Property Hub - Investment Insights & Inspiration - Get Invested: How Stephanie Brennan became ‘Australia’s youngest property tycoon’

Episode Date: November 17, 2018

Stephanie Brennan is a young super star in the world of property and business. If you take the time to listen carefully to her, you will learn the key secrets that have led her to achieve so much so quickly. Here’s the headlines. At the tender age of 28, Stephanie Brennan: Is recognised in the Top 10 Property Specialists in Australia Has accumulated a multi-million dollar international property portfolio in just four years Has successfully founded three successful businesses Has been coined ‘Australia’s Youngest Property Tycoon’ by the mainstream press Stephanie is currently living in Lithuania, where she is building a global fintech company that will allow you to: invest superannuation into brands that we know, love and trust access funds in a medium that avoids foreign exchange risks, and potentially access 100% loans to secure property anywhere around the world Is a little negative voice in your head is trying to say: How can anyone possibly do all of that so quickly? Well, here is your opportunity to stretch, change and grow. Open your ears and your mind, as the energising and inspiring Stephanie Brennan shares the secrets to her rapid success, and displays a wisdom far beyond her years. Stephanie's book recommendation: The Answer by Allan and Barbara Pease Get Invested is the podcast dedicated to time poor professionals who want to work less and live more. Join Bushy Martin, one of Australia’s top 10 property specialists, as he and his influential guests share know-how on the ways investing in property can unlock the life you always dreamed about and secure your financial future. Remember to subscribe on your favourite podcast player, and if you're enjoying the show please leave us a review. Find out more about Get Invested here https://bushymartin.com.au/get-invested-podcast/  Want to connect with Bushy? Get in touch here https://bushymartin.com.au/contact/  This show is produced by Apiro Media - http://apiropodcasts.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We have a reticular activating system, or a RAS, which is kind of like a GPS, so as long as you enter in the destination to your mental GPS, your brain will actually start to look for things that will help you achieve it. Welcome to the Get Invested Podcast, where we share great conversations with experts from all walks of life to uncover their secret know-how on where they invest their time, their skills, and their money, and the benefits that this has created. you see the truth is that everyone invests every minute every day we're investing our time our skills our energy and our money in something some of us are investing consciously some

unconsciously sometimes for good sometimes for bad sometimes for no impact get invested will help you to start living by design not by default i'm going to help you to make it happen not let it happen. You'll hear the top tips on how you can live with conscious intent so that you can live more, work less, and leave a living legacy by investing now. Listen to the show to discover the top tips on how to get started, make the most of your investment journey, and ultimately to be living your dream, not someone else's. More episodes can be found on iTunes or at bushymartin.com.au forward slash getinvested. Thanks for listening, and now let's get invested. freedom fighters get ready for a real treat on today's episode with someone that's really going

to blow your hair back and leave you in absolute awe but first let me start with the inevitable challenging question do you ever meet hear or read about young gun dynamos who repeatedly achieve absolutely massive and incredible things in very short periods of time and because we tend to measure things based on our own performance, we generally respond in one of two ways. We either think, ah, that's just bullshit. No one can possibly achieve all that. Or we go, wow, that's amazing. How did you do it? And how can I learn from you? Now, the first response closes the door on growth, and the second one opens it. And our default response actually reveals more about ourselves than it does about the other person if we're brave and aware enough to look ourselves

in the mirror now the common that's bullshit response is actually telling us that we feel threatened and inadequate and by closing the door we allow ourselves to stay in our comfort zone and just keep on doing what we've always done we don't even allow the opportunity for growth and improvement and we wonder why nothing changes we just criticize anyone and everyone who's not like us, we write off anyone who is different and then we whinge, moan and blame everyone and everything else when life doesn't improve. And unfortunately, the majority of people consciously or unconsciously adopt this limiting response.

However, the few that embrace and applaud achievement and adopt the wow, that's amazeballs, how do you do it approach, open themselves up to expand their vision and life just keeps surging ahead in leaps and bounds. so which way do you normally respond now no one else is watching so be honest with yourself if you're normally the disbelieving that's bs type then i challenge you right here right now to try just once to open yourself to a positive questioning alternative to experience the benefits and today is your chance to do just that because today's guest is a young gun superstar

and if you take the time to listen carefully to her you will learn the key secrets that have led her to achieve so much so quickly. Let me whet your appetite. At the tender age of 28, Stephanie Browning is recognised in the top 10 property specialists in Australia. She's accumulated a multi-million dollar international property portfolio in just four years. She's founded three successful businesses. She's been coined Australia's youngest property tycoon by the mainstream press.

And she's currently living in Lithuania, where she's building a global investment and finance fintech business that will allow you to invest your super in brands that we know, love and trust, to access funds in a medium that avoids foreign exchange risks and potentially to access 100% loans to secure property anywhere around the world. Now, I know what that little negative voice in your head is trying to say. How can anyone possibly do all of that so quickly? So here's your opportunity to stretch, to change and to grow.

Do yourself a favour. gag your mind's negative voice and instead open your ears and your mind as the energizing and inspiring Stephanie Brennan displays a wisdom way beyond her years as she shares how she's done all of this and a whole lot more. Welcome back Freedom Fighters, it's Bushy Martin and Today, I'm reaching out to another one of the top 10 property specialists in Australia. She's a mover and a shaker. She is the infamous Stephanie Brennan. She's got a massive vision with very fast running shoes.

She's done more in 10 years personally and professionally than most people do in a lifetime. She's a globetrotter and an ever-ready battery who doesn't stand still for a minute. So please welcome aboard Stephanie Brennan. Great to see you, Stephanie. great thank you for having me awesome now Stephanie for those who aren't aware of you and you've got a pretty big profile uh in Australia already but for those that haven't come across you today can you just give us a rundown on who you are what you're doing and where you're heading sure so I guess uh what I'm most known for is property and that's definitely my passion so

my background has been across different industries and I stumbled upon property on my sort of process of elimination mission to finding out what I really wanted to do with my life and so I managed to get into property and then I've created a couple of businesses one of which I'm working on now which is more sort of actually on the other side of investing which is shares so we basically creating a a modern way for millennials to invest into the brands that they know love and trust and one of our core focuses is actually going back to my my roots which was in federal policy for seniors and working in retirement villages so our core focus is focusing on super funds and pension funds around the world to be able to provide a millennial focused super fund that

enables millennials to invest in the companies that interest them and that they understand but also provide a good return and good growth. Okay. That's a bit of what I'm doing now. Yeah, that's really exciting. So let's jump straight in there then because, as you would know better than I, the reality for most Australians who convince themselves that working hard and then relying on their super to fund their bucket list when they stop work is doomed to failure.

And I've quoted this before, and you'd probably be across this also, Stephanie, but in the current marketplace in Australia, over 73% of Australians over 65 are surviving on an average of just $15,300 a year, would you believe, which is $295 a week. Now, that's the end result of thinking that super is going to secure and maintain your lifestyle long term. So I'm really excited that Everest is clearly identifying a need and then targeting young people who have the time to accumulate a nest egg. So talk more about that. If I'm someone who's just out of work, what is Everest going to do for me and how do we make that happen? Sure. So at the moment, in terms of the pension side or super side, we're focusing also on pensions in the EU. So sometimes I'll go between pensions and super funds, which are the same thing.

So for us, it's sort of focusing on being able to get millennials to engage in their pension fund. Because as you mentioned, 73% of people survive on about $15,000 a year, which is astronomical. And it's quite scary, to be honest. And when I was working, just to take it back a step, with Bronwyn Bishop, who is the federal minister for seniors, I would go and meet with a lot of older people and hear their stories. And some of them were having to sell their homes because they simply couldn't survive on their super fund. So what we're creating is a top performing super fund. So a lot of super funds underperform and that's all over the world and it's something that really needs to change.

