To wrap up another fantastic Summer Series and celebrate the peaks and valleys of each investor’s property investing journey, we’re bringing you our ultimate 2024 recap. 🎉
From our favourite guest quotes to the key action points from each story, we’re sharing our insights and reflections on each investor's path to achieving their financial freedom and personal growth.
Tune in now to hear the best of our Summer Series and how you can use their experiences to bolster your property investing success this year!
Again, a huge thank you to Ethan, Amy, Leisa, Bailey, Jasmin, James, Emer and Amanda for sharing your inspirational stories with our community. 👏🙌
P.S. It’s our birthday month! As a present to our awesome community, we’re sharing how to access our in-demand Property Suburb Report for free. Stick around to the end to hear how 😊
Free Stuff Mentioned
LISTEN TO THE FIRST 20 EPISODES HERE >>
MOORR MONEY MANAGEMENT APP:
👉 Apple: https://apple.co/3ioICGW
👉 Google Play: https://bit.ly/3OT86bW
👉 Web platform: https://www.moorr.com.au/
FREE MASTERCLASS:
- How to Build a Property Portfolio and Retire on $2,000 a week >>
FREE BEST-SELLING BOOKS:
- The Armchair Guide to Property Investing
- Make Money Simple Again
FIND US HERE:
- Website
- Instagram
- Facebook
- Youtube
To wrap up another fantastic Summer Series and celebrate the peaks and valleys of each investor’s property investing journey, we’re bringing you our ultimate 2024 recap. 🎉
From our favourite guest quotes to the key action points from each story, we’re sharing our insights and reflections on each investor's path to achieving their financial freedom and personal growth.
Tune in now to hear the best of our Summer Series and how you can use their experiences to bolster your property investing success this year!
Again, a huge thank you to Ethan, Amy, Leisa, Bailey, Jasmin, James, Emer and Amanda for sharing your inspirational stories with our community. 👏🙌
P.S. It’s our birthday month! As a present to our awesome community, we’re sharing how to access our in-demand Property Suburb Report for free. Stick around to the end to hear how 😊
Free Stuff Mentioned
LISTEN TO THE FIRST 20 EPISODES HERE >>
MOORR MONEY MANAGEMENT APP:
👉 Apple: https://apple.co/3ioICGW
👉 Google Play: https://bit.ly/3OT86bW
👉 Web platform: https://www.moorr.com.au/
FREE MASTERCLASS:
- How to Build a Property Portfolio and Retire on $2,000 a week >>
FREE BEST-SELLING BOOKS:
- The Armchair Guide to Property Investing
- Make Money Simple Again
FIND US HERE:
- Website
- Instagram
- Facebook
- Youtube
Hello folks, welcome back to the Property Gats podcast and have we got a great episode for you today? We have just experienced a summer full of inspiring stories and we do not want to let them go wasted, because Ben and I are delivering the key takeaways from each and every episode that you can action in 2024. What else do we cover, ben?
Speaker 3:Bryce. It's a mega episode, so I'm obviously going to tee off on the stage three tax cuts in what's making property news, and we've also got some mega giveaways and mega updates, so stay tuned right to the end as well.
Speaker 1:Seems like the theme is mega today. Folks, let's rip into the show.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the property couch where, each week, you get to listen to two of Australia's leading property and money experts Bryce Holdaway, co-host of Location Location, location Australia on Foxtel's Lifestyle Channel and co-host of Escape from the City on the ABC. And Ben Kingsley, chair of property investors council of Australia and a back to back winner of the property investment advisor of the year award, and both are partners of the multi award winning in Powell. Wealth. Co-creators of more, the free lifestyle design app, as well as best selling. Authors of the armchair guide to property investing and make money simple again. Stay tuned as they bring you the insiders guide to property finance and money management.
Speaker 1:Alright, folks, welcome back to the property catch podcast and welcome back to you too, mate. How are you, how?
Speaker 3:are you doing? I'm great. I feel refreshed. I've had a good summer break on. We're back into it now. The rubber starts to hit the road. We've got a huge year planned. It's obviously been a bit of a challenging start to the year for us as well, but ultimately, I'm really looking forward to what sort of education we can deliver this year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with that too, mate. So we're going to talk about some amazing things, but we're just going to pause and reflect it very quickly to honour a man who our TPC community probably doesn't fully realise how much his fingerprints are all over the messages and the teachings and the mentorship that you and I have had from this man. So we receive some heartbreaking news on NewsEve to say that our beloved I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it together Ben, our beloved business partner, michael Pope, passed away, and we just wanted to take this time to for a lot of the people who are in our community. They probably aren't familiar with this man, but if you've been touched by any of the information that we've shared, I promise you you have been influenced by this man. So we lost a giant in our lives, ben, and we didn't want to let the moment pass without acknowledging that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he'll be forever remembered, remembered, bryce, for the contribution that he's made and for the community, if I can sort of relate it to the work that he was able to produce. He's the numbers man behind all of the calculations and modelling work that we do. So, way back in 2008, 2009, michael and I started working on the simulation tools that would allow us to get sophisticated modelling together to help households build out property investment plans, and, yeah, he was an absolute titan. He was a beautiful gentle man who was able to, you know, just incredible mind, huge intellect, but also just this generous, caring, giving sort of soul. And so, yeah, it's a massive loss to us and will always be forever indebted to Michael and all of the education and knowledge that we've developed, also over our time. His DNA is in us and how we deliver that. So, vale and Michael Pope, rest in peace, my good friend, and, yeah, I miss you dearly, buddy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, ditto everything you just said, mate. So yeah, vale, Michael Pope. So obviously we wanted to honour him, but I guess that was on the backdrop of a very successful summer series. So we would dedicate the summer series to Popey, but also just thank all the people that contributed enormously over that period of time, when it was a challenging time for us and yet it was just a time of optimism and forward planning and future thinking for a lot of our community. So we just want to say thanks to those people who contributed their stories, also want to take this opportunity to shout out to anyone.
Speaker 1:We've received a bit of feedback about the summer series. Ben, there's a couple of themes there that we'll talk to and which we're going to talk to today, because we don't want to let that gold that we've experienced over the summer not be unpacked in a way that people can use that for takeaways and actionable items. So a couple of people reached out to me. We'd love you to leave your story if you want to be a part of these legacy stories that people hear over and over and get inspiration from. If you go to thepropertycouchcomau forward, slash my story and leave your details.
Speaker 1:You don't have to wait to the end of the year. I do call out at the end of the year. Ben, you don't have to wait. If you want to share, if you just go there. That's the central place where someone texts you, ben. Her name is Michelle. I'm going to read a little bit of Michelle's text shortly. But for people like Michelle who've reached out and think that she's got a story to share, that's where you go, so you can go to thepropertycouchcomau forward. Slash my story. We'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's such important stories, bryce, that we've done winter series as well, sort of on the back of that sort of stuff. So we may also consider this year to add a few more in there, because they really do inspire and motivate, and I think that's part of the battle. To use is you can't be what you can't see while you're hearing and seeing all these stories, and I think that they're really powerful in terms of how they turn the dial on taking action.
Speaker 1:We did a little looking under the bonnet stick and I recently been, and we have. We have over a hundred thousand, about 102,000, unique listeners to our podcast over the journey, which bog was my mind, ben, you and I both been to the AFL Grand Final. That stadium at the MCG, holds a little close to 100,000. So the thought that that's the amount of people that we get to speak to at various parts of our journey along the what we're now entering our ninth year, is just mind blowing. But we want to see if we can get to. So that's over a hundred thousand unique listeners and we got about 76,000 subscribers then. So we want to see if we can get to a hundred thousand subscribers by the end of this year. So, and when we're going to need some help, we're going to ask our community for help. So there's two ways that you can help us with that. Number one if you listen to us but you don't subscribe, you just click on the episode but it's not part of your feed Would you consider subscribing? The reason being is because it helps with the, the Apple and Spotify algorithms that then get our podcast dished up in people's feeds to to for recommendations. Number one. Number two, could you let one or two people know about our podcast this year and then ask them to subscribe, because we would absolutely love to serve them in the way that we've been serving our community for the last eight years and now entering our ninth year. So we got this. We did we, early on in our journey, been we did the race for Tim, the race for Tim Ferris in terms of getting some, some reviews, and we're very humbled by that, and so this one we want to do a race to 100,000 in 2024. So if you could help us with that, we would be forever grateful. So that's something you can consider. You've got value from our podcast over the journey. We'd love your help with that.
Speaker 1:Last thing is, I want you to stick around to the end, because this is our birthday month and we've got a bit going on, so there is a new feature in more that we want to tell you about. So stick around for that. That's going to be free. We've got a free suburb report then, which we've done previously as a birthday gift. We've now updated and upgraded that suburb report. It is epic. You're going to get incredible Intel for free. Then it's a birthday gift for free. So stick around to the end of the episode. We'll give you the URL link for that so you can go and download that. And also then we've got to stick around to what's making property news, because I might have had a bit of a chat with you before we push record this morning and you'll fire it up on what's making property news. Do you want to give a little hint on what you fired up about?
