Have you retired off property...how are you travelling?

I would like to hear from people who actually have started with property and have retired. I have been thinking about this....but feel too young at 42 to do it.

Would life to hear about:

1. What sort of income you have retired on? What sort of asset base did you need (property, shares, super)?

2. Are you still working part-time?

3. What age did you manage to retire?

4. Did you shift from property to other things to increase cash-flow - i.e. shares, cash bonds, etc.?

5. Are you happy with your lifestyle? What are the pros and cons?

6. Do you have any regrets?

7. Has the GFC affect your plans and asset base?
 
I have been thinking about this....but feel too young at 42 to do it.

dangerous thought pattern here. I retired at 37 and then copped a heap of flack for it... so allowed myself to think that i was too young to retire. I then went back into the market primarily because i thought i was lazy not to. then the GFC hit and I took a pummelling. now i wish i had just sat back and done nothing!
 
dangerous thought pattern here. I retired at 37 and then copped a heap of flack for it... so allowed myself to think that i was too young to retire. I then went back into the market primarily because i thought i was lazy not to. then the GFC hit and I took a pummelling. now i wish i had just sat back and done nothing!

Hi Ausprop,

Sorry to hear that. Did you get caught with shares, or developments, or something else? If you bought shares, did you leave them alone and let them recover? (Very hard to do in the mayhem).

What are your plans now, and how long will it take you to be able to retire from property again? (Hopefully not long)

Regards Jason.
 
developments... was holding land on a couple of big ones when the banks pulled the rug out and the market for dev sites collapsed. throw in a couple of unfortunate litigation matters that just happened to occur at the time and it was a rough GFC for me. had a few wins of late tho so it's been a setback of 1 to 2 years. I went back to some contracting and funnily enough think I have found some new investing activities as a result that could be more lucrative than property. Some of these things offer 8 month pay backs for example. hence i am forming the view that at this stage of life i will progress from hard core developemnt to a more passive property style, basically parking funds in property and just developign for my own purposes
 
Thanks for sharing Ausprop.....if it is any comfort....there a few other people who got caught developing also. Some of them had their finance pulled mid way through their development.

Hope all continues to go well.

developments... was holding land on a couple of big ones when the banks pulled the rug out and the market for dev sites collapsed. throw in a couple of unfortunate litigation matters that just happened to occur at the time and it was a rough GFC for me. had a few wins of late tho so it's been a setback of 1 to 2 years. I went back to some contracting and funnily enough think I have found some new investing activities as a result that could be more lucrative than property. Some of these things offer 8 month pay backs for example. hence i am forming the view that at this stage of life i will progress from hard core developemnt to a more passive property style, basically parking funds in property and just developign for my own purposes
 
Hi Sash,

No one is ever too young to retire from a J.O.B. I certainty think the sooner the better...

I firmly believe there is no greater joy than to be free from a J.O.B and going about life on your own terms. Is that not one of the significant purpose of investing in general? :)

Regards

Daniel Lee
 
Thanks for sharing Ausprop.....if it is any comfort....there a few other people who got caught developing also. Some of them had their finance pulled mid way through their development.

Hope all continues to go well.

yeh Allco was really pushing me to take up some dev funding just before the GFC really took a grip and they went under. thankfully my gut told me the world had changed and the product I had line up (multi million $ beach houses) was no longer a good fit and I pulled the pin. They got REALLY funny about it and then pulled my land funding on 14 days notice (about the 18th December). they tried to make life really difficult for me and send me under but thankfully the nab came to my rescue with a refi. I thought it was hilarious when Allco went under (david and goliath like) and couldnt have happened to a nicer bunch of corporate deviates
 
i'm just glad we got the health dept over the line with your devvy - he was a MR ZERO PERSONALITY...

i'm wrapped you're still going to do something with that site.
 
developments... was holding land on a couple of big ones when the banks pulled the rug out and the market for dev sites collapsed. throw in a couple of unfortunate litigation matters that just happened to occur at the time and it was a rough GFC for me. had a few wins of late tho so it's been a setback of 1 to 2 years. I went back to some contracting and funnily enough think I have found some new investing activities as a result that could be more lucrative than property. Some of these things offer 8 month pay backs for example. hence i am forming the view that at this stage of life i will progress from hard core developemnt to a more passive property style, basically parking funds in property and just developign for my own purposes


Hey Ausprop,

I guess its all part of the learning experience.

