REPEATED: What advice would you give yourself 10 years ago that you know now?

[Ace in the Hole]

Advice for what, exactly?

Who knows what would have happened if you took a different path?
I could say say to myself that I should have travelled the world, backpacker style for years, having great experiences, learning about the world and meeting lots of different people.
Wow, just thinking about it makes me wonder how different my life would be now. I would have been personally rich, but likely financially poor.

As it is, I've travelled very little having been committed to work for the past 10 years, hope to travel soon. However, the path I've taken has put me in a position of financial freedom and can take good care of my family.

There not much point in saying what you should or could have done.
It's all about right NOW.

Anyway, the advice I would give myself back then if I could would be - Learn how to make more money, and that does not involve investing.
When you know how to make real money, you don't need to rely on other markets out of your control.

 

[cadence]

Be your own guru. (I got talked out of buying in Frankston years ago by a Melbourne BA).

Prop I'm curious
Did ba tell you why they thought Frankston should be avoided? If so what were their reasons?
TIA

 

[Angel]

This reminds me that about five years ago I had a long chat to Prop on the phone. He suggested I buy a little character 100 year old home in Newcastle, renovate it and it would make me a lot of money. I couldn't get my head around the thought of renovating from a distant location. Nor could I get my head around the thought of this tiny little 300m2 pocket of highly sought after real estate (on reclaimed land in the harbour) outlasting the next king tide or storm. I have never followed up how it went, I bet the same $500k plot is now worth a million$$.

 

[chindonly]

Buy earlier and buy more. I reckon I lost about 6-8 years of the cycle by procrastinating, trying to learn everything first and waiting until things were 'just right'.

They will never be just right.

 

[hugh72]

Buy earlier and buy more. I reckon I lost about 6-8 years of the cycle by procrastinating, trying to learn everything first and waiting until things were 'just right'.

They will never be just right.

My thoughts as well.

 

[BayView]

Mine is to go back more than 10 years - going back 30 years;

1. Learn the difference between a doodad and an asset.
2. learn the difference between good debt and bad debt.
3. Pay yourself first - at least 10% of you nett income every week.
4. Your "Pay Yourself First" money is only for investing in assets.
5. Buy a property as soon as you have saved enough for a deposit from your PYF money.

 

[joeExpat]

Stick mostly with investments you know best, not any exotic stuff.
Do not short any markets or stocks.
Do not buy property in a falling price environment (eg Spain after falling 35% like I did).
Do not increase the rent on good tenants.
Do not always go with the cheapest conveyancer or real estate agent.
Rent your home, don't buy. The flexibility (for me) is more valuable than any possible value increase.

 

[Erica]

10 years ago I was searching for my first home- my advice to myself (if I had a time machine) would have been to "lower your bloody standards and just buy something!"

In the 2 years it took me of farting around at open inspections, putting in just slightly too low offers, and trying to find the perfect home in the perfect suburb that I wanted to live in forever, the market gained about 30%.

 

[Tonibell]

Don't worry so much.

Still need the same advice today.

 

[Deltaberry]

Choose your partners carefully and avoid partners if you can afford to. If you can't, avoid certain ethnic groups at least.

 

[charttv]

They will never be just right.

agreed, you just gotta weigh the probabilities and stack the deck and chips as much in your favour as possible.

 

[4GH1RH]

Also:

• "Don't date crazy girls."

Cost me several houses...

 

[Deltaberry]

Avoid partners - especially some of our nother neighbours - if you have the money. Save yourself the misery

 

[JohnMichael]

The big thing for me when thinking back a fair few years ago, is how all my problems that bothered me at the time seem small and silly now.

So what would I have told myself?

Mostly to relax, and don't worry about things so much, things are gonna be fine. and be grateful for some of the good things i had which maybe I don't have now (I have different good things now, but a lot changes over the years and some things back then were really fantastic, but transitory, and which I never really appreciated at the time)

And to work hard, yes. But not in a stressed out, or desperate way. In a relaxed, "hey you're gonna be fine if you just take things slow and steady and consistently." All the while appreciating and enjoying all the things around me. To be patient with work, I guess, not desperate and stressed out

 

[Ace in the Hole]

And to work hard, yes. But not in a stressed out, or desperate way. In a relaxed, "hey you're gonna be fine if you just take things slow and steady and consistently." All the while appreciating and enjoying all the things around me. To be patient with work, I guess, not desperate and stressed out

Do you think if you took the slow, steady, non-despererate way 10 yours ago, you would have grown and had what you have today?

Sometimes you need to push yourself hard so that you can develop in all areas, and the things that were hard before are now easy.

You won't get this by cruising through life.
Not sure about your goals, but most people are not where they want to be right now because they are just cruising, not being active enough.

 

[hozi]

Communication and Knowledge
Meeting the right people (Positive people)
Do not stress out too much.
Things always work out

 

[Harro]

To invest in major capital cities for capital gains as opposed to regionals where capital gains have been hard to come by.
However, personally I could not live in a city.

 

[JohnMichael]

Do you think if you took the slow, steady, non-despererate way 10 yours ago, you would have grown and had what you have today?

Sometimes you need to push yourself hard so that you can develop in all areas, and the things that were hard before are now easy.

You won't get this by cruising through life.
Not sure about your goals, but most people are not where they want to be right now because they are just cruising, not being active enough.

Well its different in every case. My parents were textbook high achievers, and like them, I have problems with perfectionism. If you're perfectionistic like me, then constantly pushing yourself and never wanting to make mistakes actually impairs your success and performance.

Look up perfectionism and its actually not a good thing at all, or even linked to huge amounts of success, as its perceived in the media.

Perfectionistic people dont want to be seen as failing, and this causes them to actually avoid situations of growth. And they actually find they achieve more when they relax their standards a bit, and stop relentlessly pushing themselves.

I know this probably isn't the norm, but the question was what advice I would give myself ten years ago, and so my response was specific to my situation.

I agree working hard is important!

 

[josh676]

Mine would be a proverb actually, I read it as I was researching buying a property on a set time scale.

The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.

 

[tomlemke]

This reminds me that about five years ago I had a long chat to Prop on the phone. He suggested I buy a little character 100 year old home in Newcastle, renovate it and it would make me a lot of money. I couldn't get my head around the thought of renovating from a distant location. Nor could I get my head around the thought of this tiny little 300m2 pocket of highly sought after real estate (on reclaimed land in the harbour) outlasting the next king tide or storm. I have never followed up how it went, I bet the same $500k plot is now worth a million$$.

you talking about carrington?