Speaker 3:Yeah, obviously, tax reform. We've been disappointed once again by our current government in terms of I can't be trusted. So I just want to share a fairness story. I want to give some context around. Whilst, yes, everyone gets a tax cut and I think there's nothing wrong with that that's popular politics at play here I just also want to give some context. I don't think people really understand just how much tax is being paid by certain wage earners. So and I'm going to tell a little story in terms of what that looks like, to give some fairness context out there because I know we all you know money for nothing, we all like to receive it, but at the end of the day, it is our money. You know that they're allowing us to keep, as opposed to taxing us more. So I want to talk to that story.
Speaker 1:Brilliant Stick around, folks. It is that there's some really valuable insights that I think you'll get benefit from. So check that out. Hey, today we are talking about our favorite moments across our summer series. We're going to distill the nuggets, ben, that people in one episode can actually have actionable takeaways that they can use to set themselves up for success in 2024. Because, as a contrast to that, ben, the episode we have planned for next week is actually going to tell you how to fail this year. We're going to give you, step by step, what you need to do to make sure that you don't succeed in 2024. So we're going to have a lot of fun with that.
Speaker 1:But this week is on the the synthesize the ideas and the concepts and our favorite moments from the summer series so that we can have the two side by side, contrasting episodes. Ben, what you need to do to set yourself up to success based on real lived experiences. Next week is what you need to do to make sure you don't succeed. And then the following week, ben, you and I are going to deliver our property market outlook for 2024. So we feel like there's a few weeks for people to really set themselves up for the year, choosing whether they want to succeed or whether they want to fail. We'll leave it to them. Hey, we got this review, ben, just recently and it's from O Willow and it says this as always not showing away from the tough topics. Ben Bryce and the TPC EW team should be proud of their willingness to explore the more complex and difficult money management topics, bringing the topics of financial abuse and coercive control to the fore as powerful and necessary.
Speaker 1:It is my hope that listeners who don't recognize their financial behaviors are inappropriately controlling may have a change perspective after hearing this episode. We're, of course, talking about Amanda's episode last week. When you are a part of a family unit, a selfish money mindset is not reasonable or appropriate. Most importantly, through a story like Amanda's, I hope the listeners whose finances are controlled can rise up, find their worth and stand for equality. 1-800-respect is the National Family Violence Support and Referral Service. Help is available. Thank you, amanda, for so bravely sharing your story. What an inspiration you are. I will double click on that. I agree on the sentiment of the message, ben, and also that Amanda is an inspiration. We're going to talk to her episode a little shortly, but I just wanted to shout out to O Willow, I think you captured the sentiment of feedback that we have been getting, ben, since Amanda's episode went up. Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3:It's a really important story and in a lot of cases, the person who's overpowering the other person may not necessarily overtly know that they're doing it. It could be subversely in terms of how they're doing that as well. So, bringing the topic to everyone's attention and effectively making sure that all households have a quality around how they share and use their money. What we're not saying there is okay. That gives everyone carte blanche to go out and spend because they want to just spend money and they want instant gratification now, because that will be a derailer also for your financial outcome. What we're basically saying is you're a team, act like a team and if you do have value alignment and goal alignment, all of this sort of coercion and financial abuse should be alleviated.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well said, mate. So thank you, amanda, we will tip our hat to you as we get through our episode today. My mindset-minute theme, ben, is risk is the price that you pay for opportunity. I came across this quote, ben if you are never willing to sacrifice your personal comfort in the short term to earn long-term gains, growth will never be achieved. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable Now. Clearly I chose that one, ben, because it felt like it fit nicely into.
Speaker 1:What I really loved about Summer Series is no one was silver spooning, no one was saying it was all sort of a Teflon-coded experience. We had people that were facing divorce. We had people that were buying properties whilst going through the divorce. We had people that were marginalized. We had people that were young. We had people that were outside of capital cities. We had people who didn't love the school system, like. There was a whole range of themes that meant that people had to sacrifice a little bit of personal comfort in the short term so that they could actually be having these conversations saying look at the benefit. I went from 30,000 debt to a $2.78 million portfolio. I bought three properties in regional locations. I survived the divorce and raising teenage children. These are personal examples of people who are sacrificing some personal comfort in the short term so that they can marginalize for the long term. So I just thought that that was a good backdrop.
Speaker 1:Again I'm walking the talk myself. I recently last year. One of the successful parts of last year is I got my back seen by a specialist that's fixed it. And so now I've started Running Bend, which I thought was something that I'd never be able to do. But I don't know if you've done much Running Bend.
Speaker 1:I know you do some rowing and you do some personal training, but I don't know if Running's part of your regime. But for the runners they will get this, but there is a torture that goes through your mind when you first start off. I'm doing park runs five kilometers so for me that's a reasonable distance right now, but that first and second kilometer for me is a very much a torturous mental game. And so that's the mantra that I have I'm prepared to sacrifice short term discomfort for the long term benefit of what I'm trying to do. And I've got a goal around traveling later this year and I want to be able to run as part of that. So not in the financial lane, ben, because I think, over a 25 year journey I have many occasions sacrificed personal comfort in the short term for the long term growth. But folks risk and opportunity risk is the price you pay for the opportunity, ben.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, look, I love commentary like this because it starts to just pose this idea of you know, growth is in the uncomfortable zone. Growth, personally, professionally, whatever it is doesn't just happen in your comfort zone. Right Learning doesn't happen in your comfort zone, you know. So there's a lot of research out there that also talks about, you know, high performance and those people that embrace the pressure because they've done the work, that are highly successful, are also part of that particular story. There's the great story of Billie Jean King, who has won the most you know tournament Grand Slam's ever in the history of tennis, and she was she was someone who had so much pressure on her to fail.
Speaker 3:Everyone just talked about the pressure of failing and failing because she was so successful. They just wanted to find cracks in her armor and all that type of thing. And she was one day asked about you know how do you handle the pressure? And she says well, I just embrace the pressure, like the pressure is my friend because it helps me strive to get better and better. And so I think you know being comfortable with uncomfortable and you know putting yourself out there and being vulnerable to that change is where growth occurs, and I think that you know it's a nice part about you know, ultimately we're all in control of our own destiny, right? We make our own choices. We shouldn't be listening to other people. Motivation comes from within, so these types of statements around that sort of really support that that case.
Speaker 1:You got the comfort zone, Ben, you got the discomfort zone and you got the delusion zone. So you don't want to necessarily play in the extremities, but that discomfort zone, to your point, is where all the growth happens. So today we are going to rip into the summer series. We're going to give you those actionable takeaways. So the first episode of the summer series. We spoke to Ethan Ben.
Speaker 1:Now, for those of you who haven't got up to date, the quick backstory is this Ethan left school early, at the age of 16, and has accumulated a $2.3 million property portfolio, all whilst building a property portfolio outside of the major capital cities. It was super inspiring. It was a great way to start, because the headline for this episode was it's possible for young people or you know, to his point, anyone to get on the property ladder with a good work ethic and strong commitment, even for those facing mental issues and learning challenges. And I think that's really important, because Ethan was brave. He talked about depression. He talked about the fact that the school system isn't designed for people like him. He talked about the fact that he needs to be constantly physical as a way to make sure that he stays mentally fit. There was a whole bunch of stuff.
Speaker 1:But there was a couple of things in that episode. His dad said I hope your boys know you will not be receiving any money in our will because it's all going to our brother, to the brother, Abe. Now Abe had Down syndrome. For those people who haven't heard that episode, he said this to this day. I still know that was my pivotal moment in my life. If I want anything in life I have to set out and go and reach it myself. But how many people could have heard that same statement and said that's not fair and moaned and complained? Falk in the road moment for him could have gone down that well-worn path or could have gone the road less traveled and said if it's to me, it's up to me. It was inspiring, wasn't it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a beautiful story around taking responsibility. What we've been leaning into at the start of the mindset theme that you mentioned around being uncomfortable Ultimately it's your responsibility for your financial success, the decisions, the habits that you build. It's all on you. I mean, if you're expecting somebody else to solve your problems for yourself, you're gonna be disappointed. I mean, we're disappointed in our government all the time. So here's the message for me, it's like he's just said all right, if it is to be, it is up to me. And I think that was. I credit his dad for just sort of saying hey, I'm setting the expectation for you to expect nothing, and so get out there and have self-determination, and that self-determination is incredibly powerful. It's empowering in terms of how it helps you take action. So I just find that a really good story.
