John Pidgeon says the key to successful property investing is taking action, establishing good foundations and developing healthy habits.
John is a property investor, mentor, podcast co-host and author who combined his passion for health, fitness and property to build a property portfolio over 25 years.
On the Get Invested podcast with KnowHow’s Bushy Martin, he talked about how investors can be proactive in their investment journey.
Action: Enter the property market
John said the hardest step for investors is actually having the courage to take action and enter the property market.
“The key learning for me is action. You’ve got to always be taking action, no matter what it is. Take one step at a time and don’t look too far out into the future. Just do what’s in your control. For anyone listening that needs some sort of guidance on how to start, or if they’re early on in the journey, my advice is that you’ve just got to make a start. It might be just one thing today, one thing tomorrow, but action gives results,” he said.
“Nine out of ten people will not take action, but that one person that does take action, even if it’s a wrong move, they’re still going to learn from it and keep the ball rolling forward.”
Bushy added: “Don’t bother giving the age old excuse that you’re too busy. Because what you’re really saying is that it’s not important enough, because we always seem to be able to make time for what’s really important. Because where there’s a will, there’s always a way. We just need to make room for the important and the urgent and stop putting it off until tomorrow. Because tomorrow never comes, and don’t fool yourself into thinking that you’ve still got plenty of time and you can afford to put it off. Because after talking to countless retirees over the years, I know you’re going to regret it”.
Action: Set up good foundations
Investors can mitigate risks and ensure their money is effectively working for them by establishing good foundations from the start of their property journey.
“I was probably into my late 20s when I really started to think, hang on a minute, I’m actually throwing away a fair bit of money here. And even though I was investing, and I knew that was the key to financial wealth, I was missing the major foundations of actually having a good cashflow management plan, having emergency buffers, not taking on any bad debt such as car loans, personal loans and credit cards, all these things,” John said.
“So it took me a long time to mature in that sense. I really am on a mission to talk to young people and show that money needs to be spoken about at the dinner table. As soon as you start working, you need to have your structures in place. You save some, you enjoy some, and you give some.”
Action: Develop healthy habits and consistency
For John and Bushy, the key to financial freedom and sustainable success comes from consistency and developing healthy habits and behaviours in regards to self, health and wealth.
“Self is about what’s between your ears in terms of your mindset, beliefs, outlook, attitudes and expectations. Your health is about the happy habits, rewarding rituals and daily disciplines that you develop day in, day out. These two then combine to allow you to achieve your sustainable wealth goals. However, you decide to define them because it’s different for everyone and there’s no one size fits all,” Bushy said.
“Now, this is simple to comprehend, but definitely not easy to achieve because you need to grow and develop the mental patience, persistence, resilience, and discipline and determination muscles to overcome the inevitable hurdles, hassles and resistance that you’re going to incur along the journey to your version of freedom. And it’s not quick – sustainable success in anything takes time and continuous commitment.”
John added: “It’s really a case of health and wealth in my life, and that’s what I teach everyone. I encourage them to get both of them in order, because without one, we haven’t got the other. So it’s just making sure that when we’ve got a healthy mind and a healthy body, we’re just a better version of ourselves. The consistencies that we imply, in that you want to stay healthy, eat well, sleep well, and train regulate, they’re no different to real estate. You’re just doing consistent things day in, day out, whether it be cash flow management, monitoring, reassessing, setting new goals etc”.
Listen to the full interview here.
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