I prefer to listen to people who get their facts at least reasonably right before they go spouting off opinions to the media.
I also prefer to listen to people who contribute in a positive manner to discussions to improve a situation, rather than just issuing all encompassing tirades about it.
Keep smiling
Felicity

Sounds very similar to some of the ideas Robert Kiyosaki brought up in his book, I think it was called “Prophecy”.

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Felicity

From the link posted above…..

Rick, How Does ‘We Buy Houses’
Secure My Funds?

· We do this a number of ways

1. Firstly, we keep the title of the house in our name until our applicants sell or refinance and pay us and you out.

2. Second we don’t create more than 80% debt on the property, so for example a house of $300,000 has no more than $240,000 attached debt.

3. Third we provide you with a Registered Consent Caveat, which is fully explained, in our Loan Agreement that you can download here for $45. (The $45 is refunded together with your first electronic interest payment.)

4. Fourth you are the only investor in the property as ‘We Buy Houses’ only permits one investor per property.

5. Fifth…In case I happen to fall over a balcony during property inspections… I always carry $3,000,000 in life assurance with AMP

Keep smiling
Felicity

My first words of advice are usually to say – work out what your goals are, then determine what you can do with the money to get there.
It seems you already know what you want, ie your investments to fund your lifestyle.
So if it was me, I’d use the money to invest in positive cashflow properties to increase my non job income. I’ve personally used wraps to do that, but you may prefer “normal” cashflow positive property.
Wraps can be quite time intensive, so depending on your situation, it may even be worth investigating doing a JV with a wrapper, or even become a private lender to an investor, with rates of say 12-15%pa on your money for doing nothing.

Keep smiling
Felicity

Hope everything works out okay for you.

Keep smiling
Felicity

I use QuickBooks for managing my businesses, and I think it’s brilliant. I very rarely use journal entries unless I’ve paid cash for something.
However it took a while to get to that point. It’s a question of breaking down extensively into categories (or accounts as they’re called) – my chart or list of accounts is very long! But once they’re done, it’s very effective to use.
I still use Rick Otton’s cash creator spreadsheets to track my wrap buyer loans.

Keep smiling
Felicity

Thanks Rob, I always like to know what’s out there!

Keep smiling
Felicity

Grrr my ISP had a glitch and lost the really long answer I’d typed to this!
[angry2]
anyway, when I started out it’s fair to say hubby wasn’t keen. He was working ridiculous hours, and didn’t want to know. Initially I started doing some small share trades, and talking to him occasionally about it, but property was just too big a thing for him to contemplate. All he wanted was to pay off the house and no more borrowing.
Anyway, one day he read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. It didn’t change him over night, but it certainly opened his eyes to a lot of things. Finally I convinced him to let me buy a rental property. We’ve moved on from there.
I have to say that even today a lot of what I do scares him, he’s not really comfortable with it all. But having said that, he took a package just over a year ago, spent last year studying full time in Children’s Ministry, and is now contemplating how best he can work to help primary school age kids at risk (and it doesn’t matter if it’s paid work or not).
He’s still not entirely comfortable with what I do, and still has a tendency to be a negative nellie when I come up with ideas, but considering where he’s come from, I think it’s brilliant!!!
I’m still the main investor, I still read the books and go to seminars by myself – I don’t know if that will ever change. His passion is helping kids, mine is investing. But at least he’s on the same page now. And he will bounce ideas around with me!
And right from the beginning, even when he didn’t want to know, he still reluctantly supported me.
So I guess what I’m saying is – take it one step at a time. It’s good to paint a rosy picture of the future, maybe even chuck in an incentive or two, but if you try to present the bigger picture right from the start in terms of how many houses you want, etc, you may just scare your partner so much that you’ll never get anywhere.
I started with little share parcels, then options trading, then one rental house, then two rental houses, then wrap houses, and so it goes.
The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step – take your wife one step at a time, and you may be surprised.
But if she’s never interested in being your partner in investing, that’s okay too. All she really needs to do is not block you!

Keep smiling
Felicity

I guess the person who wrote the article has no idea what they’re talking about. Lease options are not illegal in SA. Perhaps the author should have worked out that wraps and lease options are two entirely different types of contract.

Keep smiling
Felicity

Depending where you’re located, there may be an established group in your area already, that you could link into. A number of groups that started either at the Somersoft forum or NineMSN forum meet monthly in several capital cities.

Keep smiling
Felicity