#252 - Why I Don’t Own Property (As A Millionaire)

Property's falling fast. So why in the world would I be trying to educate people to get into a bubble? It doesn't make sense. I much prefer to educate people to get something they can bootstrap when they're younger and build freedom. Because at the end of the day, wealth's about freedom of your time, especially the younger generation. You know how many kids aren't going to be able to buy a house because of the greed in this country

with property? It's disgusting. Politicians should be limited to one house because if they're not, they've got six. They're going to put policy in place to pump up the price because they're greedy pieces of shit. People that own lots of property, they just seem to be under absolute financial stress all the time. and they seem to have no freedom. And so for me, it was kind of compromising my own personal desires to have a freedom driven life. But I just never gravitated towards

property because of the success. If you're stuck in old money habits, overwhelmed by investing or unsure where to start, this is for you. I'll give you the mindset and strategies to take control, grow your wealth and achieve financial freedom. It's time to make your money work for you. Why I don't own property as a millionaire. What a hot topic this will be. The fighting in the comments should be extreme. Why I don't own property as a millionaire. I

wanted to do this episode because a minute, there's a couple of ads floating around we've done talking about our book here, Money Buys Happiness. In the book, I talk about other wealth building strategies besides property. A lot of people grab the book and want to look at other avenues besides owning a house. The reason why I've kind of created this anti-property rebellion is because I actually didn't build my wealth through property. It's really interesting. I'll explain

just a little bit of my background so you understand where I'm coming from here. You got to understand, I'm from the Gold Coast which is like the epicenter of property in the world. My dad has had a property business for 35 years, marketing property. So there's people that buy property and build wealth and there's people that have businesses in property. I'm a business guy, I'm

not a buy property, build wealth guy, just so you know. But my background is, listen to this, lawyer, qualified lawyer, specializing in property law, got my full real estate license that I still have that's actively still fully licensed agent, a full license, and have had that since I was 20. So what's that? I've had that for 11 years. 21 years I've had that and I was in commercial sales and leasing for Ray White. I then went into property law, then I went into real estate development in

the Middle East. So my whole background up to the age of about 28 and then I went into running a property business which is marketing properties with my dad and kind of rebuilt this family business. So all the way until the age of say 31, my whole background is property. Just so you know, it's not like I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to property. It's just that I personally made a choice to invest in liquid assets and small businesses before owning property.

I looked at all the people that own lots of property and they just seem to be under absolute financial stress all the time and they seem to have no freedom. For me, it was kind of compromising my own personal desires to have a freedom-driven life. When I was the age of 30, I started marketing supplements online. And that's what allowed us to scale a business to step out of our job. So it wasn't property

that did it. In fact, even if I go back to when I was working in the property industry, I was actually taking the money that I was making from a wage, doing certain things, and I was buying shares. And so I was taking the money I was making. I was not buying property, I was buying shares. I was offered properties to buy. I could get pretty good deals. I was getting put and call option deals, but I just never gravitated towards property because it just never felt like a freedom asset to me. It

felt like it was taking money from me, not giving me money. So I thought, what if I get into shares? One, they're liquid. Two, they produce income. And in Australia, they can produce, depending on what you buy and when you buy it. your tax rate, they can produce tax-free income. I actually started to buy shares from the very outset, probably 15 years ago. The reason I wanted that is because I wanted to build up a portfolio that

produced passive income. I started in online marketing using the power of social media back in 2014 because I wanted to develop a side hustle outside my job to fund the portfolio. I also wanted to get out of my job and be free. Property didn't do that because I had to get tons of leverage. Property was going to force me to get a big mortgage, force me to be at the mercy of the banks, and it wasn't going to produce any income for me for

a long period of time because all of it for 20 or 30 years is used to pay off the debt. I wanted to have free cash flow earlier. I just decided against property from the very outset. I had every chance to be in it. My dad says it's a miracle I've never owned any. And I think it is too, because I've said no to that whole, like, I'm not one to just buy into a doctrine and go along with the crowd. So what's interesting, and the reason I'm telling you this is because I

