My property journey to freedom took 5,175 days.
5,175 days of juggling two jobs - the standard job and the 'build a property portfolio' job.
Each day a step towards a passive retirement from any form of paid work.
As the portfolio got bigger, the job became harder as I continually had to feign interest. Wearing the hat of 6 or 7 CEO's in the morning, and then taking them all off and walking into an office and being a numpty where I had no financial authority and not invited to any decision making meetings was difficult to swallow. I didn't like wearing the worker hat.
I struggled alot with the duplicity and having to "not tell the truth". When sitting around at the meeting table on a Monday morning, 5 or 10 minutes before it starts and your boss leans over and asks : "So what did you get up to on the weekend ?? We went down to the wineries and had a fabulous time" Leaning back to him and saying "I spent the entire weekend closing a deal to buy a huge inner city factory on a few acres so I can eventually get the hell out of here" doesn't go down so well, so you end up looking like a wet soppy blanket and saying something like "bit of gardening, had a BBQ with the rellies over"
Anyway, that pathway with the 5,175 stepping stones has been trod. I'm at the end of the track, and looking around at all of the lovely tracks stretched out before me. They all look great. I reckon I might hang around here for a while before striding off along one of them.
It's quite sad to look back down the track, as I have alot of fantastic memories striding down the track, but it is extremely daunting when you attain your major life goal. Financial freedom is quite onerous when you have it in your hands.
Some observations that I made along the track, for those that are treading it still, or are about to start. Note well....many people are doing the exact opposite to what I did and are doing extremely well, so discard what doesn't suit you ;
That'll do for now. This Saturday arvo feels quite normal, but I reckon Monday morning it's gonna hit home that I am not going to work.
The first thing I need to work out now in my 30's is when people ask me "so what do you do for a living". I don't want to say a rent collector, but that is what I have become.
5,175 days of juggling two jobs - the standard job and the 'build a property portfolio' job.
Each day a step towards a passive retirement from any form of paid work.
As the portfolio got bigger, the job became harder as I continually had to feign interest. Wearing the hat of 6 or 7 CEO's in the morning, and then taking them all off and walking into an office and being a numpty where I had no financial authority and not invited to any decision making meetings was difficult to swallow. I didn't like wearing the worker hat.
I struggled alot with the duplicity and having to "not tell the truth". When sitting around at the meeting table on a Monday morning, 5 or 10 minutes before it starts and your boss leans over and asks : "So what did you get up to on the weekend ?? We went down to the wineries and had a fabulous time" Leaning back to him and saying "I spent the entire weekend closing a deal to buy a huge inner city factory on a few acres so I can eventually get the hell out of here" doesn't go down so well, so you end up looking like a wet soppy blanket and saying something like "bit of gardening, had a BBQ with the rellies over"
Anyway, that pathway with the 5,175 stepping stones has been trod. I'm at the end of the track, and looking around at all of the lovely tracks stretched out before me. They all look great. I reckon I might hang around here for a while before striding off along one of them.
It's quite sad to look back down the track, as I have alot of fantastic memories striding down the track, but it is extremely daunting when you attain your major life goal. Financial freedom is quite onerous when you have it in your hands.
Some observations that I made along the track, for those that are treading it still, or are about to start. Note well....many people are doing the exact opposite to what I did and are doing extremely well, so discard what doesn't suit you ;
- Priortites need to change as life's big moments come along - marriage, kids etc.
- Your CV at work becomes less and less important. Courses done, degrees attained, titles on business cards - they all fade away.
- Things ramp up - don't get despondent in the first couple of years. It gets parabolic in the middle years and hyperbolic in the latter years. I found years 13 and 14 were far more productive than years 1 through 12 combined. Compounding really does kick in.
- You need to change your thinking.....what worked early on doesn't cut the mustard anymore.
- Contracts become central to everything - get to be excellent with them - nothing happens without them. Don't delegate your contractual knowledge to lawyers / PMs / REA's. Know the law that governs your business.
- Negotiate hard. 1 hour of tough negotiations can be worth 2 years of working hard.
- Forget these jobs that you love but don't pay anything - go for the job and industry that pays the most. If you get your act together, it won't be for long. The sacrifices made were well and truly worth it.
- Don't get divorced.
That'll do for now. This Saturday arvo feels quite normal, but I reckon Monday morning it's gonna hit home that I am not going to work.
The first thing I need to work out now in my 30's is when people ask me "so what do you do for a living". I don't want to say a rent collector, but that is what I have become.