Property Hub - Investment Insights & Inspiration - Get Invested: Part 2 - Melisa Sloan on navigating life's big moments

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

Are you prepared for life's big moments, or do you have your head in the sand? Melisa Sloan helps you get proactive and take action. For investors especially, t’s not a matter of if a challenge is going to happen, it’s merely a matter of when – so you’re better off expecting it and preparing for it, and if it doesn’t happen, then it’s a bonus, not the other way round. Let's not forget that life's big moments also come as opportunities, and you don't want to miss out! There have not been many resources to help us navigate our unique big moments, until now. Melisa Sloan's new book, Big Moments: A Practical Guide to Everything You Need to Know About Navigating Life’s Milestones fills a much needed gap. As you heard last week, Melisa is a lawyer, industry leader and board director who loves helping others. Tune in to get set to conquer those big moments that define you, to embrace the opportunities that come your way, to face your fears, to derive lessons from the difficult moments, to embrace the things you love, to be brave, to live the experiences you desire and to follow your dreams. Connect with Melisa   https://www.melisasloan.com.au/ Find your Freedom Formula Success in property starts with your 'why', and then the 'what' and 'how'. Let me, Bushy Martin, lead you through it! Sign up for my Freedom Formula program. The first session is absolutely free, and it only takes around an hour! Find out more https://bushymartin.com.au/freedom-formula-course Subscribe to Property Hub for free now on your favourite podcast player. Take the next step - connect, engage and get more insights with the Property Hub community at linktr.ee/propertyhubau Book a personal solutions session with Bushy to go deeper on your specific property needs or challenges Continue the discussion with likeminded investors and experts on The Property Hub Collective Facebook group Get a copy of Bushy's book, Get Invested, for FREE, and find out what it takes for you to invest in living more, working less Get all Property Hub info here linktr.ee/propertyhubau About Get Invested, a Property Hub show Get Invested is the leading weekly podcast for Australians who want to learn how to unlock their full ‘self, health and wealth’ potential. Hosted by Bushy Martin, an award winning property investor, founder, author and media commentator who is recognised as one of Australia’s most trusted experts in property, investment and lifestyle, Get Invested reveals the secrets of the high performers who invest for success in every aspect of their lives and the world around them. Get Invested is part of the Property Hub podcast channel, your home for property investment insights, inspiration and stories from Australia’s top property experts, investors, leaders and analysts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube to get every Get Invested episode each week for free, and also get full access to RealtyTalk, Australia’s top online property show for red hot property investing news and insights direct from property industry leaders and influencers. Property Hub is a collaboration between Bushy Martin from KnowHow Property, Kevin Turner from Realty, show producer Andrew Montesi from Apiro Marketing and Apiro Media, and Australia’s largest independent podcast networkDM Media.  For business enquiries, email [e-mail] omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What common mistakes do you see Australians making when it comes to the big moments in our lives? I think not getting the appropriate advice. As you mentioned, you don't know what you don't know. And getting that appropriate advice so that you can make informed decisions that impact the rest of your life are so important. Welcome to Get Invested on the Property Hub podcast channel, the leading weekly show for Australians who want to learn how to unlock their full self, health and wealth potential. I'm your host, Bushy Martin, and each week I go deep with the best investors, experts, leaders and founders to find out what it takes to break free from the

grind, discover freedom and to live by design. Subscribe now and join me and get invested in the life that you really want. Let's get started. Hi, Freedom Fighters. Are you prepared for all of your life's big moments or do you just wing it hope for the best and follow your impulses are you also one of the many who falls back on their old aussie catch cry or she'll be right mate because you're just too busy and you don't have time to worry about the nitty-gritty details and the maybes if you are then this is a recipe for disaster and the impending disaster may not have happened to you yet but there's a big chance that it's coming as a property helping listener you'll know that I'm a big believer in planning for the worst and then expecting the best

because that way you've got all the bases covered and you can actually relax and enjoy the ride knowing that you've thought about the risk in advance and you've got contingency plans in place to cover them if and when they arise. But sadly I continue to see many property buyers and investors who follow their hearts and ignore their heads as they let fear of missing out and the need to have it all now, cloud their judgment and make instant decisions that have big long-term consequences. And our lives are made up of many of these big moments, and it's those big moments that actually end up defining us. Now, some of those moments are full of infinite joy, like landing your dream job, marrying the love of your life, having your first child,

buying your first property, starting a business, traveling to all the great places on your bucket list and sharing all of these moments with the people you love. But along the way, there's also not so good moments like breaking up and landing in Splitsville, losing a job, getting into a financial pickle and seeing your parents sadly suffering declining health and needing increasingly more care. And sadly, we often find ourselves in an unfamiliar and confusing place as we reach these milestones and when we do we then have two choices to reach out for the right advice from someone who has a skill and expertise and has traveled that road previously or to go it alone because we just don't trust anyone we don't make the time or we think we know better now these

