Retire Well Retire Happy

Practical Retirement Advice

DIY Investing, One Way To Keep Focused On Achieving Financial Independence.

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When my SMSF (Self Managed Superannuation Fund) was established my advisor at the time, Heath Hill, advised me to have my funds allocated between Australian Shares that paid a dividend and cash. As I already owned property it was decided I did not need any more in my retirement super fund. After a few years of attending seminars and joining Investor groups I decided to have a go at DIY Investing and manage my retirement savings super fund. It is one way to keep focused on acheiving financial independence.

I would like to say it is easy but I can’t, you need to be disciplined and you need to have a financial plan for your Superfund. Buying and selling shares is not the hard part. You can save money by setting up your own online broking account and do the trading yourself. The hard part is knowing what to buy, what allocation to have between the various asset classes and when to sell.

Your age plays a part in all of this as well. If you are under the age of 45 years then you have the luxury of more time to invest in property as it is considered a more long term investment. If on the other hand you are over 55 years then other things become important to you such as having income generating assets once work stops.

Invest in Yourself
Retire Well Retire Happy Invest In Yourself

Will I always do it myself? I imagine that once I get into my mid 70’s I will probably just invest in funds that own a spread of the best companies. In the meantime, I am still learning. I have attended a Successful Investor Group and now follow Peter Castle from EasyShareTradingsystems.com.au.

To reduce my risk I have diversified investments across various financial instruments, industries, and other categories. This technique allows my investments to maximize returns by investing in different areas.

I have diversified my investing pool in:-
  • First Mortgage Lending
  • Australian Shares
  • US Stocks
  • UK Start-Ups
  • CryptoCurrency

If you want to give DIY (Do it Yourself) investing a go then you need to learn to invest in yourself, and you need to practice. Our retirement savings will probably be the largest amount of money we have ever had to look after so the earlier you start your financial education the better investor you will become.

Find an organization to join that represents the interests of the investor. In Australia, the Australian Investors Association (AIA) holds an annual conference at the Gold Coast, Queensland every year and is an excellent place to start your investor knowledge.

DIY Investing is doable. It takes time, practice, planning, and patience.

What’s your Retirement Vision? Time To Discover the Secret of Compromise.

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What’s It Like Living Overseas – Try Before You Buy In PortugalThe retirement vision is something we eagerly await. Some of us have a clearly defined picture of our future retired lives. We know the location, the activities, the travel and dream of the free time. What happens then when this definition of our retired life is not duplicated by our partner? After all those years together, could we possibly want a different life in retirement to them?

“Retirement is a major stressor on relationships, because people are so preoccupied with setting up the financial bedrock of retirement that they don’t think about interpersonal challenges. They don’t think about the lifestyle change,” says Bornstein, co-author of How to Age in Place written with his wife, psychologist Mary Languirand.

Retirement can be about compromise. One of the reasons for disagreement is deciding where to live in retirement. In the past retired folks tended to stick close to their family and friends, and it worked well. They could rely on support as they age. Longevity has increased our lifespan, complicating things. It is now not so simple.

One trend is to downsize and go and live with likeminded golden-agers. The advantage of this move is to reduce the amount of work in and around the house and we also gain the ability to share our lives with others with similar interests.

Another trend is to relocate overseas to achieve a lower cost of living, live in a milder climate and be closer to all those places you wanted to visit but never had the time to go. Increased support for expats via websites and magazine articles has encouraged people to take the plunge and move to a foreign country. If your hobbies and interests are portable then it is not difficult to make the move.

Here are some helpful things you should consider when relocating. Whether you are moving within your state, interstate or to another country, having a register of what is important to you will assist you as you research prospective retirement locations. The reasons for relocating and what is important to you will influence what is on your register.

Tricia Pimental, author and the Portuguese correspondent for International Living, was convinced by her husband to move to Portugal. With a hesitant start, Tricia fell in love:-

  • with the history;
  • architecture;
  • museums;
  • the weather;
  • the Roman ruins in her adopted country

and found the ideal platform to continue her love of writing completing her third book, A Moveable Marriage.

After renting for a number of  years they are now bought their own property to cement their commitment to sharing their dream in new terrain.  Have a listen to Tricia’s story.

As you approach Retirement it is the time to discover the secret of compromise.

Until next time.

Ann

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Get Back An Hour Every Day – The Time Crunch Crisis

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If only I could get back an hour in every day!

The real question is, as a retiree, why would you want an hour back? To get things done, right?

Here are 3 things that get in the road and ways to overcome them so that you get back that hour, everyday.

Overwhelmed by Email

focus is to manage our distractions instead of letting them manage us‘Ping’. You’ve got mail it used to say.

But now it’s either a distraction from the important task at hand or more work.

Email can get out of hand and it seems like a mountain of a task to get it back under control.

I have a client who, when we first met, had 6000 emails in his email inbox.

Enter Inbox Zero – a rigorous approach to email management aimed at keeping the inbox empty — or almost empty — at all times. Inbox Zero was developed by Merlin Mann.

Why do you want to have your inbox empty or almost empty?

It eliminates distractions, those emails that shout at you when you are attempting to concentrate on the important tasks at hand.

Some tips to become an email ninja:

Only check your email 3 or 4 times a day, or once an hour, on the hour.

Add a line under your email signature that says something like “I only check my emails 3 or 4 times a day. If it’s urgent, please call me.

Close your email client down when you want to focus on other tasks.

