Older investor and loving it

[oasis1frog]

Nth Brisbanite,
You have done very well. I mainly invested in residential properties, and only couple of years ago into shares & managed funds. After accumulating a number of IPs I am now converting the equity from resi to other higher yielding investments so enable me to quit the day job and move to a warmer climate. Seeing people drop dead at their prime make me realize life is so short. My father worked until he was 67, when he retired he was not in good health and for the next 20 years he just survived. I am determined to enjoy every day as it comes.
oasis1frog

 

[jaymm165]

Nth Brisbanite, you mentioned being on a modest wage and can still invest in property. Do you negative gear on interest only loans or are you paying down the principle & interest and are your properties cash flow positive or positive geared? Just curious as we are on medium incomes and have 2 negative geared properties.
Jay

 

[Nth Brisbanite]

Nth Brisbanite, you mentioned being on a modest wage and can still invest in property. Do you negative gear on interest only loans or are you paying down the principle & interest and are your properties cash flow positive or positive geared? Just curious as we are on medium incomes and have 2 negative geared properties.
Jay

I negative gear on interest only. None of my properties are cash flow positive, although some are very close. I annually put in an Income Tax Variation Withholding which helps in my cash flow. I believe in investing in well located new property (I follow John Fitzgerald's principles) which gives me large depreciation allowances. Even though I'm on a modest wage, I pay little or no tax.

I'm a great believer in Lines of Credit (LOC) which helps me out with cash. I'm not afraid of going into greater debt as I have available hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash through LOC. It is important to get annual valuation of your properties as this gives you access to even more cash. One of my son-in-law's properties was recently revalued at $100,000 more than a year ago. He was offered and accepted the extra $100,000 in cash (ie his bank deposited $100,000 cash into one of his bank accounts.)

Hope all this helps jaymm165

 

[jaymm165]

Thank Nth Brisbanite, this sounds very much like what we are doing. Using our LOC for cash flow as well, although we follow the Investors Club. Our first property is very close to CFP now, so that is exciting for us. Both our properties have increased in value since we purchased them, so we're pretty chuffed.

We don't do the Tax Variation to reduce cash flow, as we felt it better to get a lump sum and put this back into the LOC. We've just today received out cheques and they've been banked.

Jay

 

[NOT 2 L8]

So many oldies like me (I'm 61) wouldn't have a clue about superannuation. They put it in only because they have been told it is safe.

I can honestly tell you that it is so boring hanging out with most people my age - too scared to invest in anything which appears to be remotely risky. It is so invigorating reading some of the posts contributed by the 20 and 30 year olders. It's given me a new lease in life!!!!

You are not hanging with the right people then. There are several oldies here who are active investors. Some started early in life and are a font of knowledge and others like me (58) started late (54) and leveraged that knowledge to build a reasonable portfolio in a short time.

That in itself is very satisfying yet, what pleases me more is the number of people around me, including my son and daughter who caught the bug and are doing great.

If you need to, change your friends, network and enjoy the ride.

Cheers Chrisv.

 

[Nth Brisbanite]

You are not hanging with the right people then. There are several oldies here who are active investors. Some started early in life and are a font of knowledge and others like me (58) started late (54) and leveraged that knowledge to build a reasonable portfolio in a short time.

That in itself is very satisfying yet, what pleases me more is the number of people around me, including my son and daughter who caught the bug and are doing great.

If you need to, change your friends, network and enjoy the ride.

Cheers Chrisv.

Easier said than done, Chrisv. I can't change my work colleages, neither am I willing to give up friends I've had for many years (even though they can be very boring when it comes to taking risks). I definitely can't change my family.

One good thing that I have been able to do is join an investors group which meets every second Monday. There are 8 of us ranging from 27 to 61 - most are in their mid to late 40s and just starting to learn about investing. The one who has influenced me the most has been my elder son who started property investing when he was about 26. He's the one that passed the bug on to me when I was about 55.