have a free life. I just literally, I'm not joking, tomorrow I'm going to Thailand for a month. And the only reason we're coming back is because we have a small puppy here. But I don't have to be here. And so I look at all my friends that went into the property game, they have to be everywhere. They cannot leave. I decided to take my capital and put it into small businesses that will leverage the power of the internet to build freedom and put into shares that produce passive

income straight away. I built that to live this life. It was an actual decision. As you can imagine, I was almost seduced into property many times. In fact, I had an expression of interest on a real estate transaction only about two and a half years ago. I was just seduced by a couple of – it was like a family thing. I was like, yes, sounds good. It was an emotional thing that almost got me. I was like, what the hell are you doing? And I stopped and then I moved the money back out and bought a

laundromat. Check this out. The amount of money I put into the laundromat deal was like one, I guess you could say it was the same amount as the deposit for the property. However, the property would have produced no income, it would have taken income from me, it would have been negatively geared and it would have produced a 3% yield. The laundromat produces a 40% yield and it's paid off in three years. It's just so many better deals out there than an apartment for two million. And

again, I'm not completely against property. I just don't like it and I hate to see it when people buy property because one, they don't understand anything else. Two, they buy into a really inflated market and it completely destroys them financially in the sense of they've got to take three jobs just to pay the mortgage. And they lose all their freedom. They lose their relationships. It just completely destroys the financial dynamics

at home because you're under stress from your mortgage. And I just don't want to see it. So I'm like, hey, there's other ways besides property to be building wealth, just so you know. And I've done that. I'm proof that you can do it. And so, a lot of my friends who are successful too, they got successful building businesses, not becoming property moguls. Yes, there are people that have done it, I get it. But

for me, it was just about freedom early. And I don't know anyone that's bought a ton of property that's completely free because all the income from the property is paying them off over time. Again, they're not coming to Thailand for a month with me tomorrow. They're stuck in their jobs. Just quickly, if you're ready to take control of your finances but feel stuck on where to start, I

have a solution. My book, Money Buys Happiness, simplifies investing and wealth building with practical steps to help you achieve financial peace. Get your copy via the link in the show notes and let's get your money working for you. Now back to the episode. And I just think about the capital that I had that I could have put as a deposit for a house into our home. We live in a nice place on the water. We've been renting there for 11 years, and I think about the amount

of body corporate fees we would have paid. I think about the equity that I would have put into it, but I took the equity and built four businesses out of it, and that's the difference. Then I also scaled the wealth and put that into shares. It's not like people often think, oh, Lord, if you don't own property, what do you – I was like, well, we own a multimillion dollar share portfolio

that does 14% returns each. where there's other things besides property, you know, like there's other asset classes, and people are so hell-bent on Bitcoin and stuff. I'm like, what? Like, it's one alternative, but it doesn't produce any cash flow. So how can it produce freedom? I was just always about freedom from the start. So businesses that produce cash flow and investments that produce cash flow just made more sense to me 15 years ago than ones that don't. That's

all. And now I'm a living example of why I chose

that, because I like to have geofreedom. And a lot of my friends who are living all overseas, they all have geofreedom too. I just felt that the capital was better spent on small businesses that can scale and produce cash flow than to have a property that I lived in that wasn't going to produce anything for me. And I see this a lot with people that live in the house that they've purchased. They've put a large deposit in there, which is their cash. They have no

emergency buffer. They're borrowed $1.5 million. There's no deductions on it tax-wise if it's their PPI, their principal place of residence. And they're all struggling, sending their kids to daycare, and they struggle street, commuting every single day just to pay off a house. It just doesn't occur to me that that's a life well lived. That's all. It's not that it doesn't work. There's

a lot of people that build wealth out of property. It's just that wealth is not just the amount that your house is worth that you sell when you're 65. There's more to life than that. I find wealth in the freedom. That's where I find wealth. I find money buying me happiness not slavery. It's just a philosophical difference that I have. So I want to share the philosophical difference with other people. I want them to be hopeful, especially

