What sacrifices have you made during your property investment journey?

[Elmer Liu]

Hi guys, not sure if I can call this a sacrifice. I just sold my car to raise funds for IP's. I do have another car, which is good enough for daily drive, however I also love cars, so I bought myself a performance car 2.5 years ago after I had paid off my home. At the time, I thought why not, it's time to indulge myself with what I have always wanted after 5 years of hard work. Prior to that, I have always been frugal, saving every cents to pay off my home.

Then situation changed, I recently had a baby, and started planning the furture for the whole family. I have a master plan to quit the rat race by the age of 40 ( I have 11 years to do that) and just bought my first IP. I had the option to keep the car, which has no finance on it, and just enjoy it or sell it now and use the $$$ to buy more assets. Knowing what I want to achieve in 11 years time, I finally made the decision to let her go.. The car is in near new condition as I have kept it VERY well, even the buyer said it's a steal...
I am still living frugally, having a monthly budget for the entire family and setting aside money for future purchases. I hope I have made the right call, and wont regret anything I do today when I look back in 11 years time.. Only time will tell..
It's just a little bit sad to see her go, just sad. such a great car.

 

[luce.rocks]

29 and already have your PPOR paid off? That's great! Well done

 

[Elmer Liu]

29 and already have your PPOR paid off? That's great! Well done

Hi LR, thanks! Like I said, I have been living frugally, I rarely spent anything on myself except for that performance car.. I don't drink, don't smoke, eat clean (no takeaways) , I cook everyday, I still bring lunch to work today, I have a monthly budget, I track what the family spend everyday etc.
Some of my friends at my age are spending like there is no tomorrow, I just can't do it, I don't feel the need to keep spending.
At early days, I guess the lack of security was a big drive behind my frugal life (I came to this country at 19 by myself ), now this has become a habit. Some might say my life is borning, but I guess this is just who I am, I am not doing this to try to prove to someone I can save money etc.

 

[Simon]

Just the regular animal sacrifices.

Chicken and goats mainly.

 

[Fifth]

Just the regular animal sacrifices.

Chicken and goats mainly.

No virgins?

 

[Richard Feynman]

I've never understood cars. If it transports me efficiently and safely, that's all I need. Guess everyone has their passions though.

Congratulations on having the PPOR paid off so young. Most folks I know at that age don't have, and never had had a mortgage. And congratulations also in exercising logic and ditching the toy for a greater cause.

 

[Risky Business]

Just the regular animal sacrifices.

Chicken and goats mainly.

Ha. Made me laugh.

 

[Elmer Liu]

I've never understood cars. If it transports me efficiently and safely, that's all I need. Guess everyone has their passions though.

Congratulations on having the PPOR paid off so young. Most folks I know at that age don't have, and never had had a mortgage. And congratulations also in exercising logic and ditching the toy for a greater cause.

I am usually a logical guy and that's why my friends said it was out of character for me to buy that performance car. I guess that chapter is over for me..

 

[Simon]

No virgins?

I'm in Newcastle

 

[The Fence]

I hope I have made the right call, and wont regret anything I do today when I look back in 11 years time.. Only time will tell..
It's just a little bit sad to see her go, just sad. such a great car.

It's only a piece of metal, you won't regret it.
11 years time you can buy another or look back and regret not selling it.

We just did the same with a lovely motor boat, no regrets whatsoever. It was fun while it lasted, did that, moved on.


.

 

[Charlotte30]

What sacrifices have I made

Sold PPR in a middleclass neighbourhood and built a new one in a working class neighbourhood close to the city. Used the balance of funds for deposit on investment properties. At the time people thought I had lost the plot. I now have 8 properties. Certainly changed my lifestyle.

Cheers
Charlotte30

 

[BayView]

We have been making lifestyle sacrifices ever since we started investing back in 2001.

Operator error. Not all investing errors, though.

About to make another sacrifice; IP over in Kalgoorlie needs repairs (and reno).

