All Forum Posts by: Helen Rolls

Hi Everyone.

I'm trying to put together my first five year plan for investing.  My goal is to generate enough passive income within five years to be able to cover my expenses. Or get out of the rat race as Robert Kiyosaki would say.

As I'm based in Australia, I'm a little hesitant to buy into the US real estate market at this point. I am also starting with only a small amount of capital. While I think REI will be my big love eventually, I thought I should start in paper assets. Specifically stocks that I believe are undervalued by the market and also returning >5% return on dividends. I have a subscription to Motley Fool which will help me identify those stocks.

However, I am interested in educating myself as much as possible to mitigate the risk of uneducated choices.  Is there a site or program members would recommend that I start with?

Thanks in advance!

Helen

Hi @Col. I'm new here too and new to investing. I'm based currently in Sydney but Melbourne is home.There are some Aussies on the site. They should have alerts for Australia services up so they should see your post. Welcome to BP!  Cheers, Helen

Hi @Riley Giuliano.  I'm currently Sydney based but Melbourne is home.  Welcome to BP!

Hi @Chad Zieglar.  I'm Sydney based, and just starting out on the investing journey.  The US market currently looks more appealing to me with lower prices than here at home.

Hi @Layla Briggs.  I'm from Sydney too :).

Hi @Simon Baker.  

I'm new on here too, and also from Sydney.  I'm very interested in other people's experience as well. I believe @David Nolan is a bit further on this path (hope you don't mind me tagging David).

Cheers, Helen

As someone living in Sydney this article is ignoring some realities... They may have made a profit on those flips but a generous amount of those profits were not from the work they've done but the fact that prices in Sydney have risen 30% in three years.  It's also ignoring some pretty significant costs.

For example stamp duty on a $1M property would be a bit over $40K  (https://www.hsbc.com.au/1/2/personal/home-loans/calculators/stamp-duty). So that's 15% of their "profit" gone.  If they're using standard financing they would have to "down pay" 20% or pay for LVR insurance which can be significant.  On 10% down the LVR insurance would be between $20-30K.  That doesn't include lawyers, conveyancing and building inspections, which probably wouldn't add a significant amount.  So that's what $70K x 3 houses that hasn't been taken into account in their $600K profit...  Then they are splitting the profits between three of them. 

It's still a reasonable income per partner (I'd certainly be happy to get that income) but the article is inflating the benefits and ignoring all risks.

We're at all time low interest rates at the moment.  What happens to the market when all these people under mortgage stress now, can't cope when interest rates inevitably start to increase again?

Hi Chris. House sharing can be an interesting process. I've been doing it for ten years and I have definitely had some highs and lows. How much do you know about Option A? Has he house shared before? Have you checked out their references? How hard are you finding it to get people who are interested? If you are in this much analysis paralysis are you better of waiting for Option C?

Hi @Scott Mardle.  I'm happy to be on this journey with you.  

Thanks @David Nolan at the moment I'm just trying to get my head around the differences between AU and US.  401Ks are non-compulsory superannuation plans... you can buy houses for under $100K in the US... it's a different world.  Funding seems to be completely different too.  Are you investing here or in the US?  

Hi @Sharif. I'm just starting out too. Except you are smart to be starting young. Have you heard of Dolph de Roos?  I only know a little about him. But I believe he started while studying at uni. By the time he graduated he was making more in a week of real estate investing than a year's salary as an engineer.