G'day - first post

S

shab

Hi everyone,

I joined the site a couple of months ago and have been spending a lot of time reading and searching through dozens of threads all filled with excellent advice and information for a newbie. So I thought I should say hi at some point and also say thank you to the great community of people here who freely share their knowledge and experience to make this such a valuable forum.

Until recently, I had always just thought that I should pay off my mortgage completely before even looking at any kind of investing, but after discovering the forum and working through my first couple of property investment books I see now that I have wasted a lot of time with this approach and could have started my investment journey much sooner than this. But better late than never I guess! We have paid off just over a third of our mortgage so we have some equity available and we are hoping to jump in and start investing within next couple of months, and no doubt I'll start posting some questions of my own.

Anyway, thanks again and I'll hopefully get speaking to some of you soon!
 
Hi Shab,

Welcome and Merry Christmas to you and yours :)

SS is the best RE educational site around IMO and amazingly it is free, thanks to the generosity of the Somers.

Be sure to check out their books as well, good practical advice in them.
 
Ditto to Maccas post and it's how we started as well.

get stuck into it but just remember it's long term, slow and steady wins the race.

Most important thing, paramount actually, is structure. Right from the word go you ned to define your goals and then create a structure.

If borrowing then talk with a very good Mort. Broker. Plenty on here but I can recommend Rolf.;)

Get a broker, an accountant that is into PI themselves and read those books of Jan Somers.

Good luck...you wont be needing it.;)
 
The Fence said:
Most important thing, paramount actually, is structure. Right from the word go you ned to define your goals and then create a structure.

If borrowing then talk with a very good Mort. Broker. Plenty on here

Get a broker, an accountant that is into PI themselves and read those books of Jan Somers.
Click to expand...

Kudos! Great advice

Welcome on board.
 
Thanks for the advice and recommendations folks, much appreciated. I've just finished Margaret Lomas' "How to Achieve Property Success" and was able to follow most of it, and I've just ordered Jan Somers' "More Wealth from Residential Property". I'm supposed to be studying for a certification for my job but reading about investing is way more interesting :). It is hard to visualise goals when all this is new to me, so I don't really know what is possible and what is a pipe dream. But I've seen others talk about having a goal of a certain amount of passive income, so I'm aiming for a 15-17 year timeframe to have our house paid off and 100k p/a passive income. I am honestly struggling to believe that this is possible when 6 months ago I had no aspirations beyond retiring at 65 and hopefully having a decent amount of superannuation to live off (I'm about to turn 34). But one of the take home messages from the Lomas book I just read is that if you plan carefully and work with the right people, then about the worst thing that can happen is you end up with the same amount of money than if you hadn't invested at all. So I figure I'll start with that plan and adjust as appropriate if the current goals are just too unrealistic.
 
Hi Shab,

No one actually knows what will happen in the future, the majority of experts never even picked the GFC, so work out what suits you and then adjust as circumstances change.

One thing you can do is plan to get rich slowly and barring catastrophes you will almost certainly succeed. Here in Oz, this opportunity is available to all who genuinely look for it and then work to achieve it.

The first 15-20 years are a bit tough but after that things kind of balance out and you don't really need to go without, just stay within budget and all is good enough.

The payoff comes when at around about 20-25 years later you realise that your investments are earning you more than your job and when the pension age is moved to 75 years you say " Doesn't matter to me :cool::cool:"
 
Hiya shab and merry xmas :)

Your in a good position and @ nearly 34,your in good steed to goal early retirement.

You'll certainly find some great info and contacts on SS.

Here's to 2014!

Cheers Spades.
 
Hi Shab, welcome to Somersoft.

If you like reading I would like to suggest the following
1. My four year old the property investor (Can McLellan)
2. Property investing for Dummies (Australian edition)
3. How to grow a multi million dollar property portfolio (Michael Yardney)
4. From 0 to financial freedom (Steve McKnight)
 
Macca said:
The first 15-20 years are a bit tough but after that things kind of balance out and you don't really need to go without, just stay within budget and all is good enough.

The payoff comes when at around about 20-25 years later you realise that your investments are earning you more than your job and when the pension age is moved to 75 years you say " Doesn't matter to me :cool::cool:"
Click to expand...

