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It should come as no surprise that the current property boom will create a new generation of wealthy Australians. However, if history repeats itself, most people who get into property investment this cycle won’t become financially independent. Just look at what happened during the last property boom, and the ones before that. 92% of those who held onto their property never got past the second property. You can’t develop financial independence from just one or two properties. Real estate has soared in value by more than 500% in the last 25 years, but most investors failed to develop a substantial portfolio. So, I’ve put together a special two-part series to help you make the most of our property markets. In today’s show and the next one, I’m going to share with you 40 property investment lessons I’ve learned in the last 40 years to help you become a successful property investor and create lifetime wealth. Let me ask you a question… With the benefit of hindsight and knowing what you know now, if you had the opportunity to do so, would you have bought an investment property 40 years ago? I bet your answer would be yes. But what if you didn’t have the benefit of hindsight and there we both were, back in 1980 and just as you were about to invest in a property I told you that in the next year or two Australia would fall into a recession and that in 6 years’ time negative gearing would be removed only to be reintroduced a couple of years later. What if I told you there was going to be a stock market crash in 1987, and a severe recession in the early ’90s, meaning that in the first decade of owning your investment property you would have had to face all those headwinds. Of course with the benefit of my time machine and you still being back in the 1980s as you planned to buy your first property I would also warn you about the upcoming AIDS scare and the SARS pandemic, the Asian financial crisis, September 11th, the Global Financial Crisis, the Coronavirus induced world recession. Would still have had the courage to buy that property back then in 1980? The answer for many people would now be: “No…why on earth would I invest in property knowing there are so many challenges, problems, and risks ahead?” Of course, they would have missed out on some amazing wealth-building opportunities, wouldn’t they? I was already investing for almost a decade back in 1980 and I did buy another investment property that year. And over the years the capital growth I achieved from my investment properties allowed me to keep adding to my portfolio meaning that today I have a significant “cash machine” that gives me the lifestyle choices I was looking for back then. Of course, along the way, I’ve had some great investment wins but I’ve also made more than my share of mistakes. And I learned many lessons that I wish I knew back then, so here are… 40 property investment lessons I learned in the last 40 years The economy and our property markets move in cycles. Booms never last forever, neither do busts. That is mainly because most of us get swept up in the optimism or pessimism of others. Despite the ups and downs, the long-term trend for well-located capital city properties is rising values. Even though they are armed with all the research available in today’s information age, economists never seem to agree where our property markets are heading and usually get their forecasts wrong. Every year we get hit by an X factor – an unforeseen event or situation that blows all our carefully laid plans away. Then every decade or so we have a major event and the world “breaks.” There are multiple property markets in Australia. Property investment is risky in the short term, but secure in the long term. It is definitely not a way to get rich quickly Since property is a long-term game, don’t look for “what works now.” Instead, look for “what has always worked.” Residential property investment is a high growth, relatively low yield investment class. Don’t try to make it something different. At times of poor or no capital growth, strategic property investors “manufacture” capital growth through property renovations or development. Residential investment is a game of finance with some houses thrown in the middle. Taking on debt is not a problem. Not being able to repay debt is an issue, meaning cash flow management is a critical part of wealth creation. Property investment is a process, not an event. Strategic investors not only buy properties, but they buy themselves time to ride out the cycle by having financial “cash flow” buffers in place. Wealth is the transfer of money from the impatient to the patient. I must thank Warren Buffet for that quote. The media is not there to educate you, but its job is to get you to click on their links so that they receive revenue from their advertisers. So don’t rely on the media for investment strategy or advice. There will always be someone out there telling you not to invest in property. There will always be people out there telling you to invest in property. So, understand their vested interests – they don’t usually have your best interests in mind. Savvy investors surround themselves with a great team and are prepared to pay their advisors – they see it as an investment, not a cost. If you’re the smartest person on your team you’re in trouble. You are going to make investment mistakes along the way and you’ll either end up paying a significant learning fee to the market or you can pay your advisors and learn from their experience and mitigate your risks. Resources: Michael Yardney Get the team at Metropole to help build your personal Strategic Property Plan Click here and have a chat with us  Shownotes plus more here: 40 property investment lessons I learned in the last 40 years – Part 1 Some of our favorite quotes from the show: “Don’t be surprised when the booms and the busts come around and don’t overreact.” – Michael Yardney “Over the years, I’ve found that it takes the average property investor around 30 years to become financially independent.” – Michael Yardney “Knowing what not to do, in my mind, is just as important in achieving success as knowing what to do.” – Michael Yardney PLEASE LEAVE US A REVIEW Reviews are hugely important to me because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes - it's your way of passing the message forward to others and saying thank you to me. Here's how

You’re guaranteed two things in life – death, and taxes. While taking care of your physical and mental health can lead to a longer, healthier life and stave of the death part, what can you do to legally minimize your tax? Since everyone wants to pay less come tax time, in today’s podcast I chat with independent financial advisor Stuart Wemyss about what options are available to you. Minimizing Your Tax Tax isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you’re paying tax, it means that you are making money. But of course, there’s no need to pay any more than you legally have to. Minimize your risk Stick within the letter of the law, but explore legitimate ways to minimize tax liabilities Many more aggressive tax minimizing measures delay tax rather than permanently reduce it Implementing these strategies may create costs (tax advice fees and documentation) and complexities Sometimes, it’s better to keep things simple Minimize tax pre-retirement Personal exertion income earners have few avenues to minimize tax You can use negative gearing and/or contribute into super, but that’s about it Contribute to your super After 1 July 2021, individuals can contribute up to $27,500 per year into super and claim a tax deduction for this expense Borrow to invest Borrowing to invest (to generate capital growth) often makes good sense, especially if you are more than 10 years from retirement Minimize tax on investment returns If there are not many avenues to reduce the amount of tax you pay on your income, then at least make sure you don’t pay too much tax on your investment returns. Invest in assets that generate more capital growth than income Make sure the investments are owned in the most tax-effective way Minimize land tax Map out a plan and follow expert advice to minimize land tax as much as possible Consider capital gains tax Self-employment gives you more options Make sure that your business is structured correctly Stuart’s new podcast, The Holistic Accountant, is a good way to learn more about this You should aim to pay zero tax in retirement A couple can have up to $3.4 million invested in super, and not pay any tax If you plan well, it is a reasonable expectation to pay little to no tax in retirement If you can’t save tax, focus on investment returns If you earn money, it’s likely you will have to pay your fair share of tax. That’s life Cheating is never worth it The ATO is cracking down on dodgy deductions and the penalties can be up to double the tax plus interest Resources: Michael Yardney Get the team at Metropole to help build your personal Strategic Property Plan Click here and have a chat with us Stuart Wemyss – Prosolution Private Clients Stuart’s Book – Rules of the Lending Game Shownotes plus more here: How to Minimize Tax – Your Largest Expense, with Stuart Wemyss Some of our favourite quotes from the show: “Tax isn’t necessarily a bad thing. No one likes paying it, but if you’re paying it, I guess it means you’re making money.” – Michael Yardney “If you’re going to own a property investment business, you should actually own the best assets you can in best locations you can, and land tax unfortunately is a cost of doing business.” – Michael Yardney “Those who invest in their abilities their entire lives, they become the beneficiaries of luck.” – Michael Yardney PLEASE LEAVE US A REVIEW Reviews are hugely important to me because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes - it's your way of passing the message forward to others and saying thank you to me. Here's how  

What a year it’s been. This time last year Australia was heading into its first recession and deepest recession in decades. Yet last week the Australian Bureau of Statistics confirmed the strength of Australia’s economic rebound. It was the fastest economic recovery from a recession in 45 years. In fact, we are one of only three countries where our economy is ahead of where it was at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, but today can race and I unpack the statistics and explain what’s going on – the truth behind Australia’s economic recovery. But don’t worry if you’re not into economics, my chat today with Ken Raiss, Australia’s leading property tax strategist, will be in plain English and we’ll unpack what’s going on so you understand what’s ahead- both the good and some of the headwinds that may slow us down, so that you’ll be able to make a better-informed investment, and financial, and business decisions. What you’ll be hearing today is a portion of a private webinar we conducted for the attendees of Wealth Retreat to give them some insight before they join us, and while you won’t be able to see the slides, I’m sure our description will be sufficient for you to get benefit from our chat. Australia’s impressive economic recovery from the COVID-19 recession was confirmed with the strong 1.8 percent rise in March quarter GDP. This followed unprecedented growth of 3.2 percent in the December quarter and 3.5 percent in the September quarter of 2020. Our economic output is now higher than it was before the COVID-19 recession hit, with easy monetary policy, booming commodity prices, demand for resources from the rampant Chinese economy, and fiscal policy stimulus all playing a part. Back in the first three months of this year when we had JobKeeper, enhanced unemployment benefits, and no lockdowns and Australia roared out of recession. The GDP figures released at the beginning of June, which were for the first quarter of the year up til the end of March were for the months leading up to the end of JobKeeper. Australians spent, earned, and produced an impressive 1.8% more than in three months to December, which was itself more 3.2% more than the three months to September, which was itself 3.5% more than the three months before that. Our growth of more than 8% was the most over three quarters since 1968. But it followed a collapse in gross domestic product of 7% – by far the worst since the Bureau of Statistics began compiling records in 1959. The net result over the year to March growth of 1.1%, an extraordinary result which means that, at least until Victoria’s (just extended) lockdown, we were producing, earning, and spending more than before the COVID recession. I today’s podcast Ken and I discuss: what GDP is and why so much fuss is made about it Why I think that having a single overriding ‘economic’ health measure such as GDP is flawed What’s happening to unemployment, job growth, business, and private expenditure. Here are 7 reasons to be optimistic about the future. Covid vaccines will help in underpinning reopening and recovery Global growth is recovering rapidly — driven by vaccines enabling reopening, monetary and fiscal stimulus, and pent-up demand. Growth in consumer spending is well supported Dwelling investment will provide a strong contribution to growth — the surge in building approvals points to more upside in housing construction this year. Business investment is strengthening - — investment plans for the next financial year are up nearly 15% on plans for a year ago which is consistent with high levels of business confidence, excess corporate cash, and the instant asset write-off tax break. Fiscal stimulus will continue Monetary policy will remain easy However, there are some headwinds. Economic growth should continue this year and then could slow next year as some headwinds are revealed, the effects of the fiscal measures start to fade, and the housing market slows down a little. further coronavirus outbreaks economic ramifications of the international border closure, the potential for further lockdowns due to the slow vaccine rollout, and the geopolitical risks emanating from Australia’s “strained” relationship with China. Resources: Michael Yardney Get the team at Metropole to help build your personal Strategic Property Plan Click here and have a chat with us Get your bundle of eBooks and Reports at: www.PodcastBonus.com.au Ken Raiss – Director of Metropole Wealth Advisory Shownotes plus more here: The Truth Behind Australia’s Economic Recovery with Ken Raiss

