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TPC Gold | Why Women Must Prioritise Financial Independence (Before It’s Too Late!)

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This snippet is from one of our previous episodes: The Voice Behind “The Female Investor”! 

For far too long, women have faced systemic financial challenges—from the gender pay gap to lower superannuation balances—and the long-term impact can be significant. 

In retirement, more women than men experience financial insecurity, with many returning to the workforce, selling their homes, or facing unexpected financial struggles. 

That’s why in this TPC Gold soundbite, Ben is joined by Nicola McDougall—successful property investor and passionate advocate for women’s financial security—to discuss why financial independence is crucial for women at every stage of life. 

About Nicola McDougall 

  • Co-author of the best-selling book The Female Investor – Creating Wealth, Security & Freedom Through Property and Property Investing For Dummies (3rd Australian edition) 
  • Multi-award-winning property and finance journalist, industry spokesperson & business owner 
  • Chair of the Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA)  

For Women, Property Investing is About More Than Just Wealth 

It’s about security, choice, and independence. It’s about having options, no matter what life throws your way. While women face unique financial challenges, the good news is—there are steps to take control.

Want to Build Long-Term Security & Independence? 

Grab a copy of Nicola McDougall’s best-selling book The Female Investor – Creating Wealth, Security & Freedom Through Property. 

Ready to take it a step further?

Join our LIVE webinar next week to discover how to build a property portfolio and retire on $3,000 per week. 👉 Register here!

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Transcript

Ben Kingsley
Obviously there are lot of property investment books out there but this one’s been close to your heart because you’ve been telling me about this passion to write this book for a long period of time, so this is probably where I want to give you the mic to sort of tell us what’s important to you about teaching other women – potentially single women as well – what’s the backstory there in terms of what makes this such an important project for you to be able to write this book. 

Nicola McDougall
Thanks, Ben. Well, interesting that you say single because I actually had the idea for the book in 2018. And at the time it was called the Single Girl’s Guide to Property Investment. I don’t remember if there was an epiphany of sorts or anything like that. But I guess it’s because I have written a million words about this stuff, but I also have lived and breathed it. And I am the product of all this, everything that we talk about in the book.  

I only got married a few years ago, and prior to that, I bought three properties by myself, notwithstanding the one tenant in common with my little brother, which only lasted a couple of years. So as someone who classes themselves as a feminist, I also believe in financial independence. And I really wanted, when I look around now, and I’m of a certain age where my nieces, my stepdaughter, they’ve all finished high school, they’re at uni, or they’re starting jobs. And at the other end of the spectrum, I have friends with the family or within my own family (where there are) women who are retiring now and things like that. And I’m smack bang in the middle here.  

I just really wanted to pass on everything that I’ve learned, everything that I’ve written about after all of these years to other women, whether they are young and just starting out, whether they’re around my age and in a relationship, but maybe they have a partner who is conservative risk-wise when it comes to investing. Maybe they are separated, divorced, or even widowed, unfortunately. And then there are women who are at retirement. I know I’ve spoken to a number of them who would like that their stories could have been different, which is that, you know, whilst we all would like to hope that our relationships with our significant others are still around when we’re retired, for 40-50% of us, that won’t be the case.  

Could well be that you may be a single woman in retirement who has their own property that they live in but they’re still surviving on the pension. They don’t have any additional funds, they don’t have any super. One in three Australian women have no super. You know, the demarcation between the male and female super balance starts (which it was horrific when I found this research for the book), starts when we’re in our late 20s. That difference between male and female super balances starts to move apart at that point, and it never, ever, ever catches up.  

And so to answer your question in a really roundabout way…hand on heart would love for women of all ages to prioritise their own financial futures and prioritise potentially having financial independence throughout their lives. Because no one wants to wind up in poverty; no one wants to wind up in poverty in retirement. But more elderly single women than men do. More elderly single women have to return to the workforce. More elderly single women have to actually sell the family home, and go renting in retirement and things like that. And I know it can be hard for younger women to think about that sort of stuff when they’re in their 20s and 30s. But now thanks to you guys and many others, there is so much opportunity for them to work with bonafide experts to improve their education and start forging their own financial path earlier which will give them more choices later.  