Can we do it in 10 years instead of 20-25 years? Maybe have a really tough 5-10 years instead of 15-20? I would like to enjoy things whilst I am still young enough to walk around.
 
Btw, you can get a first book free at the following link.
http://openwealthcreation.com.au/my4yospinl-2/

The fourth book is useful to plan for financial freedom, quite useful for someone not from an accounting background.

I should also mention that there is not right or wrong in certain strategies outlined in these books. What is right to you depends on your education, skills, salary level etc. Take what suits you. Learn as much as possible. And then do it!
 
Thanks a lot for the reading list recommendations Singo! First book is free, and I just picked up the fourth book (Steve McKnight) from the Kobo book store for 79 cents using the coupon 85off in case anyone else was interested!
 
Hi Shab

A couple of favourites are also

  • The Richest Man in Babylon
  • Any of Noel Whittaker's books (i.e. Making Money Made Simple)
  • Ordinary Millionaires
 
shab said:
But I've seen others talk about having a goal of a certain amount of passive income, so I'm aiming for a 15-17 year timeframe to have our house paid off and 100k p/a passive income. I am honestly struggling to believe that this is possible ...........
Click to expand...

Entirely possible and easily exceeded.

Learn learn learn and begin to build that team of experts in your corner.

Budget budget budget and use excess funds to service good debt.

Go for it and aim high, cause if you miss you will at least hit up there some where. Better that than aiming lower.

Something tells me you,ll be a good shot anyway;)
 
Thanks redwing, I've just purchased those recommendations (except Ordinary Millionaires, it seems a bit harder to track down). My reading list seems to be growing at a rate of knots! Also, I've read a couple of the SS investor interviews, talk about inspirational!

Thanks Fence, all good advice, and I appreciate the G-up talk, just need to take some action in the new year and get the ball rolling.
 
Singo said:
Hi Shab, welcome to Somersoft.

If you like reading I would like to suggest the following
1. My four year old the property investor (Can McLellan)
Click to expand...


Hi, Welcome to SS :)

I got this book for free. A mate forwarded on the email and I just recieved it the other day. I havent had a chance to read it yet.

Here's the link for your free hardcopy
http://openwealthcreation.com.au/my4yohomegurunl/

And you can download the free ebook at this site
http://openwealthcreation.com.au/
 
Hi, my tip would be dont worry too much about strategies and too much to begin with as you'll drive yourself insane about which strategy to go for. Its called analysis paralysis. Do I buy new? do I buy renovated, do i buy close to cbd, do i buy regional, do i buy brand new, do i buy old house on big block. Do I buy and renovate. You get the picture.

My tip, do a lot of reading and research online and on somersoft - SS for 6 - 9 months, buy something affordable to get your toes wet. Buy something close to home in your neigbourhood or somewhere where you know what the values are. Thats what I did with my first one. I bought just around the corner! It also happens to be 7 km from the Perth cbd which is a good location and was a low end property as thats all I could afford. As a newbie investor perhaps buy something like a unit to gain some experience.

You'd want to get your finance structures right though. Go see a good mortgage broker - MB, one that is a property investor themselves, ditto accountant. Get recommendations on here. See MB then get the accountant to do all the calculations to see if you can afford the property. I didnt do that last time and didnt realise it would cost me so much to hold as I made some mistakes and then once interest rates - IR went up I was in a bit of strife. So its money well spent with the mortgage broker and accountant. Make sure you also either fix your rates or you calculate so that you can afford to hold the property if IR go to 10%. Also make sure you have a bit of a savings buffer. Try not to use your own cash as the deposit if you can. Use other peoples money - OPM. Well unless you are on a huge income and can save deposits very fast.

lol I am in a hurry and off for a run now. I have probably forgotten things to mention but these are some of the things I have learnt from buying my first one and some tips I can pass on.

The best way to learn is to just get out there and buy something. Try not to make too many mistakes but dont be afraid to start and remember as a newbie you are going to make mistakes, thats how we all learn. Read on here the tips people have given that they wish they had done better after buying their 1st ip. haha, i haven written a novel. I better get going now.

When I come back I'll look for a couple of old topics for you. Sorry if i have overwhelmed you with too much info lol.

Have fun reading.
 
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