From Humble Beginnings …
I grew up living in a Caravan in the South East of England. My family couldn’t afford a car and my father didn’t have a car licence anyway, so our mode of transport was initially a motorcycle.
As I reflect on my childhood I remember that the family was always short of money, despite the fact that my father always put money aside as long term savings – which wasn’t worth much by the time it was redeemed. He was eccentric and pessimistic but well liked and an interesting character. My mother, although partially disabled following an aneruism and then meningitis when I was just 3 years old, had great strength of character and provided the optimistic balance to their marriage.
In short, I would describe my parents and my upbringing as very loving but ‘different’ and throughout my childhood and adolescence, I took the love for granted, but yearned to achieve a level of ‘normality’ in my lifestyle.
I dreamed of being ‘normal’, owning my own home, having a wonderful husband to care for me and support me, and perhaps a couple of beautiful children to top off the fairy tale.
A Few Bumps Along the Way…
When I was 17, I was eager to leave the confines of the Caravan and move out into the big wide world – and into a real house! As part of this escape, I got engaged at 16, and married a day after my 19th birthday.
Although it wasn’t a good match, it was a very good learning experience, that has strengthened my character as well as my compassion for others who feel trapped in some domestic situations.
My life improved as I improved and by the time I reached 40, I had ended a negative marriage and entered a positive relationship. I was working hard, but still quite content with life. Finally I felt ‘normal’ with a loving partner, a beautiful loving daughter, two wonderful step-children, a great career – and a lovely 4-bedroom house (with a large mortgage!)
What more could I want?
It wasn’t that I wanted more, but that I didn’t want less.
The ‘What-If’ scenarios became scary….what if I lost my job, what if I wanted to leave my job, what if I didn’t have the money to keep the house when I retired…..?
So in the year 2000, my partner John Fowler, and I decided it was time to start planning for our retirement. We knew that our employer contributions to Superannuation would not give us enough to live on, even if we both worked until we were 65 or even 70.
Retirement Planning
We decided to purchase an Investment Property – not surprising that I would want to invest in a house after living in a Caravan of course. But the decision was not so much based on emotion, but rather on logic and a need for a secure form of investment.
John and I purchased just one property in 2000 and by 2006 had managed to purchase a total of 75 properties. We specialised in buying and holding positively geared properties, so that the investments paid for themselves.
Our investment strategy allowed John to leave work in 2002, and then in 2004 I left employment twenty years earlier than I had ever dreamed!
We have travelled quite extensively in the past decade, being ‘lucky’ enough to have the time and resources to have what we call ‘productive’ holidays. We purchase properties across many parts of Australia as well as New Zealand and the USA.
Helping Others
It may seem by all you’ve read so far, that we’ve made all the right decisions with our investments. That’s is definitely NOT the case – we’ve made lots of mistakes and that’s all part of the learning and our self development. No regrets at all!
The good news is that because I’ve learnt even more by my mistakes than I have by my successes, I now have heaps of knowledge and experience to share with others who want to invest in themselves and property.
Over the past 10 years I have been a Presenter and Mentor with ‘Property Women’ – which is a business providing Property Investing education and networking for women.
As someone with a passion for travel, people, property and talking, you won’t be surprised to learn that I have also hosted a number of Overseas Property tours, including USA, New Zealand and France (with French Desire).
Coaching: to bring out the best in you, for you!
We all deserve the best life! But we usually get in our own way and can struggle for years, and sometimes we run out of time and don’t get to achieve our greatness or ‘bestness’ (that’s a word I made up for people who might be overwhelmed thinking of their greatness!).
Even though I’ve been coaching for over a dozen years, I still share the excitement and satisfaction when clients finally get clarity on their direction, so they can focus and move forward with an action plan to ACHIEVE their dreams and goals.
One of the key lessons I’ve learned is that whether your desired achievement is around your career, your business or your property investments, it’s the journey that’s even more important than the destination.
Why? Because without learning more about ourselves in the process, success can be short-lived or come at the price of losing something we didn’t realise we valued.
It’s like building a multi-storey property on a soft foundation. It might stand for a while but before long it will subside and could even cause fatalities, not fulfillment.
That’s why the coaching programs I take you through always start with a solid, deep foundation for you to build from.
If you want to get more out of life with balance and fun too, whether it be for property or business or LIFE then let’s have a quick chat (no obligation for either of us!) before we make any life changing decisions!
You can find out more about coaching by clicking here.