Speaker 1:Resourcefulness is more important than resources, because there's so many people with resourcefulness who've overcome the lack of resources. So in this case, you could see that Ethan is the walking talking embodying me of that. I really enjoyed this conversation. One of the key takeaways from this episode is to take responsibility for your own financial set success and set those goals early, which we've just talked to. Another thing that he talked about, ben and I think this is a great message for the community is taking the time to do due diligence and avoid rushing into property purchases. That rushing into property purchases I really want to highlight italic bold because of the fact that he did the work up the front meant that downstream, a lot of the benefits that come from building a property portfolio. So we talk about a five-step process that every property investor should take and they usually start at number four, which is implementation. He was the embodiment of no, no, no, there's a bit of work to do up the ground before you get involved in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the lesson here is planning and then making invisible visible, knowing what your capabilities are. But don't confuse, not rushing into procrastination. Don't confuse trying to wait for that perfect property, like at the end of the day. That's not what we're saying here. What we're saying here is, when your situation presents that you're able to do something and you've planned it and you've looked at the risk assessments and you're feeling comfortable enough with the uncomfortable risk that you're about to take, do it. Do not procrastinate, waiting for the look. There's no rush, the market's not moving. Well, that's not what we're saying here. What we're basically saying here is preparation will always out trump the ultimate execution in terms of what you're putting together.
Speaker 1:A couple of other ones that we can talk to here, Ben, before we move on. The importance of valuing good tenants and maintaining a positive relationship with them is one, and two regional towns can offer affordable property investment opportunities. So those two combined, I think, are really important, because this was a story where someone said, okay, I don't live in the big capital city, I live in the border town of New South Wales and Victoria, so therefore I will actually become an expert in my backyard. But I know there's a few nuances that I need to understand so that I can get the benefits of investing in this particular market.
Speaker 3:I think this brings a theme that we'll be spending a fair bit of time in 2024 talking about, and that is this idea that where there's a will, there's a way for younger generation, millennials and the next generation coming through that property is impossible.
Speaker 3:No, it's not. That mindset is telling you that it's impossible, but it's not impossible and there are gonna be ways in which people are gonna be able to enter that market. But one of the things, one of the risk mitigations you're gonna have that I thought was really well defined by Ethan, is this idea that good relationships with your tenants, because if you are in certain markets and you just take any type of tenant in that social economic background, you may be at risk of poor tenant behavior. So having good relationships, picking the right type of tenants and having them respect your property whilst enjoying quite enjoyment of the property is a good combination, and I think that's what you're going to see in terms of these people who are attempting to overcome the challenges of getting into the market themselves by basically investing first before they potentially start to think about their own family home.
Speaker 1:Well on, ethan. You are an inspiration for people, and particularly for people who are in your age bracket, to let them know that if you find yourself coming up against glass ceilings or brick walls or whatever about getting into the market for young people, you don't have to listen to that narrative. There are other ways. So well done, ethan. Our second episode was a chat with Amy Ben, and this was an amazing conversation we had because Amy and her family had built a three investment property portfolio. But we titled the episode we're Moving to Calgoole and it forms a bit of a theme for how this particular couple created the momentum, what they needed, to get onto the property later. So for those who haven't listened, this couple sacrificed a year of their lives to get the home deposit that they wanted to secure their financial future by going to Calgoole. If you don't know where that is, folks, it is a gold mining town in the east of Perth. It takes how long does it take? It takes about four hours five hours.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's gonna take four and a half probably. Yeah, yeah, down, there, down the gold. Forty six hours to get Calgoole.
Speaker 1:It is a mining town. It is, it is, it is pretty much just the mining town and all the supporting services as well, and they were prepared to move there so that they could earn an income that allowed them to do that. So that's delayed gratification, balancing family goals as well as the financial goals for the rewards that come, and pushing themselves out of the comfort zone bank. Because if you move to a mining town and you're doing that with a clear focus on what you want, that is definitely, definitely something that is admirable. In this we spoke to Amy, but Amy's partner and family as well. Here's a quote from that episode Ben, the best thing we ever did was move to Calgoole in country WA for a year to save our deposit for our first property. That's the best thing they ever did, which is amazing, and one of the things that Amy wanted to share her story was to encourage just one person to get out of their comfort zone and move to a more affordable location temporarily to get ahead. She would be stoked with that right.
Speaker 1:Amy has since reached out to Amanda over the last couple of days. She said, amanda, I was inspired by your story, thank you for sharing it, and because she acknowledged she was a fellow summer series guest as well. But one of the interesting parts of Amy's feedback was one of her family members said to her well done on building the portfolio between the two of you, because it's two women building a portfolio and all the things that Amanda talked about last week around gender inequality and gaps in income and income inequality. And so one of her family members said, with all that in mind well done, that's an incredible achievement that you guys have done. So that was a nice little reinforcement from hearing Amanda's episode, which reinforced the amazing work that Amy and her partner have done.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know you mentioned it a couple of times in the episode about choosing your hard hard now or hard later, and usually it's harder later. So I really like that choosing your hard now and that sacrifice that they were able to make. So that was one of the key takeaways. Then it became a story of making the next right move. So we're talking about sequencing, and order of property purchases has played a significant role in being able to build out that successful portfolio.
Speaker 3:And then the power the power of time when you are invested, when you're invested the joys of the power of time, then has allowed them to balance that family life with experiences, trips, meaningful trips. So all of a sudden, the money isn't there for the sake of the money. The money is there to provide for the memories. I mean I would love to be a child in under their household. I mean imagine the experiences you're getting in the camping, the places you're going to, all of that amazing sort of touch and feel, physical experiences and connection and time that you have with family as part of that. And I think that really sums up Amy's story really well. They did their hard early and so if you even started your hard, the best time to do it is now and because, you know, Amy is proof of the investment that she made early on in terms of being able to create the lifestyle that she's created now for her partner and her kids.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite terms ban, choose your hard. A lot of people who defer that hard. Your spot on. Amy didn't defer that. And what I took away from Amy's story over and above some of the tactics and you know they did some value add renovating, but it was just that you touched on it it was the focus on the things that matter, on family in the time. But also they want to get some purpose and fulfillment out of being involved in the community, cause that is a front footed concept around how they're going to get joined piece in their life. So what an incredible story Amy shared with us and we love that she didn't. Hopefully there's some takeaways there for you as well.
Speaker 1:The next conversation was a conversation with Lisa. So those who didn't hear that one, it was all about juggling teenagers, divorce and four properties, so how a single mum was able to conquer her financial pain and this. One of the most incredible parts about this conversation was divorce was happening. Property was purchased prior to the divorce and still settled on the property, cause that was important even though there was all this other turmoil going on in Lisa's life. It was amazing.
Speaker 1:So the headline here is that Lisa overcame the emotional and financial difficulties that come from such a relationship breakdown. So she was able to hold onto four of her properties despite this, because there was the light at the end of the tunnel for her. So she says okay, I'm a middle-aged woman who can invest and secure a comfortable retirement with commitment and drive. So here's a couple of quotes. I'm a single parent to two daughters. I'm trying to develop a base to help them in their future, but I'm a big believer in teaching them here we go, ben, how to fish, and not hand them everything on a platter. What a beautiful statement that is from a mentor in these girls' lives.
Speaker 3:Super powerful message. I like her story on so many different levels. She's observed a lot in regards to learning no-transcript. I talk a lot about this. There's good habits, there's bad habits and there's indifferent habits that we can learn from our parents and it's our job to take those lessons and be a better version of their journey that they've had with the new information that we've got, and she's been able to shape some of those money habits and approaches I remember talking about. She's going to do everything she possibly can to hold on to as many of those properties as possible. So that is going to require effort, and telling the children and keeping them in the loop in terms of what that is should also inspire their kids to be super proud of their mum in terms of what she's doing. So I really, to me, that's just a story of willpower, in sort of saying that I'm in control of my destiny and I'll do anything I can to make sure that that becomes the thing, including making some tough decisions and some short term sacrifices as part of that as well.
Speaker 1:She said the rate increases are quickly burning through my buffer and I'm also in the most expensive phase of my life, with two teenagers at private school and with braces. And she said it's been a tough 12 months but I've managed to hold on to the properties, going through a divorce, not without compromises, and I'm really proud of that achievement. So there's, you know, for a lot of people in our community, ben, who can relate to that stage of life and that sort of circumstance, really, really powerful message. And we did get a text. You got a text message inspired on the back of Lisa's story, which I'll read out shortly.
Speaker 1:She observed and learned from the parents financial habits, so therefore shaping her own money management approach. It is the. It is the very reason why we always ask that question, ben, or dance around that money at the dinner table question, because there it makes sense that that some of the realities that we're living now are shaped by the conversations we had with our parents early. And if you don't choose to change that approach, it can be different, but that's one, that's one of the key takeaways, ben.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and obviously the other one is relationships fail, you know, but you know it's. I think 30% of relationships are going to break down Now. That can cause some real financial stress on households and it's really important to seek professional and financial advice around how that's going to land and you know what opportunities that you have there. I've seen good examples of successful relationship separations. In fact, I was working on one throughout the course of the end of last year, which you know.