Cut a long short - can't rent it due to damage (Shire orders). Has been vacant for over a year, because we haven't been able to afford to do the repairs (the quote to do the repairs etc was $16k). The agent reckons we are being rorted big time at that figure. Oh; you think?

We still don't have the funds - it's going to be all on the Credit Card.

Sooo, I'm headin' over there on my own in my clapped-out ute next Thurs, with all my tools and stuff, and I'm gunna do what it required myself....except the new carpet. Live in the unit on a blow-up mattress and sleeping bag.

I'm guessing it will take approx 2-3 weeks plus travel (3 days each way).

The only good news is when completed the rent return will be very, very good.

 

[Dazz]

Mainly all of my very early mornings and late nights.....oh, and weekends as well when I was working.

After 15 years of that, you can start to relax a little.

 

[rchad]

Sacrifices made on our property investment journey

Gosh, where do I start? Fortunately, both my partner and I are high income earners and well qualified in our respective professions however our biggest lesson was learning you can only own so many neg geared properties for CG...after acquiring a stable of them we have moved our focus more recently on balancing the portfolio with cashflow positive which tend to be not new properties, cheap and cheerful well located properties close to infrastructure etc

Here is the story - during our journey before we could start to balance the portfolio out we hit the serviceability wall with our neg geared properties - we wanted to preserve equity and not let the LOC run hence used our income to meet the shortfall of all the properties - we had to find more income and Martin decided to try and break into a very tightly held mining industry (a bit of a closed shop for newbies or clean skins as they call you)

Decided to take on board advice from successful people ie instead of 'we cannot afford to hold' to 'what will it take to hold' - Martin was getting knock backs initially until he stopped simply emailing the CV and contacted a recruiter stating he would find his way to any job and cover his own accom to get a foot in the door so to speak, some of Martin's colleagues in his Brissy engineering company gave up trying to break in as they were not prepared to fund a flight to an interview for a maybe role ie 3 week contract.

So off Martin went to a three week role with no expenses covered at all - ofcourse in his travels to the Hunter Valley, Mackay, Gladstone etc the accommodation was tight and expensive - even caravan parks were ripping contractors off asking $150 a night for a cabin in a caravan park with Gladstone being the dearest; in Musswellbrook there was nothing, Singleton very little - MARTIN WORKED OUT NOBODY WANTED TO STAY IN A TENT so went against the herd and said a tent site - well powered sites were a rip off at $35 night with UNPOWERED SITES $5 a night at Lake Liddell (which incidentally had a beautiful lake with brand new amenities where you could pretend you were on holiday)

So Martin made the mindshift and got a hell of a lot of experience with Liebherr living in a tent with no power (he used to work on his portfolio on his laptop by connecting it to the watertank as it had a power point about 300 meters away) and made new friends with the local wildlife - the geese were cute - MARTIN WAS AWAY FOR TEN WEEKS on this contract and worked with a solutions focus and customer focus to ensure he was well respected and valued to the firm.

This carried for 9 months until Martin got the big break we wanted - he is employed with a fantastic engineering company in Brisbane where we live and is flown to the mines Monday to Friday and flown home every week end with a fully furnished apartment just for him as a second home provided by the company (he bought a second set of clothes to leave there so he no longer takes a port on the plane) and gets paid $660 per week away from home allowance plus his very lucrative income on top of that which is working well to fund our portfolio in addition to my strong income

We will never again buy another stable of negatively geared property LOL Since then we recently bought another villa in Brisbane settling next week (not a new build and cash flow positive with long standing elderly tenant). Our focus now is rebalancing our portfolio

This was our sacrifice

 

[Elmer Liu]

It's only a piece of metal, you won't regret it.
11 years time you can buy another or look back and regret not selling it.

We just did the same with a lovely motor boat, no regrets whatsoever. It was fun while it lasted, did that, moved on.


.

True... I was thinking I could either A) leave it in the garage as I don't really drive it to work or B) turn it into something that could benefit the family down the track.. Now I just need to make sure that I spend it wisely.