What’s ahead for our property markets for the rest of 2021? That’s a common question being asked now that our property markets have been booming for quite some time. And that’s the question I’m going to ask Dr Andrew Wilson, Australia’s leading housing economist in today’s show. You’ll also hear his thoughts on what’s ahead for the rental markets, is inflation on the rebound and should we be locking in on interest rates with the speculation that interest rates are going to rise? Now you probably know that every week I record a Property Insiders video with Dr Wilson where we give you our thoughts and commentary on the property market and our economy, and today’s podcast is the audio of last week video show. You’ll hear Dr Wilson and I explain how our property markets have been bounding along this year. Buyers are still out in force – owner-occupiers, investors, and first home buyers – at a time when available supply is struggling to keep up, keeping pushes prices higher. In fact, a number of capital city property markets are already showing double-digit capital growth this year. Listen in as we discuss: What’s ahead for our property markets for the balance of this year. What happening in our auction markets as they give a good “in time indicator” of what’s happening on the ground. How our rental markets have turned around and vacancies are falling causing rents to rise. Why Dr Wilson doesn’t believe we’ll get sufficiently high inflation to raise interest rates for some time, and… Why some banks are recommending customers lock in their interest rates and why he doesn’t think it’s a good idea. Resources: Guest: Dr. Andrew Wilson, chief economist of My Housing Market Metropole’s Strategic Property Plan – to help both beginning and experienced investors Subscribe to my weekly Property Insider video with Dr Andrew Wilson here- www.PropertyInsiders.info Collect your bundle of eBooks and reports- www.PodcastBonus.com.au Shownotes plus more here: Now what next for our property markets? With Dr. Andrew Wilson PLEASE LEAVE US A REVIEW Reviews are hugely important to me because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes – it’s your way of passing the message forward to others and saying thank you to me. Here’s how

Why don’t most property investors succeed, especially since there’s so much information out there and so many people willing to help them? Well, today I’ve got three separate segments that are going to help you understand why many investors don’t succeed, but of course, the intention of that is to even the odds in your favour, to make sure you do succeed. I’m going to share with you probably the worst investment mistake I made, but it turned out to be one of the best investment lessons I made. It was a mistake I made early in my career when I lost 100% of my equity. Boy was it an expensive mistake and a blow to my ego. I guess it shows that I didn’t start off as a successful investor. There are some lessons in that alone. I’m also going to share with you a discussion I had with Joseph my hairdresser who learned how to invest like the pros. Isn’t that something that you’d like to know? Then, in my mindset moment, I’ll help you understand that I’m a real success at failure. So lots about success and failure in today’s show, but the intention of it is to make you a more successful property investor and more successful in all areas of your life. How to Invest Like the Pros I was having my hair cut the other day when Joseph, my barber, said, “Michael — I’m going to get into property investing and I’m going to make a fortune because I’ve learned how to invest like the pros!” When Joseph told me he knows how to invest like the pros, I had to ask — “OK — how are you going to do it?” “Easy,” he said. “I’ve been to a seminar and signed up for a course.” Then he pulled out the advertisement in the magazine that attracted his attention. It promised the ability to control millions of dollars worth of property with none of your own money and bypassing the banks. It also explained how the course presenter had made millions of dollars in seven days. At that point, I felt sorry for Joseph and for the thousands of novice (and some experienced) property investors who will be taken by the new breed of property spruikers who are once again out in force. You can’t become wealthy in seven days. You probably couldn’t even read the course material in seven days. Here is what the real pros know: You can’t create wealth through property overnight, but you can certainly become very rich in the medium to long term by knuckling down and seriously applying yourself in a dedicated, disciplined, persistent way. You get there by following a proven system and by having a safe property and finance strategy. You then implement this by buying the right property, in the right location, at the right price, and holding it for the long term. Not by adding hot water to a packet of magic beans and counting to seven. You can and should accelerate the process by learning the strategies of value-adding through renovations and development, but you can’t skip the fundamental process. While property spruikers went quiet during the real estate downturn, unfortunately, the new property cycle is bringing out a fresh group of “property pretenders”. There are now property “experts” out there selling advice and courses despite never having built their own property portfolios. This makes it timely to remind listeners that seminars promising easy wealth through property have all too often led to financial ruin. It’s just the cycle repeating itself. Of course, this doesn’t mean you should do it on your own. To become a successful investor, you will need to surround yourself with a team of independent and unbiased professionals — a team of people who are known, proven, and trusted. Then go ahead and take advantage of the new property cycle, because the future is bright for those who invest sensibly in property. My worst investment loss One of my early investments was a complete loss. I lost 100% of my invested capital many years ago, way back in the 1970s, and the investment mistakes I made that created this disastrous result. But first I want to explain the 2 main reasons why I’m sharing this story. Losing investments can be great teachers You’ll not only learn from the investment mistakes you make, but you can also learn from other people’s investment errors so that you don’t have to make the same mistakes yourself. Losses are a natural and normal result of making investment decisions Don’t be so hard on yourself when things don’t go as planned because the key to long-term success is what you do when this occurs and the lessons you learn from your mistakes, so you don’t repeat them. So here is the story of my big investment mistake where I lost 100% of my investment capital You see…I already owned a few investment properties at the time, but I was in a hurry to get rich quickly. I was offered the opportunity to invest in a Gold Mine. In fact, one of my friends, Brian, had invested the vast sum of $5,000 (remember it was the 1970’s and that was a lot of money) into a venture that was resurrecting an old disused gold mine in Wedderburn, near Ballarat in Victoria. Of course, my initial reaction was to tell him how silly he was. How he’d lose his money. But Brian asked me to speak with the promoter, explaining that he tells a compelling story. One Sunday morning a man called Terry came to our home and described how with the price of gold rising and using new technology it was now viable to reopen an old disused gold mine near Ballarat where the Gold Rush occurred in the 1800s. He had budgets and profit projections, diagrams, and plans; but things changed completely when he took a shiny nugget of gold out of his pocket and placed it in my hand. He told a compelling story of how I could double my money quickly investing in his company – The Asian Pacific Mining Corporation (what an impressive name!) – and how I’d receive dividends for years. My greed glands began working overtime as I swallowed his story – hook, line, and sinker. The end result was I invested $5,000 of my money and of course, I lost it all. My investment decision was one big mistake from the beginning. Here are a few of the more obvious mistakes I made with this investment: I gave my money to a virtual stranger without doing enough due diligence. I invested in something I didn’t understand. I bought a story rather than investment fundamentals. I was lured by the opportunity of making quick money. I was speculating, not investing, and risked money I couldn’t afford to lose. I had no investment strategy – just a desire to get rich quickly. I learned many lessons from this experience including: Not everything that glitters is gold Sometimes your best investments are the ones you don’t make. Don’t invest in anything you don’t fully understand. I knew nothing about gold mining, so I was speculating rather than investing. I had no competitive advantage and there was no mathematical expectation to my investment strategy. One of the worst things that can happen to an investor is to get it right the first time. I thought I was smarter than I was when in reality my investment success so far was in large part to a rising property market – a boom that made me look smarter than I was. Don’t become overconfident -the market will soon humble you. I didn’t understand the incentives of the so-called “advisor” who really had a vested interest which created biases in the recommendations he gave me. In retrospect… My worst investment mistake was a cheap lesson This investment was the first of many learning fees I’ve paid to the market over the years. I’ve made a lot of mistakes and paid a lot of learning fees during my journey to investment success. It’s much easier for investors nowadays – you don’t need to do it on your own. Resources: Get the team at Metropole to help build your personal Strategic Property Plan Click here and have a chat with us Get a range of my ebooks here: www.PodcastBonus.com.au Shownotes plus more here: I’ve learned to invest like the pros | My biggest investment mistake + more Some of our favorite quotes from the show: “If you are going to listen to somebody’s advice, make sure it is somebody who’s unbiased.” – Michael Yardney “Find a credible source, not somebody with incredible promises.” – Michael Yardney “One of the key factors to my investment success is that I always try to learn from my mistakes.” –Michael Yardney PLEASE LEAVE US A REVIEW Reviews are hugely important to me because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes - it's your way of passing the message forward to others and saying thank you to me. Here's how

Since the First Fleet dropped anchor in 1788, close to 10 million immigrants have moved from across the world to start a new life in Australia. They have arrived in waves, encouraged by developments like the 1850s gold rushes, or to escape adverse conditions at home such as the Industrial Revolution’s social upheavals in 19th-century Britain, the two world wars, and the aftermath of the Vietnam War in the 1970s. Collectively these migrants have helped shape what was a uniquely British-based and now multicultural society in Australia. In today’s podcast, I chat with leading demographer Simon Kuestenmacher about the history of migration and how it’s changed our culture and our property markets over the years, and what’s happening to migration now because of our border restrictions. Australia is the land built on migration Immigration to Australia began about 80,000 years ago. And from the 17th century on, the continent was explored by Europeans. European settlements began to crop up around 1788, and the discovery of gold in 1851 drove more activity and permanent settlements. Immigrants have been queuing up to come to the country ever since. But what’s happening to immigration in our nation at the moment? About 2/3 of our population growth pre-pandemic came from migration. Only 1/3 came from natural growth. During COVID, the migration has completely disappeared. For the first time, more immigrants went out than in. Our country is so much more multicultural than other nations. When people are concerned about migration and focus on asylum seekers, it’s not really relevant, because it’s such a small number. One of the biggest drivers of migration in recent times is international students. One in 6 of those students become permanent residents. You can grow the GDP through the sheer number of people added to the country. The natures of homes and neighbourhoods have changed because of migration. We can see this in everything from the design of homes to the food available to buy. We will still see more people coming into Australia as long as they’re allowed. Australia is attractive to international students. We also still need skilled workers. Millennials are moving out of their apartments as they age and move on to the next stage, but apartment living remains necessary because of the population size. We will still need apartments, but we may need different ones moving forward. We will need more family-friendly Resources: Simon Kuestenmacher - Director of Research at The Demographics Group As our markets move forward why not get the team at Metropole to build you a personalised Strategic Property Plan – this will help both beginning and experienced investors. Get a bundle of eBooks and reports www.PodcastBonus.com.au Shownotes plus more here: Australia: a land built on immigration, but what’s ahead? With Simon Kuestanmacher Some of our favourite quotes from the show: “Just because of the cost of living, we do need more apartments, but we need different apartments than we’ve built in the past.” – Michael Yardney “I know it might sound cliché but work a little bit less and play a little bit more.” – Michael Yardney “Remember, most of the things we worry about don’t happen, or if they do happen, they’re not as serious as we thought they would be.” – Michael Yardney PLEASE LEAVE US A REVIEW Reviews are hugely important to me because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes - it's your way of passing the message forward to others and saying thank you to me. Here's how

