The SMART Financial Advice Blog by Peter Horsfield

  I love to travel and I like to save too.  In fact when you visit my office in Cairns you'll find a big world map on the wall, inspiring us of new places to plan for and to experience next. This weekend 27th January I'm heading to Japan's Nozawa Onsen for a 10 day ski trip with friends.  It's going to be epic! However the constant of conversations between the sirens of travel and my voices of reason to save more, are an ever present and constant chatter within my head. So to the age old chestnut of a question. How can we travel and also save? Before we continue l should disclose some of pet hates when on holidays. 1. Being a 24/7 tight arse. Penny pinching, wasting time searching between shops, restaurants, or tour companies to find the best or cheapest  deal while on holidays is not only a waste of time, it also totally kills the vibe of one's holidays. Which is to have fun, personal growth and new experiences 2. Rushing & trying to d...

Have you ever visited a place, enjoyed the people, the activities, conveniences and surrounds so much, that you felt yourself saying "this is the place, where I can truly live my ideal life?' In fact living the dream thanks to improvements in communication and technology, is much easier than you think. The occupational hazard I have being a financial planner, is that I find joy in dreaming big and then planning for hours, days, months and years, how to get there. Our first trip to Cairns was all the way back in 2001 (we have moved to Cairns 2015), so as you can imagine moving towards our ideal life required long term goal setting, preparation and waiting for the right opportunity.  And when it happened. It happened very quickly. Within in a three months window we had purchased a small financial planning business, renovated the office, changed business dealerships and much, much more. Within the following six months we'd rented our home in Sydney, purcha...