So there's a certain percentage of super that's only invested in the Australian market and it's about 96%. So the reason that super funds in Australia are underperforming underperforming so much is because there's simply no exposure to international assets like one of the largest stock markets in the world which is the united states so we want to basically encourage millennials to be able to invest in the brands that they already know love and trust because when you have an understanding of how a company works like netflix you can conceptualize that you understand it you understand how the revenue model works and it engages people a bit more

because it's something that they already use and then also it has great performance as well so it gives sort of that added benefit of understanding the product and then also getting a good benefit from it because at the moment you know myself included I wasn't really engaged with my super fund because I didn't really understand it there's such a lack of knowledge on how it actually works what to be invested in and most of the time it just underperforms so it's it's kind of something as well that you don't really think of being you know i'm 28 now and it's sort of like well i've got another 40 years or so before i retire so why would i focus on it now and we often forget that 40 years is going to go quite quite quickly and we all spend

more than 15 000 a year now so imagine when we factor in inflation and you know those sorts of things it's really important to be able to engage people now absolutely i that that's brilliant That's definitely a very timely recognition of a big need. I guess the challenge is always with this, though, is creating a sense of urgency with young people. Because I know myself, when I was in my 20s, it was about partying and having fun. And it was always, oh, I've got heaps of time.

I don't need to worry about this. I'll get around to this later. How have you looking to overcome and create an awareness in people of that sort of vintage to say, hey, time is either your biggest friend or your worst enemy. Now is the time to start looking after this because if we do it now and you've got 20-plus years, it's a walk in the park.

If you leave it until later, it's going to be hard yards. But can you just sort of talk us through that? Because what are the things that you are highlighting to people that are getting to say, hey, wow, I really do need to get this sorted? Yeah, sure. So it's funny that you mentioned that about, you know, people at the sort of millennial ages to go out and party because someone, funnily enough, yesterday said that our competition is not another business. It's actually a cup of coffee, which is basically sort of tying into the spending habits. So I guess that's the benefit actually with super is that we're not competing with coffee because people don't necessarily need to change their habits if they choose not to because super was created to be able to, I guess, create that nest egg in the future.

And the only thing I guess that millennials need to focus on is how do I best utilize that so that I am prepared for later in life. Personally, I prefer to invest both inside and outside of super because I think that a lot of the super funds aren't invested in things that can really grow and exceed inflation, which is why I love property because it is something that can increase in excess of inflation and often does if you look at the property market. But that's sort of, I guess, the focus on pension funds is, you know, you don't have to compete. We don't have to compete with a cup of coffee. People can still have their cup of coffee. It's about, you know, maximizing the savings that are already in there. They're full savings. Every single time you go to work, you're putting a percentage of your paycheck away.

You may as well be maximizing that because you can't touch it anyway for the next 40 or so years. So the focus then is sort of how do we engage people in them? and I think also millennials love brands and it's something that we really understand like you know we use google in our daily life for women we buy Michael Kors handbags which is also a listed company or you know we buy Nike or for the for the guys out there or car lovers like myself you know the dream is to have an Aston Martin or a Ferrari and a lot of those stocks are listed so it's kind of i love us to run me too so they're actually listing later on the london stock exchange so it's sort of if you're if you're not ready to buy that car yet

then perhaps you know buy a share in the company and the funny thing is as well that a lot of people don't realize with their their pension is you know a lot of these companies that you can invest in that you already understand will grow um will grow in excess of of what you're actually spending on the product so for example if you had put a hundred dollars into um netflix or 140 which is about a year subscription if you had to put that in a year ago it would the growth alone would have paid for about two and a half years worth of your netflix subscription yes so imagine the quantity with your with your pension fund and being actually able to i guess grow with these consumer trends and be able to have something sustainable over the long term that you can then

retire on yeah i love it i love it because you're absolutely right i hadn't thought about it but if we're talking about the australian context then and if they're working for someone then nine and a half percent going up to i think 12 over the next few years is automatically going to be put into super, which is something that, as you say, most people just it's happening in the background. They don't really think about it because it comes straight out of their pay packet. But if you're then creating an awareness by linking that

to no brands that they know, love, have an affinity for, it's almost a relationship with a brand because they're using that brand and therefore there's a greater sense of connection to what those companies are doing and how it's then actually going to benefit them financially, then you've really up the ante in terms of the awareness and the connection with super as a means of both enjoying those things but seeing the connection with it growing their wealth over time,

which is brilliant. Yeah, I love what you're doing there. That's sensational, Stephanie. Thank you. Now, before sort of going further into it, though, you started by saying, and I think it's a great term, you went through your elimination mission, and which is an awesome term to use,

what I'd love you to do if you could is just to share with the listeners what that journey was like and I want to focus on two areas, both the working professional focus but also your personal investment journey along that path because they sort of happen in parallel and if you can just share with us what you did

and more importantly why you did it, what were the motivations, what did you learn and how did that then lead you to the next step? Because as I started in my introduction, you've had a meteoric rise. You've done an awful lot in a very short space of time and would love you to share that experience with those so that they can glean the learnings from what you've done so far.

Sure. So I guess I'll take you back to when I was a lot younger. So I got really interested in working when I was really young and I think that really came from being inspired by money at such a young age. Okay. And so when I... Sorry to jump in.

Where did that come from? Was it your parents sort of ingrained that thought around money or was that something that... How did that come into your horizon at such a young age? Sure. So I think it was a bit of a combination of both. the the first time i ever got some pocket money from my mom was when i was five and to me that 50 cents really felt like a million dollars which it does as a kid yeah so then um my my mom took us

to my sister and i to the store and said you know why don't you buy a chocolate bar with your 50 cents because i was such a chocoholic as a kid and nothing has really changed growing up so i decided to to buy this chocolate bar and I only had the 50 cents and I sort of thought that if I could if I could make another 50 cents then I could have both the chocolate bar and I could still have the the money so then I guess I from there I got really inspired to work and so my mom really encouraged I guess my work ethic and kept finding chores for me to do around the house like weeding the garden and as I got older painting the house and things like that so she would give me bits of pocket money and I would just sit there and accumulate it and every single week I would

empty out my money box on my bed and I would just count all of my money and then I'd sort of run down to my mom and say you know what else can I do I'm so close to getting to a hundred dollars or five hundred dollars and it started to over time and over the years just accumulate accumulate and accumulate so yeah and then I sort of thought you know I really want to be able to work and i wasn't my parents wouldn't let me until i was 14 and nine months and so then i got my first job at a a retirement village and before that because i wasn't able to work at a sort of a proper job i would go and clean neighbors houses and then paint sort of family friends houses as well and do sort of administrative tasks like helping a lady that had shut down her business go through

her her filing and taxes and things like that all just because I wanted to to make extra money and then uh from there I started to look at different jobs that I could do so I and I also skipped quite a bit of school so I could keep working at the retirement village much to my parents dismay um so then from there I guess I just kept kept learning and and I think then I got to a point where I sort of decided that I didn't really know what I wanted to do. So I was finishing school and there was the option to go to university, which I did, and I was tossing up between event management or law and I ended up doing event management and then going on to law.

