Hi everyone,
My name is Gordon and for too long I’ve wandered down the road of “get a good education and get a good job”. I’m starting to break my mind out of the shackles of conventional thinking but still having some lingering confusion.
My concern is about how all of this fabulous property stuff can be achieved with nothing “down”. My personal situation is that I have a “hangover” debt from credit cards and a personal loan for youthful travel. Since awakening my mind to this new world of investing I have been kicking myself again and again for digging such a deep hole to climb out from.
There is however a thought a lingers in the back of my mind that I might not have to wait the year I need to get out of debt before I could start on something like this. Could anyone help verify for me that investing like this is possible with no money in savings or do I have to wait??
I want to believe that I could start now and am willing to challenge my “poor” preconceptions but don’t have enough of an idea how this can happen.
I know what I want and I know where I want to go, I just don’t want to have to wait a whole year before I can start.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!
Many thanks,
Gordon
Hi Gordy
Welcome, welcome to PI.com ! [
]All depends I am afraid….. everyones circumstances are different.
I started out with hummungous credit card debt and a line of credit maxed out, but, I had a job that threw of enough $s (in the lenders assessment) to support other investment and allow me to service all of the bad debt.
Made a decision to only do deals in excess of the interest rate on the bad debt, else pour money into paying off the bad debt.
2 1/2 years later all is resolved and we have a property portfolio.
My feeling here is that if I can mend my ways, anyone can !!! (though I must tell you that there is probably a business somewhere else in the universe that has gone under because I finally learnt to spend less that I earned…) [
]best of luck and fun on the journey…
the Bruce
Hi Gordi,
Building a portfolio is not going to happen straight away. It takes time to create your plans, goals, knowledge and to put your systems in place before you should can start “looking”.
My advice is to set your goal, what you want to achieve from your business etc etc.
While you are doing this, take a good hard look at your personal spending habits and ask yourself some questions, what do I spend on entertainment? how much take away do I eat? Do I have any assets that I don’t use- can I sell these to get rid of my bad debt?etc etc I am sure if you look at your situation, you will be able to find answers to your questions raised in your post.
So, the fact is, you can start now. By restructing your loans(consolidate them if you can) analysing your spend and planning ahead, where do you want to be tommorrow, next week,
next year.Hope this gives you something to think about.
Cheers
The king of rock’n’roll
the fastest way to do this is cut up your credit card and start paying cash for everything – and learn to negotiate better prices for things you pay cause your paying cash – i.e haggle at every opertunity.
Do up a budget in excell (and you can track your expenses here to).
have 2-3 savings online accounts that automatically redirect money to debt, rent, savings, investments etc (this enforces the budget).
Only have a total of less then $50 cash on you at home (emergencies) and none in your wallet. (money in your wallet will be spent faster then you can say “crikey where did it go”.) Go to an ATM only when you must and keep with in the 5 transactions/month (avoid bank fees like the plague)
Do up a net worth statement so you can watch your progress daily. Think “what can i do today to improve this” – maybe you have $343.55 in your savings account – why not pay $43.55 onto debt via online transfere. you wont notice it but small amounts payed off on debt will pay it off quickly if frequently done (the reverse of running up the debt in the process).
Also, petty cash is good for this. i.e every time you take money to go out and watch a movie or something – use only notes. Put the steal in a box and dont touch it – i.e learn to hate steal. then at the end of about 2 months, take that box and put it on debt. – I once payed of a $3000 lounge sweet like that – 6 months eary!
Avoid “take now pay later deals”. – if you cant pay now in cash – you can not afford it!.
Do all this and you’ll be debt free in no time and you’ll have some money to start investing to.
Hey Gordi,
I’m from a similar position. Some goods books relating in particlular to investing with no start-up capital/cashflow are;
Nothing Down For The 90’s, Robert Allen
Seven Money Secrets of the Rich (not 100% sure on title name), John BurleyGood motivation and helps open your mind to investing without having a high income or capital base to begin with.
PS – You can borrow most real estate books from local libraries!
Hi Gordi
I oops! My wife and myself started in the same position ther is no such word as CAN’T,always remember that.First find out what equity you have in your current property,take a look around your area and find out what places are selling for in your area.
Next check out Financial advisers there is no obligations with these people,as you will find they are connected to banks or lending institutions,so most times there should be NO FEES.
Next look for a property,you did not specify wether you wanted to reno,or,rent.Either way look for the short term gain,or the long term profit in negative gearing.
Remember to do your homework first before you buy,DON’T! buy the first thing you see.
Make sure the area is going ahead and not staying still.
Remember somebody told me once a diamond comes from coal.
So go out and start,the longer you leave it the dearer property gets.
ausken
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