How much to tell the kids/rellos/friends about your IP's?

[regrow]

My son is only 2 & a half. When I come home with some change I give it to him to put in his money box. He always goes and shows his mum and then I have to lift him up so he can put each coin in one at a time and we count them as he does.

He has a little money pouch he calls his purse (after his mums one) he sometimes puts the coins in this, so he can buy his mum a chocolate from the shops. We also get him to hand the money to the cashier when we go shopping. Hopefully he will understand that things just don't appear and that they actually cost money.

As he gets older we will teach him the ins and outs of saving, IPs etc

No 2 is due in a week so will have to go through it all again with them also.

Regards

Regrow

 

[wealth101]

This is an interesting read. Kristine congratulations on you and your kids. I am hoping our twins will be like that when they start to work.

We started investing when we had kids as we wanted to be debt free when they get to high school and have our investments to fund their High school fees.

We have been telling them everything (IPs and Shares). They have been going to OFI properties since they were 5. They inspect less now as they have school compulsory sport on Sat but we ask them to scan the web and give us properties they think good value... They are currently playing ASX games @ their school and we discuss in length what to buy and how their portfolio goes compare to ours . They do have concept of saving and building wealth and we are still talking about it every week. Since they were born we have been giving and converting their gift money to Shares Certificate (too young to own) and show them how much their share portfolio are worth from time to time. They know its their money but we manage it for them they are really excited when we show them how much its worth

I think with all open discussion and sharing they are on the right track as recently they commented about why their aunt gave their cousin a brand new VW car on her achievement on getting 99.9 VCE, they said why their aunt did not use that money to buy shares/make a deposit to buy a flat for their cousin so she can "build wealth" . It is a good sign but we are still talking to them constantly how our portfolio grows and how we just let time and the bank's money to help us generating wealth for us.

Kids are interesting though they are twins, one used to be really scare when he heard about how much we owed on our IPs while the other one just said its "good" loan and Mum and Dad said their LVR only 40% though at the time he could not explained what LVR is to his brother when asked .

Cheers, Tracey

 

[craigb]

Look man... I'm not saying kids are bad, nor are they good.

For me, I don't want any.
If I had some, or one, I'd maybe have 1 property if I was lucky.
They cost alot to feed and clothe, and school, and drive around.
The money I save from just looking after myself goes towards investing. On my income (which is bugger all) I'd be as wealthy as the guy next door.

hey, its your choice, and once upon a time i thought the same, those winging ,brats, but now my little miss is 8, and if anyone asks whats its like , i explain it like remembering my first ever love, but she's now always hanging around, watching and learning my every moove, realy is special, thats my take on it any way.

 

[propertyVIC]

Fraught Question but Kids Need to Know

An hour long talk at my school when I was about 15 totally opened my eyes to investments and the potential to become well off without earning a mega-salary.

My financial life would be totally different if I hadn't been given this lecture.

I will definitely continue to discuss investments around my daughter as she grows older. First, for her financial education. Also, pragmatically, it is impossible to keep secrets from teens... and they can get hurt when they find things out.

I have an ongoing debate with myself about this question so far as friends and family.

I come from a background where money was not discussed but property is a major part of my life, where my energy and time goes etc.

So, I'm trying to be a little more open with my friends without shoving it in their faces. I find it difficult to say nothing because I feel dishonest (friends as close as family for me) but also hard to say anything.

I do tell my parents (so far). While they are pleased for me, I think part of my father feels ashamed or 'less' for not being wealthier. They are not poor but migrated when in middle age (from South Africa) and started again with zip.

All of their cash went into their PPOR and our education... and they are not really investment minded, at least until recently.

 

[Nth Brisbanite]

Obviously, I talk about property investing all day, every day, but I don’t labour the point.

Great read, Kristine, and congratulations in bringing up and educating your children the way that you did.

I too tried to teach my children to be financially independent from an early age, encouraging them to work for their own money as soon as they could.

 

[Aaron Sice]

pp = pre primary.

 

[Shaneelastic]

In Australia, there is no excuse for being poor and I would consider myself a failure as a parent if my children were not actively pursuing and developing not just their day jobs (I believe meaningful careers to be very important) but their wealth as well.