Speaker 3:Obviously it's very sad when some of our clients are breaking up and you know they built a significant multimillion dollar property portfolio so we're adjusting that portfolio without trying to get the legal guys involved, which is just going to cost them a fortune, and so they have worked through that and hopefully they'll land that plane safely and, and you know, both parties will be able to maintain a portfolio of properties and be able to then start thinking about their retirement years. But I've also seen really poor examples of it where you know the properties have been sold. One party's then started to burn their cash on instant gratification things and lifestyle things here and now, and and you just get so frustrated when you see that playing out in terms of not putting their money to better use. You know it can't help that. I mean, some people have really strong feelings of those relationship breakdowns. But that's where you've got to. You've got to try and be as sensible as possible and deal with the difficult emotional aspects of that, because that can be a real challenge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think, ben, I cannot relate to anyone who's listening to this has been through a marital breakdown, right, but I I'd be. I think I'd be devastated, I think I'd be shattered, ben. So just just even trying, even just trying to project how I'd feel in that moment, ben, you'd think that there'd just be just a sensory overload of emotions and stuff going through your head. And yet Lisa is the poster person for middle aged women who can overcome their financial insecurity and build a nest egg through just just being strategic with the planning and taking action, whilst acknowledging again, not from lived experience, just from the outside, looking in, going through an incredibly tumultuous time. So I actually think, from someone who doesn't understand what Lisa or anyone in that circumstances feeling, I think that that's heroic. What, what? Being able to navigate the ability to hold on to those properties private school fees, braces, as she said and hold on to the, the, the trajectory of where she wanted to go, despite her relationship crumbling around her, I just think is a real incredible testament to her. And this is the text message that you received and you flicked it onto me, so I'm just going to read out a couple of things from it. And Michelle. Yep, this is you and we want you to go and go to the property, catchcomau, forward, slash my story and leave your details there. But it says I just want to send a huge thank you for hosting such determined and steadfast women on your summer series.
Speaker 1:I felt so much pride, listening to Lisa's story in particular. So we had a deliberate attempt to you know, we had eight episodes been and we had five women. That was a very deliberate, considered approach by us because one of the things I see if I can quickly find I don't I'm elated, frankly, after hearing Lisa and thought I'd offer my story. I do feel like I've lived, loved and breathed, probably investing, for 15 years. But most of all, thank you for offering such diverse and gutsy women up this summer. I feel here's here's the beautiful part. I feel I'm listening to my tribe and it's just very fortifying and makes me so proud to hear it. So thank you, michelle.
Speaker 1:We'd love to hear from you, we'd love to share your story. But then we acknowledge that you and I are two middle aged blokes and it's easy for our audience to be male skewed and we've got male biases and all that sort of stuff. But I just want anyone to, to who is listening to this. To the best of our abilities and we're human and we're flawed we are trying to be as diverse as we possibly can. So if you feel like you've got a diverse story that you want to share I promise you my mind is open Please reach out to me. If you feel like there is a marginalized part of the community that you do not think is represented by the filter through which Ben and I look through this podcast, please, please, know that you have an opportunity to share that with us. So just go to thepropertycouchcomau forward, slash my story and hopefully, hopefully, this summer series. We've demonstrated that a couple of blokes are trying to get out of their own way, ben and and here, as much diversity as we possibly can.
Speaker 3:That's right, Bryce, because the main filter that we look through and it's a statement that we have in our reception area of our offices in Melbourne is that everybody has the potential to achieve financial freedom, Everybody. The decisions that you make, the choices that you do, everybody and I mean everybody has that opportunity, subject to them being able to partake in gainful employment. If they have that choice and they have access to education, then there is the reasons for success are available to you, and so that's the lens we look through. So your story of overcoming adversity, or just just your general story about on the typical middle class person who just build out a portfolio of properties and now my family and I are financially free, that's a story you know in terms of what that looks like. So I think it's really important that the people understand that's the lens in which we look through, the way in which we serve others and how we pay it forward.
Speaker 1:Isn't this true to Ben? I don't know what the number is of summer series and winter series, but it's scores, scores of people we've spoken to on this podcast. Every single one of them, bar maybe 10%. So that sounds like a contradiction. About 90% of the people we've interviewed have said I don't think there's anything in my story that I think you guys would thought would be interesting, and then and then what happens is we get all this sort of stuff. So folks, please reach out to us.
Speaker 1:The next one we spoke to was Bailey, and from childhood stocks to city shocks, how we escaped bad and bursting advice, he was a young man who was, to put it mildly, just incredible human right.
Speaker 1:He is mature and determined and knows what he wants, and the motivation for coming onto the podcast for Bailey, this young man, was so his mates would actually pay attention because he figured he's been throwing his hands up in the air and trying to get them to invest in property, and so he figured if he comes onto the podcast and encourages them to listen through that medium, he gets them to hopefully take action. So what an incredible man. But here's the headline of the episode being secure in yourself and not giving into peer pressure are just as important on your financial journey as your money habits. This guy's in his early 20s folks not giving into peer pressure, being wary of who you take investment advice from and seeking good advice can help achieve your dream lifestyle by design, because he was a rent best of. But here's something for us for you to chew on, ben. My friends were like, oh, you've brought a home, but to me it's not a home, it was a small business.
Speaker 3:Ha, early 20s been just not interested in temptation. I, on the prize, understands the lay gratification, takes the emotion out of the process, just executes. I mean, to your point, bryce, I mean this is someone that we, you know, on a sporting field we are, say, as ice cool, you know they are. Just, they can find space, they know how to find the footy, whatever he's in terms of sporting analogy you want, but they don't show that emotion. I mean, look at the, you know, the Italian, french player who came back from two sets down. You know in terms of, you know in terms of you know he didn't show a lot of emotion but internally he just had this belief. And that's what I took from Bailey. Is this, this I now? I now believe in my heart of hearts that this is possible for me. I'm not going to be tempted by, you know, temptation. I'm just going to stay the course and and ultimately, keep doing what I'm doing and and then let time do all the heavy lifting for me.
Speaker 1:Now, bailey was almost seduced into buying a new apartment in the city, ben, and the agent lied about excessive owners court fees, which was an opportunity that he could pull out at the last minute.
Speaker 1:But he said this this made me realize how hard property investing was. So one of the challenges that property investors have and I think that Bailey can help here with his message is, if you're successful on the first one, that can be a curse, because you can actually think it's easy. You can actually think, oh, how good am I? You know when, if you don't realize that some of that early stuff relies on a bit of fortune and luck and opportunity, meaning preparation and all those things but a lot of it is stuff that's outside of your control. But if you get it right first, that can just be as dangerous. But the people here's a quote he said the people who seem the nicest and seem like they're going to help you the most, actually the ones doing the most damage, and that was his view of spruces. But there's a couple of key takeaways we've got from this episode.
Speaker 3:Ben, yeah, there was so observing and learning from savvy money habits at a young age can shape one's financial behavior. So he's seeing that. And again, people being nice to you. If they're trying to sell you something, they're certainly going to be very nice to you as part of that particular process. So I think that's number one in terms of contentment, with the ability to resist peer pressure as a key to saving and investing wisely. So remove the temptation.
Speaker 3:And then, obviously, reinvesting can be a viable strategy for building a property portfolio while maintaining flexibility and lifestyle choices. So he's living with his mates in Melbourne and he's building out a multimillion dollar property portfolio and at some point you know I mean he didn't talk about being forever or investor so you know, in terms of he's going to have some choices to make in five to 10 years Once he meets his. Well, he's got his partner. So if they get more serious about what their story looks like, it's just going to. It's going to look good. And when they combine double household income, my ruling power improves and the story gets even better.
Speaker 1:So message to millennials I don't know if any millennials listen to us, ben, but if they do, here's another example of a millennial who didn't buy into the narrative. Didn't buy into the narrative that it wasn't possible for them to get on the property ladder. Use different sources, different ways. And just so you know, bailey bought $500 worth of shares at the age of 10. So he was someone who always knew what he wanted and was pretty determined. But you don't. If you didn't buy shares at 10, you don't have to say, oh well, I'm not destined for it, because you can shape any choice that you want to make now. But the thing that I remember most about this conversation with Bailey is just at the end of the conversation. I think I said it a couple of times in the interview, ben, this guy's in his early 20s, like this guy's got Gen Z.
Speaker 3:He's not even a millennial, he's even in the younger group than the millennial, so the saying is not possible. It's just about choices that you make.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just the composure. Well done, Bailey. You were an inspiration for people in your own age bracket. I reckon you're an inspiration for people in any age bracket because you were just a guy who wasn't influenced by bullying, you weren't influenced by stuff and you wanted to take your mates along for a ride and the reason you came on was just so that they would do that far out Beautiful. Thank you, Bailey.
Speaker 1:Then we moved on to Jasmine Ben. We love the conversation we had with Jasmine Going overseas to do universities, traveling around the place. What is it? Scuba diving instructor, day trading she's. She had a lot, but here's the headline for jazz. So if you didn't listen to that, we named the episode.
Speaker 1:I lost all my money through day trading. How this dive instructor rebuilt her life on her own after losing it all. This was a story about win, loss, win, loss, win, loss, fluctuation, the volatility. So Jasmine lost all her money, all her money, in one day in day trading. But here's the good thing was able to rebuild her life with good money management habits.
