Did you take enough action in 2003

Did you take enough action in 2003 in regard to IP investment?

  • Yes. win lose or draw I took action!

    Votes: 67 74.4%
  • No. I should have done more than think about it.

    Votes: 19 21.1%
  • No. But <insert excuse> [SIZE=1][i] eg. prices too high, interest rates up, washing hair that day,

    Votes: 4 4.4%

  • Total voters
    90
Great Poll

Hi A/L,

I think this is a great question! I have been "saying" for years that I will buy property, but I never have, I've always managed to accumulate big old bad debt successfully though! :(

This year I stopped "saying" and started working towards the goal. :D

In thinking about your poll question, I realised that I have paid off $11K from my personal loan and saved a further $5K since April this year! That's not too bad on an avg income!

I may not have bought my property(ies) yet, but I have started to treadwater.

Thanks for reminding me how much closer I am at starting my adventures :)
 
I've "taken action", but have not purchased properties.

I've renovated one cottage in my 3 cottage block (for a good rental increase and a very good valuation increase), and renovated and furnished the 3 units which became vacant this year (for an excellent rental increase). I have booked in carports to be built early in the New Year on two properties, and I'm getting quotes for making a carport on another property into a DLUG. And I sold a property in Brisbane.

My net worth has doubled, and my borrowings have decreased.

But, in terms of the standard question, "How many properties do you have", I've gone backwards. So, that may be "not enough action in regard to property investment".

And I have made a few contributions to the forum, which is action of a different sort which may have been of use to some.
 
I suppose the question could be rephrased:
"All things being considered, are you happy with level of action you took this year?" yes or no?

Personally 2 years ago I decided that I was going to do something about my dreams, and made the big plan (financial independence on 1-Jun-2012). As stage one of the plan I decided that in Q1 of 2002 I would refinancing existing 2 Imps and prepare the path for significant property investments, interviewed potential buyers agents, then with finance in place and a BA selected March~ 2002 onwards; "go for it" $1M+ of direct IP investments; 2 middle-suburbs with future development potential in Melbourne negative geared, linked to a number cash-cows in country areas ;).

Well it wasnft that easy, at the end of Q2 finances had still was organized as was the family trust (getting there but not ready), my great plan of using buyers agents wasnft really working out as expected ( nobody wanted to look for bargains, nobody wanted to look in country towns, all BA's had their own pet areas they pushed, some BA couldnft be bothered), anyway Q4 came around and decided to move forward with commissioning a small 3 unit development, nothing suitable came up then finally in Q1 2003 a suitable development site came up. So whilst I am happy with what has been done in 2003, I somehow feel I should have been where I am now in Dec 2002.

Progress is being made towards my 2012 goal, but too slow. I have yet to hit the finance wall. However I need to do more in 2004 and my guess of 2004 will be much tougher for property investors. Clearly adding value, finding bargains and capitalizing, particularly in regard to generating reasonable rental returns in the major capitals, is the only way I can see forward in a flat market to keep momentum going towards my 2012 goal of financial freedom.
 
Originally posted by always_learning
interviewed potential buyers agents...my great plan of using buyers agents wasnft really working out as expected ( nobody wanted to look for bargains, nobody wanted to look in country towns, all BA's had their own pet areas they pushed, some BA couldnft be bothered


Awwww

Always - you didn't ask me!


Regarding my satisfaction with progress during 2003 - a mixed bag as most years are, but ending on a positive note.

Sold the land from the Myrtle Cottage subdivision, kept the house (Note to self: Don't overcapitalise next time), the medical centre is still languishing, change of career direction (again! I'm getting dizzy), bought another shop, and ... ta da! ...

No1 son bought a townhouse on 24th December at 5pm as a Birthday present for himself (22 on Christmas Day).

He hasn't seen it yet. Oh well, it's just another house!

So the year has ended with some progress, although not as I had planned or expected. But progress all the same.

For 2004 I expect a very busy year, establishing the new business, hopefully paying down some debt, hopefully meeting lots of new people (hundreds I hope) and generally living life each day as it comes.

