They say time flies when you are having fun. And how the last five years have flown by.

Back in October 2014, we had a crazy idea of publishing a blog. It would be a collection of random articles that cover a wide range of topics drawn from our “day jobs” providing advice and technical support to financial advisers. And, of course, we are known to have the occasional rant.

When it all started, we had no real idea of whether we would have followers for our blogs following of not. In any case, we thought we would probably run out of topics to write about after a couple of months.

But here we are – five years later and still finding something to write about each week. In fact, we have now published in excess of 250 articles.

We have seen a lot happen over the last five years. Some of the highlights include:

• Two Federal Elections
• Three Prime Ministers (Abbott, Turnbull, Morrison)
• Four Federal Budgets
• Two Royal Commissions (Banking and Financial Services, and Aged Care)
• Major superannuation reforms (2017)
• Changes to Social Security including significant changes to the means testing of assets
• Ongoing reforms to the way aged care fees are calculated,
• Tens of thousands of pages of new or amending legislation, and the list goes on...

As a consequence of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry (the Hayne Royal Commission – 2018), the financial services sector has been thrown into absolute turmoil with the consequence that financial advice may become unaffordable for many Australians – often those who need it most.

We have endeavoured to keep readers and subscribers up to date by providing plain-English commentary on the changing financial landscape.

And, we have tried to throw in odd pieces of inspiration designed to help readers think big and dream a little. In February 2015, we published a popular post “How to become a millionaire”. This article illustrated how easy it really is to become a millionaire.

And, in 2018 we heard about Mark’s own retirement plans and his dream to spend time travelling to all parts of exotic Australia with Donna and their broader collie, Scout in their soon-to-be-delivered motor home. Just so long as they have a good internet connection so Mark can continue to take his technical enquiries and write for Realise Your Dream!

Our articles also dealt with the frailty of life and particularly old-age. From having the hard conversation about suggesting a loved one give up their driver’s license (Driving Miss Daisy -  April 2015) to making arrangements for a family member to enter residential aged care (Reality – it is easier giving advice than making decisions – August 2018). We have covered it all – we have both seen our first grandchildren born, and experienced the pain of family dying.

So, what does the future hold for Realise Your Dream?

We are both keen to continue to dispense our weekly dose of wisdom and we hope it will bring some inspiration, reflection or clarity into the lives of our readers.

What would we like?

We are keen to build a community. There is an opportunity for readers to leave comments and questions. Feel free to leave a comment – at least it will confirm to us there are people out there reading our missives. And, if you would like to see articles on specific topics, please feel free to leaves suggestions. There are odd moments when we struggle a little to come up with a suitable topic so, if you have any ideas, please let us know.

At the end of five years, we would like to say a very sincere thank you to our readers who have stuck with us. If you have only recently stumbled across this blog, we would also like to thank you.

Realise Your Dream is not just us. Over the years we have been supported by some really smart people who arrange for the articles to be published each week. We have also had a number of contributors provide articles for publication. To those fellow bloggers, and the staff that enable the blog to be published each week, a special thank you.

Let’s bring on the next five years!