But I also was so much more inspired to make money because I just felt that if you – learning is a fantastic tool and I think I appreciate it more as I grow older. and I guess become more inspired by by learning but when I was younger I was more sort of focused on how do I make money because for me it was money gives you options yeah and it gives you choices and it gives you more of an ability to I guess have the life that you really want to have yeah and then when I moved into working with Bronwyn then I saw just how important it was to start investing and then I worked with a property company

and that's sort of when I got inspired in property because before then my parents were very focused on shares and it was more you own a house just to live in. But he was an investor and he had about 42 different properties and I was putting together all the sales packs because he wanted to help other people do what he had done. And having seen the numbers of how quickly you can grow your portfolio was just incredible to me.

and I thought this is really where I want to be investing my money. So I moved into real estate to sort of understand, I guess, the process and how managing a property works. And also I get some of the things that a lot of property investors don't really get to learn, which is sort of how to increase the return on your investment. So when to sort of look at maintenance, you know, the value in spending a couple of thousand dollars repainting a unit

because you can then charge, you know, an extra $50 a week in rent and that really changes the way your portfolio actually performs. Yes. So that's really what inspired me and it just, I guess, I bought my first property and I absolutely loved it. I think it's become a bit of an addiction actually. Okay. But there's a lot of things to be addicted to.

Yeah, absolutely. Very healthy addiction. Yeah. Yeah, okay. That's, I guess, how... Yeah, well, that's a really good snapshot because, and I guess in those early jobs, was it just by accident? So just trying to get a feel for were those manoeuvres deliberate by you

or the opportunities come on? Because, you know, I thought just jumping through it, you went from retirement village and then into CPM in marketing and then the paper company and then to Bronwyn and then into it looked like your own first business with Foundations PC in the consulting area and then into property management and then to client service management with McGrath before then opening your second business.

And that's all over a period of about, from start to finish, there's less than 10 years there, which is awesome. What I love about what you're doing is let's get out and taste the world and then I'll decide what I want to do, which is just a fantastic way to go. Once you got to Bronwyn Bishop, it sounds like there was more strategic moves that you started to make in terms of one, your own business, two, getting your hands dirty in the real estate sector and then around about that time,

you'd already started to invest in your own property. Were they quite deliberate moves at that point in time? And it sounds like a light bulb must have gone off when you started working with Bronwyn. Am I right in saying that? Yes, definitely. I think that really hit home of how important it was to start to invest because I never saw from that experience

and seeing, you know, the effects of people having super and not being able to survive on it, it sort of made me think that that's really not an option to retire. And so from there I decided that, you know, one of the other things is it's a lot more challenging, I guess, to rise up the corporate ladder because there's more competition, you need to constantly upskill yourself And I just always had this passion for entrepreneurship and I just sort of thought I would prefer to be the one routing my paycheck. And even though I worked for other people, I never thought of that percentage going to super as going to be something for my retirement.

So I would take as much of my paycheck as possible and then be able to invest it, so much so that I would pretty much sit at home most weekends and just transfer pretty much all of my paycheck into my savings because I just so badly wanted to invest and I didn't want to be in the same situation as so many people that were losing their homes. Yes, yeah. It's an awesome exposure at that early point in the exercise and you're obviously a quick learner to pick that up. Now, let's talk about your first property exercise and something I'd like to dig into if I can, Stephanie, is because the biggest hurdle and as you'd be aware, the media is almost got an obsession with the so-called affordability crisis in Australia at the moment and everyone's got their own views.

is I don't – if you want to live in the centre of Sydney, then no one can afford it. Unless you've got buckets of money, then Sydney's now a world-class city up there with New York and Paris and London where if you want to be there, then you're going to have to pay top dollar to do that. But I think the biggest hurdle for a lot is actually putting together that initial deposit.

Can you talk us through, you know, what you did and how long it took you to actually build the deposit for your first property? Sure. So I'll take you through two parts of it. The first is the saving for the deposit. So from what I've already shared, I started very young. So it wasn't something that you just sort of accumulate,

I guess, overnight. It takes years. And, you know, you run through a little bit of my career history, which is on my LinkedIn. But in addition to that, there were a lot of other things that I was doing on the side, which came with a lot of sacrifices to not go out with friends and not spend money. So I did everything from taxi driving to being a dental assistant

to cleaning people's houses and painting houses and then doing odd jobs and all of those sorts of things because for me it was sort of what is the return on investment? I can go out and I can spend time with my friends every single weekend and be nowhere closer to where I want to actually be with my life or I can do that once a month on a set budget and then the rest of the time I can maximise that time to be able to make more money,

which basically I can then invest in something that then compounds and grows for me. So I would almost even say that maybe I'm a bit of a lazy investor because I want my investments to do the work for me rather than having to always, you know, work and chase money and put it aside. So I think that's the benefit with investing. But it took several years and I was fortunate that my mum agreed once I had saved the deposit. She agreed to then guarantee the property, which meant she became guarantor just for the deposit amount.

But the condition, which I guess was a valued lesson in asset protection, was that she said she would only do that if I had the deposit saved, which then I could put into an offset account and she can be removed as a guarantor or at least there's that sort of backing and security. So that was sort of how it happened. But just before I started, I needed to actually save a little bit more so that my mum would then go guarantor. And so I was working in real estate at the time I was living at home. I was paying my mom rent and all I would do for about six months is transfer the entirety of my savings with the exception of the rent that I had to pay and about, you know, a little bit for petrol and probably about $50 a month for spending with friends and the rest of my paycheck I would put into savings.

So if you structure your savings like that to put it into perspective for a lot of people, In six months, I was able to save about $25,000 to $30,000 and I was only earning $60,000 at the time. Wow. Yeah, that's awesome. So it is possible if you make a lot of sacrifices and you pick up multiple jobs. And I went through a stage of selling absolutely everything I owned.

I sold my car to make extra money and I downgraded to this $3,000 bomb that made catching the bus look attractive. there was all those things that you know i wanted to do to be able to to be able to buy the property because i saw that as a better investment than keeping clothes that really didn't mean anything or jewelry that i'd accumulated over the years and and a car that really didn't matter at the end of the day yeah yeah i'd love the focus so it's just such a rarity to talk to someone who who the light comes on and in recognizing if you run hard early and set yourself up then you can create a nest egg as you say that it's good term lazy investor but it's

you're actually creating a platform that's going to provide an income that then enables you to have the time and i've often said stephanie that most australians are rich but very few are wealthy and wealthy can be defined by the amount of free time you have available to do what you want when you want. And for most Australians, if you say to them, okay, well, if your income, your job income stopped today, how long could you sustain your current lifestyle? And for most Australians, it's only a few weeks and maybe a month or two. But what you're doing in building that platform, both across the property investments that you're into and the business that you're building, you're creating a number of income streams that, if it's set up properly, don't

need you there to do it and it's creating money while you sleep so uh where did that where did that early i'm just really intrigued about where that awareness at such a an early vintage came from because it's very rare to come across people who who even have that recognition and go right uh i'm going to do the work because the other thing i hear you know the biggest term we hear in australia is you can do anything and you can be anything and you can but the bit that gets lost along the journey is but you've got to do the work you'll you'll you'll clearly recognize the fact that i'm going to do the work and if the difference between me having a couple of jobs and and uh partying with my friends if i do this hard for an

x amount of time then i can party for the rest of my life where did that awareness come into your horizon i'm just really keen to dig into that if we can I think my my parents really had a lot to do that and also my mum because my mum very much encouraged from a young age for us to work hard and there's you know we were quite fortunate in the sense that a lot of we went to a good school and and a lot of people were you know um we had an allowance but what a lot of people don't realize is that a lot of parents from the age of you know for your whole life until about 18 they basically pay for you to go to the movies with your friends and all of those sorts of things so my mom did it a little bit differently for about

15 she said you've got two choices we'll give you a small allowance per month and you have to buy absolutely everything from you know school stockings to movies with friends to phone bills everything like that yeah or we can pay for it for you and you won't get any additional spending money and it will still be roughly the same but we'll pay it for you and I basically said I'd like to be able to manage it myself so aside from you know school fees and school uniform we had to pay everything and aside from dinners and you know school lunches but everything else we had to pay for so I think having that responsibility at 15 gave me some insight into how to budget so my sister and I were very different so I think it also comes down to a

personality trait and also how badly you want something in life so for me at a young age I always was inspired to have my own business and I really wanted to accumulate savings and i sort of had the i guess the passion to see my savings increase and i just i was always monitoring it and always counting and always you know trying to challenge myself to get to the next milestone in my account balance and so my sister was very very different she would basically get her allowance and buy a whole heap of magazines and then basically have no money for the rest of the month whereas I was very much you know I would love to have you know achieve these goals and have this sort of lifestyle when I'm older and so I sort of thought if I can reduce all of my expenses

then I can have money left over at the end of the month which I basically haven't necessarily had to earn and then I can be able to add that to my savings on top of working and then it will continue to grow a lot faster and I think by 15 I'd already I already knew that I was going to buy a car by the time I was 17 so my focus was also I really wanted to be able to have that and be able to achieve that on my own so it was sort of how do I save that amount of money to be able to buy my own car which I ended up buying my own car on the 23rd of August just before my 17th birthday and I paid for it in cash because my parents always taught me you never borrow for a car and you never borrow for shares.

