Property Hub - Investment Insights & Inspiration - Get Invested: Your Investment S.N.I.F.F. Test - Timeless rules before you risk a dollar

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi friend fighters, imagine you're standing in a car yard staring at the shiniest performance vehicle you've ever seen. The paintwork gleams, the chrome sparkles, the leather smells expensive and the salesperson smiling at you with so many teeth could use their mouth as a piano keyboard. They tell you it's a rare opportunity, one careful liner, low case for its age, mainly driven downhill with a tailwind to the accountant's office and back. And of course, it's got growth potential, excellent yield, strong future demand, and apparently, even the tow bar's tax deductible. So you walk around it, you admire the allies, you stroke the steering wheel, you start picturing

Starting point is 00:00:43 yourself cruising smoothly towards financial freedom, with the wind in your hair, the worries in the rearview mirror, and your friends quietly choking on their own envy. But there's only one tiny problem. No one's lifted the bonnet. no one's checked the brakes, no one's asked what it costs to run, and no one's checked whether you can drive it, whether your family fits in it, whether your partner even wants to get in it, or whether it can survive the road that you'd actually need to travel. But never mind all that, the salesperson sprayed a generous cloud of financial air freshener,

Starting point is 00:01:18 turned up the radio, and assured you that the warning light on the dashboard is probably just a feature. But 10 minutes after you drive away, the engine starts coughing, the gearbox starts grinding and the warning light appears to spell financial freedom in the Morse code version of SOS. Now that may sound ridiculous but unfortunately it's remarkably close to how many of us choose an investment. We start with the shine, the speed, the sales history, the recent return, the tasty tax treatment or the hot tip from someone whose previous financial qualifications was correctly tipping the winner of Race 4 at Randwick. But the question isn't whether the investment looks impressive in the showroom.

Starting point is 00:02:01 The question is whether it's roadworthy, whether it suits your journey, whether you can afford to run repair it, whether you understand what's under the bonnet, and whether you can stay behind the wheel long enough to reach your destination. Because the best investment in the world can still be completely wrong for you. And today, before you risk one hard-earned dollar, we're going to roll every potential opportunity into my investment roadworthy workshop. Put it up on the hoist, kick the tyres, sniff the exhaust, and see what the sales brochure may have left parked around the corner. You'll discover the three inspections that every investment needs to pass. First, does it fit you, your life, your available time, your knowledge, your money,

Starting point is 00:02:45 your nervous system and your partner sharing the passenger seat? Second, does the investment itself survive a proper sniff test once you look behind the headline return, the glossy projection and the optional tax spoiler? And third, can you follow a timeless code that stops you from wrecking a perfectly good investment through fear, greed, fiddling, FOMO or financial flatulence? Yes, later today, I'll introduce you to my slightly less lethal version of the ancient samurai Bushido code.

Starting point is 00:03:21 I call it the Bushido code, strange enough, and it won't require a sword. Sandals are optional, and thankfully, there'll be no ceremonial disembowelment if your spreadsheet's wrong. But it'll give you a disciplined code of investment conduct to help you decide what to do, what not to do, and when the smartest move is to do absolutely nothing. I'll also reveal the investment cost that you're most likely going to overlook. It isn't tax, it isn't interest, it isn't even risk. And if you choose an investment that demands more of it than you can genuinely give, you haven't bought an asset, but you may have just bought yourself a second job with Ally Wheels.

Starting point is 00:04:06 Then we'll put business shares, property and alternative investments through exactly the same inspection. Not to crown one universal winner, but to show you why the winning vehicle changes when your destination, your road, your passengers and your stage of life change. Because a Ferrari, a ute, a bus, a bicycle and a boat can all be brilliant vehicles, but none of them wins every event. So grab your coffee, put down the polishing cloth, and let's find out whether your next investment opportunity is a freedom vehicle or an immaculate investment lemon wearing financial air freshener. So let's get invested, and I'll see you on the inside. Welcome to Get Invested on the Property Hub podcast channel, the leading weekly show for

Starting point is 00:04:52 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. But first, a quick heads up before we jump into today's episode. After the huge response to our recent deep dives on the proposed post-budget property

Starting point is 00:05:25 tax changes, on negative gearing, CGT and the impacts of all of this on new builds, existing properties, trusts, super, commercial, ETFs and the whole confusing tax spaghetti bowl and what it all means to you, we've been working really hard to pull together some free resources to help you cut through the noise so you can finally understand what you should be doing now with your money and your property in this new post-budget tax world. They're designed to answer the questions that many of you have been asking. Is residential property still worth it? Should I buy established on you? Should I pay down my home loan? Should I look at shares, ETFs, commercial or super? And what are the real dollar impacts of these changes and how do they compare to other options that I need to

Starting point is 00:06:12 consider? And most importantly, what helps me build my strongest usable net nest egg to achieve my version of freedom. Not just pay the smallest tax bill. Because the budget noise has made everything feel like a financial ruby's cube wearing boxing gloves. So our short, sharp guides bring it all back to earth with simple explanations, hard dollar examples, percentage comparisons and the best nest test to help you make better informed decisions from here. And the best part, they're absolutely free. So if you want to make better informed decisions, just click the link in the show notes and grab your copies. Because property investing isn't dead, but lazy investing is. And the smarter investors from here will be the ones who cut through the noise, run the numbers

Starting point is 00:07:02 and act with informed strategy, not stress. Righto, let's get back to the episode. Welcome, Predator Fighters. Grab yourself a chair, pour yourself a coffee, and make yourself comfortable. Because today, you and I are going to have one of the most important conversations you can have before you commit your money, your time, your energy, and your future freedom to any investment. And it starts with a deceptively simple question. What's the best investment? Is it property, shares, business, super, commercial property, private credit, a mixture of the above or something alternative exclusive and sufficiently mysterious to require a black skibby and a powerpoint presentation well the honest answer is that the question's wrong

Starting point is 00:07:51 because there is no universally best investment there's only the investment or combination of investments that best performs the job your life requires at the stage you're in within the risks costs time demands and trade-offs that you can actually sustain and that distinction sits at the heart of today's episode and it's why we're now moving deeper into your A for approach stage of your property wealth clock where your W for Y help you define your destination in terms of how you want to live what matters most to you what that lifestyle costs and the freedom numbers that you need to reach and to fund it your E for examination stage help you looked honestly at where you are now your income your equity your savings your buying capacity

Starting point is 00:08:37 cash flow your buffers capability mindset and your bare facts which tell you what you can realistically acquire afford hold and then live with then miriam castella helped you look beneath the numbers at the hidden habits the beliefs the emotional reflexes and money patterns that can quietly overall even your best prepared plan. And in our recent live wake for established residential property we saw why a budget, a tax change, a dramatic headline or shifting property conditions should never choose your strategy for you. So now your A for approach stage brings all of this together. Your why chose your destination, your examination told you what fuel, carrying capacity and road conditions that you can handle. And now your approach is where you choose your

Starting point is 00:09:27 investment vehicle, your route and your pace, as well as your personal strategy for bridging the gap between where you are and where you actually want to be. Because choosing the vehicle first is how a persuasive salesperson can talk you into a convertible when you're trying to move a family five across the Nullarbor. So from this point forward, I want you to remember that three short sharp road rules destination before vehicle fit before fashion and survival before speed now let me say that again destination before vehicle fit before fashion and survival before speed because a ferrari may win on a race track a ute wins when you're towing a bus wins when you're meeting 40 passengers bicycle wins when the road's blocked and a boat's absolutely