Speaker 1:So the importance of building wealth slowly, having good role models, which you know we can talk to shortly. Ben around her family tree and using money to buy back a time was so that she could focus on her time. She could focus on her true love, and if you actually see the YouTube version of this episode, you could see that she's got this charity which is rescuing Greyhounds after they've been disposed off by the industry, and she is incredibly passionate about that and wants to actually create her lifestyle by design. Not for a Porsche, Ben, not for a private jet, not for bling. She wants it so she can buy back her time, so she could spend more time on the thing that she loves and powerful role models in her life too, Ben.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so someone very close to my own heart. In terms of travel and experiences. They are the thing that that certainly drive me, and I'm looking very much forward to traveling the world for the next 20 or 30, so years in my own story, so. But I but I also get the temptation right like I'm looking on social envy platforms. I'm seeing all these people taking all these great holiday or all this.
Speaker 1:Is that your new term? Social social envy platforms? You don't call them social media platforms, social envy platforms.
Speaker 3:Right. So we look at those and then and they're all usually, you know, everyone's on their revenge travel and they're putting their best version of their lives up on screen for everyone to see. And so I can understand why people get sucked into this idea of making money fast. What crypto? Well, let's get into that. Well, what's the next big thing? And well, let's go day trade. Like, let's see if I can, you know, do all these types of things.
Speaker 3:Now I want to be a fin influencer. I want to, you know, do something online and make money quickly. So all of that is just basically smoke and mirrors, all I'm sort of saying around. That is, once she worked that out, she said actually I'm pretty talented, I've got these amazing abilities and she's working with, obviously, a big bank in this country. She's doing great work in her area and she's earning good money as part of that, and she now knows to build up, put some money aside and have those experiences.
Speaker 3:But she's now building up a war chest that later in life she'll be able to have those experiences more permanently, as opposed to just these up and down experiences. So I really like that. You know, the key takeaway for me was you make money and lose money fast in that fast lane. We are boring. We want to get rich slow in the slow lane. That is a really important takeaway and obviously you know, in sharing her story she is inspiring others and demonstrating that that financial success is obtainable on an individual terms and emphasizing the importance of personal choice and freedom in regards to how she financially plans for her lifestyle. By design journey.
Speaker 1:Biggest takeaway for me, for Jaysben if you get knocked down, get back up again. If you get knocked down, get back up again. That's it pretty simple. So great story. Thank you, jase, you were amazing. Thank you for sharing your story.
Speaker 1:The next one we spoke to was James. He was from Perth Ben. I knew there was a lot of wisdom in this guy just from the fact that he was from Perth. So the the way that we named this episode was from $30,000 in debt to a 2.7 8 million dollar portfolio. So he lost his confidence and his finance after a failed business venture. And there was a lot of stoicism around the conversation we had with James here, but the headline for the conversation was this financial empowerment can rebuild self-confidence. So he he built his confidence, his career in his financial position After a failed business venture. So, not to dissimilar to jazz got knocked down, got back up again.
Speaker 1:And then so the importance of that accountability partner which he has in his partner now, financial education and the dangers of enthusiastic amateurs. I love that he we got to talk about enthusiastic amateurs here because we've talked about it as a Concept. Then I've talked about it. When I first got started, I was an enthusiastic amateur. Through the journey I've seen lots of enthusiastic amateurs, but here was an example of someone who said I didn't realize Until I looked in the rear vision mirror that I was an enthusiastic amateur. But it makes a difference. So, because people are often taking advice from people who think that they got their best interest at heart, but they're just having a good swing. So he he started with $30,000 in debt. He talked about the debt snowball and the debt avalanche In this particular episode and he did the debt snowball, which is a momentum debt strategy rather than a calculated about based strategy, and now he's got three properties in Perth. So a really, really good story. But I reckon there's some takeaways that our audience can get from this one man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there is. So obviously, for me, james's story was one of resilience and Adaptability and I think we got a lot of that through his early childhood in terms of moving Lots of different locations, but I've got to give credit to his mom and dad who found ways of having Awesome experiences at really low cost and so with that, in terms of you know, he didn't feel regret about all of these moves. It built up, obviously, his ability to meet new people and make friends. It also built up his potential confidence in terms of understanding that you don't need a lot of money to have great experiences. So all of those things meant like it.
Speaker 3:You know what? I can actually take a risk in terms of going into business and I did that and and the risk I took was a failure. But I tell you where your best lessons are learned in the failures that you make. You learn more from the failures and your attempts than, potentially, what you do from your successes. So James's story builds into that particular area. So the other sort of that's the real takeaway from me that that he's not afraid of Hard work, he's not afraid of failure and having a go and he's got that entrepreneurial spirit, but he's being sensible about where he puts the long-term investment play, which is in bricks and mortar and property, but he's also got a great business that he's also potentially developing out. So he's really taking, you know, running on two lanes, and that's why he will be successful.
Speaker 1:There's a message here for everyone, which is the investment in skills been he invested in skills because he was prepared to pivot, and those skills provided a dividend to him in terms of increased income and and the and the increased dividend for that here's the here's the message for the community is increased borrowing capacity, yeah, which meant that he could leverage and get into more properties. So there's a concept that I've heard by an American entrepreneur by the name of Alex Famos and he calls it instead of the S&P 500, he calls it the S&P 500. So what that means is if someone come up to him and they're in their 20s and they say I've got a thousand dollars to spend, what should I do? Quite often someone will say we'll invest it in the market. A thousand dollars, even if you got a 10% return, would mean a hundred bucks at the end of the year and in compounding after 10 years how much you gonna make, he goes. No use that a thousand dollars to go and buy a course or something that will increase your skills, that will increase your ability to earn more income whilst you're in that 20s for learning phase, because that will pay you bigger dividends than the investment in the S&P 500. The S&P 500 I love that concept. Yeah, it's not.
Speaker 1:I think that's been demonstrated here in James's story as well. He invested in himself. He invested in his skills and the ability to learn. Okay, how do I get out of debt? That was one skill invested. How do I become a mortgage broker? That's another skill I invested. How do I start a restaurant business? Well, chances are, in this case he learned some skills on what not to do through doing that and now he's got a successful Event management business. So investing, so you can see, there's this constant investing in skills that mean that James puts himself in a position to be the destiny of his, the master of his own destiny, so that he can actually do what he's been prepared to do. So this was this was a super inspiring story, then.
Speaker 3:James has been comfortable with uncomfortable he's been comfortable.
Speaker 1:Nice tie back there. He was very comfortable with being uncomfortable. So, james, from a fellow sand grower to a fellow sand grower mate, well done, thank you for coming on. I think that's probably unfair that I favor the Perth people, ben. But there you go.
Speaker 1:The next one was a conversation we had with Ema she was an accountant and this is for those of you who haven't heard this episode it was how an expat family so when you listen you'll hear the accent, ben, the Irish accent built a five property portfolio and escaped price crashes, off the plan problems and having open money Conversation. So here's the headline From that particular episode. She narrowly escaped a property crash in Ireland but was still burnt by a spruka with an off-the-plan purchase, but she and her husband were still able to flourish through. Here we go, ben investing in skills, financial education, keeping a long-term view and a good temperament. Huh, haven't heard about the good temperament for a little while, ben, but being able to keep the emotions level Is really, really important, and there was some value in going borderless. So here's a quote she said as an accountant, I always find it interesting that the most unassuming people are the people who have the money, whereas sometimes the ones who appear wealthy are anything but huh. Imagine that people who look wealthy.
Speaker 1:And the other thing I thought was interesting is in in this episode, ema said I'm an accountant and I'm telling you that all accountants don't know all things about property because we've got to Be able to cross a lot of stuff. So take advice. And I thought that was a powerful message that an accountant Was saying, still taking advice, because there could be a perception that all accountants know all things about all financial matters but it's not until you realize there's two volumes of tax act that they need to be across to realize the humans. They are very good at understanding the broad themes across the tax act but a lot of them need to choose which specialty they want to be in. They might choose super is their specialty. They might choose a Whole range of efforts, but if they if they don't necessarily choose to be specialist in the property lane, it's fair to say they don't know everything, all things about property and maximizing deductions and all those sorts of things. I thought that was a really nice piece of advice for the benefit of the community been.
Speaker 3:I think it there's a, there's a couple of nice takeaways in there that obviously financial planning and Specialized knowledge are critical for successful property investing and that I think that's a general honest assessment. Like you know, ema wasn't sort of saying she's one of those you know, she's one of those 90% you're quite before about. I know I'm not sure my story is really wonderful and interesting, but it is because it's about swimming in the lanes. It's about you know and then do I need help? Where do I get leverage? If I don't know that knowledge, I go and seek professional advice. So she then talks about having supportive partner who shares in the same goals and values can make the property investment journey easier.
Speaker 3:So, important, or both people on the same page in terms of what is the payoff, what is the delay gratification Process that we're going towards is going to be a really important outcome that you both on that same page and in terms of confidence in the property market comes from understanding the fundamentals and having a long term perspective. Like there's no revelations, there's nothing Amazingly sophisticated about what she's talking about. I've assessed my skills. I know certain things, but not everything. So I go and leverage those skills through trusted professional advisors and I put the package together. So the sum of the parts you know I building my team of specialists around me just makes us, increases our probability of success, and I think that's a really powerful message, even though it's a simple one.