The only thing you borrow for is property. So that was always drilled into me from a very young age and my mum was very much, if you want something, you need to work hard for it. And my grandparents were very much the same. They very much drilled into us that if you can have anything that you want in life, if you're prepared to put in the work. Yeah, love it, love it.

That's absolute gold. Yeah, I share the same fortune. I was born into a great family with parents who taught me exactly the same skills. So it's almost become second nature by the time you're starting to do your own thing. And I guess we're blessed in that regard. But we both share the passion for helping others to learn, and it's never too late, which is the great news. So that's awesome. I really appreciate you sharing that with us, Stephanie.

Now, just continuing on the property journey, if we can. So you bought your first property at 22. I'm assuming you probably lived in that one, did you? Or was that a rental property or how did that come into the picture? So I started off with living in it because my parents had always said that you buy a property to live in. And then after, I think the feeling of buying a property and having that asset because it's such a substantial amount of money

and it's such a, it's an indescribable feeling to me to be able to own your own home. And so I think that that sort of sparked this addiction of I really want to buy more property. And so then I was sort of looking at how do I do that and I had enough money and income from changing jobs to be able to then buy another property and then I had an inheritance which I donated

to conserve a nature reserve which basically then gave me a block of land and then from there I was capped and I wasn't able to buy another property and I sort of thought how do I do this because I really want to buy another property so what do I need to do to buy another one and my broker was just sort of saying to me you need to increase your income or increase your and or increase your rental income and or come up with more of a deposit and then that sort of I guess led me to move back home and also keep saving and keep taking on additional jobs. Love it.

So you became a rent-fest for an effect. Yes, definitely. Yeah. Because people don't realise how much that income, that rental income actually adds to your serviceability. Massive. So to live in your own home is a fantastic feeling and it's a great thing to have.

And my grandparents always told me that you should pay off at least one property in full and you should do that as quickly as possible because then you will always have a roof over your head. And so for me, I sort of looked at, well, there's X amount of dollars that I can make from renting out that property, which I can add to paying down the loan faster because I can use a lot of my income to service that because I've been living in the property and servicing it anyway. And it all becomes tax-deductible as well.

You've got all the tax-deductibility waiting for you. So it's massive. Exactly. It's really interesting because I often have this discussion with people who come to us for their first home and I would say to them, well, let's have a bit of a chat about that. How much are you currently paying for rent or board or staying at home or $100 a week?

Right, that's the cheapest you're ever going to live. If you're happy there, let's stay there, stay there and put all of that energy that you've created into a property that's, if you set it up the right way, won't cost you a cent and if you bought it in the right place, it's going to double in value over the next 10 to 15 years comfortably and give you the ability to build a portfolio that would then replace your income over that time frame.

So that's awesome. I really just love the thinking. What I also love is that not only you've been smart enough to work that out, but you're taking the action because with property, we're talking big lumps of money and you talk about your parents. My father always said because he built a substantial portfolio during his lifetime and mum was one of these ones who was always nervous about owing anyone money and dad would always say don't worry about it mum it's the bank's money

let them worry about it and uh that's a pretty good way to approach it because uh as as you know uh property's a pretty safe place to put money and the fact that the banks will let you still borrow up to 90 plus percent and banks aren't into losing money they're into making money tells you that it's a pretty safe place to park the park the fund so that's awesome so you move back in home and then tell me about the portfolio growth from there and the strategy that you're adopting at that point in time. Sorry, I just, I lost you for a second. That's all right.

Yeah, so you're back at home, you're looking to build the portfolio. What sort of strategies were you utilising and then tell us about the number of properties that you then accumulate, the type of properties, where and whatnot, just so we've got a feel for how that looks. yeah sure so after i moved home i was able to buy another property and even though it was more expensive at the time there was this saying that i came across that what is expensive today is cheap tomorrow and it's very true so i was fortunate enough and certainly with property which we can see now in sydney so i was fortunate enough to buy two properties on the northern

beaches when the property market was still rising so they were incredibly um cheap in comparison to to what they are now and there was the the third property that I bought in um was my fourth property but third in the northern beaches and that was sort of as the market was rising but it was just on the the start of the market rising so there was still a long way to go and and that I guess enabled me as well to leverage the increase in capital yeah so I got to a point where I was able to basically instead of having to spend years and years accumulating the savings I was able to basically leverage off the capital growth and be able to use that as a deposit for another property and then I got to the stage where I needed to increase my income so then I pivoted my strategy

And instead of looking for somewhere in Sydney, I went to Brisbane, which they had incredibly high returns at the time, not so much growth and their growth is not very good. But the return meant that I could borrow double what the bank had actually said I could borrow. And because of that return, I was then able to buy another property on top of that. um and then i was able to i guess pivot some of my my strategy and look at international options so i was starting to look at renovating and porting security so i could renovate um and buy basically sell and rebuy at the exact same time so instead of having to release equity i was thinking to myself why am i effectively buying my own money so which is exactly what you do when you you release equity because you're basically borrowing

it borrowing your own capital and having to pay the bank so then I sort of thought how do I reduce my LVR faster increase my growth faster and not have to buy my own money so I thought well if I can port securities it basically means I can sell and rebuy at the same time after I've renovated and basically take some of the cash out which then enabled me to buy internationally because you either need to buy in cash or have the deposit to then get a loan in that country so I was able to start then buying internationally which then opened me up to a lot of different options and I think because I also love to travel and see the world and understand the world it also gave me I think a better appreciation for how fantastic the growth is in Sydney because

aside from Toronto which surpassed Sydney by about half a percent Sydney has had incredible growth and you know property is not only incredibly safe because everybody in the world needs a place to live it also means that you can grow your wealth faster and it affords you a lot more opportunities and and options to then be able to do what you want to do which for me is to be able to help other people do the same thing that I've been able to achieve, which is why I created Evervest. So that's why we have also buying guides in 22 different countries so that people can understand how to actually buy property

in their local market. And, you know, it also highlights Sydney and the amazing growth that they've had. Yeah. Yeah. And it's probably – it's come off the top now and it's having its normal correction, which is always the case in property. and there's been, I mean, for those of you who don't know,

we're talking to you in Lithuania and Europe, but you'd probably be well aware that there's a lot of doomsdayers now in the media here in Australia talking about massive falls and all the rest of the skies falling in routine that you normally get around this stage of the game. For those of us who have been in property long enough, we know that this is just a normal part of the plateauing exercise and it always comes back a little bit before it then starts its next climb.

