After years of talking to close friends, good friends and even far away friends, I realised there are only three distinct groups of people when it comes to property investment. Of course, there are those who are a mixture the three types but generally, just three. I define them as the “do not want,” “do not know,” and “do not have the means.” I was once in all three categories myself!
The first group, “do not want” would be those who believe property investment is not for them. They have too many friends who got burnt from property “investment.” Thus they do not want to fall into the same trap. In reality, not many people become multi-millionaires from property, thats real. However, there are really very few who bought properties earlier are now a bankrupt. Unless they bought the wrong one which until today would be minority group. The reason is simple, home prices do not go up every year and it is not likely to go down unless Malaysia falls into a financial crisis. For this first group, my advice is very simple, invest in other stuffs. It does not need to be into property anyway.
The second group, “do not know” would form the majority of everyone. As at now, they do not think of investment as that important. They also do not read much about investment anyway. Business news? Too boring lah. To them, they are young and the life is still long. Currently, it is for enjoyment because who knows what will happen tomorrow? More often than not, they would be driving a better car than me, in terms of price. The reason is simple, all their friends or most of their friends have the same mindset. In the animal kingdom, they look at ‘safety in numbers.’ Here in the human world, it’s ‘herd mentality.’ Well, advice for this group of people is this. Lacking in financial awareness today? Peril awaits
The third group is the “do not have the means.” This refers to their current full-time employment. Doing the same thing day in and day out, not pushing oneself to do more than necessary and expecting an increment at the end of the year. As they do not earn above the average pay, their savings would be affected and due to this, they think the world owes them a living. It’s always house prices are rising faster than my salary. Seriously, in every country that I know of today, the home prices really do rise faster than the average salary increment. What’s the typical increment per year? Assuming a salary of RM4,000 and a 6% up, that’s an extra RM240 per month. A typical home worth RM350,000 rising at just 2% per year is already RM7,000 per year or RM583 per month! My question to this group is, in the career world, are you a blue-chip? A good career is really the foundation to a better life, seriously.
In the beginning of my career life, I was under the “do not know” category. I actually wasted at least 8 years before realising that investment is a must or I will face problems with my retirement. Yes, I give my parents pocket money every month too. Once I started to read more, I learnt more and I was fortunate to have many friends who continue to share with me on the ‘how to do it part.
I then realised that it’s not easy to buy as I “do not have the means.” That was when I changed job from a stable MNC into a sales job with a small start-up. I worked very hard (at least until 8pm every day) and I did this for 9 years with the first 2 years being really tough. After that the salary was enough for me to save and soon, to buy a property.
Oh yeah, before I got married, I was under the “do not want” category too. My father-in-law forced me to get a property or forget about getting married. My salary then were mostly spent on expensive clothes, shoes and food. So, after endured all three categories, I would like to say the journey has been fulfilling. Still a lot needs to be done and I still need to work very hard to keep my job. Happy changing.
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