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

I'd give myself several pieces of advice:

1) Don't worry so much about your career. Work smart and be good and it will take care of itself. Accept that some employers are better than others.
2) Don't worry when others appear to have more than you or be doing better than you - you will end up passing them all anyway.
3) Treats and fun are good, but keep them in perspective.
4) Learn to play the guitar sooner rather than later.
5) Stick with saving - it's the key to your first home. Practice living simply.

All in all, my last ten years have been an amazing time. I have literally gone from being a broke uni graduate just starting out with a big company on crap pay to having a fantastic, well paying job and a netw worth of 3/4 of a million dollars. My suggestions to myself are more to do with being sensible but brave, and about ignoring others who, in their early twenties, seemed to be living a life I never could (ha!).
 
These are the Halcyon Days

savoys said:
my advice for myself 10 years ago would be:

don't wait for the good times to come, maybe these are the good times!
Click to expand...

Absolutely...........people will always have the excuse......awwww! But you can't do that today. What was achieved back then (insert a time period of choice) is referred by the spectators as "the good old days". :rolleyes:

On the premise that today is yesterday's tomorrow..........these are good old days now. ;)

In a decade we will look upon this epoch and proclaim they were the halcyon days...........what then did we do with the opportunity? :confused:
 
10 years ago I had just had baby No.1.

I wonder if any of us would have taken our own advice if we didn't know what we know now!;)

With age comes experience but also maturity. I don't know if I was ready to make the decisions I have made in recent years.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I prefer to look to the future rather than the past. There lies my opportunity.:)

Regards Jo
 
What would I have told myself 10 years ago?

Forget what anyone else thinks, just do it!!!!

When I look back at the houses, blocks of land and rural properties that I thought were good investments within my reach, but did nothing about.

All would have turned out to be good decisions.




RC
 
my advise would be not to get sucked in with this buy, 100% interest only, and then buy again 12 months later, and keep buying as soon as you can..

I would buy 1 good house, focus 4-5 years paying it down.. even pay it off in 7 years, then buy second IP, and do the same, second IP you can pay off in 5 years, 3rd IP you can pay off in 4 years..

Dont be a slave to banks.. pay off as much as you can before buying your second IP.. if you dont, when interest goes up, you will be caught like I was..

With this plan, in 10 years time if you own 2-3 fully paid off homes, you will have over 2 million in equity.. same cant be said with these highly geared property portfolios..

or at least get P&I loans, in 10 years you would have paid something off.. and for the sake of $150 per month, your better with P&I over IO

simple strategy is often the best.. and doesn't rely on capital growth. and you will be cash flow positive, in case things go wrong.

and I would add, live life now.. investing to be rich when old is a waste of time!!! enjoy your youth today! so you need a balancing act. I see far to many property investors which are worth millions, have several houses, are old... yet live like povos all their lives.. and cant get out of that rut and still dont enjoy their money when they are old.. how sad! know when to stop is also the key!

[EDIT=keithj]Rest of this discussion is in the Paying Down Strategy thread[/EDIT]
 
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Never buy Mutual or Managed Fund, even when there are tax benefits. This applies especially when the stock market is very bullish and everyone is entering the market.

This is more important if the fund has capital protection at maturity and provides you with full loan to buy the portfolio at interest - when it sounds too good to be true, and they bring out the jingle and bells - it only means there are more rules as to whether you can switch between different funds. When you want to change, they will say, "sorry you can't switch to another fund".

And when the stock market goes down, the Fund goes down at triple the speed it went up, the manager will step in to turn majority of the equities unit into cash units (to protect their capital protection). Then you are stuck with cash units until maturity of the fund, and you will be paying interest on the cash units to them every month at 10% !! Example of such funds- Macquarie Fusion, and Macquarie Reflexion.

It will ruin your financial life!

Imagine you will have to chuck out $1000+ each month to pay the interest.

Could've put it into a brand new property and get depreciation tax back!!

Or $1000 x 12 months, go on a holiday!
 
10yrs ago I was in yr12. What would I tell myself???

Nothing. I wouldn't change anything.

I have gone to uni (am still at uni, probably still be doing something at uni until the day I die). I moved in with and then married my high school sweetheart. I now have 3 fantastic children. I have clear financial and personal goals and milestones.

The only thing I ever got wrong was living off a credit card and accumulating some debt as a uni student, but I learnt a very important lesson from that and managed to get the debt under control and paid off rather quickly. I wouldn't change this, or warn myself about this - because I think there are some lessions you are better off learning about the hard way.

At 27yrs old, I still have a long time to mess up my life - so ask me this in another ten yrs :)

Wait a minute.... I might tell myself to get my car liscence - that could come in handy (I still don't have mine). But then again, if I did that, then I likely wouldn't have gotten my motorbike liscence and missed out on that....
 
rodimus said:
And when the stock market goes down, the Fund goes down at triple the speed it went up, the manager will step in to turn majority of the equities unit into cash units (to protect their capital protection). Then you are stuck with cash units until maturity of the fund, and you will be paying interest on the cash units to them every month at 10% !! Example of such funds- Macquarie Fusion, and Macquarie Reflexion.

It will ruin your financial life!

Imagine you will have to chuck out $1000+ each month to pay the interest.

Could've put it into a brand new property and get depreciation tax back!!

Or $1000 x 12 months, go on a holiday!
Click to expand...

+1

yes anything with the name Macquarie you should steer clear from.

I got caught the same as you, But it was the Asia fund and Multi stratergy fund.. lucky I got out early enough when the market was running, but these funds showed no returns!!

This is why I have lost respect for freeman fox.. as they pumped these products like no tomorrow, and suckers like me got in..
 
10 years ago, I would have been 13! haha.

If it was 5 years ago, I would have told myself to stick to what you start. Don't jump out when times get tough, knuckle down. Stay away from cars and start reading about property!

Too late now, but at least I am feeling back on track :)
 
Great Thread!

If I could give my 21 yr old self some advise 10 yrs ago...

  1. Be positive and take on all challenges that come my way, keep pushing forward regardless of the negativity. 5 yrs in the police force is excellent experience; do not throw away the opportunities.
  2. Coming to Melbourne to study will be the best thing ever. The exposure to another culture and way of life will open your eyes.
  3. One day, real estate, the sharemarket and running a business will be part of your life, even if you do not believe in them now.

With that said, past experiences led me to where I am today, and now that I know what I know, I must ensure that the next 10 yrs is way better than today.

All major life goals must be achieved. To do less is to incur the wrath of more regret when I am 40 yrs old. Push on and surge! :D

Cheers

Daniel Lee
 
NOTHING....

Why?

Because I wouldn't have applied it anyway (just like a lot of other good advice I received through the years)

Because I wouldn't necessarily be who I am today.... My experiences shape who I am.

NO REGRETS.... ;)
 
- Don't be a tight a..... buy a house in Glenelg not Reynella because prices will double in 3yrs and growth will be much higher in Glenelg! Have since learnt from this lesson
- Buy another IP in city or coastal area before 2003 rather than wait until 2005
- Break up with the current bf a year earlier (even though he was a nice guy but just no ambition or plans in life)
- Don't worry about leaving your responsibilities and going to live overseas, you'll have a great time!
 
Have the best, and highest income protection, and TPI insurance !!!!!
Only, and only then think about the other $$ stuff.If you haven't got it, or don't know what yours is, get it done NOW !!
 
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