Starting point is 00:10:19 magnificent until you reach the Hume Highway. So asking which one's best without naming the journey is how investment conversations become very confident nonsense. And it's also why I'm an and investor, not an or investor. Your choices don't need to become rival football teams. So it's not property or shares, growth or income, business or super, safety or opportunity. the better question is what when in what order and for what job because different investment vehicles can serve you at different stages of your journey early on you may need a vehicle that can climb the steep exponential hill of wealth accumulation this is the growth side of my wealth by stealth group you're using time leverage compounding discipline and carefully

Starting point is 00:11:11 selected growth assets to build your net wealth and close the gap between your current position and your freedom numbers then as you approach the crest your job changes you begin converting accumulated capital growth into reliable cash flow you may reduce debt rebalance sell selectively add income producing assets improve liquidity and shift from climbing the hill to harvesting height so the horse changes when the course changes and the vehicle changes when the job changes But you change as well, and this point is really important. The investment that doesn't suit you today may suit you later, and the investment that once demanded too much of you may become manageable

Starting point is 00:11:56 as your knowledge, competence, confidence, experience, expertise, and trusted network of relationships grow. At the beginning, it may feel like you're driving through thick fog at night in an unfamiliar vehicle, while your financial GPS keeps saying, recalculating. Every noise feels dangerous, every bend feels uncertain and every warning from the back seat sounds strangely like your partner. But as you learn, practice, surround yourself with proven professionals and travel through different financial seasons, the fog on your windscreen

Starting point is 00:12:31 starts to lift. Your vision stretches further, your judgment sharpens, your reactions calm, your good decisions become more intuitive automatic and habitual you may be able to do more because your capability's grown or you may deliberately choose to do less because your wisdom's grown and risks that once felt enormous may become understandable manageable measurable and much easier to sleep alongside now that doesn't mean the risk has magically disappeared it means your ability to recognise, price, prepare for and respond to it have all improved. So your approach must never become a laminated route map nailed permanently to your dashboard.

Starting point is 00:13:15 It needs to work like a living GPS. Your destination remains clear, but your route can adjust as your position, capacity, knowledge, relationships, conditions and your states of life evolve. Now here's where your investment roadworthy workshop becomes essential because before any investment vehicle leaves your driveway, it needs to pass three separate inspections. First, your gear set.

Starting point is 00:13:41 Does it fit your goal, expertise, affordability, risk tolerance, simplicity needs, equity efficiency and available time? Second, your sniff test. Does the investment itself stack up when you inspect its strategy fit, numbers, integrity, flexibility, force multipliers and failure plan? And third, your Bushido code. Can you follow a disciplined set of rules that helps you act decisively when action is needed, remain patient when patience is powerful,

Starting point is 00:14:13 and avoid becoming the loose nut behind your own steering wheel? Now, I can already hear you thinking, Bushy, have you turned investing into an acronym scrabble game? Well, fair question. But each of these does a very different job. Your gear set inspects you, your passengers and your journey fit. Your sniff test inspects the investment vehicle. And your Bushido code governs how you drive it.

Starting point is 00:14:39 So these aren't three bumper stickers fighting for space. They're three essential layers of the same roadworthy. And you need all three in the right order. Because investment principles aren't a buffet where you load your play with growth, leverage income and tax benefits, then you leave out risk, liquidity, time demand and partner alignment sitting sadly beside the beetroot. That selective approach is why you can stay very busy investing without ever becoming free. The power doesn't sit in one clever rule. It sits in applying all of the timeless fundamentals together in sequence to your life. And that's exactly what

Starting point is 00:15:21 you and I are going to do today. So the workshop doors are open, the hoist is ready, the coffee's still warm, and before we inspect the investment vehicle, we need to inspect the one component most likely to steer it into success or straight through the financial roller. And that's you. So let's start your investment gear set. Now, I first developed this gear set acronym framework from my book, The Freedom Formula, because the image of a gear set captures a very simple investment truth. The same bike with the same rider on the same road can feel completely different depending on which gear you choose. Try climbing a steep hill in top gear and your legs quickly start negotiating an early retirement package. Choose a gear that's too low on a flat open road

Starting point is 00:16:06 and you can pedal like a duck escaping a crocodile or badly moving forward. So your job isn't to find the one perfect gear, your job is to select the right gear for your gradient, your strength, your speed, your load, and the stage of your journey. That's why your investment gear set, as in G-E-A-R-S-E-T, starts with you. Not the brochure, not the tax treatment, not the recent return, and not the bloke of the barbecue who became Warren Buffett after two profitable weeks on a trading app. It starts with whether the investment approach fits your real life, not the imaginary life that you plan to begin once work becomes quiet, once your children become self-sufficient, once your phone stops ringing, and once your partner finally agrees that spending

Starting point is 00:16:55 Sunday afternoon studying candlestick charts is actually spending quality time together. So let's work through your seven years, and as we do, I want you to test the investment approach that you're actually considering right now. And if you're not considering one, then use your current approach. And if you don't have a current approach, well, that's already a very useful discovery because drifting is still the direction.

Starting point is 00:17:20 It just really leads you to where you actually intend to go. So your first G in GEARSET stands for growth. But it begins with a job that growth must do for you. So ask yourself, what am I actually asking that this investment needs to achieve? Am I trying to build my initial deposit, accelerate capital growth, produce income now,

Starting point is 00:17:43 protect wealth that I've already created, maintain liquidity or convert accumulated growth into future income that buys back my time? Now, those jobs are all very different and each job may require a different gear. If you're still near the bottom of your wealth by stealth hill, large gap between your current position and your freedom numbers,

Starting point is 00:18:04 you may need a very meaningful growth engine. But when you're approaching the crest, already have enough capital, your priority may shift from growing the tree to harvesting its fruit. So don't ask only, will this investment grow? Ask, where should that growth come from? What must remain true for it to continue? What income will it produce along the way? And does the expected result close the actual gap within your actual time frame?

Starting point is 00:18:34 because growth without purpose is just a bigger number looking for somewhere to go. An income without enough growth may make you look and feel comfortable today while quietly leading tomorrow's freedom underfunded. This is the first horse for the first course. Name the job, then choose the gear. Then comes your first E, which stands for expertise and ease. Now, in the original gear set, I focused on whether an investment was easy to understand,

Starting point is 00:19:05 easy to implement, and easy to maintain. And that still matters enormously. But now I want you to make expertise explicit because every investment requires knowledge. The only question is, whose knowledge? Is it yours or the expertise of proven professionals that you've selected, briefed, managed, questioned, and independently kept honest?

Starting point is 00:19:26 You don't need to become an accountant, finance broker, a business value, a share analyst, property strategist, lawyer and building inspector before morning tea. But you need to know enough to ask intelligent questions, understand the answers, recognise a fog machine and know who should be checking whose homework. Because appointing an expert doesn't remove management, it just changes what you need to manage. Instead of managing every technical detail, you manage the brief, the relationships, the incentives, the checks and the outcomes. That's why your network can become one of your greatest assets, which is nicely captured in the timeless quote, your network equals your net worth. As your relationships

Starting point is 00:20:10 strengthen, your knowledge compounds, your questions improve, your filters sharpen, your decision speed increases and opportunities that once sat outside your circle of competence may gradually move within it. But be careful here. Confidence can grow faster than competence. And three podcasts, two YouTube videos and a weekend seminar don't make you fluent. They make you dangerous with a lanyard.

Starting point is 00:20:35 So ask, do I genuinely understand how this investment makes money? How can I lose money? What do I need to know before I commit? Who fills the gaps in my knowledge? How are those experts paid? Whose interests do they serve? and who independently verifies the critical assumptions.

Starting point is 00:20:54 If you can't answer those questions, don't confuse delegation with due diligence. You may have just handed over the wheel without checking whether your driver has a licence. Now, next in your gear set comes your A for affordability. And this is where you need to distinguish three very different numbers. What can you buy? What can you borrow?