You know financial independence is something that women have never had and it’s a bit of a lofty ideal I suppose but why not? Wouldn’t it be great if we had when two people got together regardless of their gender and each were fine; they created things together, but outside of that relationship, they have their own financial independence that retained that way, as my assets do retain mine outside of my marriage. It would be better for everybody. It would reduce a huge amount of legal fees and separations and divorces. And it would reduce the number of people that are really financially struggling later in life, and certainly help the number of women out there who are nearing retirement and worried about actually having the funds to see out their twilight years. And that’s a real problem for many women. 

 

TPC Gold | Is Property Investing Worth It? What to Do When Progress Feels Slow

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This snippet is from one of our previous episodes: How to Prioritise Your Property Investment Journey and Still Have a Life — Sydney LIVE Podcast ft. Q&A. 

Property investing is a long-term game, but what happens when it feels like nothing is happening?  

When life gets in the way, distractions pile up, and the market isn’t moving as fast as you’d hoped—it’s easy to start questioning if property investing is worth it. 

In this TPC Gold soundbite, we tackle one of the biggest challenges investors face: staying patient, focused, and motivated when progress feels slow. 

Here’s what we cover: 

🕰 Why property investing feels slow & why that’s normal
📉 How fear, media noise & market cycles can shake investor confidence
🛑 Why distractions & procrastination can cost you big time
🎯 How to stay committed to your investment goals—even in the “messy middle”
💡 The importance of understanding your ‘why’ to push through challenges  

So, Is Property Investing Worth It?

Absolutely—but only if you stay the course.  

Property investing isn’t about overnight wins; it’s about playing the long game and making strategic decisions. The most successful investors know how to cut through the noise, ignore the short-term distractions, and keep moving forward—even when progress feels slow. 

Want to Stay Focused & Build a Rock-Solid Property Portfolio?

🎓 Join our FREE Masterclass and learn how to build wealth through property the right way—without making costly mistakes or losing momentum. 

👉 Register here: https://masterclass.thepropertycouch.com.au/how-to-build-a-property-portfolio 

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Transcript

Bryce Holdaway
Hey our first question is from Louise who is one of our guests later today. She says: My single biggest challenge with my property investment journey has been keeping the momentum and not getting distracted or bored along the way. Property investing seems to sometimes move at a glacial speed and it’s easy to get a bit disheartened when you don’t see obvious progress. Ben, I wish I had this printed this a bit bigger.  

Ben Kingsley
I was going to say… 

Bryce Holdaway
It’s also easy to let life get in the way and not prioritise my investment journey. I delayed on a purchase by two years, Louise. Missing out on some great capital growth in Sydney because I was distracted by family and work life. Lou, Ben.  

Ben Kingsley
Lou, there’s a couple of things in there. The first one is, and we’re going to get distracted more and more around the sentiment and the confidence piece that’s happening in the market. We’re already seeing, you know, credit squeeze, Royal Commission, APRA, those types of things are going to get worse and worse. And papers sell on fear, and so we’re going to see more and more of this sentiment and confidence challenge. So what’s interesting for me around that story and around timing and having patience is I’ve always believed that you should invest in property when you can afford to invest.  

And we’ve also talked about there’s different times in the market and there’s different markets within markets. So we still believe that there’s going to be really good buying opportunities but it comes back to this position that if I listen to the noise, I’m like the 95% of people who don’t create financial wellbeing.  

So if I follow that noise and I take my eye off the prize, why should I be taking advice from people who haven’t got successful? Why should I take advice from a journalist who needs to put out a story around that? So if you can maintain the focus on the long journey, and in my case, yes, I’ve been investing, as you know, since I was 23. And here’s an interesting fact for you, because I haven’t publicly stated this before, but I’ve bought six properties, that’s it. Six properties.  