But you packed in a whole heap of gold into what you just walked through and I just want to unpack some of that if I can for those that – there's some terms there that I'm certainly familiar with but there will be some listeners that probably aren't. So one of the things I'm just keen to really dig into a little bit because in porting securities, which is just for those that haven't come across that term, what you're effectively doing is having a loan

that you're moving from one property across to another and you're able to do that because you're selling one property and settling on the other on the same day. So that avoids having to go through the whole loan difficulties and it's becoming a much more challenging environment with Royal Commissions and APRA reviews and all sorts of stuff happening in Australia now. So that makes some perfect sense.

The thing that I'm keen to understand a little bit more though because I run a lot of numbers around this stuff too as well, Stephanie, is once you factor in the selling and the buying costs, so the stamp duties and then the agent's costs and then you throw on top any capital gains tax that gets thrown into it, But how does that then stack up against just holding on to the property and then grabbing that equity to avoid those changeover costs and then putting it into another?

Can you sort of expand on that a bit for us? Yeah, sure. So whether you hold a property or not, for me, this strategy was, I guess, really effective because – so before I renovated the property, one of my properties, I had the property valued. So to give sort of like an indication, let's say it's valued at $600,000. Then post-renovation, it's valued at sort of $680,000, $690,000, $700,000.

Yeah. So then we take it to auction and when the market is hot, that also drives property prices upwards. Yes. So even when you factor in the – once you've held a property for long enough, you have a discount on capital gains. So that's factored in. You also can deduct the renovation costs,

so that's good for minimising your tax perspective. Yes. And then the real estate costs you can always negotiate. Yes. Which is incredibly important. So it's sort of like, okay, if I, let's say, spend $20,000, was it worth it to gain $60,000? Yeah.

Yeah, makes perfect. Yeah, I understand now. And there's a very key point in what you're talking about there, and that is in a rapidly rising market where you can quickly accumulate those gains as long as you've held the property more than 12 months to avoid so you get the capital gains discount, then I can see some merit in what you're talking about. And the other thing that goes hand in hand with that is that

if you're trying to borrow the extra equity, you can still only go to 90%, whereas if you sell a property, you're accessing the full 100%. So depending on what the loan to valuation ratio is, then you're putting potentially a lot more cash straight into your pocket that can then actually go into the purchase of the next property. Am I reading that properly? Yes, correct. So you can either take some of the profits or you can put it into another property.

And also the other thing as well is for people that need to sell or want to rebuy or collect some of that equity, a lot of what investors need to be conscious of is sometimes your broker or bank will have a clawback cause in your mortgage contracts, which basically means that for the people that are listening that don't know what that is, it basically means that when a broker organises the loan for you, they get paid a commission.

And if you refinance or pay out the loan, their commission gets clawed back and a lot of the times they'll try and basically claw it back from you. So to avoid that, if you're porting the security, you're not closing the loan and if you're keeping it with the same bank then you're not having to pay your broker's commission to them yeah yeah that'd be absolutely effective as well yeah it is and and and for those listeners who aren't familiar with that clawback exercise effectively what it means is that you know for the first 18 months with most banks the money that they've

paid your broker to successfully place that line they rip that straight back out of the broker's pocket and of course brokers not being charities have been forced to pass that cost on to the investor and it can be significant we're talking thousands of dollars not hundreds of dollars so I can see where that is really saving that only guess what what you're saying with the porting of the securities means that if if a property's had most of its growth and it it's been through that cycle it's not likely to see much more growth in the foreseeable future then you have the opportunity, as long as you're buying a property of the same or higher value, so that from a bank risk perspective, the loan to valuation ratio doesn't increase or get into mortgage

insurance territory, then you can effectively then shift the debt across into a higher growth property or a property that has the potential, as you've mentioned in that rapidly rising market scenario, to do some renovations that can significantly improve and manufacture some value very quickly. Is that a fair assessment? Definitely. Yeah, interesting. Yeah, no, that's – and I guess the – for those who've got the time,

the energy to do so, and renovations is often like taking out a second job. And for someone who's got the energy, you do completely get it. But it would be a scenario I'd be suggesting is applicable to that rapidly rising situation like what happened in Sydney over that sort of last four to five years in a more stable market. And Brisbane's been – you picked up on Brisbane, and Brisbane's been very quiet for a while. But I'm fairly bullish about what's about to happen in Brisbane

given that there's some strong population growth, there's a lot of economic improvement, and I tend to follow the jobs when I'm looking for capital growth. I think Brisbane is getting close to the point where it's going to start experiencing some pretty strong growth over the next few years, subject to what's happening in the lending environment. And for those listeners that are on board here,

certainly the tightening in credit, because property is a game of finance, there's no question about it, the tightening in credit is certainly taking the heat off and it's certainly achieved its goal of curbing the growth in Sydney and Melbourne. Once we see that start to relax a little bit, then we're going to see areas like South East Queensland

and really start to see some pretty strong growth. So that's awesome. Okay, so just in terms of the portfolio now then, are you able to share with us how many properties and what sort of gross value your portfolio is sitting at, just roughly? I would prefer not to sort of share those details. I know I shared a lot of details when I was younger, but for me it's sort of wanting to keep a little,

a couple of things private. Yeah, no, that's completely. Sometimes those things change relationships and I've learned that probably the hard way. Yeah, no, that's completely fair. But you're still adopting a, once you've gone through that porting substitution exercise, Are you basically holding your portfolio at this point?

Am I right in saying that? Yes, holding my portfolio. I've started to invest a bit internationally, but firstly, it's more sort of holding now that the market's levelling out. Yeah, okay. Now, let's jump into that because I'm similar. I'm an international investor as well. I've got three properties in the States and jumped over there.

As soon as the GFC happened, my read was that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy properties way below what their long-term value is. So we flew over and we've done a number of trips over there and we spent quite a bit of time and spent most of the time actually, Stephanie, putting the team together on the ground more than the actual properties because it's the expertise of the team that's looking after your properties because property is an elite team sport that was more important to us. I guess the – and we've only looked at the state, so we haven't looked beyond that.

But what we have come to learn is that once the market stabilised in the states and we picked up properties for half of their long-term value, so they sort of returned to their average value, but beyond that there's very little growth. And historically in the states, you know, the sort of capital growth you achieve is around about 2%, which is actually below inflation. looking internationally i'm interested in why you're interested what's the gameplay is it a

is it a growth or a cash flow or is it a lifestyle thing and what sort of areas have come up of interest to you and why sure so for me the the states i i sort of look at whenever i invest i look at locations that are typically in demand and that that really comes down to not just sort of big cities but also the sort of population behind those big cities so you know places like london new york sydney all of those kind of cities have fantastic growth because there's simply so much demand so for me as an investor i look at at those places so in america where i own property is new york because it's always in demand um from a rental perspective because property is so high the cost is is very expensive um the rent the demand for rentals is also very high so if you

i guess enter the market at the right time then you're also having the the return on investment which is the the rent return which keeps increasing so for me i sort of look at i always look at capital cities that are in demand and then also one-bedroom apartments because they're the first entry point into the market, which means there are simply more people that can afford to buy them. Whereas if you look at, for me, I find that if you look at houses, yes, they can have great growth, but also they're the first thing to drop if the market levels off or goes down because not everybody can afford to buy them. So I guess I'm quite a conservative investor in that sense well and particularly in those areas you're talking about if if we're having this conversation

in australia i i would test that a little bit uh with the exception of sydney uh but in the new york and london fraternity where people are used to living in apartments and that's that's the normal standard way of living and therefore there is very strong demand uh then that's a pretty safe sweet spot to put your money completely get that that's awesome how have you got around that because I know in our case

we couldn't borrow money in the States because you've got to be there 12 months before banks will even have a look at you so we've actually used super funds to secure property over there and it's more a cash flow play with a one off capital growth

opportunity because the market was so low and the foreign exchange was very preferable. It was a $1.05 Aussie to the US dollar at the time we bought. So that sort of built in some insurance for us, knowing that long-term the Aussie dollar would return to the sort of somewhere between 70 and 80 cents, which it now is. How did you get around that? Because you're virtually having to pay for those properties cash outright

to secure them without that longevity in that particular location. So, yes, you're correct with that. So I paid cash and it was actually my first foray into commercial real estate. Okay. Which was a little bit different and also a little bit cheaper and it was a little bit more like a syndicate. So there was two parts of the investment because I've also started to invest in start-ups.