Happy New Year to all. 2004 is the start of a new Chinese 7 Year cycle, and a new 14 Year cycle, governed by '6'. This is a metal number and relates to keeping wealth as well as generating new wealth.

May you all reap as you have sown

Lotsa love

Kristine
 
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Yes!! I feel that we have taken action this year.

1. Sold neg geared property Jan/ Feb.

2. Set up Trust company for investment purchases.

3. Bought 2 pos properties in Aug and currently doing some renovations to them. Using up all our available cash in the process.

4. Set up Trust company for development projects.

5. Just bought 3 properties for development into 14 units (12x 3 bed & 2x 2bed). Purchase contracts just signed today on the last of these properties.

Feeling real proud of ourselves at the moment!!! :D :D

Cheers,
Bernard :)
 
First of all , Happy New Year to everyone. Hope all have a prosperous 2004.

I'm not sure whether I tried hard enough in 2003. I sold one property which was in a partnership. Tried to sell another with the same partners but sale fell through three weeks ago. Since taken off market and rented again. Will try selling next year.

I did purchase three other properties, so net gain did increase. Also purchased land at Harrington Waters in March for settling sometime in 2004.

Overall reasonably happy, could've done more.
 
I am happy with this year.

I bought one unit, under market value did some cosmetic repairs then later sold it using some of the profit after tax to pay off my residential home, ( I shaved one year off my five year plan to pay it off)

I also recently bought 2 more houses near the water (submitted my offer on the second one, the day after the first one settled) I have made cosmetic repairs and undertaken lots of cleaning, and have raised the value significantly.

Bring on 2004 !!!

;)
 
In 2003, I bought 12 ip's (bringing total to 25 ip's), sold 3 ip's(total back to 22 ip's), paid out the loans on PPOR and 4 ip's, and reno'd one ip.

I think I will be a bit lazy for the first half of 2004 and just go with the flow for a while.:)

Happy and Prosperous New Year everyone.:D
 
Hi,

I think Yuch and I can say we took action.

Designed and launched a software program, built our first commercial website, and basically started our first internet based business.

Can't wait till 2004 when we expected to launch a couple of more businesses!

Michael & Yuch
 
G'Day and Happy New Year to all,

as for 2003, what a year that was.

This is definately the year that I will be telling the grandkids about, if and when I get any.

Never in my wildest imagination could I have predicted 12 months ago where I would be today.

Thank you all so much for the motivation that you all have unknowingly given me in the last year.

May you all prosper beyond your wildest dreams.

regards
 
We took action and moved ahead, both in property and structure but I always feel I should have and could have done more. When I read what some of you have achieved, I get anxious that I haven't done as much as I wanted but I also get motivated to try harder. Do many people feel they achieved all they thought they would?
 
We took action and moved ahead, both in property and structure but I always feel I should have and could have done more. When I read what some of you have achieved, I get anxious that I haven't done as much as I wanted but I also get motivated to try harder. Do many people feel they achieved all they thought they would?
 
Dear Jen,

Do many people feel they achieved all they thought they would?

If you always achieved exactly what you thought/planned then some would argue that you didn't set your goals high enough. Life is all about setting goals that stretch you to new heights.

However with property it needs a combination of skills. Two important ones are "Persistence and patience." Patience at the right time is a skill and this can stretch all of us at times. (Rome can't all be built in one day even for the most ambitious people.) So patience in staying on the road to your (written) goal is vital. (How many investors can get sidetracked on their journey and potentially get lost in the wilderness?) And persistence. Persistence in continually driving oneself to get the little wins which push oneself to each checkpoint/milestone.

The right balance of both these two is essential.

Property investing is not a sprint but a marathon.

Remember to enjoy the journey. ;)

Cheers,

Sunstone.
 