Speaker 1:I'll finish it with this. Ima said property investment is a challenging but rewarding endeavor that demands patience, planning and adaptability. Perfect, well said, ima. Thank you for coming on as we.
Speaker 1:As we go through the little all of these summaries been, we now come to Amanda and coercive control. So if you haven't listened to Amanda's episode last week, it's all about a backstory where money was used to control and how Amanda needed to escape it. Also some of the mental mooring lines that were in her mind and some of the gender wealth inequality that she experienced in her childhood and growing up and wanted to be an advocate for that. So Fun. So here's the headline for this episode been. Financial abuse and gender disparity is Still, sadly, an all too common problem in Australia and some of the feedback that we've been getting.
Speaker 1:A lot of people have been reaching out to me about this particular episode. Then Amanda overcame it with self-drive and determination, and overcoming past scars and changing career paths requires grit, but it's never too late to pivot right. So here's a couple of quotes from Amanda. Money was Frequently used as one of the tools on the coercive control belt by my dad and there was financial inequity between the males and female females in Amanda's family growing up. That seems to have hit a hit, a raw nerve-bend, because I think, I think, quite a few of our community could relate to that. And here's here's, an important distinguishing point despite the abundance around me this is quote from Amanda I felt a scarcity of control over my own financial destiny.
Speaker 1:So she was pretty keen to break free from the financial constraints of her upbringing, and I think I Don't. I don't listen back to many episodes anymore, but in the, in the first hundred, I used to always quality control them and all that sort of stuff. I just trust the process now, but I Did. I wanted my wife to hear this one, so I listened to it in the car on the way back from our camping trip last week and I think the sentiment that my wife had is pretty much the sentiment of Everyone who has given feedback. It's like, wow, what a brave woman to share some of those Dark, hidden topics that often don't get spoken about.
Speaker 3:Yeah, look, amanda's story is a testament to self-determination and drive to overcome financial abuse and inequality between genders, right? So I Suppose what it's really telling us is if, if you're not in a relationship that's equal, that's respectful, that Allows you to be you, and if you certainly don't have value alignment, then Staying in that relationship is really. You know, you've got one life, so what are you doing about potentially making that change and and having that confidence to make the change? And there are plenty of government support services and so forth that are out there to potentially explore Some of those ideas and potentially talk to your friends and family who are close to you that you can trust In terms of how you might, you know, start to plan for that change of situation.
Speaker 3:Of course, you know the first conversation you want to try and have is an open and honest conversation about how you feel in that relationship. And Amanda and her father don't have a relationship now because he refused to listen to her. So, ultimately, she was in control of her destination, and I say that to anyone here no one else is going to fix your problems. Only you are going to fix your problems and you are ultimately in control of the decisions that you make. So, from that point of view, amanda's given us a clear vehicle and demonstration in terms of how you can adapt and overcome Any of those challenges that you might have faced.
Speaker 1:Again, ben, I don't want to speak for something that I'm totally ignorant about, because I've not experienced those things, and so for someone who Is listening to this or that story, it might be easy for us to say get out of it, but I think I think it all starts with hope that there is a way out, right? So even if it means listening to that episode two or three times so that you can internalize some of the, the hope that Amanda instills in this group of people that find themselves in this circumstance, right, because there's a ton of tactics that Amanda talked about ten properties in five years, change that to five properties in five years, moved, change career, like she wants to land the debt plane, or almost like. There's a lot of tactics in here, but I think the overarching message for, I believe, this community is Just the mental mooring lines that Amanda needed to overcome to be able to navigate what is a successful property portfolio build. She's been advising Clients for a number of years now, so the lived experience that she brings to those conversations and, as she said in in the interview, she she does enjoy talking.
Speaker 1:She's passionate about helping those people in the fringes. She's, she's very, very passionate about helping those people in the fringes. So I guess the takeaway for the communities if you know someone who might benefit from hearing that there is a way out from Amanda, can you please share the episode and also know that Little baby steps from changing. If you're in a, if you're in a situation where that coercive control is suffocating and the light at the end of the tunnel feels too big and Just slowly chip away, knowing that there is a way for you is is what we hope is the major takeaway from from, from that episode and there will be a strong amount of short-term pain In terms of resetting your situation.
Speaker 3:So we don't want to dismiss that. That's going to be challenging and that's going to be doing your hard now, but but ultimately, if you then think medium to longer term and you know at last all by design that you're trying to create for yourself, who's best interests here, who wins out of taking that action? Always remember that again, you have the one life you know, and so it's really important to make sure that you make the most of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, with all of our ignorant biases there, folks, we just wanna hopefully have that as a beacon of light for you. If you find yourself in that situation and you're hearing that, we want that to be something that you can use as a resource just to take one step forward. So there you go, ben. That's the summary of all of the powerful impacts that we think that our summer series has offered to our community. There's some takeaways, I feel, like the cross section, the guys and the gals, the age groups, the stage of life, the variety within the stage of life. I just wanna say thank you to Stiggy for helping us get that mixed right. She does an incredible job and is still an unsung hero on our podcast, but the idea is that we give you an opportunity to hear from other people's lived experiences so that you can at least take some action, cause here's what I know and here's what here's you know.
Speaker 1:Ben, when I first started, I thought it was all about knowledge and all about the tactics I could provide, but I just distill it down to one thing now success really comes down to your ability to whether or not you can take action or not.
Speaker 1:Now I understand you can take action in the wrong direction. But ultimately, the people you know you think about, you know asking anyone you and me included about at the time of making a purchase of our properties in our portfolio, did we feel wobbly? Yes, my word, we felt wobbly, right. So, but the distinguishing thing between you and I and the people on this podcast and the people who haven't come on but have got success is that one thing where they actually took a step towards taking action and they did it because that is the number one common denominator across every single story is they were prepared to take some action and do something. So, hopefully, the takeaways that we've just shared with you give you at least one or two sort of ah-has to go. Ha, okay, that's helped me. That makes sense. I reckon I can take action from here.
Speaker 3:And I sat down last night, bryce, and reflected not only on this summer series, but I'm also trying to get the bigger themes out of everything that we sort of talk about. So I've summarized these into a couple of quick points. Where there is a will like where there is a will for you to be able to do it, you'll find a way. You will find a way. And if you tell yourself you won't find a way, these people are teaching you about how to overcome your limiting beliefs and the story state strategy in terms of which you will do that. So if you're really high on tradition and you have a lot of grounding and mooring lines around that, you've got to start telling yourself a different story and you've got to start removing those limiting beliefs to potentially take yourself into you know and talk to someone about it, because if they show you a pathway out or a pathway to success, that's going to be really good. The other thing you also need to remember that you're going into business, just exactly what we were talking about before. We're running a small business. We're going to go into the rental, accommodation, providing business, okay, and I think about other small businesses and I tell you what as a passive investment, passive investing business that I want to be in, like I think about. You know, I say to them do I want to be a baker? Oh God, I could have a 4 AM. I've got to work pretty much long shifts and so that's a passive business. I mean, that's an active business that I can get into. What about if I want to do lawn mowing or something like that? Well, still a lot of exertion, a lot of effort got to build, climb bases and all that.
Speaker 3:I tell you what property investing as a small business, as a passive investment vehicle to create wealth. I don't know of too many other businesses that have the asset set up for you. You take over that business, you know you take over that property and then you start running it as a business, but you can actually do it in your spare time and your part time. Yet if I look at the goodwill that's created in lawn mowing businesses or bakeries or other sort of small business coffee shops, whatever there's not a lot of goodwill that's created. But what you're controlling in a small business is land and you've got improvements that provide income on that and you get capital growth and you get passive income off the back of that. So if I'm thinking about getting into business and having an opportunity, I really isn't much better than property investing where I'm able to leverage and control a significant asset. Through good cash flow management, risk mitigation, buffer control, all those things become true. So I just sort of put a big tick next to it.
Speaker 3:If I was me again at 21, what other small business would I want to get into that I can do passively, that doesn't require a lot of effort but potentially has some significant windfalls over the decades to come.
Speaker 3:So I think that is also a really important message. And then, finally, my final message on this, which I've learned through, obviously you know, being on this podcast, having these wonderful conversations with Bryce and our magical guests is that the ones who are the happiest are how they're correlating that into experiences, as opposed to building up possessions and bragging about their you know, $15, $16 million property portfolio, as opposed to getting out there and saying, well, what's it gonna do for me and my family and how's it gonna set up a legacy, potentially. So everyone has a different reason for doing that, but I think it's really nice to see the happiness gauge is higher on those people who have a real, clear goal about what that money is gonna do for them. Whether it's Jasmine, in terms of helping her with her charity and looking after Greyhounds and whatever that is. Whatever floats your boat, if that's the will, if that's what helps you drive, then ultimately property investing can be an incredible vehicle for that to happen for you.
Speaker 1:Well said, mate. Thank you folks. You are very much unsung heroes for coming and sharing your stories and helping our community, so hopefully that summary has helped people. I heard the messages and now they've got some takeaways. Hey, my life act today, ben. Do you love avocado? Yeah, I do.