crossroads are defining moments as the decision not to seek the right advice is likely to impact the rest of your life in a very big and costly way. Let me give you a quick example that I sadly see way too often. Let's say you're enjoying a weekend drive and you come across your dream property and it just happens to be for sale right here, right now, today. You have a walkthrough and it's beautiful and it ticks all of your emotional must-have boxes. On first glance, it's exactly what you want. But because it's popular and you're scared of losing it, the selling agent pressures you to sign a contract right there and then. The agent tells you all is well with the contract and the property,

and in your excitement and FOMO, you take their word for it. And to make sure you secure the property and no one else can buy it before you, the agent then pressures you and convinces you to sign an unconditional contract right on the spot. He tells you it's a standard contract and the property looks great, so what could possibly go wrong? And with so many others interested in the property, you get excited, throw caution to the wind and you just sign on the dotted line. Then a week later you find out that your bank refuses to give you a loan because the property is actually in an area

that's been targeted for compulsory acquisition to build a new freeway. There's also hidden major structural footing problems that's been discovered with the house together with a major sub 4 pest issue to the degree that the house is actually unlivable. You're now seriously in deep strife with no way out because you signed the contract before doing property due diligence and finding out more about the property. And your impulsive, emotionally driven FOMO decision will have an extremely stressful, expensive, and very detrimental impact on your life, putting you years behind the eight ball financially. And all because you just didn't take the time to stop and prop and resist the temptation to take what appeared to be the quick and easy decision and

solution. But let's take a quick sliding doors moment and backtrack and see what happens if you took a slightly different path. You see the property, you take a walk through it, and you fall in love with it. The agent tells you the property must sell today, but you politely tell them that you're interested, but you just need to do some discussion with your property team first. So you email a soft copy of the contract and call your property strategist, your finance broker, and you conveyance a solicitor. They call you back in half an hour and make you aware of a lending issue

regarding the potential compulsory acquisition and advise you to make an offer subject to finance, a building and pest inspection and or negotiate the inclusion of an extended 10-day cooling-off period to complete the necessary due diligence or include a walk-away due diligence period clause. As a result, you've effectively taken the property off the market,

but built in time and exit clauses to investigate the property thoroughly and given yourself a number of legitimate reasons to actually walk away from the property. All by ensuring that you have your accessible professional team in place before you start looking at property. And this little act of getting timely advice

would have changed the trajectory of your life forever. Now, you're probably thinking that this would never happen to you, particularly if you've been listening to the Property Help podcast for a while. But you'd be amazed at the number of times I see this happen with property buyers and investors reaching out to us at Know How Property after the event to try and get them

out of the hot, sticky and very costly doo-doo. Now, it just never ceases to amaze me that our world continues to get faster, busier and more highly pressured at the same time that everything is becoming far more litigious and that people don't take the time to read the fine print or engage in an elite experienced team to do this for them in all of our life's big decisions. it can only be that our growing instant gratification our impatience along with the misguided belief that it won't happen to me allows us to be driven by our hearts and not our heads where emotion gets in the way of our logical rational thinking or perhaps we're doing something for the first time we just don't know what we don't know and we don't take the time to

find out because life has taught me that it's not a matter of if something is going to happen it's merely a matter of when an issue is going to arise so you're better off expecting it and preparing for and if it doesn't happen that's a bonus not the other way around and if you need some help and you'd like to take the first step to get invested in your own future journey and overcome any of the obstacles that have been holding you back feel free to join me for a personal solution session by clicking the link in the show notes or going to knowhowproperty.com.au and hitting the purple book appointment button where you'll have my complete dedicated and undivided attention to tap into my decades of experience to help you solve any and all of your

challenges to ensure that you're actually on track to enjoy your big moments by achieving your version of freedom and sustainable success. Now it's clear that each and every big moment in our lives is unique to us. It's the first time we've experienced them and we just don't know where to turn because no one's actually given us a 101 manual dummies guide to life so they're going to actually work out how to navigate these big significant life-changing moments until now that is because this is where today's guest comes to your rescue drawing on her experiences along with a diverse and extensive network melissa sloan has recently released her great new book big moments that aims to help you celebrate the best of your days of your life in

the most joyful way you can, as well as stand by your side as you navigate any curveballs that life unexpectedly throws at you so that you can be there with her support and she can lift you up and encourage you to know that you've actually got this. So if you want to give yourself the best chance of avoiding the big cringy mistakes that end up impacting many lives, you're going to enjoy our great conversation on Melissa's great new book. As you heard last week, Melissa's a lawyer, industry leader and board director who loves helping others. She's the founder of Madison Sloan Lawyers, a member of the Law Institute of Victoria and the Victorian Women Lawyers and is on the board of directors of Expression Australia. Melissa now knows that life's a journey

of many pathways, full of many big moments and the thing that makes these big moments so wonderful is the comfort and peace of mind of knowing you've made the right decisions. So for those of us that enjoy the humble privilege of enjoying the fruits of sustainable success on our own terms, Melissa knows that life is about taking action and seeking expert advice when we hit life's inevitable road crossroads. It's about arming ourselves with knowledge and surrounding ourselves with an elite team of experts because we understand we're making big life-changing decisions and planting the seeds that will greatly impact our future selves. So we actually owe it to our future selves to make the best decisions today so that we can reap the positive