Now a lot of people might be thinking, wow, I would have thought he might have 10, 12, 25, 30, or I could have bought 20 properties on my credit card in Detroit in the GFC, because I could buy them for about $800. But you’ve never heard me talk about my number, because it’s not necessarily relevant to the story of my success. They’re just damn good properties.  

And I’ve timed them out accordingly and you never hear or see our business gloat about 500% returns on investment and all those types of things. Because each of you are in different stories and every property that we try our best to buy is a challenge. And it’s usually under competition because if we’re buying property that aren’t under competition, we’re shopping in the wrong location. So I think from that point of view is: be patient. The greatest investors are patient; but strike when you’re in the position to strike and that means don’t procrastinate, don’t let the noise disrupt your view. And there was another great question from Nick. We read the questions guys and so I don’t know whether we’ll get to Nick’s question… 

Bryce Holdaway
We will. 

Ben Kingsley
…but it was about how do you cut that noise out? Simple, don’t be a sheep, don’t follow everyone else. The trailblazers are the people who see opportunity in these markets. And that’s what’s going to be happening because yeah, if we take a macro generalistic view, I think property is going to be sluggish for probably the next 36 months. Now if it’s like that, well do I just wait? The answer to that is no, because I’m not buying the Australian property market. There’s still going to be opportunities inside that market that if it meets my brief, I go.  

Because if I’m going to be buying, I know that economic cycles are real. They’re based in academia, they’re proven, they move in cycles. We’ve come off the top of the cycle in Sydney, we’re getting to the top of the cycle in parts of Melbourne, so that’s okay. And then once the next cycle moves through, because remember, we’re not speculating in property. We’re buying property for the long term so we can live off the passive income that it’s going to generate for us once we get the debt in order.  

Bryce Holdaway
How many people in the room are goal setters? I mean, sort of set them at the beginning of the year, write them down, and follow them. So we’ve got a few, which is great.  

Ben Kingsley
It’s probably consistent with most people who plan to become what they plan to become.   

Bryce Holdaway
But I guess the reason for saying that is because I’ve been a frustrated goal setter for about 20 years now. I remember my little Datsun 323 at university. Air conditioning…we had the windows down and the roof open down the freeway. And I had a little Zig Ziglar tape. Who’s Zig Ziglar? Anyone? Yeah, put it in. It was goals. And I remember listening to that. And I thought he had the framework, the way that you’d set it out, what you had to do. And I thought, this is it. I’m going to do this. And because I’m a perfectionist, I thought, well, I’ve got to fully plan it out and make sure I know what I’ve got to do… and by nature that was a frustrating exercise and I never got around to it but I think each year I’d have to do it.  

Long story short I finally nailed the process this year. I’ve set nine goals – they’re all date stamped, they’re specific, they’re measurable, they’re actionable, they’re results driven. And what the difference was for me is part of that process is I had to go to the why of each goal and really drill down into the why of each goal, because there comes a time when you get to what’s called the messy middle. And that’s where you’ve got all this enthusiasm when you start your investment property journey. We love it, we’ve read the books, we’re fired up, we see it’s a better future. And then at the end of it, we hopefully get to passive income. But somewhere in the middle, Louise, is the messy middle.  

And so what happens is I now review those goals every day. It takes me 90 seconds. But then once a week, I look at them at length. And what I do is I go through these four or five bullet points on every goal. And it reminds me why I’ve set those goals. And it helps me when I get to the messy middle to remember why they’re there in the first place. So what I’d say is a lot of people come into our business and they see our book and it’s got $2,000 per week and they go, that’s what I want. And we can get to work and say, okay, let’s do what we need to do to get to work, but we need to realise that at some point you are going to hit the messy middle. So we need to ask better questions, right? So if someone comes in and says, I want $2,000 a week passive income; it’s our job to go: What for? Well, I want financial freedom. Okay, what for? I want to spend more time with my kids. We’re starting to get close now. We go, okay, so next question, if we’re skilled enough, we’ll go, what for? And the person will come in.  