Just wondering what strategy did you use to retire at 37?

Was it buy and hold or something different?

Thanks.
 
developments... was holding land on a couple of big ones when the banks pulled the rug out and the market for dev sites collapsed. throw in a couple of unfortunate litigation matters that just happened to occur at the time and it was a rough GFC for me. had a few wins of late tho so it's been a setback of 1 to 2 years. I went back to some contracting and funnily enough think I have found some new investing activities as a result that could be more lucrative than property. Some of these things offer 8 month pay backs for example. hence i am forming the view that at this stage of life i will progress from hard core developemnt to a more passive property style, basically parking funds in property and just developign for my own purposes

Hi Ausprop,

Glad you are in the stages of moving forward and recovering financially. The new investment opportunities sound interesting too.

Regards Jason.
 
Hi Sash
We have been retired for 1 year now. our strategy was buy and hold (bit of reno thrown in). We have loans set up for drawing a fair bit of equity and we use the equity to share trade.

We were in our own business before and while the money was pretty good the hours were awful. DH was working 100 hrs per week we were on call 24/7. We actually went for 10 years without a holiday!

we retired at 40 and 45. (I'm the youngster:D)

It has been an interesting year. the trading has been good and an enjoyable learning curve. But it was an adjustment having him here all the time and getting used to each other again. We are also in a bit of a rut now in that we are getting a bit bored. We have school aged kids so are still constrained in what we can do each weekday fitting around their schedules.

That is why we are thinking about working our 5 acre farm properly to give us another business to focus on. We are so used to working a business that we don't really know what else to do!

I suppose the worst part is that there aren't any other people in our circle of friends that are also retired so our social life is a bit awkward.

Am I glad we did it? you betcha!
 
I would like to hear from people who actually have started with property and have retired. I have been thinking about this....but feel too young at 42 to do it.

Would life to hear about:

1. What sort of income you have retired on? What sort of asset base did you need (property, shares, super)?

2. Are you still working part-time?

3. What age did you manage to retire?

4. Did you shift from property to other things to increase cash-flow - i.e. shares, cash bonds, etc.?

5. Are you happy with your lifestyle? What are the pros and cons?

6. Do you have any regrets?

7. Has the GFC affect your plans and asset base?

In a fashion - we have. We couldn't live off our properties' rent and/or equity alone; we have used them to "buy" our freedom.

I still work, but I have the choice now, and it was made possible through the property investing. My wife no longer works, but will go back to doing a couple of nursing shifts later in this year when the baby is a bit older, to keep an interest and keep her skills up.

The increased cap gain and equity over time has allowed us to exit the PAYE and buy two businesses, which are managed and staffed. They don't really need us for them to operate.

Our income is hard to ascertain, but would be nett in the mid-upper 100's I reckon, after all the business and property expenses are factored in.

The GFC didn't affect our asset base as far as I can tell - the properties are all still at or above their values of this time last year, and the businesses are both trading at pre-GFC turnover levels.

The "cons" of our path are that we have a lot of responsibility - running the businesses and the property portfolio, and the work to get to this point has been tough at times.

But the "pro" is the freedom of time and income.

Our previous lives would have not provided this income without much extra work hours, and no freedom to choose.
 
I would like to hear from people who actually have started with property and have retired. I have been thinking about this....but feel too young at 42 to do it.

Would life to hear about:

1. What sort of income you have retired on? What sort of asset base did you need (property, shares, super)?

Retirement is a loose term, you still need to do something. In our case we don't work for anybody don't have any employees but are still renovating units and doing general maintenance. Our two sons are also involved in the renovating and maintenance. Thus we all use the investment income.

If we hadn't lost our contract then I would still be running our original business as the income was so good and the hours were ideal. We finished up in this business in 2005 so technically from that point on I was retired.

Currently our gross income is about the $700k mark, out of which come all the expenses (but we only have a 10-15% LVR;)).

