Josh Blakeley is a leading money coach. A far cry from his teenage years, when he didn’t know much about money and didn’t think he had to.
But when his father died suddenly, Josh instantly felt the burden of responsibility and became acutely aware of his lack of financial knowledge.
“That was my first real experience with life changing in an instant and realising that we’ve only got one life, things can change in a moment, and that I wanted to make the most of this life,” he told Bushy Martin on the Get Invested podcast.
“That kind of put me in a place where, I’m the eldest (child), where I felt like it was kind of me having to take on the world.
“And I didn’t realise it at the time, but my mindset was that I had to do it all myself and I didn’t need anyone else. And it was me who needed to do things. But the problem was, I didn’t really have a strong financial education around money, how to use it, how to invest, how to make the most of it.”
Josh poured his energy into study and music, completing an education degree and teaching maths and science.
Then came another defining period – a relationship breakdown and an accident that left Josh with a broken back, and a cloud over his future.
“A lot of the focus there was, ‘ok, if I was injured and I couldn’t work, what would my future actually look like?’ he said.
“I had life insurance and permanent disability insurance … but what was I doing to actually set myself up and give me freedom? So, that was a bit of a key moment there that shifted, ‘Okay, I really need to get serious now.’ Like, I’d known a little bit. And I just dove into learning about how to create wealth and I looked into shares as being a big one, the stock market, and then real estate and property. I started going to networking groups, meeting people who were doing property as well.
“And from there, that set me up to a position where I was in a community of people who were like-minded, who all came to the similar conclusion that I’d come to, that we can actually build wealth through property. And a lot of people there were calling themselves financially free.”
Josh realised the importance of taking a step forward, even if it is small and simple beginnings.
“If you’re not taking action, you’re not going anywhere,” he said.
“You’re actually going backwards because you’re losing minutes, seconds, days of your life if you’re not doing anything. So, I think that’s another area people fall into as a trap, that we only have a certain amount of time here and by doing nothing, it’s not staying still, you’re actually going backwards.”
Josh decided to focus on property development, and quickly learned the importance of building a team – both as a group of investors along with advisers.
“I was in a situation in networking groups where I could meet people in different areas of property who could help,” he said.
“Or if they weren’t there, there were so many people there who could actually recommend others or had that experience with working with different people too. And that’s absolutely key.
“Relationships are key, particularly with property development too, but just in life in general, having the right people around you to ask the right questions and seek advice from is imperative.
Now as a money coach, Josh helps others break free financially.
“Part of me living a fulfilled life is through (my) business and money coaching of helping others getting in control of their financial situation,” he said.
“I’m helping other people build out the system and build their mindset, build their habits, build their outlook on life and how they use money to actually start to see, ‘hey, I can start getting the ball rolling now. I can start making little tweaks, little changes to my life. These are going to change my life for the rest of the time that I’m here on the planet’.
“But not only that, by setting themselves up in that way, they’re setting up their family, their kids, their grandchildren. And they’re putting themselves in a place where they’re leaving a legacy with their life as well. And money can’t buy happiness, but there are so many things we can do with money. And when we’re wise with it and when we steward our money well and not just fall into the trap of the marketing around us or what’s being sold to us, whether it’s consciously or subconsciously, there is so much that people can do to actually set themselves up and help so many other people along the way.”
Josh said the journey to financial freedom starts with your current position.
“(With) Google Maps, the GPS zooms in on where I currently am and it’s the same with our finances,” he said.
“You might have a destination you want to reach, somewhere you want to get to. But you’re never going to be able to figure out the path to get there unless you’ve actually delved into what the current situation is. And once you know that, you can choose the journey. You can choose which path you want to take that fits as you go.”
Listen to the full podcast interview here.
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