Ben Kingsley
They don’t go exactly like this by the way.   

Bryce Holdaway
It’s a bit more subtle than that. But ultimately we’re trying to peel back the layers, right? So the person who comes in and says I want $2,000 a week, who then wants financial freedom, who then wants to spend more time with their kids, if we get to the crux of it, it’s because my dad never spent any time with me and I don’t want to be that dad with my kids, right?  

And I’ve just described a little bit of my own journey and my own why, because my dad was born in 1939. He’s a very wonderful father but he wasn’t around, right? And so I make it a priority each morning; I’ve decided that the breakfast meal is the meal that I want to spend with my kids every day because they’re most energetic, they’re most vibrant and they’re most up and about versus dinner at night where my wife is in the front row. She has to deal with that every single day.  

So for me, I’m always trying to work out the why. So that would be the first thing I’d be working with you Louise, is what’s the why? And I know that’s a real sort of statement “what’s your why?” but I’d really want to drill down as to why it is you’re building portfolio and what it is that’s driving you, so that we could remind you of that when you get into the messy middle. 

 

TPC Gold | How We Teach Our Kids About Money—Saving, Spending & More!

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This snippet is from one of our previous episodes: Money Lessons for Kids. 

Teaching kids about money can feel overwhelming, but the key is starting early, keeping it simple, and making it part of everyday life. 

In this TPC Gold soundbite, we’re sharing how we teach our own kids about money—from saving and spending to understanding opportunity cost and financial priorities. 

Here’s what we cover: 

👶 Teaching Preschoolers – How to introduce the idea that money doesn’t just “appear” and why role-playing with play money (or even Monopoly!) can be a fun way to start.
🏫 Primary School & Opportunity Cost – When kids start understanding numbers, it’s time to introduce trade-offs: “Do you want to spend $25 at the cinema or go kick the footy for free?”
🛍 Comparing Prices & Making Choices – Real-life exercises like shopping around for gifts or choosing between streaming subscriptions can help kids make smarter money decisions.
💰 Aligning as Parents – Why consistency between partners is crucial when setting money rules and expectations for kids. 

Money habits start young, and the best way to set your kids up for success is to lead by example and have open conversations about money.  

Want More Resources to Help Teach Your Kids About Money?

📖 Read Make Money Simple Again – Our step-by-step guide helps parents manage their own money better, so they can pass down smart financial habits to their kids. 

💡 Explore ASIC’s MoneySmart Resources – The MoneySmart website has great tools and tips for teaching kids about money at every age.  

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If You Enjoyed TPC Gold | How We Teach Our Kids About Money—Saving, Spending & More! You Might Also Like:

Transcript

Bryce Holdaway
Yeah, so I’m sure we’ve got many, many parents listening to this and some will agree with what we just said and some will disagree…which is fine. The idea here is just to stimulate some discussion and hopefully give you guys some ideas. But number one, start young. Number two, talk about invisible money. And then number three, look for opportunities where you can have conversations around money, where (even if) you just don’t even think that now is a good time, but they’re watching and they’re absorbing, and it might be a good opportunity.  

So Ben, I guess the way that ASIC was suggesting that you introduce this is to do it by age group, right? So what do you talk about when kids are at preschool age? What do you talk (about) when kids are at school age? And then how do you sort of advance them along at high school? And I thought that breaking that up was pretty good. So, because I’ve got one at preschool, one at school. I certainly don’t have any in high school yet; that’ll come at some stage.  

Ben Kingsley
Yes, it will.  

Bryce Holdaway
So in terms of preschool, it was about introducing them that you need money to buy things. It doesn’t just turn up. There is some form of exchange happening, and largely an invisible exchange. But you know there’s Monopoly. The kids have got play money. You can actually role play and teach them as early as you can. And as Paul Clitheroe said last week, if you’re at school, if you’re counting anyway, why don’t you talk about dollars and cents rather than just numbers. So bring it in where you can.  