Starting point is 00:21:15 And what can you safely afford to hold? Because they're not the same. A lender may tell you how much finance you can access. A salesperson may tell you how much product you can acquire. But only your numbers, with your full household numbers, can tell you how much investment that your life can actually sustainably carry. Access isn't affordability. Approval isn't assurance.

Starting point is 00:21:40 And maximum borrowing capacity is not a personal challenge as you'd bother to make. So look beyond the entry price. What does it cost to establish? what does it cost to hold? What can it cost when income pauses, interest rates rise, a tenant leaves, a customer disappears, a distribution suspended, or life arrives with muddy boots and an urgent plumbing bill? What cash buffer keeps you breathing? What contingency keeps you holding? And can you carry the uncomfortable version, not just the version where every assumption arrives on time wearing polished shoes? Because if your investment only works

Starting point is 00:22:17 when everything works it doesn't work it's an artist's impression of affordability the whole point of building wealth is to improve your life so if the investment starts eating your holidays your health your family time your emergency buffer and your ability to sleep peacefully your freedom vehicle i have just started reversing over a striver now next you said is your r for risk and rest, or what I've long called your sleeping eye factor. Now risk is often reduced to one very narrow idea. How much can the price move? But price volatility is only one form of risk. You also need to consider the risk of permanent loss, the risk of excessive debt, the risk of poor liquidity, the risk of relying on one tenant, one customer, one employer,

Starting point is 00:23:08 one manager, one lender or one heroic assumption. Then there's the risk of being forced to sell, the risk of acting emotionally, the risk of complexity hiding something very important and there's a risk that rarely gets enough attention. That's the risk of being so cautious, so scattered or so turned that your money never grows enough to achieve the life that you're actually trying to protect. So safe doesn't always mean motionless and volatile doesn't automatically mean dangerous. The real question is, what could stop you from reaching your destination? And what could cause you to abandon a sound plan at the worst possible time? This is where your spreadsheet can become dangerously overconfident. The spreadsheet may say you can

Starting point is 00:23:57 withstand a 30% fall, but spreadsheets don't wake up at three in the morning, stare at the ceiling and wonder whether they've damaged the family's future. You do. And your partner may do it even more enthusiastically. So test risk in human terms. What loss of income can you actually absorb? What fallen value can you hold through? What uncertainty can you live beside? What would make you panic? And what safeguards stop your temporary fear from creating a permanent financial wound? Now, your sleep at night factor isn't weakness. It's part of your capacity because the investment that you can hold calmly often beats the theoretically superior investment that you'll abandon in distress. Now next is your S for simplicity. And by simple, I don't mean

Starting point is 00:24:47 simplistic. I mean you can explain what you own, why you own it, how it should make money, what can break it, what it costs, and how you get out in very simple plain English. If you can't explain it to an intelligent 12-year-old, you either don't understand it or someone's being paid to make it sound harder than it actually needs to be. Now, complexity can sometimes be necessary, but it should earn its place. It should improve your outcome, manage a genuine risk, or solve a real problem.

Starting point is 00:25:18 It shouldn't exist to conceal costs, confuse accountability, create dependency, or make an ordinary product look sophisticated enough to wear cufflinks. Because complexity creates confusion, confusion creates inaction, and an action allows time and compounding to live without you. Or worse, complexity can encourage you to nod thoughtfully, sign quickly and discover much later

Starting point is 00:25:43 that the clever structure was mainly clever for the person charging you for it. So ask, is this simple enough for me to understand, to implement, to monitor and to explain? And if it's complex, could I have been rewarded for accepting that extra complexity? If the answer is because that's how it works, then keep asking. The fog may be a feature of the fee model.

Starting point is 00:26:09 Now, your second E in your gear set stands for equity and leverage efficiency. In other words, how much of your money must you put in, how much asset exposure does that give you, and how fragile does the structure become when you use borrowed money to amplify the result? now leverage can be one of your greatest wealth building accelerators it allows you to control a larger asset base earlier so growth can compound on more than just your starting capital alone and that's one reason carefully selected property can play such a powerful role in the growth phase of your wealth by stealth journey but leverage is an amplifier it amplifies good selection growth income and time but it also amplifies poor selection falling income

Starting point is 00:26:56 bad structure, impatience and mistakes. So debt is not automatically good or bad, it's powerful and like every power tool it becomes useful or dangerous according to what you attach to it, how hard you push it and whether you build enough room for error. Because a chainsaw is great for cutting down trees quickly but can also slice off your fingers in a flash. So ask, how efficiently does this investment use my available capital? What does leverage improve? What does it expose? Can I service it with conditions tightened? Can I refinance it if lending policies change? Do I have enough liquidity to prevent a poor sale? And am I using leverage to accelerate a sound strategy or to compensate for weak savings, an unrealistic

Starting point is 00:27:45 time frame or an asset that doesn't otherwise stack up. You can't borrow your way out of a bad investment. You can only make the bad investment bigger. And now we arrive at your final gear, your T for time efficiency. This is the investment cost that I teased out earlier and it's the cost that you're most likely to overlook because time rarely appears on an investment statement. There's no annual line item showing the hours that you spent researching, administering, managing, monitoring, worrying or arguing about it over dinner. But time is a cost. And it's the one asset that you can never refinance, redraw, replace or earn back.

Starting point is 00:28:28 So don't ask only how much money will this investment make. Ask how much of my life will it consume while it's making it. And be honest about every layer. How long will it take to learn? how long will it take to establish? How often must you make decisions? How much administration does it actually create? How frequently must you monitor it? What happens when something goes wrong? And how much emotional bandwidth does it occupy even when you're not actively working on it? Because you can spend two hours a week managing an investment and another 20 hours carrying it

Starting point is 00:29:05 around between your ears, creating stress in your head. That's not passive, that's unpaid overtime in the Department of Financial Anxiety. Now, your available time may change. Your expertise may grow, your systems may improve, your team may remove technical and administrative load, and what once demanded 10 hours may eventually require just one. That's part of your evolution. But never choose an investment today

Starting point is 00:29:31 based on the time you hope to have tomorrow. Choose it for the life that you're actually living. If you're already time poor, career focused, raising a family, supporting parents, trying to protect your health or simply wanting to enjoy your weekends and an investment that creates a second demanding job may be taking you further away from the freedom you bought it to create. Now your gear set has one more inspection and I haven't tried to force it awkwardly into the acronym because it deserves its own seat and that's your partner alignment. Your wife, your husband, your partner or de facto doesn't

Starting point is 00:30:07 need to share your fascination with every investment detail. But you both need to understand the destination, the beagle, the expected journey, the financial commitment, the possible discomfort and the conditions under which you will hold, review, change or ranks it. Because your investment strategy doesn't live inside a spreadsheet. It lives inside your household. It affects your spending, your buffers, your choices, your holidays, your sleep and sometimes your ability to sit through dinner without discussing interest rates. So ask each other, what are we trying to achieve? What are we willing to give up temporarily? What are we not willing to sacrifice? What level of debt feels sustainable? What could frighten us into changing course? What would help us to stay calm?