rewards both now and in the future. So make sure you obtain the right advice from the right expert at the right time and I guarantee you that it'll be life-changing and will have a very positive effect on your future. So are you ready? Are you all set to conquer these big moments that define you? To embrace the opportunities that come your way? To face your fears? To derive lessons from the difficult moments, to embrace the things that you love, to be brave, to live the experiences you desire and to follow your dreams. Well, come along for the ride as we enjoy the second part

of this great conversation with Melissa Swine. So welcome back and let's get invested again, Melissa. Great to be back. Thank you. Melissa, a bit of a cheat sheet exercise there. A lot of what I just shared came straight out of your book and I really enjoyed the inspiration that you've shared with us. I got quite excited about reading that

and there's a lot of interesting stuff there on information that a lot of people just don't even contemplate or think about. So I'm really looking forward to sort of getting into that with you as we unpack the book. But to sort of set the scene, Melissa, what common mistakes do you see Australians making when it comes to the big moments in our lives? i think not getting the appropriate advice as you mentioned you don't know what you don't know

um and getting that appropriate advice so that you can make informed decisions that impacts the rest of your life are so important um one of the examples is if you're buying a property it's the most it's the biggest biggest financial investment that you're going to make. So if you don't get a contract with you, if you don't get the pest infection or the virulence infection, you're leaving yourself exposed and you're forced to spend an inordinate amount of time, you know, paying for that. Or people going overseas, traveling overseas, if you can't afford travel insurance, if you're in an accident, that's why we saw all those GoFundMe pages and all those sorts of things.

So that, there's so many sliding door moments and I'm not saying I don't think this. She has to take a step in and not rush with every decision that we make. Seek people who have been on that journey before. I'd say professionally fast so that you set the cornerstone for the big moments and for your financial future. Yeah, I love that.

Now, we touched on this in the last episode, but your book, Big Moments, the expert advice for conquering those moments that define us, I'd like you just to, I guess, summarise why you wrote it, what are the key messages and who is the book actually best suited for? I actually wrote the book, my target market was generally from 25-year-olds to 50 year olds and it's been so interesting because I've had so many people older people who really embrace that book as well and also younger people so I think it's actually a really broad spectrum the whole premises of writing the book was so that people don't make the same

mistakes that myself and others have made in our life journey um and as when I say mistakes I always say i don't really like the word mistakes that lesson that we've learned along the way but just trying to you know encourage you not to yeah to have a better move a transition as you go through your life journey um i'm sure that was the that was the reason i actually wrote it i thought there's no book out there that gives you all of the relevant advice all of the resources for those big moments in their life. And that's why, of course, I don't know them all. So I read that through Man at Work

and asked them to be experts in the book as well. And so most of this have, well, I collaborated with the experts and so they put together, you know, things that they thought was really, really important in each chapter. And I was able to draw on their expertise as well so that we have this really, really amazing resource that you can pull out at relevant boundaries in your life. It's brilliantly done.

As I think I said to you off air, to actually capture everything you've covered in Big Moments, you'd have to buy 15 or 20 other books and cherry-pick the bits. They're important. What I love, you've brought them all together in terms of some of the key things that you need to actually invest your time and money in

before you hit those big moments and involve the right people with the right expertise to guide you there and avoid some of those pitfalls that people see. So I love that. Now, what I'd love to dive into today, given the property focus of the audience, is to dive into aspects of the book, particularly for areas that are supporting the property journey that people probably don't even contemplate or think

or think it's not relevant to me. And there's some great chapters that you've broken down on that. If we sort of start with managing your money, because you're not going to be able to buy a property if you're not managing your money very well. And you've got some great segments there on Buy Now, Pay Later. Give us your thoughts on Buy Now, Pay Later and the context of the bigger journey.

well um i'll actually learn something about that concept actually um when writing it when i went to some experts about it um by now how leader is banks often think of that that you can't manage your cash flow so you have to be really really careful that if you're looking to buy a house, do not utilise buy now, pay later because that's going to be a little bit of a black mark against your name if you're going to apply for a mortgage. So if you can avoid them, I would be, and I'm not a financial advisor, avoid them. If you're looking to buy properties, it's just going to be a no-no. Yeah, 100%.

And you're absolutely right. the the lenders we've got a finance broking business supporting in behind us and we know damn well that buy now pay later and a number of other exercises that people may think are quite harmless uh big black marks when a bank starts to look at you to decide whether they're actually going to lend you some money the let's talk about when you buy the home and the and the mortgage documents because again you know the the average person thinks well the bank holds the gold, they make the rules, I don't have a choice, I'm just going to sign it. But there's 40 different banks and 2,000 different loan products out there.