It’s that time of the month – when I have my regular Big Picture podcast where Pete Wargent and we look at the macroeconomic factors affecting our economy and our property markets This time last year, we were supposed to have a federal budget. Instead, we had a pandemic. And over the last year many elements of our life were upended due to Covid 19 Around this time last year, our Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he’d build a bridge for us to get to the other side and it seems he did. The government threw everything it could, including billions of dollars at creating jobs and keeping our economy moving and it succeeded. And it’s still doing so if you look at the federal budget handed down by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg - you’d think it was still raining money. Never before has a budget done so much to supercharge the economy after the worst of a recession has passed. But don’t worry, this podcast isn’t another rehash of the budget, even though there are a few interesting points I want to discuss with Pete – things that haven’t been clearly explained but I think we need to understand as investors. Plus we also will look at the macroeconomic factors affecting our economy and the property markets  to help give you some more clarity  about what the future holds so you can make better investment and  business decisions Understanding the Big Picture Our property markets don’t operate in isolation, so I believe it’s good to regularly have a look at the big picture, the macroeconomic factors affecting not just Australia’s economy, but the world economy, and who better to discuss that with than Pete Wargent, a lifelong student of and commentator on our economy. Since last month there’s been lots of good economic news and Josh Frydenberg delivered this year’s budget. The underlying message from this pandemic budget is that while our recovery is running apace, the economy still remains fragile and unable to stand on its own two feet. The government has no option but to continue spending, and it has given the green light to a number of initiatives to ensure our economic recovery continues. With all the tax dollars rolling in, what kind of treasurer could resist spending some of that, given ultra-cheap borrowing costs and an election campaign expected within a year or so? Booming iron ore exports have delivered a bumper company tax take over the March quarter, with the budget’s bottom line improving by $30bn since the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook in December. And our economic recovery is likely to continue, underpinned by strong household spending supported by further lifting of activity restrictions, increased confidence, and the world effects from higher housing prices. Rapid fall in unemployment could challenge RBA stance There are now forecasts that expect the unemployment rate to fall to 4.8% by end-2021 and 4.4% by end-2022. And even lower again in 2023 seems likely. These forecasts potentially challenge the RBA’s expectation a rate hike is “unlikely to be until 2024 at the earliest”. While these forecasts may appear ambitious, they reflect the expectation of a decelerating pace of labour market improvement, particularly in 2022. Ultimately, it will be inflation that matters for the RBA, and the most important judgment in our view is the strength of the transition from underutilization to wages, and then to inflation. The RBA is presuming this transition will be very slow, as it was the last cycle, but the risk around this assessment appears rather one-sided. Sluggish inflation numbers push rate hikes further down the road The CPI rose by 0.6% in the March quarter, taking annual inflation to 1.1% year-on-year. Although this is the third increase in a row, we’re still well below the target band and underperformed expectations by 0.3% in March. With a few exceptions, such as jewellery, petrol, and vehicle prices (driven by supply bottlenecks), price pressures remained weak across most of the economy, especially in food and housing. To some of us who remember the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rising above 10% for much of the late 70s and early 80s, the RBA’s present determination to drive up inflation might seem a little counterintuitive. Investors are back in the market We know that home loan approvals have been surging, particularly for first home buyers and that investors have taken to the sidelines, but that’s changed recently as more investors are now back in the market as evidenced by increasing investor loan approvals. Building approvals surge to the second-highest in history Residential building approvals rose 17.4% m/m in March, surprising sharply to the upside and taking the level of approvals to the second-highest in history. Going forward, we will be looking to see whether the recent strength in detached dwelling approvals will be sustained given the end of the Federal Government’s HomeBuilder program (March was the last month to be eligible for the grant). Since HomeBuilder was introduced in June 2020, detached house approvals have soared by 72% and are driving cost pressures through the industry. Should we be worried about geopolitical risks? The political pendulum is swinging back to the left - geopolitical risks are higher than prior to the GFC reflecting three big themes: a populist backlash against economic rationalist policies; the falling relative power of the US; and the polarising impact of social media. key geopolitical issues to watch this year are US and Australian tensions with China; Iran/Israel tensions; Russia and Ukraine; the German election; US tax hikes and a possible early Australian election. Resources: Metropole’s Strategic Property Plan – to help both beginning and experienced investors Gets your bundle of eBooks and reports here: www.PodcastBonus.com.au Pete Wargent  Next Level Wealth  Pete Wargent’s new book Low Rates High Returns Shownotes plus more here: The Big Picture – May Economic and Property trends you must understand with Pete Wargent Some of our favourite quotes from the show: “I recently read that the suggestion was that a huge number of Baby Boomers were going to downsize because of this. I can’t see that happening.” – Michael Yardney “When people from outside Australia look at us, Melbourne is the only city of five million people that’s actually beaten COVID, and life’s moved on again.” – Michael Yardney “If you want to be successful, you need a mentor who’s going to help guide you through life.” – Michael Yardney PLEASE LEAVE US A REVIEW Reviews are hugely important to me because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes - it's your way of passing the message forward to others and saying thank you to me. Here's how

I have found most successful people have at least one, but usually a number of guiding principles. Things like phrases or ideas by which they live and work To help you develop or add to your own guiding principles, in today’s show I have rounded up a number of philosophies or thoughts that I’m going to discuss with Mark Creedon, founder of Business Accelerator Mastermind in our monthly Build a Business, Not a Job podcast. But before we get into the main show, I’d like to share all of the philosophies of Steve Jobs, the late co-founder and CEO of Apple. Jobs said: "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future." Another interesting philosophy comes from Michael Jordan how famously said: "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed." In today’s show, you’ll hear Mark Creedon and I talk about failure and how the way you think about it makes a huge difference in how you approach all areas of your life, so welcome to today’s show. Life philosophies that could change your life You don’t have to look far on the Internet to find blogs about the philosophies that successful people live by. I enjoy reading those blogs and learning what drives successful people. Interestingly I’ve found some of the best lessons I’ve learned are the simple ones. I’m still a voracious learner and if I haven’t learned something new by lunchtime every day, I’ve had a bad day. Take responsibility for your world Shouldn’t we all? There’s a belief in this world, that I completely resonate with, that everything that has happened to you in your life is a direct result of your actions, either your physical actions or your mental actions. Thoughts are things. As you think so you become. This belief is The Law of Attraction. I know everyone doesn’t agree with this – but I believe you should be a part of your life, not a passenger. Don't make excuses, take action “You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do” — Carl Jung. Action creates momentum and momentum matters. Sure, it’s important to make plans and know which way you’re heading, in life, in your investments, and in business but plans are just theory unless you take action. You are the company you keep. Someone once told me that you’re the sum of the five people with whom you spend the most amount of time and I couldn’t agree more. Studies have proven this time and time again – a Harvard study found that if your friend is happy, your chances of being happy increase 15%. It doesn’t just stop there – if your friend’s friend is happy, your chances of being happy increase by 10%, and if your friend’s friend’s friend is happy, your chances still increase 6% (if 6% doesn’t impress you, you’ll be interested to know that a $10,000 increase in annual income only increases your odds by 2%). This rule also works in the negative sense – if your friend becomes obese, your chances of becoming obese increase 57%. The same goes for smoking (61%) and other negative habits. Embrace your limitations. I know one of my strengths in creating – coming up with the big ideas and implementing them. Or creating things like blogs and podcasts. However, I know I’m not in my flow when doing other types of tasks. Trying to change fundamental aspects of your personality is like swimming upriver – you exert tremendous effort with little forward progress. Instead of trying to change these aspects of myself, I’ve surrounded myself with others who are better at various aspects of our business than me The race is only with yourself. “Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.” – Mary Schmich When you measure your success against that of another, you create an ever-distancing destination at which you’ll never arrive. Develop your own goals and celebrate every achievement. Don't stop when you're tired, stop when you're done You’re going to get tired of being an entrepreneur and you’ll probably even get burned out… especially when things aren’t going well. What’s helped me succeed over the years is that I am persistent. It doesn’t matter whether I am exhausted, or if I feel that I’ve put enough hours in the day, I just don’t ever stop until things are done. As long as you keep on chugging along, eventually, you will accomplish your goals. Commit to doing whatever it takes to succeed Of course, with the exception of causing harm to others! This discipline underpins all of the above. If we wish for success in life, it’s essential we commit to making that wish become a reality. The key to success in life is to go from interest to commitment to taking action from personal power. Honesty is a very expensive gift, do not expect it from cheap people As an entrepreneur, you are going to have to look to other people for feedback and advice. Over the years I’ve learned that not all advice is equal, as some people give better advice than others. The best advice you are ever going to get is the truth. The truth may hurt, but it will save you time and money. Just don’t expect the truth from people who care about saving your feelings. Behind every successful person are a lot of unsuccessful years When people look at what I have accomplished, most of the time they feel that I’ve done it over the last few years. What they forget to realize is that I have been an entrepreneur for over 10 years. And during that 10-year period, I’ve lost millions of dollars, made more mistakes than I can count, and put countless hours into my businesses. So as long as you keep pushing forward as an entrepreneur, your odds of succeeding will go up over time. Live in such a way that if someone spoke badly of you, no one would believe it Businesses come and go, but the one thing you should protect more than anything else is your reputation. Your reputation affects any new business ventures or a job you may try to get later down the road. Be so kind and helpful that if someone spoke badly about you, no one would believe them. Just because you are struggling does not mean you are failing Every great success requires some kind of struggle. You’re going to have to work hard, fight through the tough times and keep pushing forward. So, when you are struggling, don’t give up, keep pushing forward until you see a light at the end of the tunnel. Give Back “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” ―Pablo Picasso. This is a great philosophy because I feel happiness doesn’t result from what we get, but from what we give. I am blessed beyond imagination in life, and I feel it’s my duty to give back. If I can help others in some way, then I do it. Whether through writing, creating, guidance, feedback, listening, financial, volunteering, etc. There are so many ways to give back. Links and Resources: Why not join Metropole’s Business Accelerator Mastermind Learn more about Mark Creedon – Business Coach to some of Australia’s leading entrepreneurs  Get a copy of Mark’s new book here – Have a business not a job Get a heap of special reports and eBooks here- www.PodcastBonus.com.au Shownotes plus more here: 11 Simple philosophies that could change your life with Mark Creedon | Build a Business, Not a Job Podcast Some of our favourite quotes from the show: “I do things that I’m good at doing, and in my business and my now partnership, I allow other people to do things that they’re good at doing.” – Michael Yardney “If you think about it, you never get everything done. There’s always things on your to-do list.” – Michael Yardney “There’s also the luck that you create for yourself by doing the right things, by being the right person, by having the right mindset, so when the opportunities come, you actually take advantage of them.” –Michael Yardney PLEASE LEAVE US A REVIEW Reviews are hugely important to me because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes - it's your way of passing the message forward to others and saying thank you to me. Here's how.