So part of it was buying the property and then also getting the equity into the start-up as well. Yeah, okay. So I can't touch too much on that. No, no, I understand. I understand. And I guess what I've come to learn, I've interviewed someone who, an Aussie,

who's actually now in the States and building a strong syndication model where they're going in with a number of investors and then buying a large number of multifamily properties in one development and because of that, because of the biggest issue that we've had in the States is the quality of property management because they're just way behind Australia and because we're the one-off property

versus property managers who like to focus on larger numbers, then we just don't get the attention. So doing what you're doing makes perfect sense in that regard. Awesome. That's really good and pretty exciting in what you've managed to achieve and do in a short space of time. Let's come back then to Everest, and you're currently in Lithuania. Tell us about why you're there and what that means to you

with what you're doing currently. Sure. So why we're here is probably a little bit left field from, I guess, the typical way people expand businesses so we chose lithuania because they they're very open and progressive um they're ranked number one in the world for sorry number two in the world for entrepreneurship and they've just started this startup visa it's it's actually a very impressive place in the technology here they're ranked number one in the world for public wi-fi speed so So the technology resources here are incredibly advanced.

The skill sets are incredibly advanced. And so being a technology company, that's an incredible benefit. The other thing is that we're researching the different banking licenses around the world because our long-term plan, getting back to the core focus of Why I Love Property, is to be able to expand from an investment platform once we develop the business and I guess gain sort of traction and liquidity is to then expand into offering mortgages. So being the first bank in the world to be able to support people

on their property journey no matter where they or their property investments are in the world. So when we were researching the capital requirements, to put it into perspective, Sydney, in order to have a restricted banking license, you need about $3 million to apply for the licence, and that's the capital required for the bank, whereas in Lithuania it's about a million euros. So even when you convert it, it's still cheaper.

It is. The other thing is as well it gives you passporting abilities across the whole of the EU. So the EU is an incredibly large market. The central bank here who I met with yesterday after we've been speaking for several months and they've been reviewing our business plans and things like that. So they're very progressive on being able to increase competition, not only in Lithuania in the banking space, but also across the EU.

So they're really interested in working together and they're very open as a central bank. So that was sort of the reason that we came over here. And it's quite interesting because it makes you realize how fortunate we are in Australia because we have a very incredibly strong property market and we also have access to be able to invest in stock markets, whereas the access here is so limited. Okay. And it's quite a very new thing for this country. So I think that's why the central bank is so open and encouraging people to, I guess, move to Lithuania and Revolut's moved here, Western Union, the NASDAQ.

So that's not just because of the openness, but also because of just the skill sets and the advanced technology professionals in this area. So even Uber has their development team in Lithuania. Okay. And are there tax incentives as well to establish business in Lithuania that makes that attractive as also, Stephanie? So it is cheaper than Australia.

It's about sort of 50% cheaper in terms of company tax. Right. Perfect. Awesome. Makes a lot. And was Lithuania under the old eastern block before its relief in the late 80s? that fall into that zone? Yes, so they were under the Soviet Union.

Great. So I've just come back from Europe myself, spending some time in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Oh, nice. And you can smell the opportunity because there's still the hangover from the communist oppression, but in terms of location and then the recognition by the governments of the opportunity

that they can provide for a low-cost base, to incentivise people to establish world-leading businesses. It's just a perfect melting pot. So, yeah, full marks. I just, again, I love not only the strategic thinking that you bring to the table, but the fact that you then say, right, let's do it. Let's get this done.

That's GSD. It's awesome. It's awesome. So let's talk about that banking exercise then in terms of its opportunity for Australians in particular, given that'll be the majority of the audience and it'll probably be a little while off before that hits the deck, I'm guessing,

because as you say, you need to get that liquidity level together as asset backing for the bank. But how will the Everest financing facility differ from what Aussies can get from the normal banks in terms of your point of difference? Sure. So, our point of difference is really being able to enable people to work with the one bank and also support them into buying property. So, a lot of what people don't realize is in different property markets, banks will actually lend you 100% of the property. Yeah.

So, in order to be able to do that, you need to have a certain amount of liquidity to offset the risk. So, basically, the bank takes on all the risk that the property market is going to continue and that you're not going to continue to rise in value and that you're not going to default on your loan. Yeah. So, they need to have a certain amount of capital and that's regulated by the Bank of International Settlements, which is basically the central bank of all central banks. Yeah. That then sets up all of the different policies for those banks. So our point of difference is to be able to support people to build wealth. So the first part of that is an investment platform.

And then the second part is being able to offer mortgages. So the other benefit from us is to get to the point where we can reduce the deposit amount because I've seen exactly what property has done for me. And I really want people to be able to have that opportunity to be able to invest. and one of the main barriers is simply the deposit. So I'm trying to basically remove as many barriers to entry as possible so that people can have that opportunity. Yeah, awesome. The second part is also being able to – so the second part is to once we have

enough scale and enough liquidity, then we can reduce interest rates to be able to better support people in helping make their payments and making property more affordable from a cash flow perspective. And the third element of that is to basically innovate and move where the world is going. So with companies like TransferWise and Revolut that have multi-currency accounts that are accessible with lower foreign exchange rates,

we want to be able to enable you to pull your portfolio together for the purpose of lending. So if you're in Sydney and you want to buy that French Chateau you've always had your eye on or, you know, American property... As we just touched on before, you would be able to use your property in Australia as security. So with multi-currency accounts, you'd be able to accept local rental income. So if it's in France, it would be euros. If it's in America, it would be US dollars.

And then being able to lend in the currency that you're purchasing the property in. So there's also other factors internally, such as hedging currency and interbank rates, so that you can reduce the effects of foreign exchange and sort of the dollar rising or dropping. So that's sort of, I guess, the long-term vision that we're really working towards. Awesome. In the current scheme of things, it's a bit crystal ball,

but how far away do you think that international bank lending facility is going to be? so the ideal frame for us is to launch um in 2020 our mvp which would be basically testing the model and there's a certain amount of sort of uh legalities around being able to cross securitize property across borders so every different property market has different regulations so there's a few moving parts to get to that point so we'd want to set up a an mvp which for those of you listening that don't know sort of the tech term it's a minimum viable product which basically is sort of the initial version where you sort of test the model and and see how it

works in practice yeah awesome awesome that's very exciting that's very exciting indeed and just from a personal perspective and a number of the investors that we assist in the the property market uh i'm all ears uh stephanie so i'd like you to keep me abreast of that because that's very innovative it's uh world leading uh in that context and really opening up the global market as far as an investment opportunity is across the full spheres and from sorry i missed after you're breaking up yeah that's okay uh it's certainly groundbreaking what you're doing there's definitely in terms of its global reach it's the cost of doing so breaking down those barriers eliminating the the foreign exchange impacts on on returns and having the ability to

invest across not only property but shares and equities and and other assets is very very groundbreaking so take my hat off again that's extremely exciting so watch this space and I'll be very keen to be kept informed of your progress in that regard so now let's talk about you for a minute so you've you've been on a skyrocket journey so far without any doubt whatsoever and I read somewhere when I was researching that your initial goal was to be in a position where you could retire at 30 it sounds like you're a couple of ways a couple of years away from that From what I'm hearing around Everest, that sounds like you're going to be way too excited and way too busy to even contemplate retirement because you'll be bored beyond belief in 10 seconds flat. But talk to us about the ideal lifestyle for you.