Starting point is 00:30:56 And if one of us wants out, what happens next? If your spreadsheet says hold for 15 years, that your partner says sell it by breakfast time you don't have a long-term strategy you've got a hostage negotiation with an offset account and no investment return is worth creating a constant relationship loss so bring your co-driver into the conversation before you leave the driveway not after the first warning line so now take the investment approach that you're considering and look at your gear set dashboard. Growth and goal job, expertise and ease, affordability, risk and rest, then simplicity, equity and leverage efficiency, time efficiency and your mandatory co-driver check. Give each one a simple traffic light, green, amber or red. Green means you

Starting point is 00:31:50 understand it, you can afford it, you can sustain it and it fits the journey. Amber means you need more knowledge, better structure, stronger buffers, greater alignment or expert verification. Red means the vehicle stays in the driveway. And here's the critical rule. You don't average away a red warning light because the other years look attractive. Strong growth doesn't cancel out unaffordability. High income doesn't cancel an exit you don't understand. Useful leverage doesn't cancel the fact you can't sleep. And excellent numbers don't cancel a partner who can't live the plan. You need every essential gear engaging together in the correct order for the investment to move you forward without stripping your financial gearbox. Because if the investment

Starting point is 00:32:37 is technically excellent but doesn't fit your time, knowledge, money, nervous system or relationship, it isn't your best investment. It's someone else's excellent investment parked in your driveway. But there's one more trap. An investment can fit you beautifully and still be a beautifully fitted lemon your gear set has inspected the driver the passengers and the journey it hasn't yet proved that the vehicle itself is robe worthy for that we need to move past the polished paint work past the financial air freshener and lift the bottom because what you find underneath may smell very different from the brochure so the first thing that you check isn't the size of the engine. It's whether that engine belongs in the vehicle that you actually need. Because a thumping

Starting point is 00:33:25 grade V8 may sound magnificent, but if your job is quiet, low cost, low maintenance transport, you may have just bought an expensive way to frighten off the neighbours. So your sniff test isn't designed to find the investment with the biggest, fastest, shiniest headline. It's designed to help you inspect five things that every investment needs to prove. So if we break SNP now, let's strategy, numbers, integrity, flexibility and force multipliers, with of course a failure plan. So five checks, one investment hoist, and absolutely nowhere pray suspicious smell to hide. So if we break down your SNP test, your first S stands for strategy and self-fit. Now you may be thinking, didn't we just inspect

Starting point is 00:34:16 fit through your gear set? Well, yes. Your gear set tested whether the broad investment approach fits your life, capacity, knowledge, time, risk tolerance, and your relationship. This first test in SNF now tests whether this specific investment serves that strategy or whether you've quietly reverse engineered a strategy to justify something that you already want to buy. And that happens far more easily than you realize. See the property, the business, the share, the syndicate, the shiny alternative you feel the pull then your brain which is a brilliant lawyer for anything that you already want starts to selling the supporting evidence and suddenly the timing's perfect the risk is manageable the price is reasonable and your long-term plan has apparently always involved

Starting point is 00:35:00 fractional ownership of a lithuanian truffle warehouse so ask yourself what exact job does this investment perform inside my strategy does it build growth create income preserve capital provide liquidity, improve diversification, add control, or solve a genuine problem that my current portfolio can't solve. Then ask, why this investment? Why now? Why this amount? Why this structure?

Starting point is 00:35:28 And what happens if I do nothing? That last question can save you a fortune, because action feels productive, but activity and progress aren't the same thing. Sometimes the smartest addition to your portfolio is the investment that you didn't add. And run one more test. Remove the label that's currently seducing you.

Starting point is 00:35:51 Remove new, remove exclusive, tax-favoured, high-yield, remove institutional grade, and remove limited opportunity. Would the underlying investment still deserve a place in your strategy? The answer changes when the adjective disappears. You may not be buying an investment. you may be buying the adjective. Now turning to the next letter in your SNF test your N stands for numbers and net return.

Starting point is 00:36:21 This is where the sales story meets the calculator and not the calculator that came free with the brochure but your own calm complete independently check numbers because investment returns often arrive wearing their best clothes the gross yield, the headline distribution, the historic growth rate the projected valuation, the tax deduction, the return before fees, before finance, before maintenance, vacancy, inflation, and before selling costs. Before life does what life does. But gross wealth doesn't fund your freedom. Usable net wealth does. So strip the numbers

Starting point is 00:36:59 back to the chassis. Where should your capital growth come from? What creates the income? How reliable is it? Can that income grow? What costs sit behind the headline, return and your bank account? What tax friction applies on the way in, while you hold and when you exit? What do finance, fees, maintenance, management, insurance, vacancy, compliance and inflation remove from the result? And what are you actually likely to keep?

Starting point is 00:37:28 This is where my passive-aggressive test earns its workshop overalls. I want you to become quietly aggressive about building passive income so you can become increasingly passive about how you spend your time. But for an investment to help you do that, it needs to answer four performance questions. Can it grow? Can it pay? Can it scale? And can it sell? Growth, income, scalability, saleability. Can it grow in value over time that you need to own it? Can it produce usable income without slowly consuming the capital that's happening underneath? Can you scale it into a result that's large enough to move you in freedom numbers? And when it's job is done, can you sell it, liquidate it, harvest it or convert

Starting point is 00:38:20 it into the income and choice that you've been moving towards? Because an impressive return on an amount too small to matter doesn't close your freedom gap. And a large paper gain that you can't access, sell or convert may make you feel wealthy at the barbecue while leaving your cash flow hungry at home. Now tax matters. Structure matters. The timing of tax benefits matters. But tax is one input into your overall net result. It's not the destination. Tax deduction can't rescue a weak asset. You can only make the weakness slightly more affordable. Or as I often say, tax tail must never wag the investment dog. Otherwise, you still own the dog,

Starting point is 00:39:02 the tax office has simply helped you hold the lead. So don't ask what return is being advertised, ask what return is economically credible. What must go right? What can go wrong? And after every cost, tax, delay and friction, what's likely to arrive safely in your usable net nest egg? That's the number that feeds your future.

Starting point is 00:39:25 Everything else is just bonnet decoration. Now your I in your sniff test stands for investment integrity. This is the structural inspection. The engine mounts, the chassis, the service history, the parts you can't see from the driver's seat. Because a compelling return doesn't tell you whether the investment deserves your trust. So I start with the engine.

Starting point is 00:39:48 How does it actually make money? Not how the brochure says you make money. How does the underlying asset, enterprise, property, security or fund create economic value? What demand supports it? What makes that demand durable? What prevents the supply from being easily replaced? What competitive, locational, operational or scarcity advantage protects the result? And what could erode it?

Starting point is 00:40:14 If you're assessing property, is the growth case supported by genuine scarcity, diverse demand infrastructure industry incomes and improving local conditions or are you relying on an exciting postcode a sweeping headline and a nearby cafe cafe serving deconstructed if you're assessing a business what advantage keeps customers returning what happens if the founder leaves if you're assessing shares what are you actually buying behind the ticker symbol If you're assessing an alternative investment, who controls the money? Who values the asset?

Starting point is 00:40:49 Who reports the performance? And is the same organisation driving, checking the brakes, issuing the road worthy and applauding itself at the finish line? Then inspect the quality incentives of everyone involved. What experience can be demonstrated? What's been delivered through difficult conditions? How are the key decision makers paid?

Starting point is 00:41:11 what happens when your interests and their income point in different directions and what independent checks stop confidence from becoming an expensive conflict. Now, bring in one of the most enduring investment principles ever developed, your margin of safety. Or in Morgan Housel's very useful language, your room for error. Because your forecast will be wrong. Not necessarily disastrously wrong, but the future won't unfold to the exact decimal point in your spreadsheet.