With more of us trading backyards for balconies and courtyards; apartment and townhouse living has become the norm for more Australians. At the same time, budget constraints mean that many investors buy apartments rather than houses. And since there is no doubt that apartment living is going to become more prevalent moving forward, you really need to understand your rights and responsibilities when owning an apartment. Where does your apartment end and where does the common property start? Who is responsible when things go wrong in the common areas? And what six things do you need to know before buying into a strata building? That’s what I’m going to discuss in today’s show with strata law specialist Amanda Farmer. The inspiration for this chat came from an article I recently read about a Melbourne schoolteacher who thought she done all her homework when buying her first property. She looked around her chosen area in Melbourne is northwest, found an apartment building she liked, and commissioned to building inspection report before she bought the property. But now two and a half years on, she’s facing financial ruin. Her block’s owners are taking its builders to court over allegations of severe defects in its construction, and she’s having to pay for both repairs and her share of spiralling legal fees. Sure, she had a pre-purchase report done by an expert – but he only examined her apartment, and nothing of the building in which it sits, or its communal areas, which all owners are responsible for. She didn’t realize, either, that she should also have ordered a strata report that would have revealed, through the minutes of the Owners Corporation, the ongoing battle with the builders. This is a tragic story – a 32-year-old financially ruined through owning the wrong apartment.  But it’s a story I’ve heard before, so I hope you’re going to get a new insight into what you need to do before buying into a strata property in my chat with Amanda Farmer today. What you need to know when buying a strata property If you’re considering buying or already own an apartment, townhouse, or villa unit, whether as a Let’s begin with the obvious – what is a Strata unit? Effectively it means: you own your unit or apartment as well as sharing ownership and responsibility for common property if you own your unit, you are automatically a member of the owner’s corporation which has responsibility for common property and makes key decisions affecting the strata scheme you contribute to the cost of running the building through paying quarterly levies you also have to pay money into a capital works fund, for future long-term expenses such as painting the building or replacing guttering there will be lifestyle restrictions in a strata scheme. 6 THINGS YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST KNOW ABOUT WHEN OWNING A STRATA PROPERTY:  1) By-laws  Includes pets, air conditioning units, noise, renovation works, hard flooring, washing, landscaping, use of swimming pool/gym, short-term letting, rules around moving in or out  2) Levies  Quarterly levies can range anywhere from $200 per quarter for a small, self-managed building (ie: with no strata manager’s fees) to in excess of $5,000 per quarter for a city penthouse in a luxury harbourfront building with concierge service and numerous facilities.  3) Lot property vs. Common property  When you purchase a unit in a strata building, you are essentially purchasing air space. That air space is known as your “lot”. Anything outside of your lot is either someone else’s lot or “common property”.  4) Meetings  Important decisions are decided in meetings: eg - whether to add to, alter or erect a new structure on the common property for the purpose of improving or enhancing the common property.  5) Strata manager  The duties of the strata manager include receiving and distributing correspondence, issuing levy notices, arranging tradespeople, keeping the owners’ corporation’s books and records in good order, including financial records.  6) Committee A decision of the committee is taken to be a decision of the Owners Corporation, though a committee cannot decide on anything that can only be decided by the owners in general meeting.  Links and Resources: Michael Yardney Amanda Farmer- Director Your Strata Property Get access to my exclusive Special reports library – a bonus for listening to my podcast As our markets move forward why not get the team at Metropole to build you a personalised Strategic Property Plan – this will help both beginning and experienced investors. Join us at Wealth Retreat 2021 – click here to find out more Shownotes plus more here: 6 tips for investors when buying a strata property with Amanda Farmer Some of our favourite quotes from the show: “I’m actually proud that Australia was the country that was the beginning of strata law.” – Michael Yardney “I know that if I buy a house, I’ve got to do a building and pest inspection because it’s my responsibility – if there’s termites or if there’s rising damp, I’ve got to pay for it. What if I buy an apartment?” – Michael Yardney “Jim Rohn taught me that neglect is like an infection.” – Michael Yardney PLEASE LEAVE US A REVIEW Reviews are hugely important to me because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes - it's your way of passing the message forward to others and saying thank you to me. Here's how

Property prices have been climbing at a breathtaking pace in 2021. This has been good news for homeowners but heartbreaking for house hunters. At the same time, there have been mixed messages in the media about what’s ahead. Of course, there’s always the Negative Nellies wanting to tell anyone who is prepared to listen to them the market is about to crash, but other more solid commentators are suggesting our property market is slowing down. And I agree, I believe the pace of capital gains has peaked, but I’m not suggesting home values are about to dip, far from it. Rather I believe we’ve moved from a peak rate of growth to a pace of capital gain that will be more sustainable. I was recently interviewed by Jarrod Mahon for his Perth Property Insiders podcast, and because the questions he asked me were more general in nature, rather than related to Perth I asked his permission to replay the interview with you as I hope you’ll get benefits from my answers to his questions. You’ll hear me answers questions like how much more life is left in the property cycle and you’ll be pleased to know that it’s not too late to be early for this property cycle – I’ll explain how long I believe is left in this cycle and where the opportunities lie. Topics I discussed with Jarrod Mahon Last year when many of the bank economists predicted a 15%, 20%, 30% fall in property values I disagreed with them I’m on record in March and April last year suggesting that well-located A-grade homes and investment-grade properties would only fall about 5% in value and secondary properties would fall close to 10% in value and I got that right. I also called a turning point in our property markets in October last year when we could see on the ground what was happening long before it showed up in the official statistics. However, I didn’t really expect the market to rebound so quickly. All the property markets are stronger than they were 12 months ago. In the last three months, Melbourne’s grown closer to 6%. We’re in a cycle of upgrading Based on affordability I expect 20- 25% growth this cycle And while this will be a general increase in value around the Australian property market some areas are going to outperform others, as they always do and a lot of this will have to do with demographic High-end properties will outperform, and capital cities will outperform the regions In cities, the apartment market will languish While normally investors make up around 30% of our property markets currently, they’re making up around 20% of all property purchases. This will increase and as more Australians become comfortable with their financial situation and hear how well the property markets are performing, we will have a whole new wave of property investors, as has happened every other cycle. The unfortunate thing is that most investors will fail – they will not get past the first investment property and if history repeats itself 50% will sell up the properties within the first five years. Affordability and the deposit gap will slow growth Apra and the RBA said they are not going to interfere as long as lending remains responsible. It’s unlikely interest rates are going to go up, but we could see. It’s not really population growth that drives our property markets and more demographics which in part includes how many of us there are but also how we want to live and where we want to live. Population growth per se does not cross property price growth family formation does – my daughter just had a baby but doesn’t need any extra house. The return of cashed-up ex-pats is having to property price growth. It has been estimated that hundreds of thousands of people return to Australia over the last year, with many of them coming from cities that have more expensive property markets. Many are returning with plenty of Real Estate dollars behind them off in a stronger currency is the Australian dollar which supercharges their buying power even more. Ex-pats from expensive cities like London, Hong Kong, and New York often don’t consider our property prices unaffordable I’m not happy to pay whatever is necessary to secure a prestigious property in the desired location Immigrants often rent for a while because they’re not sure where to live and this is definitely affected our rental markets, particularly in the big capital cities. Immigrants don’t know where to buy – all they know is there a place of employment or maybe the university, so they are often start as tenants. Australia has a business plan to increase our population to 40,000,000 people by 2050. We plan to get to 30,000,000 people by 2030 – that’s unlikely to happen – more likely to be 29 million. But that means if you get into the property market today, you’re ahead of 3 ½ million other people are going to be buying property in the next 8 to 9 years There is no doubt that people move from one location to another because of affordability, but more important than that is jobs. The ability to work, live, and play all within 20 minutes’ reach is the new gold standard desirable lifestyle. Imagine being able to carry out your daily activities within a 20-minute walk from home. Resources:  Get a range of my eBooks and reports as my gift at www.PodcastBonus.com.au Jarrod Mahon Investor’s Edge and the Perth Property Insiders Podcast As our markets move forward why not get the team at Metropole to build you a personalised   Strategic Property Plan – this will help both beginning and experienced investors. Shownotes plus more here: It’s not too late to be early this property cycle with Jarrad Mahon Some of our favorite quotes from the show: “It really has been just the huge change in consumer confidence that I don’t think anyone really expected.” – Michael Yardney “I say this is a cycle of upgraders, and it’s happening at all levels.” – Michael Yardney “Clarity is knowing exactly what you want in life, and what you need to do to get what you want.” –Michael Yardney PLEASE LEAVE US A REVIEW Reviews are hugely important to me because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes - it's your way of passing the message forward to others and saying thank you to me. Here's how

Today, I’d like to share with you my top insights into creating accelerated wealth. Now, the show is a little bit different, because it’s actually the audio of a webinar I conducted with my friend Louise Bedford who asked me to share with her audience my insights into creating wealth in this new business, property, and economic cycle. It came at a great time because I was preparing the curriculum for Wealth Retreat this year that we’ll be holding on the Gold Coast in June, and I was reviewing my notes from previous years and speaking with previous attendees. I was blown away by the feedback as previous attendees explained how the Wealth Retreat changed the way they handled their investments, their business and their lives. That’s high praise from people who are already very successful. So, I hope that sharing my insights will also benefit you and help you take advantage of the opportunities that lie in front of us in 2021. My insights into wealth creation The first step along the investment path is educating yourself. It’s what I still do today to keep growing and it’s what all successful investors do. Experience is an expensive teacher. I recognised that we all have personal ceilings of achievement that are based on our current thoughts and habits. The answer is to grow yourself into a bigger cup so that you attract and keep more wealth. You do this by upgrading your wealth programming – the way you think and react about money. We all need to learn from mistakes – this helps you get it right and move forward. The only question is, whose mistakes? Yours or those of the successful investors who have already achieved what you want to achieve? Remember, building wealth all on your own is not only hard work, but it’s slower and riskier. Alone you are vulnerable and will never reach your fullest potential. But when you connect with the right mastermind group, the chemistry will literally propel you to heights you never dreamed possible. The biggest obstacles we need to overcome to become financially free Obstacle #1: Isolation: It’s hard to build wealth on your own You see…alone you are vulnerable. You will never reach your fullest potential. But when you connect with the right people, a whole new set of options you never dreamed possible opens up to you. In fact, one of the main reasons people attend Wealth Retreat is to have an instant peer group of movers and shakers. Obstacle #2: Fear One of the greatest obstacles to building financial freedom is fear. And with all the mixed messages in the press at the moment with concerns about, the after-effects of the Corona Virus on our economy, what will happen when JobKeeper ends, growing social unrest in Australia – not just overseas, the challenges with obtaining finance and talk of a property bubble developing, many of us are more fearful than ever. This fear can be taken many forms, but the big 4 fears I come across are: Fear of failure – this is especially prevalent. Fear of debt – most of us have been taught that debt is bad and not to take on more debt. Strategic investors recognise that debt in itself is not necessarily bad, rather it’s not being able to repay your debts that’s a problem. Fear of success – Interestingly, some beginning investors put off their investment decisions because they are haunted by a fear of success. While this may initially seem strange, this fear generally stems from a feeling of unworthiness, where people convince themselves that they are undeserving of wealth or wanting to accumulate wealth makes them a bad person. Fear of the unknown – Who wants to go into a dark room? Who wants to go to a party where you don’t know anyone? Who is not nervous about buying their first investment property? Whenever the outcome is uncertain, fear rears its ugly head. Another fear I have commonly seen is the fear to follow your passion. Obstacle #3: Uncertainty The third major obstacle I’ve observed our Wealth Retreat graduates had to overcome was confusion. They had heard so much conflicting financial advice over the years that they quite simply didn’t know which direction to move in. How to overcome these obstacles One of the most valuable benefits of Wealth Retreat for attendees was that it simplified the complex world of wealth building and business planning so that they had a crystal clear, specifically defined plan of action to pursue their personal wealth building. Alone you are vulnerable; connected we are strong It really struck me how easy it is to fall back into old habits and let negative outside influences dramatically impact our mindset and financial results when we are on our own. We cannot be our best selves in isolation from the world. We need other people. The key is making sure we’re spending time with people who inspire, empower, and encourage us. Your peer group is contagious One of the things that struck me on the first night at Wealth Retreat, when we all got together for a special surprise event (the details of which I can’t reveal here, otherwise it would spoil the surprise for the attendees) was how quickly people connected with each other. It’s ultimately up to you to find and create the peer group that will help you live the life you want to live. After a “Loss” we tend to go back to what we knew One of the most important insights that I want to share is that when most people suffer a “loss” financially, their natural tendency is to pull back and isolate. Some are fearful… others embarrassed… But isolation only makes things worse. You need to accurately assess the situation, learn your lessons, and move forward. Beating yourself up is of no benefit. This is why your peer group and mastermind team are so essential. Your Mastermind Team Apart from the opportunity for participants at Wealth Retreat 2021 to have one on one sessions with our expert faculty, one of the exciting parts of Wealth Retreat this year will be the small group breakout sessions. This is a masterminding technique where you ask a focused power question to your mastermind group and they have time to brainstorm as many possible answers to your question as possible. Resources: Join us at Wealth Retreat 2021 – find out all about it here Get the team at Metropole to help build your personal Strategic Property Plan Click here and have a chat with us Get a range of my ebooks here:  www.Podcastbonus.com.au Shownotes plus notes here: [Podcast] My Top Insights into Accelerated Wealth Creation with Louise Bedford Some of our favourite quotes from the show: “If you’re in the room with a group of already successful movers and shakers, it makes you think different and you come out different.” – Michael Yardney “Isolation is one of the largest obstacles to building wealth.” – Michael Yardney “People need to convince themselves that they’re deserving of wealth.” – Michael Yardney PLEASE LEAVE US A REVIEW Reviews are hugely important to me because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes - it's your way of passing the message forward to others and saying thank you to me. Here's how  