What is it? What are you doing? Where are you doing it? How are you living? Who are you with? And then is that any different to what your lifestyle looks now? And if there is a gap beyond what you're investing in in relation to the properties that you already have and the businesses that you're building, what else are you going to be doing to sustain that ideal lifestyle long term? So I think for me, you touched on that I had the goal of being able to have the financial means to retire by the age of 30.

and that for me is still very much a goal not because I want to retire because I absolutely love what I do and in fact I want to do more of it but I'd really like to have that financial security because I do have a lot of ambitious goals and I think being able to have the financial backing behind you means that you can actually focus on those goals and and work towards achieving them so for me my ideal lifestyle is probably pretty much what my lifestyle is now and I'm really lucky that I can say that because I've always wanted my ideal lifestyle to be spend my life with an amazing partner which I have who works with me and I get to see every single day which I'm really lucky to have an amazing family and I have that now my mum and

sister actually in Lithuania with me they've just come to visit which is really nice and the other goal for me is to be able to make an impact with society and and work in a career that I'm passionate about and I love and I'm really fortunate that I've got to that stage and it took me a while to sort of find what I loved and what I was passionate about but property and investing is definitely what I'm passionate about and not only do I do that in my spare time but I do that also now with Evervest and I'm really lucky that I get to be there. And the other thing for me is travel because I love being able

to expand my knowledge and sort of see the world and get a deeper appreciation, I think, for how fortunate we are in comparison to a lot of different countries. and also I guess expand my mindset because when you travel it's it's kind of like being a kid again where you get to experience things for the very first time and I love that and I have sort of a desire to always have that element in my life so I get that because I get to travel we've just been selected as a tech crunch top pick so I'm going to Berlin in a couple of weeks which is exciting so I still get the element of travel with work so I guess that's my ideal

lifestyle the only thing that's missing now is probably being able to support more other people getting to the stage that I've got or investing in their own goals so my longer term plan is to become our own sort of VC so that I can help other people achieve their goals and and also creating the banking side of Evervest so that people can have that opportunity to go into into property um and i guess probably the only other thing for me is being able to um i guess change change the world and and start to you know um help people in different countries like less fortunate countries where you know they don't actually have property so being able to you know build firsthand some properties and then and help people that actually have those

roofs over their head that's probably the only thing that's missing so the gap so i guess um reaching or closing that gap is to keep doing what we're doing and and use some of our um personal funds and then also the support of the company that we create to to start maybe building houses in in other parts of the world brilliant absolutely brilliant you you'd say it's It's taken you a while to find your passion. To understand your passion and have a very clear vision at your vintage, I don't think it's taken much time at all, actually. And you're obviously a very quick learner and a very quick actioner,

which is awesome. The other thing I just wanted to sort of comment on there as well, you say you're lucky. And I often say I'm lucky as well, Stephanie, but we're not lucky. We've just worked bloody hard and you've packed 20 to 25 years of work into 10. So you know what I'm saying?

I had a very similar journey with some lumps and bumps along the way. And one of the things I'm keen just to test with you because this is something I struggled with early. I was pretty aggressive and pretty ambitious, you know, in my 20s. And in those days I was an architect handling some pretty major projects and some massive projects actually, Airs Rock Resort and a whole bunch of multi-scale, multi-million dollar exercises. And one of the challenges I had is that I always looked pretty young

so that didn't help. I looked about 16 in my 20s. One of the challenges I had was to get the confidence and the trust of people who were often 10, 15, 20 years older than I was and to get their respect and for them to then take it on board. And in the property and finance industry, which you're playing in, trust is an absolute key element of it. How have you overcome that challenge where, you know, people are saying, well, how can you know this given your vintage and whatnot? What sort of strategies have you used to sort of overcome any initial objections you might be picking up from people on that journey? That's a really good point that you've raised. And I think for me when I was, I've probably only just gotten to the point where I have more confidence to be more direct and ask people questions.

And I think that has been one of the greatest, I guess, aspects in getting people to ask and respect you is not only, you know, working hard and proving that you know what you're doing, not just because of your knowledge, but because of your actions. because actions have always always speak louder than words but I think also having the confidence to be able to ask questions so if there's something that I don't know and someone raises that I have the confidence now to and I'm not scared of saying can you please explain that because I'm not familiar or you know I don't I don't yet understand that can you please share share more information about it because I think one of the issues sometimes with being so young is when you have confidence, older people think that you're maybe a little bit cocky or arrogant

or not so receptive to learning. And I think when you show that you are receptive to learning and you want to learn and you want to improve, then I think that develops a little bit more respect because simply what I found is that there's only so much that I can read and learn before, you know, getting that first-hand experience with actually taking the next steps and taking action.

But then from there, you really learn from doing. But for me, I value the insights of someone older than me because they have the experience and you simply can't get that when you're a certain age. you don't have the sort of 40 years of experience to have an even greater level of insight but i think what's really helped is not just the confidence and asking questions but i spend probably five or six hours a day just learning so you know i didn't know um what how to set up like a use of fund which is a structure behind the etf which is how we're putting together um our

outside of pension ETF and then inside of pension so I have read and I've learned and I've connected with people and I've gotten to the point now where I met with a fund manager of 40 years and and he said you know more than me so you know it is possible to get to that point but it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort to really focus and spend the time actually learning and researching and gaining the knowledge from people that have the experience that you simply can't have at your age. Yes, that's right. I think that's where you get the respect.

Very well said. That's very well said. I often say to people, I've just taken up the piano in the last 18 months because I just absolutely love music. And I've done a couple of concert performances after 12 months and people have said, how can you possibly get to do that? And I said, well, there's only one difference between you and I and that is I've spent every day since I've started playing,

I play for between half an hour and an hour every day. It's an absolute ritual and if you put that time in to both learning and doing it, you'd be doing it as well. So the only difference between you and me is the time that I put into it And what I'm hearing from you is exactly the same. The only difference between you and someone else is the fact that you're putting a lot of time in early into absorbing the knowledge and then putting that into practice

and having the confidence, if you don't know something, to know where to find it or who to ask, who's going to give you the answers. And it's that proactivity and the ability to go, right, I don't know, I'm going to find out, that sets you apart from other people who just don't have either the confidence or the energy to say, right, well, I'm actually going to step outside my comfort zone here

and dive in deep and then find out what we need to find out. It's an awesome trait. And if you look through your very rapid career growth, both professionally and personally, clearly that ability to want to learn and then having the confidence just to keep asking until you get the answers, is the reason why you've managed to achieve such massive success in such what would appear to be a short space of time.

So, again, congratulate you on all of that, Stephanie, and I can't wait to see where the ongoing trajectory is going to lead you to. So that is awesome. Now, what I'm keen to do, if we can now, is move into what I call the ambush or the bushfire lightning round, which is a bunch of questions that all of the listeners always love to hear from people across the board. So if I can, just to kick straight into it,

what's your favourite quote and why, Stephanie? My favourite quote is, knowledge is power but the implementation of knowledge is far more powerful. And the reason I love that quote is because it's exactly what you were just explaining with playing piano. And I remember I tried to learn and I wish I could play piano, but I can never master the left hand.

And I'm going to challenge you. You know, I'm going to challenge you because I'm useless as well. I just kept at it. So don't give up on that. Exactly, which is why I love that quote so much. Because if you're really driven and passionate about something, you can learn the knowledge, but then you really need to take action and commit to it. And it's like you said with piano is practicing, you know, half an hour a day. And that's why I love that quote, because it really is about the taking action side of it.