Ben Kingsley
The dollars and cents, you trade time for money. They start to understand, okay, I’m going off to preschool and I trade my time for learning. Mum and Dad go off to work to trade time for money. If they can understand that concept, then the flow on of that is, well, what’s the value of that time? And the fact that certain people trade their time for higher or lower levels of money. So don’t try and introduce that too youn;, they won’t get it. If they can’t understand the different values of amounts of counting, then start simple. You just wanna say: Mummy and Daddy go off and they spend time there to make money and that money allows us to buy things.  

Bryce Holdaway
And spend on things that we choose to. I think you just hit the nail on the head. Don’t make it too complex. Make it simple. But understand there’s a flow, there’s an exchange, there is a trade of time for money in return for something that then the parents have an opportunity to decide where they want to prioritise their money going.  

Ben Kingsley
And that’s a good segue into obviously the primary school age, where they’re developing their skill sets around multiplication and division, then you can start to sort of talk more complex. And that’s probably the opportunity cost conversation. So, Harry, if I’ve got $100 and your new basketball runners are gonna cost me $120, how much more do we need to find for us to be able to buy your runners for you? Those types of things are going to be part of that story. And then, Harry this weekend we’ve got free, I’m gonna spend an afternoon with you, where do you wanna go? Do you wanna go to the cinema? Okay, so the cinema’s your choice. Do you wanna go there?  

That’s gonna cost us probably about $25 for you to go to the cinema. Do you wanna use that money or do you wanna just go and kick the footy down the park or shoot some hoops down at the basketball stadium or something along those lines, which doesn’t have a cost, and then you can start to sort of see what that story lives.  

Bryce Holdaway
Comparing and shopping around, we’ve actually done this exercise with Jack where we said what do want for Christmas and they gave us a list. And then it was a PlayStation versus a Nintendo Switch. So we asked him to go and get on the iPad and compare prices and compare features and then do a pros and cons for each. So he actually enjoyed it.  

Ben Kingsley
And this is the time when husband and wife need to be aligned.  

Bryce Holdaway
Or partner and partner.  

Ben Kingsley
Or partner and partner, good point. Because this is where money conversations go awry and we’re seeing a bit of that in terms of some of the feedback we’re getting from the people using the platform, because we ask them a little questionnaire when they come onto the Facebook group as well and we’re noticing the trend of disalignment through partner and partner. And that happens in our household too with the living and lifestyle budget.  

Bryce Holdaway
My hand’s up too. 

Ben Kingsley
It’s like okay, so what’s a perfect example right now? So I thought we had enough lights and I thought we had enough Christmas decorations. I think 20 or 30 items is enough, that gets stored into a couple of boxes, but because we’ve now got an upstairs and a downstairs, apparently we needed some lights upstairs. So that’s a good example of, right, okay, we’ve got some lights upstairs now. Now where does that come out of the budget? 

Bryce Holdaway
That’s the hidden cost of renovating Ben…Christmas lights. 

Ben Kingsley
And that wasn’t out of my provisional jar. You can’t sort of move a little bit of money. But coming back to the kids’ story, is if you don’t have alignment between the parents in terms of the rules that we’re setting up, then this is gonna be difficult, right? Because as parents, we want to see the joy in our children’s face. But in some cases, some of that joy is short-lived in the sense of buying them things as opposed to giving them experiences. And I for one, that is a pain point for me in the household.  

Bryce Holdaway
I can see it in your face as you’re talking about it.  

Ben Kingsley
I’m just being careful in terms of how I talk about it because I get it, right? I mean, I’m someone who’s not at home as much as other people are. I run a business; I work probably eight to late most days. On the weekends, I’m there, but it’s just important. So I’m guilty of that time work balance in terms of what I’m doing, but I love what I do, so that’s the trade-off for me. Everyone says, you work a lot. You think this is work, but this is my passion, it’s my purpose, it’s what I wanna do, so I work. My life and my children work around that, and I make sure I have enough time for them.