Perhaps it’s a reflection of how old I am, but as I keep seeing the stories in the media about rapidly rising house prices, I simply think: here we go again. There are already those out there telling us we are in the housing bubble that’s going to crash. Then there are others who are warning us how the Reserve Bank or APRA are going to interfere and slow things down. And then the banks that only 12 months ago forecast house prices would fall 10, 15 or 20 percent are now suggesting house prices could rise by 10, 15, or even 20 percent in this year alone in some areas. While these periods of rapid house price rise essentially come down to the forces of supply and demand, each sprinkled with varying quantities of irrational exuberance, the precise forces behind each of the housing booms I’ve invested in over the last almost 50 years are not the same. I remember just after I bought my first investment property early 1970s inflation boomed when the Whitlam Labour government came in. At that time interest rates were much higher than they are now. Inflation had the effect of reducing the real value of mortgages, but it was also a time of strong wage growth. Then I remember the great property boom of the late 1980s which was one of the factors that led to the recession we had to have in the early ’90s and particularly remember the boom in the early 2000s, when investor demand was a significant factor driving up house prices, in part because of the changes made to the capital gains tax regime at the time. Looking at the current housing boom, there are some very interesting features that contrast with previous cycles. The first is that population growth is currently very low, in fact, net immigration actually caused Australia’s total population to fall over the past 12 months. That’s very different from previous booms — particularly in the middle of the last decade — where strong immigration was an important driver of rising house prices. Another interesting difference is the relative absence of investors in the current housing market compared with owner-occupiers. This is reflected in the much stronger demand for standalone houses rather than apartments. In February this year investors only made up about 20% of all home loans while traditionally this is closer to 30%. And it’s not just local investors that are missing. There is also the absence of foreign investors. During the last boom Asian investors, particularly from China were an important force driving up property prices and buying many of the high-rise apartments being built in our CBD. They are nowhere to be seen this time around. So far, a significant factor of this property boom has been the presence of first homebuyers assisted by various federal and state government initiatives including the homebuilder program, the first home loan deposit scheme, and various deputy concessions. While our banks are keen to lend to First Home Buyers, I’ve heard that the Bank of Mum and Dad is now is the fifth largest lending institution in Australia. Here homeowning parents who sitting on significant equity in their property help their children get into the housing market either with gifts, loans or they assist by guaranteeing their loans. So how can you make the most of this property cycle? Is the Reserve Bank going to interfere and raise interest rates? Will APRA slow down lending as it has in the past? These are all questions I’m going to ask of my regular podcast guest, financial adviser Stuart Wemyss.   Truths about the housing boom Our property markets have been surging this year with double-digit growth in sight for all our capital cities. And now that more Australians feel secure about our economy in general, and their jobs in particular, this will only place more impetus under our markets. And it’s clear that FOMO (fear of missing out) when homebuyers and investors are scared the market is running away from them is driving many decisions. Buyers feel they must get into the market and this is showing with even secondary properties selling well above their vendor’s expectations. Normally at the beginning of the property cycle, there is a flight to quality – people remember the type of properties that held their values well during the downturn and avoid secondary properties. But currently, I’m seeing some home buyers so worried the market is going to pass them by that they are compromising their selection criteria just to get into this market. Unfortunately, we’ve seen how you end up when the market eventually slows down, and it’s not always a pretty sight. So what’s ahead for the markets this year and how can you take advantage of our current property boom without getting burned? That’s the topic of my discussion today with independent financial adviser Stuart Wemyss. Will the RBA increase the cash rate? The lowest 40% of income earners have been affected by COVID-19 the most. An increase in interest rate would adversely affect low-income owners when they could least afford it. An increase in interest rates would be bad news for the federal and state government budget deficits. The federal government’s total borrowings attempt to reach $1 trillion meaning 1% of price interest rates would cost the government an additional $10 billion a year – not an attractive prospect. Will APRA introduce macroprudential controls? Chairman Wayne Buyers said APRA’s primary responsibility is financial stability, not soaring house prices, and it is not seeing activity right now that would compel it to intervene. However, more commentators are suggesting there will be a role for changes to potential lending standards. How might this be done? Increase interest rates for investor mortgages and leave owner-occupier rates unchanged (investor mortgage rates are already 0.4-0.8 percent higher than owner-occupier rates). Limit the maximum loan to value ratio (LVR) for investment loans. At the moment, investors can borrow up to 90 percent of a property’s value, meaning they only need a 10 percent deposit plus costs. The government could reduce these LVR limits, like the Reserve Bank of New Zealand did last month. Increase the benchmark interest rates for investors. A benchmark interest rate is used when a lender calculates your borrowing capacity. It provides a buffer to provide for future interest rate increases. The higher the benchmark interest rate, the lower your borrowing capacity. While a new round of macro-prudential policies is looking increasingly a matter of when, not if, as I see it, the catalyst for such a policy intervention is more likely to be based on a worsening in the quality of lending standards or increase in mortgage-related household debt rather than as a response to heat in the housing market. Tighter credit conditions would probably have an immediate dampening effect on housing market activity while continuing to let record-low interest rates support the ongoing economic recovery. It’s very likely that the government (through APRA) will tighten borrowings criteria for investors sometime over the next six to 18 months. Of course, this is dependent on property prices. If price rises are considered sustainable, borrowing rules do not need to change. For property investors, it is time to lock in access to as much capital as possible over the next six months. Depending on the type and location of your property, I would probably be inclined to wait for one to two months before getting your properties revalued. This will allow for some more comparable sales to occur. Then, around April or May, I would ask my mortgage broker to revalue my properties and lock in my borrowing capacity to 80 percent of those new valuations. The exact timing of this does depend on your circumstances. Notwithstanding the prospect of future lending rule changes (as discussed above), it is always a good idea to maximize your access to borrowings, even if you have no immediate plans. So, what should someone interested in getting into property be doing now. Lock in access to as much equity as possible over the next 6 months. Depending on the type and location of your properties, I would probably be inclined to wait for one to two months before getting your properties revalued. This will allow for some more comparable sales to occur. Then, around April or May, I would ask your mortgage broker to revalue your properties and lock in my borrowing capacity to 80% of those new valuations. The exact timing of this does depend on your circumstances. How important is timing the market? Ultimately the price you pay for a property is largely irrelevant. What is far more important (by a factor of 10) is the quality of the asset you buy. Property is a long-term investment. You should plan to hold it for many decades. So there’s no point getting anxious over a few months. Discretionary vendors will be encouraged by recent results. As such, we should expect the supply of properties on the market to increase. This may have a cooling effect on prices or at least temper price rises. We must remind ourselves that prices are able to move in both directions. One thing is almost for sure. Interest rates are likely to remain low for an extended period of time, and that’s an opportunity. Resources: Michael YardneyGet the team at Metropole to help build your personal Strategic Property Plan. Click here and have a chat with us Get your bonus ebooks and reports – www.PodcastBonus.com.au Join us at Wealth Retreat 2021 Stuart Wemyss – Prosolution Private Clients Stuart’s Book – Rules of the Lending Game Shownotes plus more here: Some home truths about this housing boom with Stuart Wemyss Some of our favorite quotes from the show: “It’s not just you and me who are going to have to pay more. The government’s borrowings would cost them more.” – Michael Yardney “I see property price growth slowing later this year. Not prices going down, but the growth slowing.” –Michael Yardney “I’ve come to realize that too many people worry about failing, about getting it wrong.” – Michael Yardney PLEASE LEAVE US A REVIEW Reviews are hugely important to me because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes - it's your way of passing the message forward to others and saying thank you to me. Here's how

We are experiencing extraordinary times with a booming economy and surging property market yet if history repeats itself, most investors won’t become rich. So, in today’s podcast, I want to share three lessons with you to help even the odds in your favour. Firstly, I’m going to explain six reasons many property investors don’t become rich, and they’re probably not ones that you would’ve thought of. I would then like to discuss a controversial topic with you - that debt can actually be an asset, not a liability. Of course, not everyone agrees with me, but I hope once you’ve heard my point of view you will understand why the rich are getting richer because they know how to use it wisely, especially in today’s low-interest-rate environment. And then I’m going to share 5 things that you can do differently to make your future better. The reasons why property investors don’t become rich Reason 1 – Most people wait too long to start Many investors are waiting for everything to be “perfect” before they get going.  Which means they never get going. The longer you wait to get started with your investing, the longer it will be before you get the money, success, and freedom you want. Reason 2 – Fear stops them Fear keeps many of us from getting what we want, especially in matters of money. Some fear taking on more debt, others fear failure and some even have a fear of success. Successful investors have learned to harness their fears and rather than focus on the negatives, they use fear to force them into positive action. Reason 3 – Waiting until they know enough The fear of not knowing enough prevents other investors from getting started. However, the irony here is that the more you learn, the more you learn that you don’t know! The way out is to recognize that while you don’t know it all, and you never will, you do know enough to get started with your investing and you will learn more along the way as you apply your knowledge in the real world, surviving any mistakes and challenges along the way. Reason 4 – Focusing on linear income instead of passive income Some income streams are linear, and some are passive. Linear income is what you get from a job. Passive income is when you work once but continue to get paid over and over again from work you’re no longer doing. The way to become wealthy is having passive income coming in whether you go to work or not. Reason 5 – Not using systems for making money A system for making money is something that takes the emotion out of your investment decisions and makes the results more reproducible. My preferred system is investing in high-growth property.  Once you create a proven system for making money, there is no limit to the money you can make. Reason 6 – Not being patient Warren Buffet once said: “wealth is the transfer of money from the impatient to the patient.” To become a successful property investor requires patience and persistence.  You must not only get started, but you must continue on and follow through. How debt can be an asset You were probably taught by your parents to get a good education, a good job, buy a home, work really hard, and pay off your debt. But, in my mind, that’s not a productive use of the equity in your home. Instead, you should recycle the equity in your home and convert it into productive debt to buy income-producing assets. The three types of debt Bad debt: This is debt against assets that depreciate in value. Bad debt generally refers to things like credit cards or other consumer debt that does little to improve your financial outcome. Necessary debt: This is the non-tax-deductible debt against your home, but it’s something essential that can’t really be avoided. Good debt: This is a tax-deductible debt against income-producing and appreciating assets. Think loans against residential investment properties business loans. A seven step guide to debt recycling Over time you will have paid down a portion of your home mortgage with a principal and interest loan and during that time your home would have increased in value. The bank will often lend you up to 80% of the value of your home as long as you can show serviceability. You would take out a new investment loan using your available home equity as security and the purpose of this loan would be to use the funds as a deposit on an investment property. You could use this to invest in assets that produce both income and capital growth such as a managed fund, shares, or as the deposit against an investment property. You could even use the income generated from your investments, plus any tax advantages of a geared investment, to pay off the non-deductible debt in your home loan. Over time you will build your wealth as your investment property or share portfolio should increase in value over time and the cash flow you receive in the form of rental or dividends should also increase. At the same time you will slowly be paying down the mortgage on your home, so that when you reach your retirement years and start enjoying the longest holiday you will have in your life, you will own your own home with no debt and have an investment portfolio of properties or shares (preferably both) with a manageable level of debt. Resources: Michael Yardney Get the team at Metropole to help build your personal Strategic Property Plan. Click here and have a chat with us Join us at Wealth Retreat 2021- find out more here Shownotes plus more here: Believe it or not, debt can be an asset | 6 reasons property investors don’t become rich + More Some of our favorite quotes from the show: “The more you learn, the more you learn you don’t know.” – Michael Yardney “The difference between the current value of your home and the outstanding amount of your mortgage is your equity.” – Michael Yardney “The quality of the results you get has a lot to do with the questions you ask yourself.” – Michael Yardney PLEASE LEAVE US A REVIEW Reviews are hugely important to me because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes - it's your way of passing the message forward to others and saying thank you to me. Here's how