Down tools at the end of the day. Choose a time to finish and set an alarm so that you do finish.

And if you can’t close your email client down, at least turn your notifications off. There’s an hour back just from eliminating the distractions.

Taking on Too Much

One of the main reason people don’t have enough time is because there have filled their schedule so full that there isn’t any peace. No down time. No gaps.

And why, sometimes, do we as retirees take on too much? Sometimes it’s FOMO – Fear of Missing Out.

In the bigger scheme, you are always missing out on something. You can’t be at every meeting, every presentation, every gathering in town. Reduce your focus to what’s important.

One way to do that…Boundaries – say NO. Boundaries are put in place to keep us safe. People interrupt with the best intentions but it isn’t always the right time. You may be in the middle of something important. Put up a boundary. Say no but be polite/diplomatic. An example could be “That doesn’t work for me right now. It could work in two to three hours time, check back then”.

No Systems

Systems give us structure. Without them, life can feel chaotic or a mess. Use some of these to overcome the feeling of helplessness.

Don’t trust your memory – write everything down. You may say ‘Yeh, but I’ve got a great memory. It doesn’t matter. The shortest pencil is longer that the longest memory.

Create a trusted system – somewhere to write stuff so it will get done and not be forgotten. It doesn’t matter if it’s a paper planner (Filofax/notebook) or an app on your phone (OneNote/Evernote/ Notes).

A system beats using scraps of paper (back of an envelope/napkin/notepad/post-it note) that can be misplaced. And I’m sure, if it’s not you, we have all heard someone say ‘It’s around here somewhere’.

Set achievable to do lists, not 100 tasks to be done today. Because with 100 tasks, you are just setting yourself up for disappointment. 10 to 15 tasks and then prioritise them.

Article by Les Watson, Australia’s Time Lord.

Connect with Les Watson Online

How To Make Money In The Low End Of The Real Estate Market

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how to make money from raw landIn general, when not happy with what we are currently doing we tend to look around, asking ourselves what else we can try. It’s amazing where that journey can take you. Many people have found an interesting path – making money with raw land.

Sometimes we can be paralysed by the amount of options. It is so easy to get overwhelmed and end up trying nothing.

This quote by Mark Victor Hansen says it all.

“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what? Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.”

That is why it is exciting to know how to make money in the low end of the real estate market. Quite simply there is a lower amount of money to invest up front and this will give comfort to those that are nervous to start. I love interviewing and hearing my guests stories and hearing about their journeys. Funnily enough they all started with a desire to make a difference in their lives. Some were unhappy with their jobs, their circumstances, their work hours or the commute they were making each day. They all wanted to have those special things that we all desire. Time and money, and having it lead us to the nirvana of replacing our full time job with our hobby or our special money making interest.

There is always good money to be made in the low end of the real estate market. You don’t have to have a shiny house to make money in real estate. Remember, it is usually the land component that keeps going up when you own property. For those who want to invest in real estate then consider raw land deals as a more economical way of starting your investing journey.

Raw land Real Estate investing is popular for many because it is tangible. You can see it, touch it and have title over it. Have a look for yourselves.

How to make money in the low end of the Real Estate Market:

  • Land banking – renting out vacant land – usually industrial for recurring income and creating that mail box cheque in the mail each month
  • Land flipping – buying land discounted in counties Tax Deed auctions and then flipping the land and selling them on time payment setting up another stream of income
  • Mobile home parks – create higher than average returns from Mobile Home Park Investing. There is always good recurring income streams to be created in the low end of the market

Create Wealth One Step At A Time For Retirement

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Creating wealth is not a get rich quick scheme. It is about having a plan and working at it on a regular basis.It is about “slow and steady wins the race“. You are a tortoise and this can translate into wealth creation even if most of us will not end up instant millionaires. It is more about coming up with a wealth creation plan in an investment medium that you are comfortable with and committing to make it happen.

Many of us dream about winning the lottery. Imagine what fun it would be to have the money to spend. The odds of winning the lottery are very much stacked against you. In fact you have more chance of being struck by lightning than winning the lottery. Let’s forget the unlikely instant wealth and put our minds to work on saving and investing your way to a more likely wealth.

Did you know that apparently 70% of lottery winners end up broke within the first few years of the win? The theory behind this is that because you have not learnt how to make the money then an unexpected lump sum seems to beckon spending. You need to learn how to manage and invest money. Once spent it is almost impossible to re-create.

Instead the mantra should be creating wealth one step at a time. Stephen R Covey in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” Habit 2 says we should begin “with the end in mind”. He wants to emphasise beginning each day, task or project with a clear vision of your desired direction and destination, and then continuing to make those things happen. When we know where we want to end up then we can put plans in place to ensure that it happens. It becomes almost ridiculously simple. It isn’t but with a plan we know what needs to be done.

Lane Kawaoka is setting himself up to leave the rat race behind. He discovered that he could make a profit from renting out his house, and it spurred him on to purchase more investment properties. Lane is now a Real Estate Entrepreneur doing syndicated private equity group deals. From him you will learn how to set up simple positive cash flow with Real Estate. It is not a get quick rich scheme but this young man is setting himself up through a commitment and vision for a future which includes a dream retirement.

Real estate has worked for many people. However having a vision for your future, creating a plan and then working consistently towards achieving that goal increases the chances of reality in achieving that goal. For more on this listen to podcast episode #71 which is about how to leave the rat race by setting up simple cash flow through real estate.