Hi. Well, this is my very first post, and I thought what better place than here to start. Mostly for my own benefit – in a few months I will come back and see what has changed or what I have acheived.

1) What was the prime motivating event in your life that created a focus on the need to invest?

Our parents. My husbands parents are on the pension and struggling. They have 5 children and we all give them a small amount of money each week so they can make ends meet – I don’t want to be there. My parents are currently on a 7 month caravaning trip around Australia without a care in the world (and yes they are definately one of those bloody 4WD/Caravan combos you try to avoid on the road). They invested well in shares rather than property after a horror IP experience. They own their own home. I don’t want to rely on the pension or my kids (we don’t have enough kids anyway []).

2) What have you in fact done about it since then, and rate your achievment.

We have really only just started.

Thanks to hubbys work we are currently living in Sydney and our own home in central vic is being rented. So in reality you could call that our first IP but we are being relocated back south after 3 years in the beautiful harbour city and will move back into our own home. But we loved being landlords and see that as our path to financial independence.

We are currently reading heaps and researching areas. Looking at different structures and working out the best way to get started.

Rating: 3/10 – at least we have made the decision []

3) Based on your current performance, how long will it take to reach financial independence? (Whatever this might mean to you)

We have a 10 year plan and at this stage can’t see any obstructions to that.

4) What are you currently doing to improve your plans?

Redoing our budget to save more for deposits/closing costs. Researching to ensure our plan is realistic and includes everything we want to ahceive.

5) What is your ultimate goal; and will it make you happy?

To only work when we want to, doing what we want to do whilst living very comfortably until the day we both die. To help Hubbys parents more.

6) Which is more important: The goal or the journey?

Mmmmm… tricky. The journey doesn’t exist without the goal, so if it is a matter of importance then it is the goal. But if the journey isn’t fun, will the goal be worth it?