Property investment may be simple, but it’s not easy. It’s simple if you follow the rules and the right strategy, but it’s not easy because there are so many moving parts, and most people don’t even recognize that. Successful property investment requires the collaboration of a team with expertise in property, finance, tax, the law, and financial planning. If you’re a regular listener, you’d know I try to give you a mix of all of those things to give you a holistic overview of property investment. Today’s episode is no different. I’ll be talking to Ken Raiss, my business partner at Metropole Wealth Advisory, about the best ownership structures for property investment. After that, I’ll share my mindset message with you. Highlights from my chat with Ken Raiss: What are ownership structures? They’re a way of controlling your assets without owning them. It’s a way to get all of the benefits of having them, like wealth and the ability to pass assets on to your children, without actually owning them. They give you a better way to manage cash flows, tax, and asset protection while separating you from the asset. People’s lives and circumstances change. So even if you already have your portfolio and structures in place, it could make sense to change it now, depending on your circumstances. Types of structures: In general there are Companies and Trusts They’ve both been around for a long time, but they’re now coming into use by ordinary people. Companies are very regulated. They must meet the minimum regulations set by the government. There are no government laws or rules about what needs to be in trust. Trustees may hold the cash, but they have a legal obligation to use it the way that the trust says they have to use it. Trusts have lots of flexibility concerning who you can give it to and what you can use it for. Benefits of using a trust: A more efficient way of distributing cash flows Be able to manage their own tax affairs Better control and management of the estate on death More flexibility Asset protection Common mistakes people make when using structures: Setting up a company, particularly for a business, then becoming the individual shareholder Setting up a company when trust would be more appropriate Setting up a trust when you’d be better off with a company Getting the wrong type of trust Selling a property from a trust in such a way that the depreciation is added back to the trust once or twice Failing to take the trust’s end date into account Links and Resources: Michael Yardney Ken Raiss, director Metropole Wealth Advisory Have a chat with Ken Raiss to ensure you have the correct asset protection strategies in place – click here In turbulent times like this why not get the team at Metropole on your side – find out more here Get your own copy of What Every Property Investor Needs To Know About Finance, Tax and the Law. Shownotes plus more here: What is the best structure to buy your property in, yet protect and pass on your wealth, with Ken Raiss Some of our favourite quotes from the show: “Before people panic too much, there are things that can be done to amend trustees.” – Michael Yardney “Many trusts have very broad definitions of who beneficiaries can be.” –Michael Yardney “I guess one way of summarizing the habits of successful people could be: successful people start before they feel ready.” –Michael Yardney PLEASE LEAVE US A REVIEW Reviews are hugely important to me because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes - it's your way of passing the message forward to others and saying thank you to me. Here's how

Almost 50 years ago I began my study of rich and successful people. Of course, not all rich people are successful. But I remember trying to understand why some people were rich while others kept struggling financially. Over the years I attended many seminars, paid mentors, and read as many books as I could on the topic of success. I modeled successful people and eventually grew successful myself. It wasn’t easy, I’ve had my challenges in life (mostly self-inflicted) and I’ve hit rock-bottom, but I got up again, learned from my mistakes, and moved forward. Over the years, I grew a very substantial property portfolio, built a national business this has won multiple awards as Australia’s leading property consultant and has been involved in over $4 billion worth of property transactions, and currently manages over $2 billion worth of assets for our clients. As you can imagine I have learned a few things about wealth and success along the way. And a byproduct of this is my top-selling book – Rich Habits Poor Habits — that I co-authored with Tom Corley and which has become an international bestseller and translated into a number of foreign languages including. In our book, we explain that being rich has little to do with the money itself. Instead, it has a lot to do with how you think about money. So, if you want to become rich, one of the first steps is to know how the wealthy think about money differently than you do and to start thinking like them. The next step is to take action and to let the action become natural by thinking the way wealthy people think. Unfortunately, we live in a society that teaches us that money equals success. Like many other things, money is a tool. It’s certainly not a bad thing but, ultimately, it’s just another resource. Regrettably, too many people worship it. Now, I didn’t understand this when I began my study of rich and successful people more almost 50 years ago. Over the years I have learned that… Being rich has little to do with the money itself. Instead, it has a lot to do with how you think about money. This means that if you want to become rich, one of your first steps is to know how the wealthy think about money differently than you do and to start thinking like them. The next step is to take action and to let the action become natural by thinking the way wealthy people do and developing what we call Rich Habits. In the last month’s Rich Habits Poor Habits podcast, Tom and I discussed some of the Rich Habits that are common among successful people, and in today’s show, we are going to continue this discussion, so welcome to today’s show. Rich Habits of Successful People If you’ve been reading my blogs or those of Tom Corley, or if you be listening to our monthly Rich Habits Poor Habits podcasts or you’ve read or RHPH book you will know that rich people share similar habits just the way poor people share similar habits. Now before you get too offended… We’re not making a judgment when we say rich people or poor people – they are terms we’re going to use to help clarify the different ways of thinking that 1% of people exhibit from the majority of the population. So, let’s learn more about these habits, Maybe we should clarify what habits really are: Habits represent unconscious behavior, thinking, choices and emotions. A habit is formed when neurons (brain cells) talk to one another repetitively. Habits have a purpose. More Rich Habits of Successful People Rich and successful people align themselves with like-minded people. They understand the importance of being part of a team. They create win-win relationships. The poor believe money will make them happier, while the rich know that money has little to do with happiness, but it does make your life easier and more enjoyable. The rich don’t blame (what’s the point?) They take responsibility for their actions and outcomes (or lack thereof). They know there is no such thing as a rich victim. The poor believe it’s wrong for a small group of people (the 1%) to possess most of the money. The rich welcomes the masses (the 99%) to join them. Successful people are not necessarily more talented than the majority, yet they always find a way to maximize their potential. They get more out of themselves. They use what they have more effectively. The poor believe that in order to gain something, you must sacrifice something else. You must choose between great family life and being poor, or love and being poor, but you can’t have both. The rich know they can have it all if they have an abundant mindset. Successful people are solution-focused, rather than looking for problems or obstacles. Successful people are fearful like everyone else, but they are not controlled or limited by fear. They use it to empower themselves. The rich get up early. They know there’s no shortcut so they work hard until they’ve accumulated a big enough asset base so they don’t have to work hard anymore. The rich ask the right questions – ones that put them in a productive, creative mindset and a positive emotional state. They understand that the better the questions they ask, the better the answers they get, and the better the results they will achieve. The rich have clarity and certainty about what they want (and don’t want) for their life. They actually visualize and plan their future while others are merely spectators of life. While the poor believe rich people are lucky, the rich know luck has nothing to do with their success. While the poor wait for their lotto numbers to come up, the rich don’t expect Lady Luck to pay them a visit; instead, they aggressively pursue their dreams. While the middle class believes the road to riches is through formal education like a college degree or a master’s, you’ll find many of the rich never completed high school. They favor specific knowledge in their industry over formal education. They’ve learned to become more valuable by becoming an expert in their job. The rich are voracious life-long learners. They constantly work at educating themselves, sometimes formally and academically; but more often informally by asking, watching, reading, or listening and also experimentally by doing, trying, failing, and trying again. By the way… I’m not talking about formal education. Of course, it’s worth realising that… We all have some of these Rich Habits and we all exhibit some disempowering Poor Habits. The big differentiator in the see-saw of life is: do you have more of the Rich Habits or more of the disempowering Poor Habits? The good news is that as you’re learning about these concepts in our book the choice is yours.  You can choose whether you will be a have or a have not. Links and Resources: Tom Corley - Rich Habits Michael Yardney - Metropole Get your own copy of our international bestseller Rich Habits Poor Habits Get the team at Metropole to help build your personal Strategic Property Plan Click here and have a chat with us Shownotes plus more here: Learn These Rich Habits of Successful People | Rich Habits, Poor Habits Podcast, Part 2 with Tom Corley Some of our favourite quotes from the show: “I think one of the comments we’ve both made over the time is that any problem that money can solve isn’t really a problem.” – Michael Yardney “I think we both realise that if you do the hard things early in your life, the rest of your life’s going to be easy.” – Michael Yardney “You can get random good luck. And you can get random bad luck. But the successful people don’t count on that.” – Michael Yardney PLEASE LEAVE US A REVIEW Reviews are hugely important to me because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes - it's your way of passing the message forward to others and saying thank you to me. Here's how.