 

[Elmer Liu]

Sold PPR in a middleclass neighbourhood and built a new one in a working class neighbourhood close to the city. Used the balance of funds for deposit on investment properties. At the time people thought I had lost the plot. I now have 8 properties. Certainly changed my lifestyle.

Cheers
Charlotte30

Admire your decision back then You sound like the type of the person from the book "The Millionaire Next Door".

 

[Elmer Liu]

We have been making lifestyle sacrifices ever since we started investing back in 2001.

Operator error. Not all investing errors, though.

About to make another sacrifice; IP over in Kalgoorlie needs repairs (and reno).

Cut a long short - can't rent it due to damage (Shire orders). Has been vacant for over a year, because we haven't been able to afford to do the repairs (the quote to do the repairs etc was $16k). The agent reckons we are being rorted big time at that figure. Oh; you think?

We still don't have the funds - it's going to be all on the Credit Card.

Sooo, I'm headin' over there on my own in my clapped-out ute next Thurs, with all my tools and stuff, and I'm gunna do what it required myself....except the new carpet. Live in the unit on a blow-up mattress and sleeping bag.

I'm guessing it will take approx 2-3 weeks plus travel (3 days each way).

The only good news is when completed the rent return will be very, very good.

Knowing that all the HARD work and sacrifices will eventually pay off is such a good feeling.. Isn't it ?

 

[Jen_PFR]

Our main sacrifice has been free time. Having bought a total of 10 properties over six years (sold a couple along the way), we've always gone for properties that are usually described as 'renovators delights'. We've then spent all our spare time (nights, weekends, annual leave) cleaning them up to a sufficient standard to rent. Fortunately it's not been a constant thing; usually the first couple of months after finance approval is spent doing the work, then we rent them, so after that it's just turnovers between tenants and usual repairs & maintenance.

But when we do buy a new one, it takes up all our time. We're loving this long weekend, having just bought one - we're spending all our time working on it. I've been painting, while the husband is getting the garden into some kind of respectable state. It's amazing the difference a third day makes in the weekend The other half has next week off, which is handy as we have a whole heap of stuff lined up - replacement of door & drawer fronts & benchtops in kitchen & bathroom, installation of shower screen, delivery of furniture for assembly, plumber & sparky coming in to do various things. Chris doesn't know the extent of it, but his entire week off is already organised for him

 

[Richard Feynman]

Thinking about this question more, I've realised sacrifice isn't quite the word for me. (Keeping in mind, I'm not a high income earner, I bought PPOR almost 3 years ago, now have deposit for first IP, so I haven't had long to be sacrificing).

While I have tightened the budget as much as possible (which includes adjusting my social activities, reducing my mobile plan, brining lunch to work every day, cutting out a daily bought coffee, cycling around the place a lot more instead of driving etc), every single instance of a "sacrifice" has either had no negative impact on my happiness, or more often than that, actually had a very positive one for one reason or another.

e.g. Giving up the daily cafè coffee means I can leave for work 15 mins later daily. 60 HOURS of life gained and $900 saved annually.

e.g. 2 I also took a job with double the daily round trip, which has simply allowed me to shift 1 hour of my daily reading at home into my commute, a net loss of nothing, but an improvement in income and career prospects.

No doubt there will be times in the future where I really do make sacrifices but so far, all the budgetary ones have been neutral or actually made life better and me, happier.

I am usually a logical guy and that's why my friends said it was out of character for me to buy that performance car. I guess that chapter is over for me..

Well, if you ever feel the need again, maybe you can satiate it with a one-day "experience" where you can drive a ridiculous car for a few hundred bucks for a day.

 

[Elmer Liu]

Mainly all of my very early mornings and late nights.....oh, and weekends as well when I was working.

After 15 years of that, you can start to relax a little.

Long hours is not an issue for me as I already work 60+ hrs at work. but doing that consistently for 15 years is a BIG sacrifice.. Did you find you had enough time to spend with your family ?