Cheers
Kristine

I disagree,

What about the mentally ill, what about the unskilled people, what about the people who have kids early and are on small wages and cant save up for that deposit. What about the alcoholics, what about the druggies.

Your point of view is a middle class point of view. Get into the real Australia and see the problems.

 

[weg]

There has never been any jealousy because there is nothing to be jealous about - we all make different choices in life.

Just because we chose to acquire a few IPs doesn't make us any better than them. We are all approaching retirement, and I can't think of any who aren't in a comfortable position. Some have developed businesses, some have excellent superannuation, some have significant (and rapidly recovering) share portfolios. There are many different roads in life, and buying IPs is only one.
Marg

This seems to be the case with us as well although we do have quite a few friends and family with more than 3 IP's.

I'm sure one of my closest friend who has many IP's loves me because she can freely discuss her IP's and is able to vent some of her frustration with tenants I actually feel I know some of her tenants well even though I haven't met them.

I can honestly say though I don't associate with too many negative or bitter defeatist types nor ones that are likely to be jealous. This is not through avoidance of these types but rather friendships with these people don't really eventuate.

Funnily too many of the people I know that are very successful you wouldn't know if you met them. It's often the flashy types with no cash that want to create a reaction in others (envy) and are likely to be envious of you .

 

[josko]

Kids - yes you want them to be independent. But you need to train/teach/mentor them too. What they need to know depends on their age. Our young children have spent time with us when we've gone and done maintenance. As they grow older they will get some of the conveyancing and borrowing processes explained.
Friends - our close friends know we have IPs. It's not something we talk about. Some of them know that we have one whose purpose is to provide education for our children. Some might be a bit jealous - but they had the same opportunities to buy similar properties to us at the same time.
Rellos - some know more than others. It's not something we push down anyone's throat.

That is great advice jrc. What they need to know DOES depend on their age.

As an after thought and considering what Kristine has said, I do find that it is a breath of fresh air to be able to talk to my clients openly about my properties.

I suppose being a little more open around friends might give my position more credibility but I still prefer to stay guarded.

I have to say, Kristine, I find your statement

In Australia, there is no excuse for being poor

to be too simplistic.

There is an excuse and it's called lack of education which is usually passed from generation to generation. Even that though is too simplistic and this is a debate for another thread.

It is a credit to you, Skater, BlueCard and others here that you have all had the discipline, education and good old fashioned "drive" that has enabled you to teach your children and grow them into sensible adults. I can only hope that my efforts are rewarded as equally.

Regards JO

 

[josko]

Back to children.

Soon, I will start to tell my 11 yr old that we have more properties than he thinks.

However, in their younger years...children have little understanding of what boasting is.

Even if you tell them it is not nice to boast...or we are no better off than anyone else...etc etc. You never know what they say to their friends and then their friends to their parents.

Like it or not, the school playground may be a nasty place sometimes, however the parents can be nastier.

So that my children are not invited to any more or any less birthday parties than he should otherwise go to...I prefer to keep our wealth building strategy close to home and amongst VERY close friends.

Regards JO

 

[steveadl]

I do tell my parents (so far). While they are pleased for me, I think part of my father feels ashamed or 'less' for not being wealthier. They are not poor but migrated when in middle age (from South Africa) and started again with zip.

Sadly I think it's coming to that stage with my parents as well, which is a real shame. Property talk didn't seem to be an issue, but I noticed them getting uncomfortable when I started talking about the equities investments I was getting into so have come to the point where I'm now keeping quiet about it.

So SS is pretty much one of my only releases for this sort of thing. Thanks guys.

 

[Kristine..]

I disagree,

What about the mentally ill, what about the unskilled people, what about the people who have kids early and are on small wages and cant save up for that deposit. What about the alcoholics, what about the druggies.

Your point of view is a middle class point of view. Get into the real Australia and see the problems.

Sure, Gerkin, point taken. There is always an excuse for being poor.

Sorry that you decided to judge me, though - you know nothing about me but have decided that I have a 'middle class' point of view. Great, that's a step up for me!