I recently read an article in the Australian by leading demographer Bernard Salt that made me think. He posed an interesting question. He said, “imagine taking an Australian couple from the 1950s and placing them in our society today. What would surprise them most?” Would it be the internet or mobile phones or our general level of prosperity? Maybe it would be something seemingly unremarkable (to us) such as the ubiquitous use of plastic. Or maybe it would be the idea of wearing outer garments with slogans, brand names and images paraded for all the world to see. Perhaps it would be our accent – it would sound less Australian, or the pronunciation of some words which would have more of an American twang to them, or even some of the words we use. Terms such as 24/7 became popular after the turn of the century, which brought with it the alphanumeric concept of Y2K. Bernard Salt suggested that if this ’50s couple were to wander around the CBD of any big city, he was sure they would be struck by the ethnic mix of the people, the cafes, the independence of women, and the absence of formal dress, with hatless men and gloveless ladies everywhere. I’m sure he’s right. This got me thinking about what will change in how we live moving forward after the coronavirus pandemic. How is your lifestyle going to change? While this is an interesting academic question it is also an important question to ask ourselves as property investors, business people, or entrepreneurs. As we move through 2021, we’re still getting regular reminders that even though life is more normal, the effects of Coronavirus will be with us for a long time. While some people are still looking back in the rear vision mirror to see what lessons we can learn to give us some guidance for the year ahead, let’s look forward into the future as I chat with leading demographer Simon Kuestenmacher Simon is Director of Research at The Demographics Group, a columnist with The Australian, and a regular guest on this who is globally recognized as a rising star in the field of data management and insight and a regular guest here on my podcast. All trends point towards Australians looking inwards, focusing on family matters, embellishing the family home. Retail shifted online during the lockdowns but even after Australia opened up again online retail remained higher than expected before the pandemic. The changes in retail sales by industry sub-group also show how Australians are investing in their family homes.  Major events don’t just change the way we view the world but also change the way we want our homes to look. When Italians and Greeks moved to Australia, we transitioned from building English homes to building Mediterranean homes that allow us to combine indoor and outdoor living. After the millennial drought, we added water tanks to our homes. During the pandemic, we added veggie patches, additional storage (for food and toilet paper?), zoom rooms to the house, and changed the way we use our garages.  Even after droughts, pandemics, and Mediterranean migrant waves are gone the changes introduced to our homes are still there. The current changes suggest larger homes will be in more demand. Customer behaviour also is linked to customer income. The story here is simple. The richer you are the less intensely the pandemic hit you. Tenant selection should be on an investor’s mind. This data further suggests that lower-skilled workers will struggle to afford homeownership and will therefore be renters. Links and Resources: Michael Yardney As our markets move forward why not get the team at Metropole to build you a personalised Strategic Property Plan – this will help both beginning and experienced investors. Join us at Wealth Retreat 2021 – click here to find out more Simon Kuestenmacher - Director of Research at The Demographics Group Shownotes plus more here: These are the big trends post-Coronavirus and they may not be what you expect with Simon Kuestenmacher Some of our favourite quotes from the show: “Even dress code seems to have changed. People are less formal post-COVID.” – Michael Yardney “Sometimes we only look at what it costs to do something, and then when it seems too hard, we just don’t do it.” – Michael Yardney “You’re never going to become rich if your money doesn’t work for you while you’re asleep.” – Michael Yardney PLEASE LEAVE US A REVIEW Reviews are hugely important to me because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes - it's your way of passing the message forward to others and saying thank you to me. Here's how

There are a lot of great things about being an adult, such as setting our own bedtimes and owning the pet of our choice. But perhaps most importantly, with age comes the wisdom and perspective we only wish we had when we were younger. So if you had the opportunity to go back in time, what would you have liked to tell your younger self? That’s what I’m going to discuss today with Mark Creedon and even though we can’t go back in time, we can reflect on the hard-earned knowledge we wish we had known then. And we can even use it to inspire our future selves. What would you say to your younger self if you could? When we are young, we think we know it all. We have our whole lives ahead of us, and the exuberance and energy to go after what we want. But our 20s can also be a time of great insecurity. We are hungry and ambitious but lack the experience to know how to calculate risk properly, follow our gut or learn from our mistakes. Put simply: we don’t have enough runs on the board to make fully formed decisions. But what if you could have a conversation with your bright-eyed, 20-something self? If you could have given he or she some wisdom from the future what would it be? What would you warn them against or encourage them to do more of? Here are some of the things we discuss: Look after yourself Hard work to the exclusion of all else is not the answer. Take Calculated Risks You don’t save money by doing everything yourself. 5. Get a mentor; get a few mentors and be prepared to pay for them 6. Choose your friends carefully Admire rich people 8. Educate and motivate yourself Make investing a priority Don’t compare your life to others, especially on social media. Links and Resources: Why not join Metropole’s Business Accelerator Mastermind Learn more about Mark Creedon – Business Coach to some of Australia’s leading entrepreneurs  Get a copy of Mark’s new book here – Have a business not a job Join us at Wealth Retreat 2021 – find out more here Shownotes plus more here: What’s the best advice you would give your younger self? | Build a Business, Not a Job Podcast Some of our favourite quotes from the show: “I think I was probably too driven, too focused in the first part of my life.” – Michael Yardney “I believe it’s really important to choose your friends carefully, choose your friends wisely.”— Michael Yardney “I don’t particularly like employing people who haven’t had failures in life. It means they haven’t had a go.” – Michael Yardney PLEASE LEAVE US A REVIEW Reviews are hugely important to me because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes - it's your way of passing the message forward to others and saying thank you to me. Here's how

We’re at the beginning of a new economic cycle, a new property cycle, and a new business cycle - a time when lifetime wealth will be created by some people, but unfortunately not by most. I was recently asked by somebody in my mentorship program how to make the rest of their life the best of their life – how to make the second half of their life much, much better than the first half of their life. And that’s what I’m going to discuss with you into today’s show. So today we are not going to talk about property or money, we are going to have a much deeper conversation. Of course, property and money are important but only as a means of achieving what do you want to achieve and that’s really what we get to talk about today I’m going to give you some hints on how to take advantage of all the opportunities that are currently in front of us. One of the things I realized early in my investment career is that those who are successful think a particular way and that’s why I spent a lot of time studying the psychology of successful people and that’s one of the topics I’m going to be touching on today – so while a chat today may be a slightly heavier conversation than you used to – I believe it will be very valuable so I look forward to giving you some different insights into wealth creation, but before I do let me ask you a question? How is your peer group going? If you want to change your outcomes, have you considered upgrading your peer group? It's been said that you're level of wealth is likely to be the average of your 5 closest friends. Here are the top three reasons why your peer group matters so much: Your peer group's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours are contagious. Alone you are vulnerable; connected we are strong. It's a lot more fun to build with other people than in isolation! A little about gratitude I'd like to chat a little bit about something that may initially seem unrelated to money and wealth and I think you probably have come to this podcast to learn about, but in reality, it isn’t. Let's talk for a moment about gratitude. And here's why…Gratitude is a trait you'll find common to all wealthy people. You can have all the money in the world, the biggest property portfolio, the most profitable company, but if you're not grateful for what you have, you'll never be wealthy. We've all seen or heard of people who have lots of money but lead miserable, isolated lives. And we've heard of others with very few of the trappings of wealth yet who lead very fulfilling lives, very wealthy lives, because they are grateful for what they have. So, in my mind it’s critical to be grateful. One way to make this the best year of your life is to be grateful for everything you have and for every day you have. And then tell people how you feel… Send a thank you note, send a text, a Whatsapp or better still do it the old-fashioned way and pick up the phone and show your appreciation to someone every day. One of the most interesting aspects of this idea of active gratitude is that it has a boomerang effect. You'll be surprised how it comes back in many ways to make you wealthy and to help make this your best year ever. But, actually that's not what I was intending to talk about with you today, so lets get back to some other ideas about how we are going to make this your best year ever. Let me make a bold statement… What you feel is true about what is possible for you will dictate what you achieve. What you want to achieve this year must come first and then you'll work out how. That's why you must have goals for your future. I know that once you become successful in business or your property investments it’s sometimes hard to have big goals – you’ve achieved a lot already. Can you pick this one of the things I find common amongst the attendees of the wealth retreat – have achieved a lot of the big goals in unsure what to do next. So my question to you now is…what are your goals for this year? What are your goals for the next five years? What is your financial goal for this year and for the next 5 years? What are your physical and mental goals? What is your goal for your relationships? What are your career goals for this year? You see… in about less than 9 months you are going to arrive at the end of the year again. Are you going to arrive at the place you want to be at? The place you have chosen and have done everything you could to get there. Or are you going to once again say: "I didn't reach my goals." The "what" always comes before the "how." One of the things I've studied is how it is possible to retrain the brain. And I've based this Mentorship program on my findings. I studied to find out if it is possible to take a belief and put it aside if it doesn't serve you. Can one take a belief like "I'm not smart enough", "I'm not good enough" or "I don't deserve to have success" - is it possible to set those neutral network patterns aside and create new patterns in the brain? As you've learned from my blogs and podcasts your outside world is a reflection of your inside world. What you find in the outside world is a reflection of the words you've typed into the search engines of your mind. What are you typing into the search engine of your life? If you type poverty into Google, all you will find are the websites related to poverty. If you type in wealth - you find all the websites related to wealth. It's the same with the way you see the world - it’s the same with the search engine of your mind - because you don't see the world with your eyes.  The world is not what you think you see. What really happens is that your eyes allow light to come in and your brain deciphers what the light is, based on the patterns and images that it already recognizes. Based on the filters your programming has put in place - so firstly you filter lots out. You couldn't cope with all the information we are constantly being bombarded with, and then you interpret what's left with the files you have programmed in your brain. So if you're used to earning 50 or 60 or 70 thousand dollars a year, your software is conditioned to find that in the physical world. The good news is your software can be reprogrammed. Because as soon as you set the vision, your vision for where you want to end up, you are also giving instructions to your brain that that's what you want it to find for you in the physical world. Your brain is like a radio receiver and it can tune into what you want and tune out of what you want. Every time you have a thought your brain releases a chemical that relates to the emotion behind that thought. This chemical is felt by hundreds of billions of cells throughout your body. Now let's take this train of thought a bit further… Everything we want in the universe is right here, right now. I don't know if you know much about quantum physics - a fascinating topic, and something I'd like to touch on right now. Quantum physics suggests that everything we want in the universe is right here, right now. And as soon as we have a thought, as soon as we have the intention for something we don't have right now or something we want, we are actually causing a fluctuation in the nonphysical world - in the waves and particles of the potentiality that exists all around us. Quantum physics teaches us that everyone is a genius, everyone has the ability to create, to achieve whatever their heart desires. Of course, I'm not saying that when you have a vision, when you have a belief, everything will work out great for you. You know it won't! But it's important to have the right vision which will create the right vibration, but then you need to take action because if you don't take action nothing will happen. So why don't most of us achieve our goals? Why don't most of us take action? Let me be more specific. Why don't more of us take the right actions? Well… it's partly because our brain wants to keep us in our comfort zone in what's called homeostasis. Think about this for a moment… If we had a thermostat in this room set to 20 degrees and a cool wind comes in, the thermostat will pick up the cool breeze and send a message to the heater to turn up the heating and get us back in our comfort zone. If the temperature goes up because there's a number of people in the room, the thermostat picks the rise in temperature, and the air-conditioning kicks in and brings the temperature back to our comfort zone. A guided missile system works this way. The automatic pilot in a plane works this way. Guess what? We work the same way. We have a thermostat in our mind and any deviation in our performance - high or low - sets off a chemical in our brain that flows straight into our bloodstream, which causes you to have doubts, fears, and anxiety. Why? Because we like our comfort zone. We don't like being moved out of our comfort zones But the truth is change is happening all the time - you are either growing or you're disintegrating. If you want to take control of your life and make the decision to have your best year ever this year, it means you are going to have to move out of your comfort zone. It means you have to acquire new skills and you are going to have you apply different strategies. The key in business or in life is to understand that results just tell you about the past. So here is the key again... You've got to start out with the future, with those goals, with that vision, and then work backward from there. If you start out in the future with what you want and then build the belief systems underneath this to support the new vision, and you acquire the skills necessary and apply the right strategies then you will achieve predictable transformation and predictable results. Would you like to have predictable results in your life? There is a formula to achieve this. Most people are looking at their current results and saying "OK this year I want to increase these by 10 or 15% because that's what they think they can achieve. But at Wealth Retreat we don't just want to increase your results by 10 to 15%. I want you to take a quantum leap this year. But most people will never achieve this type of transformation because they don't understand that our universe operates by exact precision. It follows precise laws and there are no accidents. From the way your digestive system works to the orbits of the planets - it happens by exact precision and following precise laws. So for this to be your best year ever you're going to have to let go of being a victim and forget the past by altering your thinking You're going to have to create your circumstances by altering your behaviour. Create your circumstances by changing how you feel about yourself. You are going to have to upgrade your internal software - you'll have to turn up your thermostat. Now our gift is the ability to think differently if you want your life to change. That's what gives you and I dominion over the animals, the plants, and the minerals. It's our ability to choose our destiny. Our ability to choose our thoughts. And yes we have conscious thoughts and unconscious thoughts. And we have positive thoughts and negative thoughts. We have supportive thoughts and non-supportive. If we can have more positive thoughts and squelch those automatic negative thoughts, then you're going to be more of a positive vibration than a negative vibration which will allow you to attract everything you need to create your best year ever. The secret to having the best year ever and maybe it is not so much of a secret is to start with the vision of where you want to end up. Then you have to change your beliefs about yourself, about what's possible. When you think negative thoughts when you focus on what you don't want you will recreate more of it. Is that much of a secret? That when you think positive thoughts and you send positive good into the world and you do positive things to the world that it will come back to you? Is it possible that when you step up and step out of your comfort zone right now you can change your life? You see… I can't change your life. You can change your life. But you can't do it doing the same things you've been doing to get where you are. If what you want is different to your current results, I urge you to step out of your comfort zone, do what it takes so that when you finish this journey on this little blue planet you will go wow that was phenomenal. You owe it to yourself; you owe it to your family. You owe it to them to make this the best year ever. Links and Resources: Michael Yardney Metropole’s Strategic Property Plan – to help both beginning and experienced investors Join us at Wealth Retreat 2021 on the Gold Coast June 12th – 16th – get more details here  Shownotes plus more here: The right and wrong things to do to make the second half of your financial life better than the first half Some of our favorite quotes from the show: “I'm sorry to say that now that life is really good, being grateful is not an art I'm anywhere near a master of anymore.” – Michael Yardney “The "what" comes first and then the "how."” – Michael Yardney “There is nothing more powerful than thoughts. It's how everything starts.” – Michael Yardney PLEASE LEAVE US A REVIEW Reviews are hugely important to me because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes - it's your way of passing the message forward to others and saying thank you to me. Here's how

