energy into increasing your income is sometimes an overlooked pointed

Fairly even split

Really strange to see that so many of the community have mortgages with the big 4 banks. These institutions historically have had very uncompetitive interest rates on home loans. For a community that is known for optimising expenses, this seems like an anomaly.

6% of respondents have already reached FIRE... you guys need to send me an email to chat about coming on the pod 🎙