Guys,
It is so interesting reading about your backgrounds! Here goes my bit.
My parents immigrated to NZ from England. I am no.5 of 6, my younger sister and I were adopted. We moved to Aus when I was 6.
We were a low-middle class family, Dad being a builder and Mum a Housewife,
with the typical "pay off your home and dinner on the table at 6" attitude.
In our household, Dad paid the bills and mum cleaned the house. When Dad was home we were "seen and not heard". Money was never talked about.
Being a wayward child, my father always said I was "different", I moved out of home at 16 and did my HSC moving between various friends houses- if their parents would have me. I worked part-time to pay board and chipped in with the food bills if I could.
I got into UNI but couldn't work out how to survive, so after my HSC I hopped on a bus to QLD with one suitcase, got a job within a week in a mini-lab and partied in Surfers for a year. I realised I was wasting my life so came to Sydney and enrolled myself in a Graphic Arts course. Paid my way through that for three years by working in bars and restaurants.
At 20 I met my tall, blonde, good-looking husband and got married!
We rented a 1br flat in Waverton (N.Sydney), saved some money (I was in printing/advertising by this time) and bought a house at Wamberal 200m from the beach because my husband surfed and we couldn't afford Northern Beaches. It had dual income which was the only way we could afford it.
So we stayed in North Sydney, renting out our house at Wamby until I fell pregnant with our first child and decided a change in lifestyle was needed. My husband was/is now a Surveyor.
Don't know why but we decided to buy another property on the Central Coast, and leave our tenants in the first IP.
When the Penny Dropped: I was pregnant with my second child two years later and told a friend of a friend I was selling our IP because I had to give up commuting to Sydney once I had my second baby. ( I had started Group Fitness Instructing but this would never pay the bills!)
She said she had been to a seminar by Ed Chan and told me how to refinance, get a LOC, get my equity working for us etc etc and yippee
..the light came on! I made an appointment with Ed the next day. Went to see him in his only office at Oatlands, spent an hour and half with him, and I was on my way! Thanks Mardi, thanks Ed.
I refinanced within two months and bought two more properties. That was three or four years ago and I am powering!
The few times I've had doubts, I've been fortunate enough to speak to Ed and his exact words are: Don't sell, Don't sell, you're about to win the Lottery."