Early 50s noob investors

Mrs and I are early 50s with freehold home in Newcastle area valued at $650K conservatively and $160K in cash and adding $715 savings fortnightly into that. Mrs is keen to start property investing (Mrs wants 5 IPs ASAP) but I have total analysis paralysis due to limited time to correct any silly investing errors at or age.
On top of that I am not handy - so flipping is out of the question and time poor due to both of us in corporate jobs so will be relying in others to do the actual work and us providing the funds and cash flow.
Feeling stuck

 

Hi Dogga

Is there a reason your wife wants 5? Is it just a comfortable number or are there actual figures behind it?

Have you spoken to a broker? 5 properties buy and hold isn't easy these days, unless you're on quite a large income so getting a broker to run your numbers as a first step will quickly let you know if your wife's plan is even achievable, and even more important in line with both your risk appetites. If it's not, it's a good place from which to re-form the strategy.

It's perfectly fine to not flip/reno etc - it's important that what ever you choose suits your lifestyle.

 

We are on combined $186K income and 5 is because NAB advised us that our income and leveraging the family home would support 5 (not all at once) as long as we went for neutral cash flow strategy - but hey, yet another piece of analysis to be paralysed by.

 

No. of properties is irrelevant @DoggaPP . It's the end goal/$$ value that matters..

Regarding age and making mistakes, that can be avoided to larger extent by surrounding yourself with great team..

Cheers,

 

Just reading this message, I'll abandon dealing with this nab person..

 

That's hilarious! Did they give you a price point for the 5?

Please get someone on board who will help you through - as a couple, with your actual goals. It's much easier to get un-paralysed when there's someone to talk things through and nut things out with. A fresh set of eyes can make all the difference.

 

Hi @DoggaPP

You may want to read @Travelbug 's story. She started in her 50s too pre Sydney boom and retired following that. Note though, lending is much different now.

 

Also work through the mindset. Why havent you invested in the past? Do you think property will get you to your goal? Why the sudden change in wanting to invest fast, when you havent before?

With two people at different speeds, youll probably end up fighting.

 

Well after being together for 30 years we ain't gonna start fighting now. Previously we have invested in Index and LIC's and Mrs wants to invest differently - something you can see and feel I suppose .... my job is to crunch the numbers.
I suspect that as long as I buy in desirable neighbourhood where people want o live with good infrastructure and just do 1 property at a time we'll be fine.

 

welcome to the forum @DoggaPP

nice position to be there ( in regards to asset)

re the advice from the bank, not sure who you got it from, unless the person who gave you the advice have done what you want to do, I wouldn't pay much attention to it.

read the forum, asking questions, reach out to ppl who have experience in property investing, it is a lots safe to learn from the forum than taking advice from a bank.

all the best

 

Thanks Eric. Yes, I am beginning to realise that. I could not follow NAB's maths - just did not add up. I think they may have been taking our share portfolio in to the equation - but I do not want to touch that.

 

Our goal is to eventually retire with $60K passive income per annum

 

You sure you can live on 60k? Your spending way more than that if your income is 186k and you only save 18k after tax a year. How much shares / super do you have?

 

I say it is achievable, but not easy, need to plan ahead

 

Just dont get your timing wrong with the market or you will be in your early 60s looking forward to retirement and sitting on a big pile of debt with no chance of giving away your day job.

 

I don't envy you @DoggaPP. My bias is obvious but both working and now there is a push to take on more? I know hard work supposedly never killed anyone but why try and see if it does?

Issue for me is that four letter word "debt" but that's just me. Maybe get a quick spreadsheet up, plonk in the amount of debt which you will eventually have to pay back at some stage and think What if one or both can no longer work can we pay it back NOW?

Or, given my bias towards shares, at market average of 4.2%:

Year 1 - $160K - $6,720
Year 2 - $178.5k - $7,500

And so on with no debt.

I feel you've got possible stressful times ahead of you. I hope that isn't the case.

 

Yes we can. At the moment we are juicing life and travelling over seas twice a year and also maxing out both our supers yearly and also trickling 300 per week into LIC's (hold for ever).

 

I much prefer just doing LIC's (of which we have a nice bundle already) however Mrs is dead keen to do property and I figure as long as we can keep the properties cashflow neutral or close thereto it will make it bearable for me and meaningful for Mrs .... I can't have it all my own way.

 

Yes, another factor that gives me paralysis.

 

Yep, there is that and it's certainly a factor. All the best.