Correct. I'd love to get your thoughts on what approach people should take to the home loan mortgage documents in terms of do's, don'ts, inclusions and exclusions. Can you share some thoughts there? It's really, really important to read them because so many people don't understand them set up with the PDS, and then they get surprises at the end. Particularly sometimes, you know, marketing can make a product look really, really amazing,

but when you read the fine print, it's not really the best product for you at all. So I'm a really big advocate for mortgage brokers. I've had some clients that come to us and the bank won't lend to us, and it's like it's only one person. So go to a mortgage broker. a mortgage broker can utilize what the best product for you is

and help you to actually get that loan. They can also go through the documents with you as well because they'll have an intimate understanding of what the documents mean and what the costs are and all those sorts of things. So, again, it's about doing your research. Doing your research and just, you know, being really transparent. If you get the documents from the bank, I'm not saying the bank's not going to go through it with you

and tell you what they all are but it's in their best interest not to because they're making money from that whereas if you have an independent party that can go through those documents answer any queries that you're not sure of I think it's really, really important. 100% and I think the things that capture

or catch people out really are the hidden fees that are within the document particularly when there's any change to the mortgage. So it might be from interest only into principal and interest. It might be from fixed to variable or vice versa. There's a whole series of little tiny catches in there that add significant costs to the exercise without you being aware it is.

And sadly, most people focus on the lowest rate. And if they're not thinking of that in-going, ongoing and outgoing fees at the other end, they can suddenly find that a loan that looks cheap is actually way more expensive. So I love that. You've got a great section in the book, Melissa, around relationship debt or sexually transmitted debt.

Talk to us a bit about that. This is something that catches a lot of people out, actually. So it can be something as central as writing your name on the list. So you might move in with a partner and your name's on the list. The relationship breaks down and you say, okay, well he has to continue paying half of it he doesn't you're the one that's lumped with that

the same is for example if you purchase a motor vehicle and I make that sentence in the book to an example where I have been called to get a loan a car loan so his wife got the car loan

the car was in his name relationship break down who kept the car and she was burdened with that debt A lot of people just don't really realize what that actually equates to. So you really need to be sensible about it, and particularly if you have joint debt. So if you have a house or if you have a mortgage over that house or if you have a loan, if one person can't afford to pay it, that means that you are jointly responsible for that debt.

so they deal with someone and they go off into the sunset they can't go to the bank and say they've gone off to the sunset the bank don't want to hear about that all they care about is the loan being paid back and I don't think a lot of people realise the implications

of that so you need to be really really careful about if you're buying anything or you're putting your name for something that has a monetary value that you are responsible for that, whether it's a single individual or whether it's jointly.

I think of the future consequences of that. 100%. I think one that I sadly see a lot of people getting sucked into are family guarantee loans. So mum and dad, the bank says, oh, you just need to sign this guarantee to enable your kids to buy this property. And what the bank's actually doing is taking security over mum and dad's house. And what the mum and dad aren't realising is if something goes belly up,

if the kids, let's say one of their child has a partner and they split up and all of a sudden it turns to poo, then suddenly the parents are actually responsible for that loan and potentially if things went totally belly up, they could lose their own home as a consequence. Oh, that's exactly that. And I don't think that message is getting out there, Emma. Because quite often people I find,

A document put in front of them, just sign this. Never sign a legal document without really understanding it. And if you don't understand it, get the appropriate advice because otherwise it can impact the rest of your life if it doesn't go the right. Now, sort of on a similar, Ilga, I touched on the intro around the importance of getting a contract reviewed. uh let's i'd love you to expand on that a bit in relation to some of the key things that people

need to be aware of when they actually are signing a purchase contract yeah absolutely a lot of people purchase the house with maybe an intention to renovate or you know expand so um renovate or knock it down build another property all those sorts of things but it's really really important that you have a contract with you to ensure that you can actually do that for example there might be overlays over a heritage overlay or there might be restrictions in how high you can work on property or what you can use the land for all those sorts of things or covenants and and so forth and because it's your biggest financial investment you need to do your due diligence to make sure what your intentions are can actually be fulfilled um and it might also be

things like you know there might not be the appropriate planning report that have been put in place or the building insurances that have been put there might be illegal instructors and legal structures i should say on the land um and you might think okay that's fine i'm just willing to take that risk okay you can but you're making an informed decision about it it's not something I'd recommend but actually having the contracts reviewed it actually gives you some bargaining power and allows you to make an informed decision if it's something minor that you think okay we can actually want to proceed with the house but I don't want to pay it for it let's say the house is worth a million dollars and it's not worth a million dollars now I've got this information

I'm acting for 950 it gives you that bargaining power provided obviously you do your due diligence before we put that offer in. Or otherwise, if you uncover things that are detrimental and it's not the right property for you, let's take a walk away from it and it's not going to impact you financially. I understand. I think one of the challenges that people have in property,

particularly in areas that are very competitive, and there's quite a few of those around the country at the moment, is a lot of pressure. Agents will say, well, don't try and impose conditions because I'll sell it to someone else who's either going to be a catchpike or otherwise. But there's smart ways of getting around that. So then the quick example I shared in the introduction where recently from some investors that we're helping out, we helped them negotiate an extended cooling off period.