Yes. And I mean, you've demonstrated it. It's there for everyone to see, which is absolutely awesome. Sensational. Now, what about the top book that you would recommend and why? the top book i would recommend is definitely the answer by alan and barbara peace and the reason i love this book is it ties into the action side of of achieving your goals but also the mindset side so i love uh neurology and i'm really interested in psychology as well and this sort of goes into

i guess how the brain works but it's very simplified so it basically says that we have a reticular activating system or a RAS, which is kind of like a GPS. So as long as you enter in the destination to your mental GPS, your brain will actually start to look for things that will help you achieve it. So it's sort of like if you wanted to buy a new car, you will start to always notice that brand of car. And it's because you've entered it into your GPS in your brain. So that's why I love that book. And it's fantastic. And it also sort of breaks down goal setting so it kind of starts with having the the I guess the ideal goal and then smaller goals because success is habitual so if you start with smaller goals that are easy to achieve and then

have some big goals you will start to get into the habit of succeeding because at the moment we're so familiar with failure and it's more comfortable to us so success for some people is actually quite scary um and it's quite daunting because we're just so familiar to to i guess failing so this sort of changes the mindset to actually focus and get your your body and your brain uh familiar with succeeding absolutely i love it yeah i've read a number of their books because they're the sort of body language experts from from years ago and they are a great couple actually and i sort of visualizing as you spoke there you know having having the grand vision but then breaking it down into actionable steps is it's a bit like visualizing the elephant and then eating it in

mouthfuls so that you don't aim too low and the difference between what i see you doing and a lot of other people doing is that their goals just aren't big enough whereas what i see you doing is having a very clear vision and a global vision is what i'm hearing in terms of what you're going to be doing to the property and finance space and investing space and super space moving forward. And you're not daunted by that goal because once you've got some very clear shape around what that looks like, it's just a matter now of taking the steps over a progressive amount of time to make that happen.

And as you say, if that GPS through that law of attraction is already in play, then you will attract into your life the people and the processes and the things that need to happen to realise that. So awesome. Now, that is sensational, and I haven't read that one, so I'm putting that on my own reading list. Thanks, Stephanie. Moving on then, what's the top thing,

and this is something that's probably more relevant to Australia than a lot of areas, but the thing that I constantly hear when I talk to investors in Australia, oh, we pay too much tax. So I'd love for you to share with us, what's the top thing that you've done to minimise tax? The top thing that I've done is buy property, Particularly as well if you buy a newer style property or you do a renovation, then you have access to tax depreciation, although some of the regulations have changed on that and aren't quite as beneficial, but still beneficial in reducing your tax.

Absolutely. Something to think to an accountant about. Yeah, it is. I'd often say that the biggest thing that's going to both save your tax and if you've got a home loan, help pay it off, is to secure a build or buy a new investment property because for most people it's going to put an extra 10 to 20 grand back in their pocket a year.

So that's awesome. Yeah, great piece of advice. Let's turn to the investment advice arena then while we're talking about it. So over the journey so far, what's both the worst and the best piece of investment advice that you've received today? The best advice I think was that when you buy a property, and this is sort of more of a quote that I heard from a guy that I ended up working with who owned property in I think about 85 different countries, which was incredible. Wow. But he said, you make money when you buy property, you just collect it when you sell, which I thought was a really insightful quote. And probably the worst advice that I hear people say in the industry is to just focus on yields.

And the reason I say that is that capital growth is incredibly important for sustainability because yields are great for replacing your income. but unless they're going to increase in excess of inflation, your portfolio and that return is not sustainable to be able to replace your income over the long term. So it's really important to have capital growth. Absolutely. In my book, The Freedom Formula, I talk about this because there's always this age-old argument

over cash flow versus capital growth. Well, in my own experience, Stephanie, it's not a awe discussion. and then discussion. So go for capital growth and then convert to cash flow so that you're growing the nest egg and then you're using the nest egg and converting that into a cash flow income

that's then going to sustain your lifestyle. So you're right on it there. Don't get confused or distracted by cash flow early. Focus on the growth but then convert that into an effective cash flow at the time when the nest egg's at the size that it's going to sustain your ideal lifestyle. So great words.

All right, breaking down to a daily basis then, what's a personal habit or routine that contributes to your success so far? I think for me the personal habit or routine is to simply have a routine. So I work a lot better when I have structure and schedule. I almost have too much routine that I schedule my spontaneity because for me, there's so much more that you can achieve when you simply have a routine. So I wake up every morning at 5 a.m.

I read because I want to get inspired for the day and then I go to the gym and then I get into work really early and I know exactly what I'm doing on each day and then I can maximize my time. So for me, definitely routine and schedule is the habit of success. Love it. Absolutely love that. No, spot on.

Sort of coming to the conclusion, because you've been very generous with your time, if you were to speak to someone who's just leaving school, what would you advise them to invest their time, money and skills in to create freedom long term? Stephanie? I would say to focus on trying lots of different things because I don't think you can ever truly understand

what you really want to do until you simply know what you don't want to do and I guess that's what's worked for me so that would be my advice but then also I'd say make sure you start investing because when you do find what you want to do sometimes you will need the financial backing to be able to take those steps and to take action and so if you start creating that nest egg then you're not having to wait or commit to a job that you dislike or you know a lifestyle that you just dislike you can then start taking action and, I guess, live the life that you really want to live and work in a career that you're truly passionate about.

Yeah, brilliant words. Great words of wisdom. Love it. Now, just sort of bringing to a close then, you've spoken a lot about Everest and the exciting things that you're doing. Is there anything else new and exciting that the listeners will be interested to hear about that you're about to embark on? Well, we're about to launch our investment platform by December this year.

So that's probably the most exciting thing for me that we're working on. And then also being in Berlin for Disrupt Berlin conference as a TechCrunch top pick. So that's also really exciting. They're probably the two main things that are the focus and excitement at the moment. Awesome. And are you sort of attending the Berlin exercise as a potential award winner or just to mingle with the like-minded fraternity? At Disrupt Berlin, did you say?

Yes, yes. So there's the, I guess, sharing Evervest more and then also sort of being involved in that start-up community is sort of the focus there. Yeah, brilliant. But just spending time with like-minded people, you know, I know here in Australia there's a fair amount of conservatism and quite a bit of pessimism, actually.

We've almost got a too good in this country at times, I think. I don't know how you feel. We do. We do. And then just diving into a pool of people who are all wanting to make a difference is really energising. We've part of an entrepreneurial group here in Australia called with Dental, the key person

of influence program and just spending time with those people are all on a similar mission to make a difference just I find it innovative, you pick up things, it's creative, it's positive, it gives you the confidence to get out there and have a go just yeah

as I say I love everything about what you're doing Stephanie, it's a very exciting ride so far pretty keen to stay close to you in relation to following that through and we'd be the first ones to put up our hand and say when Everest is at the point where there's opportunities for the stable of investors

that we support, we'd be pretty keen to get on board. So keep up the fantastic work. Love the time you're spending there in Eastern Europe. Stay in touch with us. I'll reach out to you in the future to check in on how things are going there. But thanks again for giving us so generously of your time today. yeah thank you so much for having me it was great to be able to to share a bit more about myself with the listeners and yourself and to hear more about about yourself as well so hopefully

i might get some um time to to learn some piano as well all right stephanie thanks again we'll talk to you soon perfect bye for now well freedom fighters how good was that you get a summary of all this investment gold in the show notes just email me on hello at khgroup.com.au that's h-e-l-l-o at khgroup.com.au or check us out at www.bussymartin.com.au forward slash get invested i look forward to joining you next week for another episode of the Get Invested podcast. So thanks for listening. And as always, dream as if you live forever

and live as if you die tomorrow.