But on the other hand, Jane’s passion and purpose is making sure those kids are wonderfully organised and good mannered and have morals and are adding to society. So there’s a combination there. But I get it, she’s had a tough day or they’re not going well or you know, there’s an ice cream after school or so forth. I don’t want that ice cream after school to be a norm. I want it to be, well, you were great at school today. That was great. I was really proud with what the teacher told me about, so let’s go and get an ice cream. But it is that challenge of, okay we’re out, the kids are screaming, I needed to occupy them whilst I could go and do some shopping or whatever. So you know, there’s a quick little gift, and that for me is like, it’s a quick win. I’m just putting it out there. I’m not telling you how to…I’m certainly no sort of behavioural expert around raising children. My God, I’d be getting an F probably for that myself. But I would say that that’s where the friction in our household was when I was growing up and it didn’t stop right through.

So if you can get on the same page in terms of teaching each other about where you’re coming from with your money plans and what it means for you in the future, that’s the big story here. Because I think if my dad was better at telling my mum: this is what our life is gonna look like into the future, if we do this better here now and make some sacrifice and delay gratification, mum might go: oh I get it. Whereas dad just probably passed on by saying, yeah, look, it’s for our future, we’re gonna retire early. And in some cases, a lot of people can’t see that future.  

Bryce Holdaway
That’s a good message about buy-in. There’s gotta be buy-in by all parties.  

Ben Kingsley
Yeah, absolutely. 

Bryce Holdaway
Hey, a couple of things around comparing prices. I use an opportunity since we have Netflix, Ben. So when the boys can’t find a movie on Netflix and they want to do it on Apple TV, that’s an opportunity that I use: where Netflix, anything you want to watch on that comes all-encompassing, whereas if I have to go on Apple TV, I have to pay more to do that. And that’s actually been something that’s landed for them. And I’ve noticed their behaviour is changing where they request less. Now, don’t get me wrong. We still watch movies from Apple TV and we pay for them, but the frequency has been diminished now that they know that the value that we provide is in that monthly package.  

Ben Kingsley
Does that money come out of their pocket money or does that come out of the family budget for you?  

Bryce Holdaway
It comes out of the family budget.  

Ben Kingsley
Oh, okay. Whereas I would probably say: you want that and that’s your choice. I’d take it out of their pocket money. 

Bryce Holdaway
Oh you mean paying for the movie for the kids? No, I haven’t actually done that. That’s a nice thing that you do. Well done.  

 

TPC Gold | Tom Panos: Why High Earners Stay Broke (And How to Fix It)

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This snippet is from one of our previous episodes: Secret To Making Money While You Sleep – Chat with Tom Panos. 

Some people earn six figures but still have nothing to show for it. Sound familiar? 

In this week’s bonus episode, we’re hearing from the always-insightful Tom Panos, one of Australia’s leading real estate coaches, auctioneers, and media personalities.  

Tom has worked with top-performing agents and seen firsthand why so many high earners remain financially stuck—despite their impressive pay checks. 

The Harsh Reality: High Incomes Don’t Always Equal Wealth 

Tom shares a no-nonsense take on why many professionals struggle to build wealth. He highlights a common pattern: 

  • Driving a $100,000 car on lease payments 
  • Wearing $1,500 suits 
  • Taking luxury holidays that cost $15,000+ 
  • Yet only having $5,000–$10,000 in savings 

As Tom puts it: “They’re spending more of their money and time looking like they’ve got money than actually accumulating it.” 

So, what’s the solution?  

The Path to Real Wealth: Hustle, Save, Invest 

Tom lays it out plainly: if you want financial freedom, you need to play the long game. This means: 

✅ Hustling and grinding in your 20s and 30s
✅ Saving aggressively instead of overspending on lifestyle
✅ Investing in property to build long-term passive income 

He explains why property is the ultimate “escape plan”—allowing investors to build a financial safety net, create wealth while they sleep, and eventually live life on their terms. 

Want to Learn More? 

If you’re serious about escaping the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle and ready to set yourself up for a wealthier future, don’t leave it to chance.