Starting point is 00:41:41 growth may arrive later income may wobble costs may rise finance may tighten conditions may change and life may take a completely unscheduled exit so don't build a plan that requires perfect prediction build one that can survive imperfect reality that means quality fair price conservative assumptions, cash buffers, independent verification and enough breathing room for your investment to be temporarily wrong without forcing you to make it permanently disastrous. Because a wonderful story with a mysterious engine, a heroic forecast and no margin for error isn't an investment, it's a motivational speech with bank details. Next, your first F in your SNP test stands for flexibility and freedom. And this is where you inspect the doors, the steering, the turning

Starting point is 00:42:39 circle, and the emergency exit. Because the ability to get into an investment is only half the journey. You also need to know how you're going to get out. Who buys it from you? How deep is that buy pool? How long might an exit take? What fees and tax stand at the gate? What discount might a forced sale create? Can you sell part of it? Can you access income without selling capital? Can you change managers? Can you refinance? Can you improve the asset? And how much control do you actually have

Starting point is 00:43:10 of the decisions that affect your outcome? Liquidity can be a wonderful form of freedom. Shares and exchange traded funds can often be bought and sold quickly. That gives you flexibility. But liquidity also creates a behavioural trap because an exit that's always available can become an exit that you use emotionally.

Starting point is 00:43:33 The red sell button doesn't only provide freedom, it provides temptation. Now property may take longer and cost more to sell. That reduces flexibility, but the friction can also protect you from selling a sound asset because Tuesday's headline gave you indigestion. So liquidity isn't automatically good. Illiquidity isn't automatically bad. The question is, which form of flexibility does your strategy need and which form of constraint helps you protect you from yourself? Then look at the freedom that the investment creates or consumes.

Starting point is 00:44:09 Does it give you greater future choice or does it lock you up? Your money, your time, your attention and your decision-making are longer than expected. If you hear, you can exit at any time, ask what that means in plain English because sometimes you can exit at any time provided it's Tuesday, that the manager agrees, a buyer appears,

Starting point is 00:44:31 the valuation window is open and you donate one of your kidneys to the fee schedule. So flexibility isn't a promise. It's a process that you need to verify. Then comes your final F in your SNP test that stands for force multipliers and your failure plan because every investment contains forces

Starting point is 00:44:51 that can amplify the result, like the TLC of time leverage compounding, like scale, technology, systems, and scarcity, like the leverage of OPM to the power of three that includes other people's money, other people's mastery, and other people's means. Now, used intelligently, these forces can help you do more with less much sooner. They can accelerate your progress up the wealth by stealth hill. They can expand your asset exposure, improve your execution,

Starting point is 00:45:21 Reduce your time demand and allow good decisions to compound way beyond what your effort could achieve alone. But every multiplier needs a matching break because the same leverage that multiplies growth can also multiply loss. The same scale that expands income can expand concentration. The same expert that reduces your workload can create dependency. And the same compounding that rewards a good decision can quietly compound fees, friction, and a bad one.

Starting point is 00:45:54 So after you identify what accelerates the investment, identify what can break it. What happens if growth arrives late, if income stops, if interest rises, if finance tightens, if a key person leaves, the tenant fails, if the manager freezes withdrawals, if the valuation falls, if property conditions soften in this specific location,

Starting point is 00:46:15 if regulation changes, if your own income or health changes, And if two or three of those things happen at the same time, well, that isn't negativity. It's preparation. You plan for the worst and then manage for the best. And don't carry a spare tyre because you expect every trip to fail. You carry it so one puncture doesn't end your journey.

Starting point is 00:46:38 So build your failure plan before failure arrives. Your cash buffer, your finance buffer, your time buffer, your insurance, your independent checks and balances, your alternative income, your decision rules, your review triggers, your exit options, and your recovery route. Because a plan that only works when growth arrives on time, income never stops, interest rates behave, the expert never leaves, and life agrees not to interrupt, hasn't passed an investment roadworthy. It's only passed an artist's impression.

Starting point is 00:47:09 So now your investment has been up on the sniff test hoist. strategy and self-fit, numbers and net return, investment integrity, flexibility and freedom, force multipliers and failure plan. And remember, you don't need every investment to score perfectly on every measure. It can't. Every investment vehicle contains trade-offs. High liquidity may bring lower control. Greater control may demand more time. High leverage may improve scale while increasing fragility. Stronger income may come with slower growth. Greater simplicity may mean fewer levers to pull

Starting point is 00:47:48 and strong diversification may protect your position while reducing the concentrated momentum that you need during early accumulation. So the aim isn't perfection, the aim is clarity. You need to know which strengths perform the required job, which weaknesses you're accepting, which risks you're controlling and whether the complete package still mutes you towards your version of freedom.

Starting point is 00:48:14 So if strategy, numbers, integrity, flexibility, or smocked price smell wrong, don't spray the spreadsheet with financial air freshener. Investigate it, verify it, reprice it, restructure it, or walk away from it. Because you don't become wealthy by owning every opportunity. You become wealthy by owning enough of the right opportunities in the right order for long enough. But even when the investment vehicle passes every roadworthy check, the journey can still end badly. The engine can be sound, the brakes can be sharp, the tyres can be new, the route can be clear, and the vehicle can still finish wrapped around a financial gumtree.

Starting point is 00:48:55 Because the next inspection doesn't look under the bonnet, it looks in the mirror. because staring back at you is the one investment risk you can never completely remove. And yes, you guessed it, that's you. Your fear, your greed, your impatience, your overconfidence, your boredom, your need to be right and your extraordinary ability to turn a perfectly sound plan into a financial Barry Crocker, which is code for shocker

Starting point is 00:49:24 because you felt an urgent need to improve it at 11.30 on a Sunday night. This is why the final investment inspection isn't another calculation. It's a code of conduct, a disciplined set of rules that you decide in advance so your temporary emotions don't take control of your permanent future. And this brings us to what I affectionately call my Bushido Code. Now, the name is obviously a cheeky play on my bushy nickname and the traditional Japanese Bushido Code that's associated with the samurai. Bushido is often translated as the way of the warrior.

Starting point is 00:50:04 It developed and evolved across different periods and schools of thought, so it was never one-use-a-vessel laminated checklist carried by every samurai next to a loyalty card for discounted sword-sharpening, but its enduring spirit centred on disciplined conduct, duty, honour, courage, loyalty, self-control and mastery of self. And that final idea, self-mastery, is where the ancient code meets your modern investment life. Because sustainable success rarely depends on finding one secret asset. It depends on whether you can follow sound principles, calmly, consistently and courageously, especially when conditions tempt you to abandon them.

Starting point is 00:50:49 So my Bushido code contains seven rules. begin with the end understand before you own survive before you strive head before heart invest long enough for tlc to work diversify by design not by default and own the process so seven rules in the right order because a principle applied the wrong time for the wrong reason can become a beautifully defended mistake so breaking but she did i can't even say now so breaking Bushido down, your B stands for begin with the end. Purpose before product. Destination before vehicle. Freedom numbers before financial products. Before you ask what should I buy, ask what life am I building? How much income will that life require? When do I want that freedom to

Starting point is 00:51:45 choose it? What wealth must I accumulate to fund it sustainably? Where am I now? What's my gap? And what job must this next investment perform to help me close it? Now, this sounds simple enough, but it changes everything. Because when you begin with the investment, your goal becomes owning the investment. But when you begin with your freedom, the investment becomes a servant of your life. That's the correct hierarchy. Your life is the objective, or strategy, or what I call strategy, is just a pathway. Your investment is the vehicle and money is simply the fuel.

Starting point is 00:52:26 So don't let the fuel choose the destination and don't measure success by how impressive your garage looks. Measure it by whether you're moving closer to a life of greater choice, time, health, meaning and contribution. Because the deepest investment risk isn't simply watching a price move. It's reaching the end of your available time with plenty of activity, plenty of assets, plenty of stories. but not enough freedom to live the life that you've worked so hard to create.