the younger generation. Do you have any kids? I'm going to be able to buy a house because of the greed in this country with properties. It's disgusting. Politicians should be limited to one house because if they're not, they've got six. They're going to put policy in place to pump up the price because they're greedy pieces of shit. I'm thinking to myself, how do you provide hope and another

way for younger people to build wealth that's not property? your kids going to – and by the way, if you're guaranteeing your kids on your property, congratulations, well done, awesome. It's nice you're doing that for them. But what about the kids that don't have you as a parent? How are they supposed to build wealth? Have you ever thought about them? Like I think of my niece and nephew. So I think of people, young kids that they're going to build, come up in a country that can't own their

house. Like they want to build wealth, how are they going to do it? That's the message I'm giving. I want to show them another way. They can start small businesses. They can start online businesses. They can invest in shares. You can invest in shares as a kid when you're with some cool apps like Raise and Acorns and wherever you are in the world and you can actually help them invest when they're kids and they can get good habits. They can't do that with property when they're in

their teens. How? They're not going to be able to do it. Without a doubt, property has worked for sure, and it will continue to work for the right people, but there's also a contingent out there, I'd say 50% of the population, that can't do it. What about them? How are

we going to help them? I'm concentrated on helping them. That's why I decided to start the Anti-Property Rebellion. because I'm one of the few people at my age that's got a multi-million dollar net worth that hasn't owned one. Frankly, I'm bloody rare. So I wanted to be able to inspire that generation to actually build wealth other ways. And if you're watching this and you're inspired, good, I

want to inspire you too. There's just other ways, right? And by all accounts, if property went through a massive correction over 50% and it's happened before, don't even, you look at history in the past, it's happened. It's happened right now in the United States. Property's falling fast. Now I'm not suggesting it's gonna happen in Sydney or you're flipping freaks about Sydney property market. You put something about Sydney and they're like, nah, and they throw rocks. Look, it

may be that Australia goes through a correction. It might be that it makes a lot of sense for people to buy properties when they're cheaper and they're producing income that actually pays for themselves. It might be you can buy a cash cow property. I have looked at properties that produce 10% yield. I remember selling houses during the GFC. There was opportunities, right? But they're just not present now. And if you look at that market, it doesn't scream, buy me. So why in

the world would I be trying to educate people to get into a bubble? It doesn't make sense. I much prefer to educate people to get something they can bootstrap when they're younger and build freedom. Because at the end of the day, wealth's about freedom of your time, becoming time rich, than

it is to just accumulate property and build wealth. You know how many people I've spoken to who've got, I'm just talking to a lady, she's got $6 million worth of property, $3 million worth of debt, her net worth's $3 million, and she's looking for a side house to make ends meet. And she's mentally cooked because she's mentally in this social status game of like, I've got to buy more properties, like a flippin' idiot. I said, you know, if you divested them, put your money over

here and did this, you could actually be free and just travel the world. She's like, what? This is what's happening. People are so flippin' focused over here with this property game. They've forgotten what the whole objective is. is to buy yourself happiness!

Enjoy and live a flippin' fruitful life! Not accumulate goddamn bricks and mortar! Get over yourself! Like, there's other ways! Anyway, that's why I've done those ads, because I want to start a rebellion that's just different. Because we have to teach people how to build wealth differently than just land, because it's getting ridiculous. So, I hope you've made, you've got value from this. I hope you see why I'm trying to carve this new thing out. I'm trying to inspire others to do something

different. So, if you've enjoyed this and you feel the same way, leave me a comment in the comments below. Do you agree with this? Do you disagree? Do you think I'm a flippant psychopath? Pop in the comments. I'll come and fight you in there. I don't care. I'm all about this. So leave a comment. If you want to start a fight, start a fight. I'll come and comment there with you and we'll have a nice discussion. And if

you support me, put it there anyway. I appreciate the support on the channel. Go hit the subscribe button. Share this with someone who needs to hear this. There's more to life than owning houses. See you in the next episode. Thanks for listening to Money Grows on Trees. If you enjoyed the episode, leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and subscribe to

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