Speaker 1:Mate, I love avocado, right, and one of the things that I hate is you get some avocados and then they come up and they're brown, right. So I found a little hack that I tested. So what happened is I bought some avocados and I did this hack and then I went away camping for a week and then I came back and I cut into these avocados and they were just still ripe and beautiful, green inside and no bruises, and it's simple. So, basically, what you do Instagram has a few good things for us to be thankful for and I found this on Instagram, ben is when you get your avocados, get them in a bowl or a jar or something and put them in water a couple of ice blocks in the water and then put them in the fridge and, as long as they're fully submerged, there's something within the submerged avocado, within the water.
Speaker 1:That means that it's a seal, it's around it and they don't go off. So eventually they will, but you can hold them for an extraordinary amount of time. So now, mate, this is my go-to hack so that I don't get brown avocados is, as soon as we buy them, we fill up the bowl, we put them in water and we put them in the fridge. And fresh, beautiful avocados each and every time. So no theme sort of linked to anything today other than just a summer staple that don't always have to be linked.
Speaker 3:It's a good life hack. I even believe my understanding is you can also do that with apples as well, so you can put apples in water and they last a lot longer as well.
Speaker 1:There must be something in that that just preserves there's no air around the outside of the skin and there's no further breaking down or oxidation. So there you go, folks, those that love avocados like I do there's a hack. Try it out, let me know. I'd love to hear from you, ben, what is making property news?
Speaker 3:All right, let's see if I can try and keep calm about this price, because obviously I've been let down. I've been let down and lied to by my government of the day and it doesn't matter labor liberal, but I still. I've been sold false promises and then ultimately they've changed their messaging around the political elements of basically buying votes. And so the biggest challenge for me and the frustration on that is that this backflip can also set an agenda to potentially backflip on policies like negative gearing and those types of things as well. So I am fearful of any labor greens government around their negative gearing policy. I'll always will be, because it's clear that they can tell you one thing and then turn around and lie to you and then change that view. But I also thought it would be really important to just give people context. I asked a couple of people in the office in terms of sampling how much tax people think they paid, and a lot of people really just don't know how much tax is actually being paid by people on different pay scales. So I just wanted to share a bit of knowledge here for those people and then I'm gonna do a fairness test just so everyone can understand this. So currently in the current 22, 23 and this tax season. If you're on $70,000 and what I've done is I've stripped out all of the accessible income, any deductions, I've taken the Medicare levy out and any other surcharges. The model doesn't account for any help or hex debt payments that are being made. So just clean PAYG tax scale. If I'm earning $70,000, I'm paying $13,217 in tax. Now, if I'm earning double that, so $140,000,. Now the average wage across Australia now is sitting at around, I think, $95,000, right, so we're not sort of saying that these are big incomes. But if I'm paying $13,000 in tax at $140,000, I'm paying $36,867 in tax. So that's 179% more than someone on that lower tax scale. Now, before the government made these changes I just wanted to highlight that that was the change would mean that they would only pay 166% more than what they're currently paying. Now let's look at some higher income earners for context there as well. And so for $100,000 of income, I'm effectively paying today $22,967, versus someone on $200,000, they're paying $60,667. So that's $37,700 more, or 164% more. Now, obviously that goes to aspiration and people working really hard, but the way in which the politicians like to position this story and the media doesn't get really into the nuts and bolts of us.
Speaker 3:I just want to share two stories with you, two typical household stories, to sort of give context around how fair these changes are. Okay, so, household one is a family household. They're in their mid 30s, they're millennials, they've got two kids and they just happened to have one person who's gone to university, studied really hard, and they got one high income earner who earns $200,000. Now they've worked hard to save and this, this current home that they recently bought in the last 12 months, is now worth 1.8 million. But it wasn't their first time. They've built up to that. Obviously, kids are growing and so they're aspirational. They want to have lifestyle by design.
Speaker 3:I had a couple of stamp duties along the way, Ben. Yeah, they pay double stamp duties for each of those properties, right, and so they're now paying. They've got a mortgage of $850,000, which is unreasonable for a property of 1.8 million. Now, over the course of the last couple of years they've seen interest rate rise those 13 times and so just in the interest cost alone, which is increased by 4.25%, the interest cost alone is now costing them, on their 850,000 a loan, $36,125 more. Those stage three tax cuts for that family were going to be a $9,075 benefit to them to reduce that $36,000 of additional costs that they had. But based on the changes that have been made for this millennial family who's also had to pay for university fees and has also had to go through all of that those challenges of saving for a deposit for higher cost of property so their cost of living benefit has obviously just lost them $4,500 to support their family and to support their higher income payments. Now that is also not factoring in the 2% Medicare levy that they would also be charged, which is the equivalent of $4,000. So under the new regime of tax they are going to be paying $60,138 in tax if they don't do anything to reduce their tax.
Speaker 3:Okay, I'll come back to that point. Now. Let's also look at another couple that might be living in the same capital city across Australia. This couple are in their mid-70s. They got free university and they pretty much had free healthcare right through their journey. They also have got a $2.5 million property in a capital city household and they're enjoying the benefits of having their savings now earning significantly higher interest earning on their savings in the bank, because term deposits are now sitting around 4.5%. So they're debt-free on their home worth $2.5 million and they've just got an $800 windfall based on these tax changes that are made by the government. So that is where we talk about fairness and reasonableness. This is past the reasonableness test in terms of how much tax people are paying.
Speaker 3:Now, I've always said everyone should pay less tax, because I also believe that government should spend less. Okay, I think in terms of absolutely a really strong on having make sure that there's a reasonable safety net and to look after those most vulnerable in our community, but we continually keep running the risk of potentially increasing welfare to middle class, and so these people aren't incentivized to get out and work, and so from my point of view, that's about basically giving rather than receiving, and all of us. I'm very happy to pay my taxes and very happy to pay a fair share, but that just gives you some context around what that looks like. So I just find it frustrating that the government of the day, the politicians, will continue to do popular politics and that, over the medium to longer term, in terms of our state building and our nation building, actually makes us lethargic and lazy and ultimately susceptible to more difficult economic challenges in the future, and so that's gonna be a problem for us, and so I'm flagging that now.
Speaker 3:If you're listening to this, in 20 or 30 years time you'll know what I mean. If we keep up this process. And if you're interested in looking at historical challenges that states face, go and read up about Argentina's story. Go and read up about how Argentina was once one of the top nations and wealthiest nations in the world. That had some of the most beautiful culture building, and they completely destroyed their country and their economy through poor governance and over bureaucracy and basically thinking that they're gonna help people by continuing to keep giving them more and more and getting themselves into record levels of debt, and now they've got hyperinflation. So if you wanna have a look at a history about how you destroy a nation that has natural resources. Critical land mass is located in one of the most heavily densified population centers in South America in the world and they can't be successful. Well, that's on the decisions that the governments of the day are making. So please look out for that, because I think there's some important life lessons and history lessons that you can learn from that.
Speaker 1:So there's a logical thought thread that you've gone through, ben. I must admit, when that happened I was torn right between if they're distributing it to people who need it for cost of living pressures the short term of that makes sense to me, right, and I probably never, ever thought the stage three tax cuts we're gonna go through as legislated anyway. What did I? So from a personal perspective, I'm annoyed because it means that I don't get the kick that I was hoping to get. But from a short term perspective, I think the distribution to people who are really struggling now, including some people who are listening to this podcast, be really struggling and be really grateful for the extra kick that they get. So that's on one side, but I think if one of the things we're talking about in this podcast is getting people to have long-term thinking, I think that's helped me. Okay, short term makes sense. Got it, politics at play, there's a by-election coming up, all that makes sense while they did it, and it's inflationary and all those sorts of things.
Speaker 1:We're arguably some of those pay brackets that are getting the money have historically shown that they spend it straight away versus not spending it straight away, which adds to inflation. I'm sure we can go down a thousand rabbit warrants, but I think it's the long-term thinking to your argument around. We are an aspirational country and if we go back to my point about the S and me 500, we're trying to encourage everyone to develop skills so that they can actually layer their income so that it's not fixed as well, so that they can get themselves into an aspirational tax bracket as well, so that they would have been the long-term beneficiaries, which means that they can provide housing and all the multiply effect of that. But what I think is really the most frustrating thing is around the narrative of people that are on those higher incomes being some unicorn or got some magic dust or some form of fantasy around what those people are. Because I think to your story some people in West Australia might go I'll boo who.
Speaker 1:$1.8 million property with an $850,000 mortgage. They might not be able to relate to that because the real estate prices are different there. But if you're on the East Coast, that is not what's untypical. What's the word for untypical, untypical?
Speaker 3:before and for now.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I think that's the bit that I think I've settled on around. We've got to still promote the aspiration in this country for people to. We do live on the greatest show on earth we have, and so the tax system is the price that we pay to live in this wonderful country. So therefore, people should pay.
