How Property Investors Can Win The Race Against Time
We all have the same 24 hours in a day but what we do with it can be extremely different. As a property investor, time can either be on your side or escape you, resulting in a major loss of opportunity.
The question here that begs to be answered is, do you have a formal relationship with time? What I mean by that is, do you consciously consider what you do most days, and reflect on whether you are wasting that time away?
Over a year ago the world collectively spiralled as Coronavirus took off guns blazing. While in Australia some states were more impacted than others, I have no doubt that each and every one of us were confronted with some hard truths.
The first one is that too many of us haven’t done enough to get ourselves into a financial position where we can weather months without pay, and secondly, a lot of us aren’t actually spending our time wisely.
The positive in this realisation is that we now have better insight into how we can win back some of that time – whether that means working from home to save a commute, doing fewer business trips interstate, or creating more productive and valuable self-care routines.
PROPERTY INVESTORS: TIME IS YOUR FRIEND
Let’s relate the concept of time back to real estate. There are still so many property investors out there struggling to create wealth purely because they have a false relationship with time. The good news is if that’s you, I’m here to shock you into action.
Now we know from a property investment point of view, time is extremely valuable. The longer you own a piece of real estate the better results you’ll yield, whether that’s through capital growth or passive income.
Likewise, we also know that the average property cycle runs for 15 years. The younger we are when we start investing the more cycles we’ll get to experience and reap the benefits from.
This isn’t a brand new concept, yet it seems as though it hasn’t clicked for a lot of investors out there. If you’re someone that attends every property seminar, reads every real estate book, listens to every investing podcast, and you still go five to seven years without buying a property – how is that a good use of time? How are you building your wealth here?
If you want to live well and leave a legacy through real estate, you have to get cracking. There’s no get rich quick method in property – success comes from using the time we have now to go the distance.
STOP SWEATING THE SMALL STUFF
There aren’t enough people playing big when it comes to the economic world.
We have real estate investors who will spend more time being frugal with their property managers over a five dollar tap handle, rather than working out how to inject another million dollars into their portfolio.
Remember as property investors we need to know our number – the number we want to live out our retirement the way we truly desire. If you haven’t reached that number yet, then the little things are not worth your time.
At the end of the day paying for a replacement $4 washer isn’t going to ruin your wealth creation. Here’s the thing – 80 per cent of property investing is mental – if you can create a strong, balanced version of yourself that doesn’t sweat the small stuff, your focus will remain on the bigger goals ahead.
MONEY WILL HELP YOU SPEND YOUR TIME BETTER
A lot of Australians miss out on things they genuinely want to do because economically they don’t have enough money to use their time wisely.
One of the greatest things you can do for yourself in life is to have money in your pocket set aside to spontaneously do anything you want to do. If your money isn’t working like this for you right now, then you might have to dedicate time to building parallel income sources.
The beauty of real estate is that it pays you three ways – through tax, capital growth and cashflow. Property investing is an incredible source of income and allows you more freedom to live.
Of course, money doesn’t buy happiness – we all know that. However, it can give you a better sense of purpose, and when you have true purpose, you’re less likely to be spending four hours watching Netflix every day.
RE-EVALUATE YOUR TIME-MONEY RELATIONSHIP
2020 taught us the value of time and gave us the opportunity to take some of it back. Equally it also taught us just how easily our time can be taken away.
If you’re a property investor who has read this and realised you’re struggling to use the time you have to your advantage, you might benefit from joining us at one of our free real estate investing nights. Learn how to make your money work better for you without wasting time mulling over decisions you should have made months ago.
By Sam Saggers