Hi Liam,

I’ve got a slightly different spin to add to this thread. In the past, I’ve been a fraidy cat. Not an outright naysayer, but often confused by the different concepts involved in property investment, and struggle to wrap my head around numbers.

Partner and I have been together for just over 10 years, we have 12 yo and 3mth old daughters. Its the birth of our youngest that has kickstarted a “Right, let’s do this thing!!” interest in investment property.

But its taken 10 years to get to that point (and I have been apologising so much this last month, its not funny).

My partner is generally more financially savvy than me – he was using margin loans to build deposits from when he was about 16 years old. I saw my parents lose 4 properties in a year when I was a kid due to the sky rocketing interest rates of the late 80’s. Any time my partner would raise the discussion around investment property, I would be anxious – which wasn’t helped by his tendency to use hypothetical figures to justify his strategy! I attended a property investment seminar (OTP scam) and figured if that was what all they hype was about, I’d better find another way to financial freedom. It didn’t occur to me that there could be more than one way to invest in property – so maybe change your phrases – “Cashflow positive property investment” has been a good one with me and some of our family members to get the distinction across on how what we’re doing is different. I’ve also welcomed one especially anxious family member’s comments and questions – it forces me to take off my sometimes rose coloured glasses and find answers that satisfy the concerns raised (or at least address them to my satisfaction).

IF you want to convert those around you to being more positive – ask them what they’re afraid of. What worries them about property investment? Specifically! Ask them what they’ve read, and point them to better information. Ask them how they plan to be financially free – and if they scoff at the notion, let them go. If they look slightly desperate, keep pointing them to more information.

For my partner, he’s been patient while I’ve read, and read, and read (!), asked noobie questions, read some more, in between been flat out working and trying not to spend all our hard earned on “make me feel better” stuff (holidays, furniture – parental guilt is expensive in more ways than one). I really feel for him, and wish we’d been able to have more constructive conversations on property investment much sooner. But we’re here now, and I’m determined to make this work!!

And I’m education our eldest as we go – keep an eye out for her success story in about 10 years ;)

Hope this helps!

Woodlin