Speaker 1:But in terms of what we are talking about here, I think it's more about the medium and long-term thinking. You still want to incentivize folks and not demonize the folks that are on who have had to go invested in their skills. Those skills have returned dividends on the amount of income that they can get, because if someone's on 500 plus 600 plus 700 plus, that's a pretty outlier income. But someone on 200,000 in this country with a mortgage like what you described they're not having caviar and eating at fine dining and all that sort of time. They're just trying to. They're just trying and sure they might have private school fees and all that sort of stuff. Where some people can't do that, then I get it. But we still got to be able to let people have that aspiration to invest in themselves, invest in their skills and, as a result, climb up the income ladder without being laboured as someone who's living a life of excess, because generally most people in that bracket are just still trying to make ends meet too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean we've got a problem with our tax system and the fact that we're so reliant on personal income tax. I think it constitutes around sort of 50 to 55% of all generation of our income, so that's not where it should be. A consumption tax should be higher and we should then obviously then eliminate sort of stamp duties from mobility. So if you think about it from an economic point of view and productivity point of view, we've got it the wrong way around, like we're basically. We're all saying, yeah, we all want higher salaries and we want to keep as much of our income as we earn, but if we don't actually produce anything more for that and we expect to continually keep getting that, then that's where eventually, as I'm saying, your nation starts to become stagnant, lethargic and ultimately, in terms of your standard of living and your life's on all that, that starts to deteriorate. And that's what we see. Over 120 years in Argentina, from being in the top 10 countries in the world in terms of its riches and quality and standard of living per capita, is now down at like 140th and they're a basket case. So you don't want to get yourself in a situation and I'm not saying that politicians don't think that they're trying to do the right thing. But I come back to you know, the ownership of your situation. Like let's put it into human terms If little Johnny keeps making mistakes but everyone keeps supporting little Johnny, you know, and so he just keeps making those same mistakes, but we think we're doing the right thing by supporting him. The best thing we can do for little Johnny is actually let him learn from those mistakes and then change his habits and behavior. So, as much as in most cases, the thought bubbles come from a place of good will and good intent in terms of, you know, taking from the rich and giving to the poor, what you're actually doing is not teaching them any values of behaviors.
Speaker 3:They're just going to continue, which is what happened in Argentina. They just continue to listen to the next politician that came along and said I'll fix this for you, I'll give you more. You guys will have everything that you need. Just trust me on this. I've got all the and they do and they vote for these people and ultimately, they've got no economic fundamentals or drivers. The best way in which you can continue to keep taking people out of a lower standard of living into the best standard of living is to grow the economic pipe, to track the best and brightest to do the work that they need to do, and if you're not doing that, then effectively, if you're not growing and you're stagnating, then effectively your economy is dying and then you don't have those revenues that are coming in and that means your debt levels keep going up higher, and then there is a point of no return, which was seen Argentina hit five times over the last 120 years, where they've had to be bailed out and their economies are completely basket cases. So that's that's my fear in terms of where we're going. And so that's just giving context for people who may not have understood exactly how much is being paid.
Speaker 3:Now, full stop, new sentence you have an opportunity to choose how much tax you pay based on the activities that you do. So in other words, you know there's tax deductible ways in which you can reduce legally reduce your income. You've got to obviously look at superannuation and making sure that you're paying as much of the additional contributions as you can potentially into super, because that's effectively a better tax vehicle for you. So we're in the business of wealth creation and helping aspiring Australians, and so we make no apologies for that. So that's obviously one way in which you can do that. Now, of course, if you want to start a small business, potentially that allows you to claim tax deductions.
Speaker 3:I said it earlier, the best small business if I think you can start is to invest in property.
Speaker 3:Now, you wouldn't invest in property to get that tax deduction, but ultimately I can tell you that the $4,500 you just lost in terms of the government and doing that, you can potentially regain that in the short term, and I want to stress this in the short term we can reduce your tax if you have a negatively geared property.
Speaker 3:So come and talk to us. We might have something to offer you here. But in the long term, I also guarantee you will be paying more tax off the greater wealth that you've created and there's no problem with that. So, as that probably moves from negative bid to neutrally geared to positively geared, you will be paying some of that as tax and I think that's fair enough. But in the short term, if you're disappointed with not being able to get the advantages that you should, you know, we know what super mega wealthy rich people do. They offshore their money into tax havens and try and avoid tax as much as possible I'm saying for the mum and dad, professional couple, time for time, poor couple who want to get ahead then investing in property is potentially one of those ways. So consider that in the start of 2024 as one of those solutions and we'd be happy to run you through the modeling to show you exactly what you could make or could save.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well said, mate. So as we turn to home, on the back of that fired up process in from you in what's making property news, ben, we said, if you stick around, we're going to give you free gifts. So here it is we. We want to give out free reports to our community, suburb reports that give an enormous amount of data, which is all the richness of the data that we've collected over the journey. Been so, if you go to the property couchcomau forward slash property report, or one word or lower case, ben, the property couchcomau forward slash property report, you can go there and you can download a free report, ben. And so there you go, we're giving the free gifts.
Speaker 1:Now here's a couple of things that I need to say, probably only one, really. There's been a ton of changes in the email space, so what's going to happen is, when you get to that landing page, you're going to leave your details and we're not going to send it to you until you receive an email and confirm the email is okay. I'm just apologizing in advance. That is not from us, folks. That is because of all the Bahamaths, the Googles and the hot males and all the Microsofts. Everything has tightened up email deliverability. So, folks, just letting you know. You'll go to a landing page and leave your details. It'll ask you to get an email. You'll have to confirm the email. Then we'll send the report to you. Please don't shoot the messenger. That is just what we have to do to get it to you. But if you go to the property couchcomau forward slash property report, you can get a free report and check it out. Folks, the detail, the level of detail is enormous.
Speaker 1:Well, to end, we are getting very close to winding up. You got one more thing to say about the more platform.
Speaker 3:Well, to your point there, the juice is worth the squeeze. So if that's all you got to do in terms of confirming your email, back to the point, the amount of content and rich information in our brand new property reports is going to blow you away, and so we are going to make those property reports available to our community. We're on our mission to continue to keep building out that community and we are giving them away for free information that we use in our own business, and they're available completely free for you to be able to access as well.
Speaker 1:So charge 50 bucks for these reports, Ben.
Speaker 3:Well, we did.
Speaker 3:We still do charge in certain aspects for 40 bucks for these reports, so that's exactly right, but for our community they're free, and so you know it's really important for you to take advantage of that.
Speaker 3:Finally, on the more platform, we will talk about this in a couple of weeks in a lot more detail, but over the last week we promised this at the end of the summer series we have gone live on a critical and significant new introduction of a feature called historical tracking, and that is the ability to basically have a time machine with historical data around your situation.
Speaker 3:So there is nothing more powerful than the new information that we've put into the more platform, where you are going to get historical insights, but there's nothing more frustrating than having those in an old spreadsheet. You can put all of that information in and have all of that back data report and you're now in the cloud and that will be available for you in terms of running that. So we will talk in a lot more detail, but if you haven't checked out the new card, the financial cards and now this historical tracking capability, or if you haven't been in your portal for a while, we've moved hundreds of sorry millions, millions of data points and restructured them into. You know these historical tracking stories, and so now you're going to get all of this rich information at the card level as well. So it's one of the most significant upgrades that we have made to the platform, and there's more to come.
Speaker 1:We are coming hard for property investors to provide a platform for you, to serve you as a property investor. So go and check that out, folks. There's a lot of really cool stuff to come, mate. So we have covered a lot of ground today, first episode of the year.
Speaker 3:Well, first back from summer series, right.
Speaker 1:But, folks, february is a big month for us. We're excited to deliver the content to you this month, so stick around and help us get to 100,000 subscribers this year. We would be eternally grateful for your help with that, mate, but until next week, ben Knowledge is in power, powering, but only if you hacked on it.
Speaker 1:Well, said I think. See you next week, folks. Hey folks, bryce, here again. I just wanted to catch you real quick before you go. If you're new to our community, I want to encourage you to listen to our very first 20 episodes, as the concepts we share in EPS One through 20 are foundational principles, pillars and frameworks that you need to know for you to get the best value from our content week to week on our show. My little tip is to listen to it at one and a half speed.
Speaker 1:Now, for those of you that are time poor and don't have the option to go back to the beginning, don't worry, because we've got you covered as well.
Speaker 1:We've created a binge guide that summarized these foundational episodes into one easy to digest booklet so that you can get up to speed super fast. So go to the show description on whatever device you're listening to now and simply click on the first 20 episodes link to download it straight away. Oh and, by the way, whilst you're there, you'll find a few extra goodies for you, including a link to download our lifestyle by design app more, the home of Wealthspeed and Wealthcock, and our hugely popular MoneySmartz money management system, as well as how to get free copies of our bestselling books. Now, just a reminder that anything we cover on this podcast is not considered to be financial advice, and we certainly recommend that you seek out expert advice tailored to your unique circumstances, and everything we talk about is general in nature. Folks, I want to encourage you again to click on the show description, wherever you are listening, to access all the free goodies we have for you Until next week.