Join our FREE Masterclass and learn how to build a rock-solid property portfolio—without risking your lifestyle or making costly mistakes. 

👉 Get started here 

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Transcript

Bryce Holdaway
You mentioned before that you buy whenever cashflow allows and hold them for the long term. You’re in the newspaper business which is in the business of reporting on property either booming or busting, and to be honest we’re about to face some headwinds with the news that we receive.  

Tom Panos
Yeah. 

Bryce Holdaway
How do you mentor people who come to you for advice around property? You know probably with the backdrop of (the) Becoming Warren Buffett documentary, the ultimate long-term investor. What advice do you give to people to say: hey look, you’ve got to play the long game here and you are going to face some of these headlines but stay the course. Do you get that question and how do you handle them?  

Tom Panos
Yeah, yeah, look, I do. I get that question all the time. But I mean, ironically, I get that question from people that rock up with a $100,000 car that’s got, you know, lease payments of say, two and a half thousand a month, they’re probably wearing a $1,500 suit. And they most likely have just come back from a holiday – that between air travel, accommodation, and drinking and partying money, they’ve spent 15 grand.  

Ben Kingsley
On their credit cards.  

Tom Panos
And they’re frustrated because what they’re doing is they’re making decent money. Because most of my conversations are with people that are in the sales professions and they’re making decent money, but they’ve got like five, ten, fifteen grand in the bank because they’re spending more of their money and their time looking like they’ve got money than actually accumulating money. So the first thing I say to them is: guys, drop the ego and understand that what’s going to give you absolute freedom in your life is not getting the approval of other people but being able to put yourself and create. You’ve got to plan the escape out of, whether you’re working in the corporate world or whether you’re working as a tradesperson or whether you’re working as a real estate salesperson, you’ve got to plan the escape. No one’s gonna come and rescue you. You’ve got to plan the escape. And for me, property investment is the escape.  

When I’m talking to a young guy, I’m saying to them, even if you write a million dollars in commissions, even if you make a million dollars in commissions, you’ve got to pay about half of that to your real estate office, leaves you with $500,000. Out of that $500,000, you’ve got to pay two admin staff, leaves you with $350,000. Then you’ve got to pay the tax office, right? So you’re going to pay a third of that, even if you’ve got a company set up, leaves you with $200,000. And you haven’t even yet bought a cup of coffee, you haven’t paid your rent, you haven’t paid your car lease payment, you haven’t paid any school fees.  

So how can you win when you play that game when you’re playing against someone else who might have $5 million worth of real estate? Well actually, don’t even talk about $5 million. Let’s talk about if they’ve got $1 million worth of real estate. They make money while they sleep. They’ll make 10% on January 1 each year because they’re playing the long game.  

So what I say is: be prepared to hustle and grind and do it hard for the first three, four, five years in saving money…in being comfortable going to bed at night knowing that you’ve got a mortgage out, which means that you’re losing a bit of flexibility in life, because it means you can’t just pack up and say, that’s it, I’m disappearing, I’m moving over to Spain for six months and partying, or I’m doing that; it creates you to have to be disciplined. Ben and Bryce, this is what I said then: Hustle and grind and save and invest in property in your 20s and 30s so you can start chilling in your 40s.   

Ben Kingsley 
Oh that’s great advice, some really great advice.   

Tom Panos
Sorry for going on, but you can, like (see) it upsets me when I see a lot of people make good money. They got great turnover, but they got zero left over.   

Ben Kingsley
They’ve got nothing to show for it, have they? They might have a few great memories in the memory bank, but a lot of it is… You know, the power of property investing is if you do the hard yards early, this can be the passive power of that income for not having to do much for it. It’s just incredible. Once you build that base wealth up, it just continues to be in perpetuity. You just continue to keep getting that rent, that passive income. The value of those assets grow and you know, you talk about the different stages in your life: the time you get, the choices you’re able to make and, you know, money’s not everything. Let’s be clear about that. But what it does allow is the choice to do what you want to do. 

 

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