How hard was it for you..??

Do you buy in bulk then sell down when the market peaks Leo ? Or do you buy and hold and keep them for multi cycles ?

 

We've never actually bought in bulk.. unless you classify buying two homes at the same time that were next to each other as a 'bulk buy', but generally we haven't done much of that.

We mostly:

1. Buy, hold refinance.
2. Develop, hold all, refinance.
3. Develop, hold some, sell some (to reduce LVR and some risk along the way)

We always refinance stock held to put all the available equity together, and then break up the equity and designate it for the next deals.

Cheers.

 

Just add some zeros - its easy!

 

Agree. Cash is king, but its not a biggie. Equity figures can change all the time too, and they can be spruced up or down depending on whose crunching the numbers. Maybe income should be the focus rather than equity, as you can live off income, but to realise equity you need to sell.

 

Zero is the easiest to add, so smooth sailing from here.

 

Actually it's "comma's" that one should aspire to

, thousand(s)
,, million(s)
,,, billion(s)
,,,, trillion(s)

 

As long as the extra comma doesn't put you in a coma

 

OK guys we had 3 property booms since 2013, so It got much easier to accumulate wealth, low interest rate environment made it sweeter

What do ya reckin'

happy investing

 

I'm not in the million-dollar NET worth club from property just yet, but it will certainly be a great mental milestone to pass!

Agree with others re: the frugality angle. Maybe it is my upbringing/parents' passed-on ethics or maybe it is just from experiencing an upbringing where there wasn't really a lot of money to go around.

Either way, I'm proud of my (ongoing) frugality. It has been a decent contributor to my success to date (along with my smarts, hard work, mental dedication, amd rolled up sleeves elbow-deep in elbow-grease!).

Frugal living can also be intersected with the Minimalist movement which is gaining traction. I.e. more often than not, 10, 20, 30+ property portfolio holders that I speak to, will often also be driving banged up old cars (as opposed to flashy new mercs etc.); holiday uo the coast on camping trips (as opposed to lavish European 5 star splurges), and of course the (basically-mandatory) status of having zero 'bad debts' (i.e. credit cards, payday/unsecured personal loans, car loans etc.)

This breed of successful people may live modestly now, but they have enough wealth for later on to live a nice life.

I've migrated to a mindset whereby I am still frugal, but any splurges are 'pre-saved' and bought in cash after careful consideration.

Good example: after playing my mate's PSVR virtual reality gaming system, I decided I really want one too. A 'new' set up from scratch will set you back around $1300 for helmet, console, sensors, games etc etc. Not cheap.

Here's my mental and monetary consideration/action plan for such an unusual lavish purchase:

- first, begin a savings 'earning the right to this splurge' spreadsheet. Basically every day I log all savings achieved by cutting expenses. This includes everything from the $4 coffee i avoided that morning, the $10 sandwich i avoided by bringing my own lunch, to a friends' dinner/drinks i said no to instead of yes ($50) right to grocery savings achieved by shopping for specials etc.
- next, this process takes about a month or so, during which i learn/discover if i still want/am passionate about the product (i.e. no impulse purchase)
- if im still keen, i then suss out any second-hand options on gumtree. There's basic setups going for $900-ish for example (games i'll buy second-hand from EB ibstrad of new..)
- finally, even if i can achieve $300-$400 of savings on the spreadsheet, the net cost comes down to around $600-ish to me
- at that point i purchase it

This frugal approach is sensible and cost-saving. Already taking this approach to a 10-night royal carribean cruise i was thinking about for 12 months time. $1800 is the going price but of course subscribing to specials/50% off email alerts etc. + cutting back on other indulgences throughout the year and logging that spreadsheet. Some frugalists go pretty far with this stuff. I.e. some drinks arent included in these cruise packages so some folks smuggle spirits they bought cheap i.e. tax-free, on board, and then just buy mixers. Others pre-buy all the books they intend on reading in advance, instead of buying them at the on-ship bookshop where they are double the price (or those who can tolerate a screen will bring a loaded kindle on board etc.)

 

I guess all I'm saying is that compounding your frugality-based everyday savings as above; can really create expotential portfolio growth results and get you to your goals that much faster.

 

I think I could cut down a bit on un-necessary spending, recently started buying books from op shop that saved me $100

 

This is really inspiring. I'm a long way off but here's a bit of my story.

Arrived in Aus 5 years ago on a working holiday visa had $670 in my wallet and that's it. Got a job in a fruit market for $15 an hour, hard horrible labour but got me some cash. Paid up front to do some personal training courses and got permanent residency, these cost me around 18k all up which was especially hard on such low wages.

Bought my first ip last year and hoping to land another one early this year. Paid deposit and all stamps in cash first time, will be able to use a garuantor for the 2nd one which is good.

It's been hard to get to this point but hoping a few more years hard work and a few more properties will help me see the snowball effect. The first property has performed really well so far. Hoping to pull out equity from that later this year to add value to both properties.

Love this forum and the success stories of the people here. Hard work and a bit of brains seems to pay dividends in Aus.

 

OK, that's us! Decent portfolio, old car. No bad debts.

To me a car is just a means of transport, and so long as it's safe, & not costing too much in maintenance, there's no need to replace it.

Holidays previously were always taken in conjunction with the skating National Championships, which we had to attend, so we'd tack a week or two onto that & have a holiday afterwards.

Moving forward, income getting better & children left home, so expenses have decreased, we've been able to not only retire Hubby from his job, but take overseas holidays and do whatever we want at home. It's the early years, so doing the closer, cheaper options first, and will gradually incorporate the more expensive places as we go. I've seen some amazing deals for travel to Europe in the early part of this year, but sadly can't go on any of them, as Hubby has a part in a Play in May, so has to be available for rehearsals.

We've always lived modestly, but in the last few years we have been living it up a bit, & doing things that have always been in the 'too expensive' basket.

As for your cruise, you may be able to get a much cheaper deal on that. We did a 10 night Cruise with Royal Carribean last year for under $1k each & leaving in February for a 14 night P&O Cruise to Singapore for around $800 each.

 

Why did you move all loans to IO? Is this purely for taxation benefits?

 

Cashflow

 

Yep! That's what we did. It made it quite easy then.
My initial goal was to have $1million in equity in 5 years. After 2 years I realised I underestimated the potential so upped it to $1.5m. I started in 2008 with a PPOR with $650k equity and 1 IP (negatively geared with no equity).
5 years later I had my $1.5m, which was a mixture of CG and reno's. Nothing fancy.
Then the Sydney property boom really hit. Yeehah! Sold a few to increase cashflow and lower LVR.

EVERYONE says that! I started at 50. Retired last year at 58.

 

Lucky I'm 27, 20 years seems ok

 

great thread- really distinguishes who's who in the zoo

 

that's the age I retired 47 yo

 

Maybe with some good advise and good decisions I can retire in 20 years too.