Starting point is 00:52:56 So next in your Bushido is your U for understand before you own. This is my bushified version of staying inside your circle of competence. Or in workshop language, if you can't explain the engine, don't admire the spoiler. So before you invest, you need to understand four simple things. How does it make money? How can it lose money? who controls the outcome, and how do I get out? Not every technical detail, not every legal clause from memory, not every accounting treatment before breakfast,

Starting point is 00:53:29 but the economic engine, the essential risks, the important incentives, and the exit. If your answer relies on the expert handles that, we'll keep going. What exactly does the expert handle? How were they selected? How are they paid? What evidence supports their competence? who checks the critical assumptions and what happens if the expert is wrong leaves retires

Starting point is 00:53:54 lose capacity or starts behaving like a goose with your golden eggs now you can delegate specialist work you can leverage specialist knowledge you can use other people's mastery withstand your reach but you can never delegate your responsibility to understand what you're trusting with your future And please remember, I don't understand it, is a complete investment decision. It doesn't mean the opportunity's bad. It means the opportunity is not yet right for you. You can learn.

Starting point is 00:54:26 You can seek advice. You can strengthen your network. You can revisit it later. Or you can let it pass. There will always be another vehicle. But you only get one financial gearbox to grind at a time. now next in your bushido is your s for survive before in stride because your first investment job isn't to maximize return it's to remain in the game long enough for a good return to become

Starting point is 00:54:54 meaningful that means protecting yourself from permanent loss for sale financial suffocation emotional capitulation and a household mutiny somewhere near the bottom of the cycle this is where your margin of safety, your buffers, your affordability and your sleep at night factor all come together. You don't need to predict every pothole. You need enough suspension to survive the road. So don't build to the absolute edge of your buying capacity. Don't assume income will always flow. Don't spend every available dollar on entry. Don't treat your savings or war chest offset buffers as lazy money. Your six to 12 months of total expense buffers are your breathing room. They're your holding power, their decision time, their relationship protection and they're

Starting point is 00:55:43 the difference between choosing calmly and selling desperately. The best forecast isn't the one that pretends to know exactly what happens next. It's the one that still works when what happens next isn't what you forecast. That's survival and survival isn't timid. It's the foundation that allows you to be courageous when real opportunity appears. Because when you have cash, capacity, clarity and calm, you can act while fear has parked everyone else on their own side. Because the first rule of compounding isn't a percentage. It's staying alive long enough to receive it.

Starting point is 00:56:22 Now, next in your Bushido code is your H for head before heart. If the numbers don't work, walk. use excel not excitement evidence not emotion facts not FOMO and price not promise this doesn't mean you become cold cynical or incapable of seeing possibility it means your enthusiasm must pass through a discipline filter before it reaches your bank account because your heart is very good at imagining upside the beautiful renovation the successful business the soaring share price, the full tenancy, the effortless passive income. The holiday photo captioned, living my best life, without mentioning the free refinances and the rash.

Starting point is 00:57:09 But your head needs to ask, what's the evidence? What's already priced in? What assumptions am I making? What would prove me wrong? What's the downside? And am I being paid enough to accept it? This is where price and value must be separated. A wonderful asset can become a poor investment at the wrong price. And an ordinary asset doesn't become wonderful because it's discounted. Cheap rubbish is still cheap rubbish. It's simply rubbish with a red sales sticker. So don't fall in love with a suburb, a founder, a ticker symbol,

Starting point is 00:57:43 a tax deduction, a promised yield, or someone holding a laser pointer beside a graph that only travels northeast. FOMO isn't research wearing active wear and urgency doesn't improve quality if you need to decide today before independent advice before proper investigation and before your partner has finished the sentence

Starting point is 00:58:05 the answer is no head before heart calculation before commitment and conviction only after confirmation now next in your Bushido code is your eye for invest long enough for TLC to work. And no, I don't mean giving your portfolio a cuddle and asking it to use nice words.

Starting point is 00:58:29 My investment TLC stands for time, leverage and compounding. Three forces that work together turn sound decisions into exponential outcomes. It's a year's time, you invest your time now so you can buy back more of your time later. You sow, you cultivate, you grow through the seasons and only then do you harvest Nature doesn't plant a fruit tree on Monday

Starting point is 00:58:54 check the valuation on Tuesday panic on Wednesday and sell the orchard on Thursday because the headline predicted rain Growth requires seasons Your L in TLC is for leverage using other people's money other people's mastery

Starting point is 00:59:09 and other people's means to help you do more with less much sooner But only when the underlying asset and your financial structure are strong enough to carry the extra force. And your see and tell see is compounding. Growth on growth, income on income, knowledge on knowledge, relationships on relationships, confidence on competence

Starting point is 00:59:32 and good habits quietly reinforcing good decisions. Compounding doesn't only happen inside an investment account. It happens inside you. Your vision expands, your judgment improves, your network strengthens, your process sharpens and decisions that once felt slow, uncertain and uncomfortable will gradually become clear, calm and instinctive. This is why you make it happen, then let it happen.

Starting point is 00:59:58 Run ahead early to get clear, build capacity, select well, structure safely, assemble your team and secure the right investment vehicle. Then stop grabbing the steering wheel every time the road bends. Successful investing should be boring. Or, as Mum used to say when I was just a teenager, stop playing with it or it'll drop off. And Mum wasn't talking about my portfolio. So think in decades, not days.

Starting point is 01:00:26 Respect the long horizon. Review deliberately. Act when something material changes. But don't confuse constant activity with competent ownership. Sometimes the most powerful words in investing are do nothing. Not because you're asleep, but because TLC is already awake and doing the work. Then your D in Bushido stands for diversify by design, not by default. And this is where you need to avoid two equal and opposite mistakes.

Starting point is 01:00:58 Owning too much of one fragile thing and owning too little of so many things that nothing can meaningfully move your position. Diversification is not a religion. Concentrations, not a personality test. They're tools. And the right use depends on your capital base, capacity, knowledge, time frame, life stage

Starting point is 01:01:20 and the job that your portfolio must perform. So during early accumulation, when your starting capital is relatively small you may need meaningful focus on a high quality growth engine so that leverage time and compounding can create enough momentum to shift your freedom numbers. Spread a modest amount across too many investments too early and you may own a tiny piece of everything without owning enough of anything that's going to make an impact. You won't lose much, but you won't gain much either. That's what I call premature diversification. Or in workshop terms, you've bought four excellent wheels from four different vehicles and you're wondering why

Starting point is 01:02:02 your car still can't go anywhere. So specify before you diversify. Build the primary engine that your accumulation phase requires, but don't turn that principle into permanent concentration without questioning it as your wealth grows your stage changes and if we look at that your need for income liquidity capital protection and reduced volatility may actually grow with it that's when purposeful diversification across different jobs vehicles income sources and genuine return drivers can strengthen your complete position not because you've collected more product names, but because your investments respond differently to different economic events, conditions and life stages. No asset wins every event. No vehicle suits every road. No single

Starting point is 01:02:54 investment should be expected to accumulate growth, produce income, preserve capital, provide instant equity, protect against every shock and make you look clever at Christmas lunch. So diversify with a reason. Know the job that each investment performs. Know which risk each one reduces. Know which return driver each one adds. And avoid both reckless concentration and random collection. So specify before you diversify.