So we're still effectively taking the property off the market and it allows us time to do the contract views, the building impasse, to get our property manager to go through and do a full working order inspection, get the finance approved so then you can then confidently go into it unconditionally after that but you've got time to build it in. And yes, in some states there is going to be a fairly small cost if you cool off but that small cost is a fraction of what the property might end up costing you if you bought a lemon.

So any other thoughts on that, Melissa? I think you've covered it really well. One thing I would just say, final inspections are very, very important. However, what we found is quite often people come back and say, this wasn't working or this wasn't working. And obviously I'm talking from a Victorian perspective. Around Australia there are different perspectives. But unless you tested that item at the time you purchased it,

then so long as the property is in the same condition as at the date of sale, you don't have any recourse. And a lot of people are not aware of that. They might go in and they'll test the oven and that's not working and so forth, but it hasn't worked for two years. You can't make the vendor fix that. So my advice would be if you are looking to purchase a property, check everything before you sign them a dotted line

so that you know definitively what's working and what's not working. Yeah, and I'd go as far as saying, you know, because we help some property investors with this, We actually get a clause included in the contract that's a full working order inspection three to five working days before settlement and with the approval for an independent property manager to go through and check every appliance, get a plumber and an electrician to go through at the same time, check every light switch, power point, hot plate, air conditioning, exercise. And if there's anything that's not operating, then there's the opportunity to either put a credit on the contractor to reduce the price and do an adjustment or to allow the vendor to go in and actually get a professional to attend to those things and provide proof that that has occurred. because you're right, there's a lot of costs in incidentals that occur by things that aren't operating or the hot water service has been there 20 years

and it's about to die. There's a whole bunch of additional costs that you might be taking on board if you haven't taken the time to really check it out and make sure you're actually getting what you pay for. Yeah, absolutely. But it's really important that that has to be done in Victoria in particular.

lose, those checks have to be done before you sign on the dotted line. Because if it was like that at the date that it was signed and it's not like that at the date it's sedimented, that's where it becomes a bit of an issue. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of fun and games there. Now, one of the things that a lot of people probably don't consider affecting them as far as property is the old magic marriage and divorce. as you would know better than most they can have massive impacts if they're not handled well

on the marriage front i'd love you to share your thoughts on prenups or binding financial agreements in that context yeah absolutely so what i've found in these days is a lot of people have assets before they come into a relationship these days either they're getting married later or entering into a de facto relationship and they may have received some inheritance or acquired their own assets. And one of the ways that you can protect those assets from a relationship breakdown,

and of course, if we're going into a marriage, we're not really going to be thinking about pre-naps or all those sorts of things because it rises the question of, well, obviously he doesn't love me or she doesn't love me or all those sorts of things. But it's actually not about that. It's actually about being sensible and being respectful to yourself

in making sure that your financial security is tied up. So binding financial agreements are agreements that allow you to put in place between you and your partner or respective husband or wife to an agreement that stipulates what each party brings into the relationship and that each party agrees that they bring into the relationship and that belongs to that particular person. So if the marriage breaks down or the relationship breaks down, they're in agreement that that party would hang there.

Anything that you accumulate together is obviously an asset of that marriage, but the assets that you brought into the relationship are protected. and it's a really really prudent way to secure your financial future because in Australia there's at least one in three marriages or relationships that break down and the last thing that you want to have is to have your assets exposed and respectively you know your partner or ex-partner or ex-wife or husband receiving some of those assets. So it's definitely a growing emergency to put those documents in place. And, yeah, I strongly, anyone going down that path,

I strongly recommend they get the appropriate advice from a family lawyer in respect to that. One of the, there's a great example in the book where you shared the story of someone who had a property. They changed their relationship. They sold a property and their intention was they were going to, the proceeds were going to go to their children, but they got into a new relationship and when that got into strife,

suddenly the intention to hand it on to the kids was blurred by the fact that the other party wanted to get their hooks into those assets. So, you know, it's those, and there's a lot more blended families out there now than what they ever have been. So unless it's written down and instituted contractually, an intention means nothing in the court of law, as you would know way better than I would.

Absolutely. And it's also really important to consider the ownership of the property because otherwise you can own it about joint proprietors, tenants in common, or so forth, depending on what state that you are in. And joint proprietors mean that if one party passes away, it automatically passes to the other party. And that's where some people in blended relationships make the mistake

because they might be sitting there thinking, I've got the property together, but I'm going to pass my share to my children. But if you own it as joint proprietors, you can't do that. You can only do it if it's joint tenancy or tenancy in common. So it's really important when you get that property together, if it's a property that you purchase together, that you are purely aware of that and speak with your property lawyer about it so that you are registered and titled correctly.