The asset base that we established is very property orientated with shares, these days, only representing about 25% of the total. Super is irrelevant as this is locked away for some years yet but this will represent about 10% maybe less.


2. Are you still working part-time?

We are still renovating and will be for about another year. Beyond that we are looking are doing small developments mainly to allow one of my sons (who is now a carpenter/builder) to utilize his trade. Obviously this would enhance the total portfolio.

Beyond this we are also toying with the idea of establishing some sort of business but with the overriding criteria that in the longer run it is passive for my wife and myself.


3. What age did you manage to retire?

A forced retirement at 50

4. Did you shift from property to other things to increase cash-flow - i.e. shares, cash bonds, etc.?

Yes. Tried this path and was very profitable for a number of year then lost all this extra income as a result of inaction and the recent crash.

5. Are you happy with your lifestyle? What are the pros and cons?

No. Working with your sons can be very trying:eek:.

I actually was more 'retired' when I was running my business as I had many more resources that I could draw on. For last few years in the business my work day consisted of turning up at 10:30 - 11:00 so I could play a few games of pool over lunch with the staff and leave again by 3:00.

Now with the full on renos etc I am far busier as the days tend to be less routine more chaotic as everyday is different


6. Do you have any regrets?

Regret not buying more property:D But really, no, its turned out pretty well along the lines of my mud map.

7. Has the GFC affect your plans and asset base?

As mentioned elsewhere we lost about $3mil so bit of a hit on the asset base but also a major hit on income as this was generating a massive income which in fact was the problem regarding my timing and not wanting to terminate the investment. Be it that I originally planned to terminate the investment at exactly the time I should have.

This has affected some of my longer term plans as this was going to be the base for doing some larger scale developing.

All up lives fine and certainly I would never need to work again if I didn't want to and was happy flicking all the maintenance jobs to outside contractors. This was one of my criteria for investing namely that the income had to be large enough to allow all and any work to be done by hired help and still have more than sufficient to live off.

Cheers
 
We 'kind of have' retired - to a point..... 3 IPs in UK (1 paid off, 1 with v.small mortgage 10% LTV, 1 with 80%LTV mortgage) all rented , all CF+ , bought ages ago.

Bought our PPOR outright 6 months ago on the Sunny Coast (made v.v.v good CG before the bubble burst in the UK) & work 1 or 2 days a week (my own v.small business), brings in more than enough for 2 cars, bills, food, entertainment , keep wifey & kiddie happy etc

We are both 35 & have been in this situation since 3yrs ago.(renting while looking to buy & banked the dosh from UK in the meantime)

I am in a quandry with what to do now, ie; no big cash lump like before (all in PPOR) have good equity in UK (approx 180k GBP) ...... I am afraid to gamble & play with it all too much for fear of loosing what I have... sometimes doing nothing is the best thing to do!!

So ,maybe raise a LOC on PPOR & play the game here? Shares? Managed Fund? no confidence in any of them TBH !!

any thoughts??!

Another point is - I dont feel that we NEED that much $$ now. We own our home, 2 good cars, we dont have expensive hobbies, & thankfully I have a 'low maintenance wife' !! We left the 'city boy' life to just chill out & live very simply.....

But to answer the Question.... yes - pretty much retired at 35. (i work part time to suppliment , but could live frugaly off my UK rents if absolutely necessary)
 
Hey Ausprop,

I guess its all part of the learning experience.

Just wondering what strategy did you use to retire at 37?

Was it buy and hold or something different?

Thanks.

a combination of BnH since 1990 and then development and flipping from 2000 onwards.

i find BnH too slow for my liking but appreciate there are risks. I think with what Ihave learned and taking things down a notch it is still the way forward
 
Does anyone know what has happened with Ruby and her Interviews?
There are a good number of posters on this thread that I would love to know more about. Thank you for providing some more inspiration and outlining how your journeys have been going.

Gools
 
Does anyone know what has happened with Ruby and her Interviews?
Don't worry the "interviews" have not stopped, they have just gone on a short break and will be returning at some stage.

LOL, amazing as it may seem, not everyone is willing to bare all. :eek:

But stay tuned........
 
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