I’m a 47-year-old bloke originally from Wellington, New Zealand. Right now I’m living out of a bag, flying out of Perth to a gold mine in outback WA on a 7/7 roster, seven days underground, seven days off, and spending my breaks drifting around Southeast Asia looking for somewhere to call home.

This site is where I document the journey. No bullshit, no get-rich-quick garbage, no motivational poster nonsense. Just the honest reality of what it takes to start over at 47, kill your debt, and try to build something that actually lasts.

How I got here

I didn’t arrive at the mines in a straight line.

I spent several years in Brisbane as a builder, and even more in NZ. Hard yakka, long hours, doing it tough like most tradies do. Before that, a decade in Linux systems and network engineering. Good work, but neither path led anywhere I wanted to stay.

Now I find myself underground tending to the services that keep operations running in the WA goldfields, and spending my weeks off in Southeast Asia trying to make sure this is the last time I ever have to start from scratch.

Why FIFO

Honestly? The money. But also the time.

A 7/7 roster means a full week off every fortnight. Not a weekend, a whole week. Time to think, plan, train, and build.

FIFO gets a bad reputation and some of that is deserved. The camps can be isolating, the work is demanding, and the flies will drive you absolutely bat-shit crazy. But the opportunity is real if you’re disciplined enough to do something with the money rather than spend it all on your week off.

What I’m building

The plan has a few layers.

First: killing debt. That’s the immediate priority, before investing, before property, before anything else. Every swing chips away at it. Not glamorous, but it’s the foundation everything else sits on.

Once the debt is gone, the next step is property. A portfolio of apartments and investment properties across Australia and New Zealand, assets I can eventually place in trust for my children. Something that outlasts me.

Alongside that, I’m building this site and exploring other income streams as I go. The long-term picture is enough passive income that I don’t have to work. Not necessarily to stop, but to have the choice.

The end goal is retiring as a digital nomad. Laptop, slow travel, no fixed address, no alarm clock.

What you’ll find here

Honest writing about FIFO life, personal finance from a working-class perspective, and the practical stuff nobody explains properly. Rosters, tax, managing money when it comes in big lump sums, keeping your head straight when you’re a long way from home.

I’m not an expert. I’m a Kiwi tradie figuring this out as I go, writing it all down.

If you’re older, starting late, carrying debt, and wondering if it’s still possible to build something, this site is for you as much as it is for me.

It’s not too late. But we can’t waste time either.