Because if you're not, when a relationship breaks down, that's when the fun and games begin. Absolutely. The other thing that I think you cover very well in the book, particularly around the dissolving or change of a relationship, is the need to focusing on making sure that any binding death nomination for super or your life insurance beneficiary is attended to. Can you expand a bit on that for us? Yeah, absolutely. So if a relationship breaks down, I think you need to look at all of that plan and document. um so obviously the first thing is stupid you're not because class and superpower is your one of

your biggest assets about up side from you know your properties and your investments or whatever you have um and people forget about that so you really need to change your man and determination um because if you don't have it in place obviously it doesn't go it may end up with your ex-partner which is the last place you want to end up with and the same with insurance you need to sign beneficiary for your insurance as well but in addition to that it's also to the other estate planning documents which is your will and your power of attorney because I'm assuming that if you break down your relationship breakdown that you no longer want your boss or partner to receive those and in terms of powers of attorney you would no longer want them

to be the one making decisions for you if you lose capacity. So it's really good for you to have that little checklist there and just go through that if you do go through a relationship like that. Yeah, 100% agree. Now, in the unfortunate event that we end up in a situation that we can no longer look after ourselves or make decisions, what do we need to do to protect us and our loved ones? because, again, increasingly with cancer and a whole series of health issues,

Alzheimer's, dementia that's creeping in, the incident of that is on the rise. What's your thoughts around that one, Melissa? Yeah, I think it's really important, regardless of age, to put in place the power to turn into oxymates. There's a really big misconception out there that it's only for older people. It's not. We're seeing younger people have accidents. but seeing younger people have strokes or other medical episodes

and they're leaving them self-exposed because they don't have those documents in place. So, uterus, enduring powers of attorney, it can be guardianship, it can be medical treatment, decision maker or medical power of attorneys depending on what state you live in. But those four documents, sorry, those documents generally allow you to appoint someone

to make decisions for you. from a financial, legal, guardian, lifestyle and medical perspective if you can no longer make those decisions yourself. If you don't have them in place, it means that somebody has to go to, in Victoria at VCAT, other states have similar authorities and become appointed as your administrator and guardian. And that means that it might not be the person that you want

to make those decisions making that for you. So I'm a really strong advocate that to put those documents in place now where they can, regardless of age, and then that way you're empowered with choosing a person that you would like to make those decisions for you. Yeah, 100%. And it's not that difficult. I mean, my wife and I do them and we review them pretty regularly.

It's not a difficult process to do, but you're just guaranteeing that your intentions are actually going to be fulfilled in the event that you're not able to do what you, particularly with siblings, with other family members, the last thing you want is to see all of your life's work and your assets being put in the hands of someone who doesn't understand what your intentions are and suddenly going in the wrong direction.

Now, sort of leaving on from that, Melissa, again, in Chapter 9 of the book was a great discussion around what happens after you're gone because, you know, there's no point building a legacy if you're not able to then direct it where it needs to be. Can you talk to us – and one of the things I'd learned something that I wasn't aware of was the treatment of digital assets. Can you – and I'm talking about Facebook accounts and all that. Can you talk to us a bit about that for us?

so absolutely and this is such a important part of the legacy that people aren't aware of um because we have so many clients who come to us when we're doing probate um and they have not been able to even um turn the password for the laptop which contains all of the important information for for the loved one who has passed away um and it also includes things like bank accounts, shares accounts, all of those sorts of things, is you don't, and a lot of people just don't plan it. They don't have that little when I die book or all those sorts of things. And so effectively what they're doing is they're leaving a mess behind that someone

to clean up, which can be very, very difficult for those left behind. So actually having the appropriate physical register with all those important information and passwords and what your wishes are for Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn and any of those other accounts, whether it's to be closed or memorised or depending on what social media platform you are on. The more definitive you are and the more prepared you are, the easier it's going to be for those left behind.

Because we have had some instances where such have been missed because no one knew about them. and they weren't paying dividends and then four years later, it's like, oh, this was an asset of the estate nobody knew about because they couldn't asset the laptop to find out, you know, where their portfolio and so forth was. So really, really important to take the time to put that in place. Yeah, I love that.

Now, something else I think, you know, you talk about really well in the book is executors because, again, appointing the right person for the right purpose to achieve the right ends, and there's normally a fair bit of family pressure to keep within the family, which is not always in everyone's best interest. So can you share some thoughts on that one for us? Yeah, I always say, you know, when we believe that the executor is in the driver's seat so it has to be somebody that you trust with all of your assets and

particularly for example if you die young and you have young children they might also be the person that looks after your children inheritance for a period of years it could even be you know 10 15 20 years so you need to have somebody who's savvy um has the financial acumen or if they don't is receptive to receiving the appropriate advice so that your children's inheritance can be looked after and grown. I'm also an advocate that it doesn't have to be family. It can be easier if it is, but there's some people who have a strange family

or their siblings may not be the best person because they're not comfortable with the role and all those sorts of things. Um, so it's really, really important that you take the time to think who the best person is. Don't subside to the pressure. Um, I've had some people say, well, just to always be the eldest child, but the eldest child would rather be in the right child and they may not have the right skill set. If they're going to have more than one executor, make sure that they get on, that's what I know it's for

because if they don't get on it's going to add an additional complication when you're no longer here and also look at logistics so if you're pointing to executives that leave overseas it's going to be a bit tedious

if the assets are in a stay-in-jewel system and you're mainly in a stay-in-jewel system for a period of time Yeah, brilliant thoughts. I think the The key there that a lot of people don't think about it also is if you appoint someone who's either a family member or close to the family, depending on the family dynamics, they may be emotionally influenced to do things in a certain way that aren't really in line with your intentions or the best interests of the parties involved. So having someone independent who understands you and you've spent a fair bit of time, I know your wife and I, we've got someone completely independent of the family who we know has got the skills and is going to be very impartial to any overtures from the survivors to retain the true intent of what Sonia and I want to achieve with that.