Starting point is 01:03:24 Then diversify before one broken engine can strand your retirement bus. and then comes your final o in your bushido that stands for own the process you can delegate tasks you can leverage expertise you can employ specialists you can automate systems you can build a team around you that saves you time reduces mistakes and expands your capability but you must remain the owner of your destination your strategy your decisions and your responsibility so write your rules before emotion arrives what qualifies as a suitable investment what must be independently verified what price are you willing to pay what buffer must remain untouched what causes you to buy what causes you to hold what causes you to review and what causes you to exit

Starting point is 01:04:17 create review triggers not reaction triggers a material change in your goal capacity health income investment integrity or underlying conditions may justify change a frightening headline a nervous barbecue or your brother-in-law acquiring a microphone doesn't so stay informed not inflamed review don't react adapt don't abandon and when your goal capacity evidence or lifestyle life stage changes allow your gps to recalculate without forgetting the destination owning the process also means owning your mistakes you will make them i certainly have the aim isn't to become infallible it's to make your mistakes survival visible valuable and less likely to be repeated so keep an investment journal write down why you acted what you expected

Starting point is 01:05:12 what could prove you wrong what you were feeling and what you do if it happens that stops hindsight from quietly rewriting your decision history and turning every lucky accident into supposed genius because the goal isn't to be right about every investment the goal is to build a repeatable process that keeping keeps you moving towards your version of freedom even when an individual decision doesn't behave as it was as expected so that's your Bushido code. Begin with the N, understand before you own, survive before you strive, head before heart, invest long enough for TLC to work, diversify by design not by default and own the process. Or in one flowing line, purpose, understanding, survival, evidence, patience,

Starting point is 01:06:02 purposeful diversification and personal responsibility. The power isn't hidden inside any one rule it comes from applying all seven together in order for long enough because leverage before for affordability creates fragility diversification before purpose creates clutter tax before asset quality creates affordable mediocrity return before risks creates privato professional advice without understanding creates dependency and a long horizon without holdability creates a forced sale wearing a 15 year plan. So it's the order, the interaction and the discipline that make your Bushido code work. Think of it like a Swiss watch. Every cog may be beautifully made but removed free because you found them slightly inconvenient

Starting point is 01:06:57 and you're left with expensive jewellery that confidently tells the wrong time. So your investment vehicle now fits your gear set, it's passed your sniff test, and you've now got a disciplined Bushido code for driving it. But theory becomes useful only when you apply it to a real choice. So next, we're going to roll four very different vehicles into the same workshop. Business, shares, property, and alternatives.

Starting point is 01:07:27 No favourites, no financial football teams, no diplomatic immunity no investment gets to issue its own roadworthy certificate so let's see what each vehicle reveals when you shine the same inspection light under every bonnet so first on the hoist is business now business can be an extraordinary wealth vehicle it can give you income equity control purpose and enormous scalability you can improve the product you lift the price, you can strengthen the systems, you can build the brand, you can grow the team and unlike many investments you may be able to directly influence the result. Now that's powerful and when we put it through your gear set the first warning light is often time because most

Starting point is 01:08:14 businesses aren't passive investments. They're demanding employers that they've got to pay you overtime. You may think that you own the business while the business quietly owns your calendar, your weekends, your sleep, and the last surviving corner of your dining room table. So ask yourself, does the business produce cash flow without consuming all of my life? Can it operate without me? Can it scale without every extra dollar requiring another hour of my time? Is its value embedded in transferable systems or trapped inside my head? What happens if I become sick, tired, or simply decide I no longer want to answer emails at six o'clock in the morning. And when I eventually exit, who's going to buy it? What will they pay for?

Starting point is 01:08:59 And can I sell the business without accidentally selling myself with it? A strong business can be a rocket ship, but a weak business can be employment wearing a fancy hat. So the roadworthy verdict, potentially powerful, highly controllable, often scalable, but commonly concentrated illiquid skill hungry and very time thirsty it can be the right horse for your course if you know whether you're buying an investment or adopting a particularly needy pet now next on the hoist is shares now shares can give you access to productive businesses at low entry cost with excellent liquidity broad diversification and very little day-to-day administration through diversified funds you can own small slices of many quality businesses

Starting point is 01:09:46 across industries, countries, currencies and economic conditions. You can start small, you can add regularly, you can reinvest income. And if life changes, you can usually sell far more quickly than a business or a property. And that flexibility can make shares very useful at different stages of your freedom journey. But liquidity is both a feature and a loaded weapon because the same button that lets you exit quickly

Starting point is 01:10:12 also lets fear sell your future before breakfast. In comparison, when a property value changes, you don't receive a flashing red notification every 11 seconds. With listed shares, you can watch every wobble, every headline and every nervous twitch in real time, which means the vehicle may be passive while your thumb becomes highly active. So ask yourself,

Starting point is 01:10:35 am I investing in productive enterprises for long-term growth and income? Or am I trading my phone like a poker machine with a finance app? Do I understand what I own? Am I diversified by design? Are the fees, tax consequences and training costs working for me or slowly nibbling my return to death?

Starting point is 01:10:56 Can I tolerate visible volatility without abandoning my long-term plan? And am I using leverage with enormous care, given that the margin call has the warmth and charm of a parking inspector at 402? The roadworthy verdict, accessible, liquid, scalable, diversifiable and potentially very time efficient. But, like control, high price visibility and a serious test of your emotional suspension. Chairs can be a beautifully efficient vehicle

Starting point is 01:11:26 but only if your behaviour doesn't keep reaching over and yanking on the handbrake. Now, third on the hoist is property. Now, you all know that I love property. But love is not a due diligence method. And property doesn't receive a complimentary roadworthy just because I happen to own the workshop. Quality residential property can combine long-term capital growth,

Starting point is 01:11:49 rental income, useful control, high-quality leverage and the ability to add value. It's tangible, it meets a fundamental human need and because lenders generally understand it, you're able to control a meaningful growth asset with a much smaller amount of your own capital. And that leverage can accelerate your wealth by stealth curve where you initially climb the capital growth hill

Starting point is 01:12:12 then progressively convert growth and equity into the cash flow that supports your version of freedom. But leverage is an amplifier. It doesn't know whether it's amplifying wisdom or a dodgy decision dressed up in decimal points. Property is also expensive to enter, slow to sell, costly to transact and concentrated in one asset, in one street, inside one property location and one micro-economy. It needs maintenance, it needs management, it needs buffers, and if the cash flow becomes uncomfortable, you can't sell the back bedroom on Tuesday to cover the mortgage on Wednesday morning. So ask yourself, is this a scarce, differentiated, owner-occupier appeal asset? Where will sustainable demand come from? Can I afford to hold it through tougher conditions?

Starting point is 01:13:02 Does the total return stack up after interest, management, maintenance, insurance, tax, and transaction friction? Have I allowed for surprises? Is the finance structure flexible and fit for long Germany? And do I have the right professionals to help me select, secure, finance, manage, monitor, and independently verify? The roadworthy verdict, potentially strong growth, useful income, excellent leverage, meaningful control, and good time efficiency

Starting point is 01:13:33 if you've got the right team. But you're liquid, capital hungry, concentrated and unfigurative if your cash flow breaks or selections during a faulty. Property can be a magnificent freedom vehicle, but it must be the right property in the right location, at the right price, with the right finance, for the right reason and held for the right length of time. Now, that's a lot of rights,

Starting point is 01:13:58 which is why buying it wrong can go so spectacularly wrong. Now, finally on the hoist are alternative investments. And this is a very large garage with lots of roller doors. It can include private credit, commercial syndications, infrastructure, agriculture, precious metals, collectibles, digital assets, and an expanding collection of opportunities that arrive wearing very expensive brochures. Now, some alternatives can add genuine value and may provide income, inflation protection, access to different return drivers or diversification when your core assets are