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I think 2003 was a mixed bag for me. Yes, I achieved a lot, but my overwhelming sensation at the end of the year is frustration. I see endless streams of opportunities, but haven't got cash of my own to pursue them. Although I've made some progress in trying to find private investors or joint venture partners, it's only been minor. So I haven't progressed anywhere near as much as I'd like to have done.
But at least I've progressed. :rolleyes:
If I repeat that often enough maybe I'll be happier! ;)
 
Hi All,
We finally did take action and buy our first Ip, read heaps of books and continually scanned this great web site!
We are glad we finally did something but have an overwhelming feeling that we missed the boat, ( in terms of pre boom prices, but more importantly rental yeilds).
We want to buy more ip's but due to mortgage on PPOR and 3 Little liabilities, really need cashflow.
We won't give up though, and we will keep on pushing our comfort zone further and further. (As we live in Sydney, this will mean looking further afield for property!)
Happy New Year everyone and thanks for the constant guidance and encoragement,

Mrs Chris1
 
Originally posted by Sunstone
Life is all about that setting goals that stretch you to new heights.

With reference to Sunstone's comment, last year we did set our goals of where we would be in 10 years time and, for each goal, we set at least one KPI to give it clarity and robustness. All of this was documented in our Financial Independence Strategic Plan. The Plan also included our current assets, our current liabilities, our net worth, current issues (i.e. weaknesses, challenges, shortcomings) and a "call to action".

This week we have been formally reviewing our 2003 Plan. We have completed all of the items on our "call to action" list except for three. We fell one short on the number of IPs we were going to purchase in 2003; the other two items we have decided not to do as the benefits do NOT outweigh the costs. So, from an action perspective, we did well.

But did we do well from our strategic/financial independence goals perspective. Yes, our assets increased; yes, our liabilities increased (using OPM) and most importantly, yes, our net worth increased - BUT did they increase enough. We don't know as we did not set intermediate KPIs. That was one of the faults in our 2003 Plan - we set KPIs for our 10 year goals so we would know when we have reached our destination but we did not set milestones along the way.

So, we have taken our 2003 Plan and updated it with our 1 Jan 2004 situation and addressed the above fault. We have called our updated plan our 2004 Plan. So, not only does the 2004 Plan record our current assets, our current liabilities, our net worth, current issues and a "call to action" for 2004, it also forecasts where we aim to be on 31 Dec 04 with our goals.

To demonstrate what I mean, I thought I would share a couple of our 2004 KPIs:

1. Assets to increase by 44%.
2. Liabilities to increase by 170% (using more of OPM).
3. Net Worth to increase by 15%.
4. LVR to increase from 19% to 35%.
(in the document, we specify actual dollars as well as percentages)

This time next year, we will NOW be able to tell if we did enough in 2004 (and find it easier to set KPIs for 2005). If you haven't done so, can we recommend that you do the same - and don't say it is too hard - our Plan (19 pages) covers our PPOR, our business, our SMSF, our Hybrid Trust, multiple investment properties and a reasonably number of shares.

Good luck in 2004

KieranK

PS I believe you make your own GOOD LUCK

PSS Also, in your Plan, be as specific as possible with your goals, KPIs, action items, etc. For example, for property purchases, specify the number, the area, the type, the price, the timing (which month), etc. For share purchases, specify companies, the number of shares, the price, the timing, etc.
 
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Wow Keiran - Thats an amazing effort.

My long term plan fits on one page !

Question - You want liabilities to increase 170% but assets on 44% - isn't that a bad thing?

Don't suppose you'd be willing to post your plan for others to learn from - erasing / dummying all numbers/% and personal information of course.

I'm for one interested in the format / points. I think we can all do better in the planning side.


ps. My plan (circa 1999 and in 1999 $$$) was something like....

3 IP's returning around $20,000 (Gross)
Share fund value $100,000 returning 12% (ha ha)
Something else I cant recall of the top of my head, but the total was around $36,000 income in total debt free.

hmm.... still a ways to go yet.....
 
I did reply to the thread the other day, but the post got lost (my fault me thinks). :(

Anyway - 2003 - Busy year, did heaps, and moved forward.

Could I have done more?

Not while still working too !!!

Sold one, Bought 3 (2 settle next year, so I get to count them next year too :D ), full renno & landscaping for 1, partial renno 1, lots of work around home too.

Cleaned up some financial structure stuff (damn x-coll!!).

Oh, and normal stuff from being an employee, husband, father of 3 etc etc......

