Expert Advice with Lindy Lear. 19/10/2016

Some investors achieve wealth, security and early retirement.  Others delay starting. They come up with all the reasons not to invest now. Is there a cost to waiting?

Even though I was a late starter into property investing I built a portfolio in 3 years through having a mentor, being focussed, and being driven by my goal of security for retirement. Waiting was not an option. Now I am one of the very few (less than 1%) of investors who have 5 or more properties and can look forward to a secure retirement.

The cost of waiting

So why are there so many interested investors who fail to take the plunge into the market at all or end up with only one or no investment property?

Statistics tell us we are living longer and most will either run out of funds in retirement or face the prospect of retiring on the pension. Statistics also tell us only 1 in 100 is wealthy, only 3 in 100 are financially independent - not a very good outcome for working hard for 40 years. The cost of waiting could be ending up with nothing and on a pension.

Compounding growth is the reward

The secret to investing can be summed up in a few words – the power of compounding growth and time. The earlier you start the sooner you finish and the bigger your nest egg. Think of the snowball rolling down the hill, small at first then gaining momentum and growing bigger and bigger closer to the end.

Putting it simply as many others have on the internet if you google compound interest, investing $100,000 at age 25 with compounding interest of 10% is worth $5.5M by age 65 at retirement without investing any more funds. Even at a compound interest of 5% the nest egg would be $2.25M. Time and compound growth did all the work for you.

In the property world the power of compounding can be even more powerful. I learnt this from real life experience. My Dad bought a property in 1970 for $60K and by 2007 it was valued at $1.25M. The property market showed an average growth of approx. 10% over the 5 property doubling cycles. Who would have believed back in 1970 that properties would grow by that much in 35 years? Certainly not my Dad when he bought it! The power of property is that you can leverage into investing using other people’s money (the banks) and having others pay for the investment (the tenant and the taxman). Compounding growth and time work their magic to get results for you.

What is the risk?

Cautious investors seem to weigh the risks more than the rewards. They worry about everything from interest rates going up, to having bad tenants, to maintenance issues, to property prices falling, to the results of the elections – all the what-ifs cloud their mind and moving forward is impossible. The “right” property will remain elusive to them whilst they are in the negative state of mind. There are always risks to investing, but these can be mitigated by having a sound financial and investing strategy, a sound plan, guidance from someone more experienced and being driven to towards the rewards investing can bring.

To be a successful investor and to reap the rewards of compounding growth in the future you have to start buying property and accumulating your asset base now. Get started sooner and be the investor who achieves wealth, security and passive income. Let time do the work for you. The cost of waiting for me was too awful to think about.

If only I knew what I know now at an earlier age I would now be in early retirement!

Happy Investing!

............................................................................

Lindy Lear is a successful property investor who had a late start into investing, yet she built a portfolio of eight properties in just three years. She is a qualified property advisor and general manager of Rocket Property Group, and she won the Reader’s Choice Award in 2009, 2012 & 2013 for Property Investment Advisor of the Year. Lindy is passionate about helping others realise their goals through investing in property, and can be contacted on Ph: 1300 850 038 or visit www.rocketpropertygroup.com.au

To read more Expert Advice articles by Lindy, click here

Disclaimer: while due care is taken, the viewpoints expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Your Investment Property.