Starting point is 01:14:33 exposed to the same conditions but the word alternative is not a quality guarantee it simply means that the vehicle is parked in a different aisle and that aisle contained both excellent engineering and a unicycle with a cryptocurrency sticker and no brakes so ask yourself what economic engine actually produces the return can i independently verify the asset the valuation and the cash flow? Who holds my money? Who manages the asset? What happens if that manager gets it wrong? How much am I paying invisible fees, hidden fees, performance fees, and fees with names that appear to have been invented in a legal scrabble tournament? Can I exit? When can I exit? At what price? And what happens when everyone else heads for the

Starting point is 01:15:23 same door. Most importantly, do I understand it or am I confusing novelty with knowledge? A roadworthy verdict, potentially value as a personal diversifier, an income source or small specialist allocation, but frequently opaque, fee heavy, hard to value, hard to access and dependent on manager, platform and counterparty quality. An alternative investment may improve your whole portfolio or it may simply give you a more sophisticated way to lose money at different parties. So which one wins? Business, shares, property, alternatives? The answer, none of them and potentially all of them because no asset wins every event. You wouldn't enter a Clydesdale and Melville Cup then blame the horse for lacking acceleration and you wouldn't ask a thoroughbred

Starting point is 01:16:18 to pull a brewery wagon, then complain of the beer, miss happy hour. You choose the investment horse, the investment course. The job comes first, then the vehicle, then the route, then the driver, then the support crew, and as your knowledge, competence, experience, capital and trust relationships grow, your choices can evolve. Investment that feels too complex today may become manageable later. An active vehicle that suits the current energy may become the wrong fit when you want more time freedom.

Starting point is 01:16:53 And an asset that helps you climb the growth hill may eventually hand the baton to another asset that produces more dependable cash flow. That's not inconsistency, that's intelligent evolution. As the fog clears from your investment windscreen, your vision improves. Your reactions become calmer. Your driving becomes more intuitive. And what once felt like a white-knuckle trip through unfamiliar territory can become a confident, habitual, well-supported journey. But confidence must grow from competence, not from one lucky trip when the road was dry and every traffic light just happened to be green. So before you risk your next dollar, pull over, pour yourself a coffee and complete your own investment roadworthy.

Starting point is 01:17:44 First, write one sentence that defines the job. What must this investment do for your life? Is it there to activate savings, to accumulate growth, produce income, preserve wealth, provide liquidity, or help you transition from growth to freedom-supporting cash flow? Second, run your personal gear set. Does it fit your growth goal, expertise, affordability, risk and rest, simplicity, equity and leverage efficiency and available time and is your partner genuinely sitting in the same vehicle not tied to the roof rack smiling tightly and hoping that the trip's cancelled third put the

Starting point is 01:18:26 investment itself for your sniff test strategy and self-fit numbers and net return investment integrity flexibility and freedom force multipliers and failure plan fourth write down your bushido rules. Your buying rules, your borrowing rules, your buffer rules, your holding rules, your review rules and your exit rules. Decide them while your head is clear, not when fear has grabbed the wheel or breed is shouting directions from the back seat. And fifth, write your no-go line. What unanswered question, unverified assumption, unacceptable cost, missing buffer or partner a concern means you don't proceed. Now this really matters because a decision rule that can't say no is not a decision rule. It's a sales system. And please do this in order. Don't cherry pick the

Starting point is 01:19:24 enjoyable questions, skip the uncomfortable ones and call the remaining handful a strategy. Your breaks don't become an optional extra because of stereo tested beautifully. Every part interacts. Every principle matters. And the correct order is what turns useful ideas into sustainable action. Now, today we've deliberately stayed above the individual engine base. I've given you the common inspection lens. In the A for Approach stage of your property wealth journey, we're going to keep using it.

Starting point is 01:19:56 We'll examine business ownership, shares and equities, property and alternative assets without financial football teams, without sacred cows, without pretending that one vehicle suits every season of your life. But first, in an upcoming episode, we're opening a very topical workshop bay because the sudden tax-favoured spotlight on new residential builds has created enormous interest and an equally enormous opportunity for glossy brochure gobbling work. So, Kate Hill and Alex Dutt from Advisable are joining me

Starting point is 01:20:28 to translate the very different language of turnkey new building. We'll explore how the right new build in the right location with the right finance and the right experienced team may combine growth potential with significant cash flow and tax advantages. But we'll also expose how easily the wrong process can leave you holding a tax-sprinkled dog box surrounded by acres of identical stock. Because a shiny brochure isn't an interpreter.

Starting point is 01:20:55 and if you don't speak the language you need proven experts who speak it as if they were using their native tongue to guide you protect you and teach you what every important clause cost risk and benefit actually means so that conversation is coming up and it'll put today's roadworthy framework to work on one of the most discussed property choices right now so if today's workshop has helped you realize that you've got a collection of investments but not yet a complete investment approach then that realisation is valuable because awareness is the first warning light that actually helps you. The next step is to turn these timeless principles in your own end-to-end plan and that's exactly what my full property wealth program is designed

Starting point is 01:21:41 to help you do. It walks you through the entire journey in the right order. Your why, your examination, your approach, your leverage, your treatment and your ongoing health check. You work through your destination, freedom numbers, capacity, personal strategy, professional team, property brief, due diligence, delivery and review process. Not as isolated tips, not as financial fast food and not as a choose your own adventure book where every page somehow ends up with you buying the product that's being promoted. It's a complete step-by-step process to help you invest in property properly and build wealth by design, not by default. So if you're ready to take your investment approach to the next level, click the Property Wealth link in today's show notes and

Starting point is 01:22:26 take a closer look. No pressure, no fog machine, no salesperson playing bongos beside a countdown clock. Just the deeper framework, tools and sequence to help you make your next move with greater clarity, confidence and control. So let's close the workshop doors and put today's inspection report on one page. Before you risk a dollar, start with your life. Define the destination, know your freedom numbers, specify the job before you select the vehicle. Make sure the vehicle fits your time, knowledge, money, risk tolerance, sleep at night factor and partner alignment. Run your gear set, apply the sniff test, drive by your Bushido code, demand growth, income, saleability, scalability, affordability, appropriate leverage, time efficiency, control,

Starting point is 01:23:11 transparency margin of safety tax efficiency simplicity and personal fit what a mouthful not because every investment will score perfectly on every measure it won't but because you need to know exactly which compromises you're accepting and why use your head before your heart build the buffer before the bravado specify before you diversify make it happen and let it happen Allow time, leverage and compounding to do the heavy lifting. And remember, no asset wins every event. The best investment is not the one that wins the loudest argument at a barbie. It's the one that performs the right job for your life

Starting point is 01:23:52 and still lets you sleep when the road gets rough. And that brings us to my quote of the week. You don't invest in what wins the argument. You invest in what wins your freedom. so before your next investment pitch sprays financial air freshener through the showroom lift the bonnet check the engine test the brakes read the service history ask who gets paid stress test the numbers check the driver check the co-driver don't hand over a single dollar until the whole vehicle has earned its roadworthy because wealth isn't built by chasing every

Starting point is 01:24:27 shiny vehicle the race has passed it's built by choosing the right vehicle for your life driving it well, maintaining it properly, and staying on the road long enough to reach your freedom destination. So thanks again for joining me in the Investment Roadworthy Workshop. And until next time, go out there, live more, give more, grow more, and become more. And remember, wealth isn't just what you own. It's the freedom to live how you choose, with the ones you love, while you're still here to enjoy the drive. So keep your eyes on the destination, your hands on the wheel,

Starting point is 01:25:04 fill Bushido code in the glove box and always, always get invested. 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 Invested inspiration along with every episode of Realty Talk,

Starting point is 01:25:26 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

Property Hub - Investment Insights & Inspiration - Get Invested: Your Investment S.N.I.F.F. Test - Timeless rules before you risk a dollar

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