and it just removes all of it because, you know, a lot of family execs, they're going to be under pressure. It's a fairly high-stress position depending on the complexity of it. I love your thoughts about that. So does I flow on from that. Again, it's a great section on the book on how best to protect our children's inheritance. Can you just shed a bit of light on that as well?

Is this from a guardian perspective or from the – yeah, from guardians, yeah. So I always say that the guardian's role is so, so crucial because usually for most people, their children are the biggest asset. And so you really need to get the person that you're going to appoint there, the right person. I also say if the children are at an age where they can be involved in the process, let them be involved in it. I've had cases where people have appointed a guardian

and the children have no real connection with them and the parent didn't really understand that if they had passed away, that's not really the person they really wanted to have been with them. And then just also things like if you pass away, it's going to be enormously disgusting for that child. So can they stay within the parent network? at their current school, all of those sorts of things, instead of perhaps, you know, they live in Sydney,

being transported across to an auntie in WA where they virtually know nobody, and they don't have that support network there. Again, family doesn't always... Some people think, oh, I have to appoint a family member. If a family member is not the best person, that's OK. Look at someone whose value system aligns with yours. That's so, so important.

um i also reverse psychology what would you want to happen if you had two people peeing on your doorstep tomorrow morning um and then put yourself in those shoes if that makes sense so i think it's really very important that you talk to the people that you're thinking of appointing as a guardian um and just make sure that they feel comfortable with it and And it's not just saying, are you happy to be this guardian of my children? But just set down your expectations, what you would like to happen. Because at the end of the day, they might say, look, it's really not the right fit. But they might say, absolutely, but at least they know.

And then subsequent to that, I always say, leave wishes for the guardian so that they have a really, really good idea of how you would like your children raised. And that might mean that they spend a week of the school holidays with their grandparents or something like that. It's really, really important to put those really, really strong directives in place so that there's clarity in respect to the children. Spot on. And you also, again, touch on the importance of a testamentary trust

to protect the interests of our children. Can you expand on that a little bit for those that probably are not aware of what that's about? Absolutely. Testamentary trust is generally the best way that inheritance can be transferred to the next generation. Very self-protective. So if your children go through a matrimonial breakdown,

They are assets of an inheritance, not a matrimonial asset. But they're also very, very tax effective in that minors can receive a distribution of up to around $20,000, $20,500 per year without paying any tax. So just use the example if you pass away and your child had a testamentary trial. $20,000, $20,500 can be distributed to them to pay for school fees and so forth. So instead of working for that money and then having to pay the tax and then pay the school fees, very, very tax effective. It also has a purpose for you to pay the testamentary trust of 80 years.

That's a bit of a bloodline trust and it stays within the family. That can go to your children and your grandchildren. So really, really, really powerful tool that you can use to protect your children and their family's financial future. And also to protect the children from themselves at times. Exactly. You've got someone who has drug problems or other issues and they're just not in a place to be able to manage

their inheritance appropriately. A testamentary trust can actually put some guidance there to make sure that it's managed in a way that's actually going to be in their best interest, not be blown on something because they've just got access to it. Correct. Absolutely. I love that. But the last one I want to touch on is the old boring

but vital subject of insurance, which you tap into in the book. It's particularly important, obviously, from the property perspective, but even beyond that, insurances around our general life are also likely to have an impact on our asset portfolio. So can you sort of share some thoughts on that? Insurance is so, so crucial from a financial perspective. all sorts of insurances like, obviously, life insurance, but also TPT, income protection, squadron insurances, and so forth.

But life insurance in particular, in terms of the sort of legacy that you're leaving your family. So it's really, really crucial that on a regular basis, you sit there and think, okay, If I'm not here tomorrow, how much money does my family need? And review whether your current insurance are adequate for what your family actually needs. And be realistic. Look at the education, the living costs, all those sorts of things,

the level of debt that you're carrying, the mortgages, the car loan, personal loans, all those sorts of things. and if it equates to a figure that is greater in your insurance then obviously that's a trigger to increase your insurance because as you travel through your last journey and the kids get older and you no longer need to account for private school fees and you may pay down a bit of debt

and have more investments then obviously your insurance knows you're going to change you probably don't need as much as what you previously do when you've got that young family they're an amazing tool to actually have and you can either hold it in superannuation or you can hold it outside of superannuation and it's really important to get the appropriate bath

as to the best place for you to hold the insurance depending on your individual circumstances. Yeah, you make a great point in the book about there's an easy inclination to have our insurance in super because, you know, we think, oh, it's not coming out of my discretionary funds. But if you stop paying the super or something happens to your work and it's not contributed to and all of a sudden that policy becomes void, you can be uninsured without even being aware of it.

