Hi all,
I thought I would share with everyone my learnings so far from Module 1.
Firstly a little bit about my investing history. I bought a property in Hawthorn Melb back in 2009 off a plan with much thought or planning.
So you can see already I have a lot to learn hahaha! I trusted a good friend in the realestate industry and it seemed to be a good deal.
What I have learnt since is how little or pretty much zero knowledge I possed in investing to make such a huge financial commitment.
And what's worse is that I trusted someone else hole heartedly to look after my investing interest for me and the market will take care of the rest.
Yep I realised in March this year that I was a fatalistic investor. So my learning curve is very steep at the moment and there are so many things
that I need to learn and apply even in module 1 so far.
One of my biggest learnings is to do the goal setting right from the start by calculating what I want my capital base to be when I retire to sustain the lifestyle that I am comfortable with. This was a huge turning point. I viewed my current investment property in such a different light, to the point where i am thinking of selling it and buying properties that are better suited to my goals. Off course this requires a lot more research but at least it has me looking at my choices towards investing in such a way that has a goal in mind.
The other leaning was to look at finances and what assets I really had and what they mean to me. I looked closely at my debts and saw where I needed to apply some serious debt reduction strategies in order to put myself in the best possible financial prosition to reach my retirement goals.
In the next couple of weeks, I am sourcing my team to give me the best possible advice to reach my goals.
This discovery process has been so enlightening and feel more in control of the investment property and its purpose towards my retirement goals.
I hope everyone is getting a lot out of the sessions here so far even as a refresher for those of you more experienced investors out there.
I would love to hear from everyone else on how the sessions have been for module one.
Cheers,
Elenor
Hi All,
Great post Elenor, it's a big step to share your investing past. You have given me the inspiration to tell our tale and how what I've learned so far in 3 sessions has already helped us (my husband and I) to start to make changes.
We have realised in the last few weeks just how 'safe' and 'lazy' with our investments we have been. We have followed our parents lead - buy your house, pay it off hopefully before retirement and somewhere along the way start to plan what to do with our money once the house was paid off. For the last 3 years we have been sinking almost everything into paying the mortgage off our home. We thought we were doing the right thing and doing great. My husband has a few shares that are left just to do their thing but that's it.
Our asset zoo is therefore rather lame- 2 tortoises (our jobs) and 3 gazelles ( the shares, and funds caught up in the collapse of ACR - which is probably a gazelle near death :(
Our plan is to make our zoo a much better and profitable zoo in the next 5 years so that my husband can leave his 12 hour a day job and in 10 years when our daughter has had the opportunity to get through tertiary education, pack up and travel and work (if we feel like it) our way around Australia indefinately.
We are making a start this week - we are getting quotes from builders to fix up our house with the view to selling it for a better profit hopefully by the end of the year. We will use these funds to go and put deposits on some houses - yeah! By the time we are in a position to buy houses I'll have developed my investing skills and will make informed decisions.
Well that's it about us.
Cheers,
Mary
Thanks for telling us your stories! My investments are all on a 'set-and-forget' path as well and I'm realising how little I know about how they will contribute to my end goals. In fact, I hadn't even worked out what those end goals really are!! Crunching a few numbers and putting up definitive goals is already a real divergence from my investing strategy so far.
I have 3 properties (including the one I live in) not doing much, a few shares that I never look at, and a bunch of cash in offset accounts. I believe I have to sell a few of these places and put all those assets to work more productively so I'm busting to learn how to go about that!
Enjoy the journey everyone :)
Arnie
Well guys, it appears that I am in good company. I too have been a speculative investor - buying a house in my home town just because I felt like I needed a project. While I know that the area is a good location, I was one of those people that had some time to kill in-between appointments so I decided to go to an open house. Next thing I knew I was making an offer and before I knew it I owned a property!
I guess the positive thing for all of us is that we're undertaking this course and learning a great deal along the way. I'm looking forward to becoming proficient in this area and creating a clear path for my future!
I wish you all the best on your journey.
Stephanie
Welll tax time is around the corner and from what I have learnt so far just in this module is that I need to pay attention to how my property has performed in the last financial year and what expenses have been incurred and all the tax breaks that I can get. I have become more interested and involved with understanding the nature of what tax I can claim and then there's depreciation - never really considered this one.
I am finding that I am asking more quality questions of my accountant and seeing whether my accountant is the right fit for my team for me to reach my retirement goals.
So looking and being more interested and engaged in my finances has been a big mind shift for me so far. I am even wanting to move depreciating assests ( which are often lifestyle assets) like my car in order to save for investing. That has never occured to me before. Yes its a tough sacrifice but the plan is good and I feel better about reducing my debt in order to save toward my investing
That's my update so far.
Cheers.
Elenor.
Hi Elenor
It good to see you have got something from this course. Like you I'm a newbe to this course. I am a little older than you and have taken this course because my goals have changed as I approach retirement.
It good to see others on this course, using the information they learn to change their lives, and for me its good to hear how they are doing it.
All the best for the future
Alex
Great posts
We by default have become property investors one was next door to us (literally) and the other was to bail out a family member
So that is fatalistic (hoping the market would "save us"), and was some time ago! 10 years in fact for the one next door.
Since then we've not bought any properties (some of which I'm proud not to have done as they would have been bad purchases) with the purpose of making a profit - but alas NO Properties!!!
That looks to change very shortly
But I took the point from Steve that you make money in MANAGING your portfolio
So what can you do right now out of the A-B-M-S cycle.
For me I could improve my management - and I have - so that now my combined portfolio is now providing cashflow (where it was "negatively geared" before)
And we now have a team
And we now know why we keep our properties and what our exit strategy on them is (we have 2 + our PPoR)
So lots learnt and keen to learn more
Good luck to all
ADAM
Adam Coates
To becoming ANTI-Ordinary!
(for who would want to be "ordinary"?)
great posts guys looks like loks of poeple in the same boat
a little about my self i have had a property for about 5 years now i bought with no real plan just to buy and be wealthy one day how that didnt really happern as i gutted it and let it sit for a few years
two years ago a spark went of why am i paying bills in a empty house so i got a team of mates together and we re structed the house about 50k and i had tenets in there theve been in there since
a year ago i was researching how to use equity to invest i found a melb company that after a few meetings i decided to buy through them , one year has passed and valuation has come up short by 32k rents arnt were told to me at the start so iam trying to get out of the deal!!!
and more research has landed me on this course and i must say this is so far shaping up to be the best thing i have ever invested in myself its allready being a bit tricky and iam only on module 1 assement but i love a changlege and i have allready got a goal of income in mind and have been thinking ways to achive it iam not 100%how i will get there but iam sure it will come to me
all the best for others on the journey warm regards dan
Hi Elanor,
Nice to hear that i'm not the only one that feels like i bought a house and now realise i had no idea what oir why i was buying it.I too was a fatalistis investor and like you i need to build a team and start aplying appropriet startegy to my investing to reach my desired outcome.
I am still in module One and up to the assesment, how is your study going?
Regards,
Jordan
I've been very slack in getting started onthis course. It has been sitting on my bookshelf for far too long before I got started and my thanks to Steve for offering Jason as a coach.
Up until now I have been a "Fatalistic" investor. I had money sitting in the bank and figured it was better off invested in a property than just sitting there, so I bought into a DHA house. I did do some analysis on areas before buying, so I do feel like I invested in the right area at the right time for capital growth, but I need to take a more active approach from here on in. Thanks Steve and everyone else who has contributed with posts of their experiences.