Hey, Gerkin, I am Working Class. If I don't work I don't eat. Investments can take the girl out of the working class but can't take the working class out of the girl.

The Australian Middle Class with it's oh-so-boring work ethic has made this Country, in 200 short years, what it is.

Then again, no, I stand by what I said. There is no excuse for being poor.

Being disabled is not an excuse, it may be a limiting factor but it is not an excuse. The Poor we will always have with us. Being an alcoholic, a druggie? Sorry, but that's an excuse. My parents were from Geelong. My Mother's Father was killed in France and she grew up in a School of Industry. My Father's Parents died when he was seven.

My Husband's Parents were bombed in the Blitz and his Father flew in the Battle of Britain when he was 19.

They were Working Class, just like me.

We can all sit down and cry in our tea about how badly we have been treated, but I would rather just get on with it.

I was raised and trained to pay my own way. No excuses. I would be ashamed if I, or my children, were poor ..... particularly if we made excuses.

The best way to raise people out of poverty is not to give them pity or dispense feeble excuses, but to provide them with examples of how other people have made something for themselves and if they wish to do so, they can do it too.

Oh, and I have done my share of volunteer work, too Gerkin. I have seen the Real Australia - if you call a very small percentage of the population who have genuine problems the Real Australia.

I would rather think we are The Lucky Country, and would like to think that the efforts of myself, my family and my children help to grow this Lucky Country into an even more God-Blessed place to live.

Oh well, off to read 'Bourgeois for Dummies'. I have obviously been wrong up till now and should mend my ways!

Lotsa love
Kristine

 

[weg]

I have to say, Kristine, I find your statement to be too simplistic.

There is an excuse and it's called lack of education which is usually passed from generation to generation. Even that though is too simplistic and this is a debate for another thread.

I've also said many times 'in Australia, there is no excuse for being poor' and have often pondered why there are so many .

I know there are many reason why this is so like our welfare system picking up the slack (no true survival skills required to be learned for many), mental illness, instant gratification (to the point that they choose to spend everything resulting in being unable to pay for rent or groceries), lack of education etc.

What I find interesting though is that you can give people money for food and a roof over their head when they are cold and hungry in this affluent country yet they still can't survive and others in third word countries have nothing and get given nothing yet will often manage to survive better than the ones we give too.

How can humans lose the ability to survive and be reduced to this .

Now that's straying off topic... Jo's fault .

 

[Dazz]

The best way to raise people out of poverty is not to give them pity or dispense feeble excuses, but to provide them with examples of how other people have made something for themselves and if they wish to do so, they can do it too.

I agree Kristine.


Having lived in a third world country (Yemen) next door to the bin Laden compound for 3 years, I was always amazed at how poor the refugees were....but happy, compared to the locals.....who I thought were dirt poor compared with Aussies back home. The locals employed these refugees who were given about $ 1.50 per day and worked their bum off compared with the locals.


I asked a few, who had made the mad dash from the horn of Africa (mainly Djibouti and Ethiopia) and survived, what they thought. They said "Mr Dazza, we are just so grateful to be here and not get shot at all the time. We shall work our way up and live a good life, and set our children up for better things."


Thinking (with my Aussie viewing glasses on) the locals were dirt poor, these people from the horn were a huge step down again but willing to have a crack and making a fist of it. When I flew back home to Aussie and saw the slack and whingeing lot in comparison saying it wasn't fair......but not helping themselves one iota.....well, I just fell quiet and got on with my own life.


No excuses whatsoever - damn straight.

 

[weg]

Gee.. what's the definition of poor? Not owning IP's or property

I don't think anyone actually said not middle class = poor .

My definition of being poor is not being able to adequately clothe, feed and/or put a roof over your head with or without government assistance.

There are a quite a few of these people about.... few through no fault of their own but many due to their poor decisions and choices.

 

[weg]

I disagree,

what about the unskilled people, what about the people who have kids early and are on small wages and cant save up for that deposit.
Your point of view is a middle class point of view. Get into the real Australia and see the problems.

