Hi, I am looking into starting to invest. I think I have made it to a point where I realise I need to start acquiring assets of some sort so that my complete income is not solely from working 5 days a week and spending a portion of that straight away on bills and tax. I want to start setting myself up for the future. I want to ask what your opinions are be it property/shares and what strategies have worked best for you. I am currently purchasing land and building a house, however this will be my PPOR for the time being, as I am making the most of govt grants and concessions. I eventually would like to have this as an IP but want to also start using my savings smarter rather than just being savings. Also do any of you suggest paying for mentors or investing in managed funds? Appreciate any help.
Good morning Josh Welcome to the forums. You'll find loads of helpful information here. The challenge with mentoring is defining a measure of identifying "when success has been achieved". In other words, how do you define you have learned enough in exchange for your mentoring fee? If you plan to eventually use your PPOR as an IP, you'd be well advised to have a chat to a savvy property accountant and mortgage broker to ensure that when you make that switch, your loans are set up in a manner that maximises tax deductibility of mortgage interest.
I would avoid paying people initially. Read a lot and ask questions. Only financial advisers can give advice on financial products as its licensed advice. Ditto credit advice requires a mortgage broker and tax advice.... etc
A lot of mentors have written books. Pay the mentor $20 and buy their book. Don't pay the mentor $2,999 to hear them repeat the book. Some managed funds make money. The majority underperform once their fees are considered. If you can find a managed that outperforms in the long run you are better than me - but some people can do this magic.
A good place to start is by reading investor stories. There are heaps of mentors on this forum who freely give/share their time, energy, experience ... This interview is one of my favorites The keithj Interview
Thank you all for the advice. I will keep on trying to educate myself as much as possible through PC forums and read plenty of books. Interested in the sharemarket but I think maybe some professional advice may be a good start. Cheers
I'll disagree to an extent, with regards to the professional advice for shares. If you are in it to invest, another place to start is "Other Assets" section of PChat, do a search for "Beginners Guide to LICs". More reading for you.
The share market is very interesting - start by getting involved in some conversations here, there's some very knowledgeable people.
Try focus on 1 asset class at a time. Too much information on too many asset classes can become confusing and cause analysis paralysis as to where is best to start. I am biased towards starting with real estate for many reasons but doing well with it and seeing many people do well with it probably has influenced my bias most. Regardless, there are many great ways to make money in RE and I would recommend to start with it. Right now your a bit lost and all over the place which is understandable as you've just started. Once you've started to do some education via some books, the forum and networking with others who have achieved success in this field, a lot will become clearer and you can start to set your goals. Later on if you like you can also add other asset classes to your portfolio. Just my 2 cents.