So you make some great points around making sure that you're protecting yourself on that. So, look, I feel like we've only really just scratched the surface, Melissa. there's a wealth of information on really important points that are going to protect our lives from all aspects yeah you know not just the property front but but as as we've discussed today if we're not looking at all aspects of our lifestyle it's ultimately going to potentially have an impact on our property and or our asset portfolio anyway so making sure you're doing that If we were to sort of sum up the key takeaways to help people better manage

our big moments, to ensure better outcomes, what would you say? I would always say get the right advice. Speak to people who have travelled the journey before you. Hear about, listen to their experiences. And then get, with those really, really big moments, to get the right advice because it can be the difference between a really, really beautiful future or a future that may, where you may fall.

So that would be my biggest key takeaway. But at the same time, just enjoy the journey as well. Live in the moment and enjoy the journey and just find that balance and what works best for you. I think the key thing is that if you actually put those building blocks in place that we've talked about today, You can actually live in the moment because you've got the peace of mind of knowing that all those things have been covered

and you've got a contingency if the worst does happen. So I'd love that. It's a great read. It certainly brings all the important information into one place and it's a great manual for life in that perspective. I now want to jump into the ambush round two, Melissa, and the first of those quick four questions is what's your favourite quote? And why?

I'd say that quote is, vision without action is merely a dream. Yep, that's safe. The key word is action. Action is the key word, absolutely. Love that. Apart from your fantastic books, what's the top book that you'd recommend we read and why? I think one of the books that really got me on my investment journey was probably this book called That. That's an old one, but I still think it's a goodie.

I understand. There's some really good key takeaways in that. I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you if it wasn't for Robert Kiyosaki. So it is as current and relevant today as it was when it was written. Yes. Gold principles in that book, so a really good suggestion. On a slightly different tack, if I was to give you $50 million in cold, hard cash right here, right now,

what would you invest it in or spend it on and why? I'm probably really boring. I would invest a lot of it because, you know, the knowledge is power and invest it and continue to provide for my family's future and the life that we want to lead. And also, obviously, it gives time for charities and other significant organisations that are really, really important and close to my heart.

Yeah, and I love that. Last question on this. Then if you can wave a magic wand and change anything, Melissa, what would you change about managing our last big moments? Oh, I would probably, I couldn't ask. Probably just living in the moment, embracing it. I think we get so overdrawn about life and what it is that sometimes we forget to live in the moment

and celebrate those little successes and look at where we are. I think living in the moment would be what I think we need to do more of. Love that. Pretty much one of the final questions then. If I ask you to get invested, what does that mean to you? it really means as i keep saying financial security is so important because it allows you if you do it correctly to live the life that you want and i think what we all aspire to is financial freedom to have the choice to do what we want when we want yeah beautifully said uh

and for those of us like myself who really resonated with what you shared with us over the last two episodes, how can we find out more and get more involved with you, Melissa? Absolutely. So I have my website, melissastratton.com.au, which basically records all of the areas, all of the – about my law firm, about my book, and all of the other work that I do.

So that probably – and it also has my contact detail, so that is probably the best place to start. Love it. And, of course, Big Moments and Legacy are available at all good bookstores, Amazon Bookopia and also from our website as well. Yeah, exactly. There's a good page on the website you can go straight to. So alissasloan.com.au.

We'll have that in the show notes so it's easy for people to click onto. That sort of pretty much brings us to the end. So I just want to thank you again for taking the time to both inspire and educate us on how to better plan, prepare and protect ourselves for all of life's curveballs so that we can better enjoy life's big moments over the last two episodes, Melissa. And I look forward to keeping the conversation going with you. Before we close, if anyone watching or listening would like to explore

how property can help you to enjoy all of your big moments by freeing up your time and creating an income for life, whether you're new to the game or a homeowner or an experienced investor, feel free to explore your why what and how of successful property by unpacking my four decades of property and life experience by tapping into our recently released freedom formula program you can enjoy any time anywhere at your leisure by clicking the link in the show notes now or going to bushymartin.com.au forward slash freedom formula course and to continue our great conversations with other like-minded investors in a safe sound and supporting environment where

you can ask any question and get answers without any of the normal BS in a place where you'll never be sold to or pressured to do anything. Feel free to join us on our Property Hub Collective interactive Facebook community by clicking the link in the show notes. And that brings us to the end of another great big moment conversation. So thanks again for getting invested and let's keep the conversation going, Melissa. Thank you. It was a pleasure to be here. Thanks for the opportunity. Thanks for tuning in to Get Invested on the Property Hub podcast channel, your home for property investment insights and inspiration.

Make sure you subscribe to Property Hub for free. Get your weekly dose of Get Investing Inspiration along with every episode of Realty Talk, Australia's top online property show for red hot property investing news and insights direct from industry leaders and influencers. And finally, I'll see you next time.