Everybody starts off unskilled... and what's the huge problem with having kids early? Deposit

There is a lot of assistance out there for these people to get ahead if they want it.

I've known a few people that have raised a few children, worked full time and completed degrees all at the same time with no assistance from anyone.

I gotta agree here with Dazz and Kristine regarding not buying into the victim mentality.

Maybe it's not what everyone is prepared to do but people do have lean times and people do have to sometimes over extend themselves. Most wealthy people have had to do just that.

It all boils down to the choices you make.

 

[Shaneelastic]

Everybody starts off unskilled... and what's the huge problem with having kids early? Deposit

There is a lot of assistance out there for these people to get ahead if they want it.

I've known a few people that have raised a few children, worked full time and completed degrees all at the same time with no assistance from anyone.

I gotta agree here with Dazz and Kristine regarding not buying into the victim mentality.

Maybe it's not what everyone is prepared to do but people do have lean times and people do have to sometimes over extend themselves. Most wealthy people have had to do just that.

It all boils down to the choices you make.

I made a point re: mental illness. Please can anybody tell me how a person with a mental illness can get ahead?

 

[craigb]

was jan sommers a single mum, way back , or was she always married?

 

[HiEquity]

Chalk up another agreement with Kristine and Dazz...

With the exception of the mentally and critically ill. IME the mental illness category is very much over-represented in those "sleeping rough" out there. Ever since mental health was de-institutionalised as a result of breakthroughs in medication, people have slipped through the cracks where their illness won't let them manage their own medication - think trying to get someone with paranoid delusions to take a pill...

If you're not representing an imminent physical danger to yourself or others you won't get formed - without that you're on your own with your delusions. It is a frightening prospect and we can afford to be better than that.

To be of sound mind is crucial to progressing at all in any society. Those of unsound body are often still able to be productive in other ways if they wish (eg computer work), depending on the level of disability (thinking of a friend of the family who has been in a coma for seven years there).

Nevertheless, these exceptions are few and far between. If we stopped all this "assistance" to the physically and mentally healthy, there would be a lot more help available for those who really need it.

Anyway, we digress... perhaps we should get back to the topic before Sim deletes us all?

 

[josko]

Well...i SAID IT WAS FOR ANOTHER THREAD BUT SINCE YOU BAIT.....


I am not talking about addicts, drunks etc....and I think you are all too simplistic in grouping people that you see as "poor""and people that I see as "lazy" and "self-indulgent" and selfish into the poor category. One person's defination of poor differs from anothers, of course.

I have come from a lower class of suburbia, you might say, yet I was able to educate myself and get ahead. I have no time for the "woe is me" mentality and hate excuses. I do not consider myself to be raised in a poor family. Just a working class one.

Poor is Nepal. Poor is Palestine. Go to these places as I have and you will know what poor is. Poor in Australia are most Aboriginals.

I am talking about people with nothing. Born with nothing but sympathy from a Western Society that prefers to keep them far away. Rather than education, the Government tends to prefer handouts.

I was born with a Golden Spoon in my mouth compared to most of these people.

Another point is that some of us are born with some kind of gene that makes us Leaders. Others with qualities that make us thirst for knowledge and others that get everything handed to them on a platter and blow it. It is what makes the world go round. Leaders and Followers. Employers and Employees.

Then what if you ARE talking about the working class family, or the farmer in the country? As Weg says, the guy that can't meet his payments.....then that all comes back to a lack of good education.

Has anyone been to a school in St Mary's? Mt Druitt? My Nephew went to a school at St Mary's. What did they teach them? I really don't know but certainly not how to speak or write properly.

So when can we take resposibility for teaching ourselves? 14? 15?

I organised our Yr 12 Reunion and one of the girls is now a teacher at St Claire I think. The email she typed me was absolutely atrocious. I could not believe the spelling and grammar mistakes.

So if these "poor" people cannot get their education from school, then let's go back home to the single parent that left school in Yr 9. As did his parent before him.....and around we go again and again.

Sometimes "poor" people are a product of their Society and Demographic. A few are born with enough brains to get out...most genetically haven't a chance.

Regards JO