I took some time last weekend to look at some articles and commentary that came out about a year ago when the GVC (Great Virus Crisis) was just beginning. The media was full of negative commentary but in my regular podcasts my guests and I gave a much more measured commentary using our perspective gained from many years in the market, and as a result we were circled by a pack of “hangry” housing bears. They were all confidently growling that local house prices would slump by the largest margin on record. Of course, they were fuelled at that time by some crazy forecast from the banks and the perennial negative Perma Bears who were praying for the mother of all housing depressions.  Now the media is full of positive news and most of the bears have gone back hibernating in their caves, but some are still out there telling us the upturn in our property markets is just temporary. We have an embarrassment of riches, with our economy and our property markets surging ahead. While much of the commentary is about the micro factors – what’s happening on the ground in our property markets, I like to regularly get together with property commentator Pete Wargent in these “Big Picture” podcasts to look at the macroeconomic factors affecting our economy and the property markets to help give you some more clarity about what the future holds so you can make better investment and business decisions. No fiscal cliff at the end of March Remember how the property pessimists were worried that we would fall off the cliff due to the many deferred home loans? Many banks gave temporary relief to borrowers impacted by COVID-19, allowing them to defer payments for a period of time. However, APRA reports that as of 28 February, a total of $14 billion worth of loans are on temporary repayment deferrals, which is around 0.5 percent of total loans outstanding, down from $37 billion (1.4 percent of total loans outstanding) in January. Sure, lots of homeowners and property investors took advantage of the mortgage safety net, but they didn't need to use it and are now repaying their debts. We're not falling off of a fiscal cliff and our banking system is sound and stable – so it's a pity the Negative Nellys created so much stress amongst those who listened to them last year. Property prices and GST boost state budgets by $7billion The fastest house price growth in 32 years nationally has fuelled stronger than expected stamp duty revenues while also adding a feeling of wealth for existing homeowners. We know when we feel wealthy and secure, we will tend to spend more. This all good news to help continue boosting the post-COVID-19 economy. And this has a flow-on effect on government budgets. We know our governments have taken on more debt to help us get through the coronavirus crisis, but now it seems that State government budgets are a collective $7 billion better than expected as rapidly recovering housing markets and consumer spending lift goods and services tax and stamp duty collections run ahead of forecasts. Federal estimates of GST collections are already $5.9 billion ahead of where they were forecast to be just three months ago, while stamp duty estimates have improved in every state by more than a combined $1.5 billion compared to past figures. The latest home loan figures show that investors are back in the market The latest ABS figures show the value of new loan commitments for housing fell by 0.4 percent from a record-high $28.75 billion in January to $28.64 billion.   On the other hand, investors are back in the market with lending to investors rising by 4.5 percent in February to 3-year highs of $6.94 billion, while lending to owner-occupiers fell by 1.8 percent to $21.70 billion.  For owner-occupiers, the value of loans for construction rose 4.4 percent in February to a record-high $4.25 billion. Renovation loans rose 8.3 percent to 11-year highs of $322.4 million. Building approvals surging ​February saw another big upside surprise for dwelling approvals which leapt 21.6% in the month to be up 20.1%yr. ​The record house building approvals were driven by the government’s HomeBuilder program which has now have sparked shortages of key tradespeople and helped push the price of materials up by as much as 50 percent. ​Rampant demand in the renovation and home building sector is hitting customers with significant delays and pushing up the price of materials. And disruptions to international supply chains are only making matters worse. ​​With dwelling approvals for houses at record highs, it’s likely we will see additional pressure growing on construction costs as demand continues to build for residential construction materials and resources. The lift in residential construction costs is also placing upwards pressure on inflation where housing costs receive the heaviest weighting within the CPI ‘basket’ of goods. Although HomeBuilder has now been phased out at the end of March 2021, it’s highly likely we will see a continuation in this trend towards higher residential construction costs as it will take some time for builders to work through the surging pipeline of house approvals. Job vacancies Despite the concerns of double-digit unemployment, 90% of the jobs lost over Covid have been recovered. In seasonally adjusted terms, job vacancies rose by 13.7 percent or 34,800 to a record 288,700 available positions in the three months to February.  Vacancies are up 26.8 percent or 61,000 available positions in February compared with a year ago. Of course, JobKeeper has now ended and while there is some concern that more people become unemployed, the residential property boom if you’re in strong demand for construction workers. ANZ Bank Forecasts A new report released from ANZ Bank predicts house prices at the national level will rise to a strong 17% through 2021, before slowing to 6% in 2022. What a turnaround from all the pessimistic forecasts all the banks made in the middle of last year. ANZ senior economist Felicity Emmett said she expected the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) would then introduce macroprudential measures to slow house price growth into 2022. Also… it is unlikely that APRA will intervene with macroprudential controls any time soon, in light of APRA chairman Wayne Byres’ comment this week when he reminded Parliament that its primary responsibility is financial stability, not soaring house prices, and it is not seeing activity right now that would compel it to intervene. Links and Resources: Michael Yardney Metropole’s Strategic Property Plan – to help both beginning and experienced investors Join us at Wealth Retreat 2021 on the Gold Coast June 12th – 16th – get more details here Pete Wargent – Next Level Wealth Pete Wargent’s new book Low Rates High Returns Shownotes plus more here: The Big Picture Economic and Property Trends You Must Understand, with Pete Wargent Some of our favorite quotes from the show: “March has come and gone, and there was no fiscal cliff.” – Michael Yardney “I believe that good debt, debt against appreciating assets, is really an asset.” – Michael Yardney “Once you realize that no amount of money is going to make you happy unless you shift your mindset into gratitude and abundance mode, you’ll never be happy.” – Michael Yardney PLEASE LEAVE US A REVIEW Reviews are hugely important to me because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes - it's your way of passing the message forward to others and saying thank you to me. Here's how

Why are you investing in property? Or why do you want to get involved in property investment? It’s not really for the properties, is it? For some people, it’s because they want to fund their retirement, while for others it’s that they want more choices in life – they don’t particularly want to retire, but they want to work when and how they want to work and because they want to go to work, not because they have to. However, the inconvenient truth is that despite over 2.1 million Australians investing in property, 92% of them never get past one or two properties in the portfolio, meaning they won’t be able to fund their retirement. So, is it really possible to live off your property portfolio in the current economic climate and in our more challenging finance environment? The answer is… the rules of finance have changed considerably and how one funds the longest holiday you’re ever going to have – your retirement – is very different from how you would have structured it many years ago. And that’s what we discuss today in my chat with financial advisor Stuart Wemyss. At the end of today’s podcast, you’ll have more clarity on how to successfully live off your property portfolio. And I’m sure you won’t be surprised if I tell you it’s not what most people would recommend. Funding your retirement from property investment More and more Australians are looking at property investment as a form of taking control of their financial futures. Yet some people seem to be questioning the ability to really fund a reasonable retirement through property investment. So, today I’m going to have a chat with Stuart Wemyss, to get an understanding of how to fund the longest holiday you’ll ever have – your retirement. Many years ago, I was introduced to the concept of living off the increasing equity of your properties, but that really isn’t possible in the current lending environment. In fact, it’s changed since the global financial crisis. So you’ll have to build an investment portfolio that will allow for a great retirements Stuart and I discuss The importance of building an asset base. How does one structure a portfolio? So many unknowns for the future Must account for taxes What about interest rates – will they remain low it is best to acquire a combination of investment assets i.e. some property, some shares (hopefully in super), and some cash by the time you reach retirement. It is not necessary to acquire these assets equally each year. People who insist on “property, property, property” or “shares, shares, shares” are probably biased. It’s OK to take a level of debt into retirement if you can comfortably service it. Borrowing to invest is typically a good wealth accumulation strategy as long as you do it prudently and adopt a proven methodology to select quality investments. If used wisely, debt can be a very effective tool. However, whilst your investment strategy will require you to get into debt, the strategy must also articulate how you will get out of debt (i.e. repay it). Links and Resources: Michael Yardney Metropole’s Strategic Property Plan – to help both beginning and experienced investors Join us at Wealth Retreat 2021 on the Gold Coast June 12th – 16th – get more details here  Stuart Wemyss – Prosolution Private Clients Stuart’s Book – Rules of the Lending Game Shownotes plus more here: How do you fund your retirement using a property portfolio in today’s financial environment, with Stuart Wemyss Some of our favourite quotes from the show: “We don’t know what the rules are going to be when you retire in the future.” – Michael Yardney “To get the results most of us are looking for, you need a plan. You need a strategic financial plan.” – Michael Yardney “Your wealth operating system is what connects your inner self, your thoughts and your feelings, with the outer world.” – Michael Yardney PLEASE LEAVE US A REVIEW Reviews are hugely important to me because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes - it's your way of passing the message forward to others and saying thank you to me. Here's how