Bring on 2004 !!! :cool:

What now?
Calm down and consolidate for a bit.
Plan better
More time for family !
Think about other business opp's
More reading / learing on stocks
Personal health - time to exercise, body not quite so forgiving of demands these days. Chiro loves me tho....;)


Cheerio !

Simon.

ps. I still look at what half you guys do in amazement. You're great encouragement !
 
Originally posted by sbe
Question - You want liabilities to increase 170% but assets on 44% - isn't that a bad thing?

Prior to 2003, we were trying to self-fund our way to financial independence. That is, by using our own money - we did have some borrowings but we keep them to a minimum. Our LVR in Jan 2003 was 8.5% (really, really conservative).

One thing I learnt through this Forum and attending seminars/workshops is that there is nothing wrong with borrowing money, especially for appreciating assets, as long as you take a sensible approach. In fact, using Other Peoples' Money or OPM you will become financially independent quicker.

So, in 2003, we increased our assets by 21% and our liabilities (i.e. loans) by 149%. Our LVR increased to 19% (really conservative). In 2004, based on our success in 2003, we are aiming to be slightly more aggressive - assets by 44%, loans by 170% and LVR to 35% (still conservative).

Be careful with percentages. For example, in Jan 2003, if one had assets of $1M and loans of $100K (LVR of 10%) and one bought new assets of $200K with 100% borrowings, then one's assets have increased by 20% but one's liabilities have increased by 200% - LVR has increased to 25% (still conservative).

So, increasing one's liabilities by 170% is not a bad thing as long as one's LVR is still conversative. It just means that one is starting from a low borrowings' base.

Originally posted by sbe
My long term plan fits on one page !

Don't suppose you'd be willing to post your plan for others to learn from - erasing / dummying all numbers/% and personal information of course.

I'm for one interested in the format / points. I think we can all do better in the planning side.

Obviously, I can't post our Plan as is because of the personal information. If I removed all this information, I don't think it would be of much value. So, I thought I would give you the layout page by page:

Page 1 - Cover Sheet

Page 2 - Table of Contents

Page 3 - Aim of the Plan (to enable us to become financially indpendent) and Background (family structure, ages, etc)

Page 4 - Last Year's "Call to Action" List (including what was planned, what was achieved and when it was achieved, what wasn't achieved and the reasons why)

Pages 5 to 7 - Current Assets and Their Issues (for each entity, that is business, SMSF, Hybrid Trust and each family member, the details of all assets (property, shares and cash) including purchase date, purchase price, current value and all issues with that asset)

Page 8 - Current Liabilities (the details of each loan including lender, borrower, security given, loan type, date of application, interest rate, initial loan, current balance and purpose)

Page 9 - Current Net Worth (for each entity, assets by asset class, liabilities and net worth)

Page 10 - This Year's "Call to Action" List (including each action item, when it is planned to be done and why we are doing it)

Page 11 and 12 - Forecasted Assets at Year's End (similar to pages 5 to 7)

Page 13 - Forecasted Liabilities at Year's End (similar to page 8)

Page 14 - Forecasted Net Worth at Year's End (similar to page 9)

Pages 15 to 17 - Investment Strategies for our business, our SMSF, our Hybrid Trust and our PPOR (how are we going to increase the value of each over the 10 years)

Pages 18 to 19 - Likely End Result (no one can predict nor control the future but we wanted some confidence/assurrance that our Plan will work and achieve our end result in 10 years. So, we used the different inflation, capital growth and interest rates combinations from page 233 of Jan's book "More Wealth From Residential Property" and the PIA software and ran a number of scenarios to give us a picture of where we are likely to be in 10 years time. We repeated the exercise for 15 years time. We summarised the findings in this Section. In reality, this section and the previous section were done together - we picked a strategy, calculated the likely end results, finetuned the strategy, re-calculated the likely end results, etc, etc. When reading, it makes sense to have them in the order as presented)

You may think the above is a bit "over the top". We were serious about becoming financially independent and we really wanted a Plan that we knew would work for us. So we went to this level of detail. We have shown our Plan to our team (accountant, solicitor, mortgage broker and bank) - from the Plan, they know we are serious, dedicated and professional.

Hope that helps - if you have any questions, please post on the Forum and I will respond.

KieranK
 
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