Property Hub - Investment Insights & Inspiration - Realty Talk Vault: Female Investor Guide

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi and welcome. Now are you or do you know a woman who's struggling to make ends meet and is concerned about her financial future? Unfortunately the gender pay gap and maternity leave alongside increasing rates of divorce and separation mean that one in three women stop work with no retirement savings at all and those that do manage to save often end up with less than half of the retirement funds of wee mere males. Now, for me, these are shocking statistics in this day and age. So what can hardworking Aussie women do about it? Well, thankfully, today's special guest and new PIPA chair, Nicola McDougall of Bricks and Mortar Media has co-authored her new book, The Female Investor, which gives women an easy step-by-step guide on how to safely,

Starting point is 00:00:48 easily and affordably secure their financial future through property investment. So to reveal of details welcome back to the show nicola thanks bushy thanks for such a lovely introduction i'm excited actually yeah i think it's a it's going to feel a really good niche in the market and congratulations on getting the book out there i think it's it's very timely but to sort of kick things off diving into that why is the subject of female investors so close to your heart well to start off with for all of those reasons that you outlined in in the intro there bushy you know quite horrifying statistics of the poor financial outcomes for women you know you could probably blanket it as that statement right and whether it's you know during their working lives

Starting point is 00:01:29 or in their twilight years where more women more single women than men are living in poverty in Australia in retirement more more women than men are having to sell the family home and move into rental accommodation in retirement and more elderly single women than men are having to return to the workforce because they just do not have the funds to survive you know 10 or 20 years that you know I suppose the twilight of your life and they don't have the funds available um so you know those sort of statistics are a very very strong motivator for myself and for Kate uh for me personally I am the product of everything that we talk about in in the book I um started buying property in my early 30s when I was a single and I bought a built portfolio by myself while I was

Starting point is 00:02:18 single doing those things when I'm doing that when I was in my 30s has made a huge difference in my life in my 40s and beyond I'm now married I still retain ownership of several properties outside of my marriage I have financial independence from my husband we we build assets together but both of us are dedicated to our having financial independence from each other. And that's very important for me as a female investor, as a feminist, that I wanted to, so important to me that I wanted to pass on everything that I have learned from doing it myself, but also from, you know, being involved in the industry for so many decades and having access to a lot of information. I was talking to someone the other day, I think I've written more than a million words about property over my

Starting point is 00:03:09 career. So, you know, that is some of the reasons why it was so important to me. And I did have the idea for the book several years ago. And it was about June last year where Kate and I decided that we would team up and write it together. Fantastic. Well, very exciting. And it really does fill a niche. But one of the things I want to sort of drill into, the book provides an overview for women interested in strategic property ownership. Can you enlighten us a little more on this concept please nicole it was it was very interesting um during the you know the process of getting the book published which is through wiley um you know actually when you write a book um you have to come up with the avatar of your of your reader for us it's it's every it's

Starting point is 00:03:53 half the world's population uh so probably not very niche uh and we were very mindful that we wanted to pass on information to women to understand how they can strategically buy property because we recognize that many women um you know don't may not be able to buy an investment property as such but what we want them to know about is how to buy a home with an investment mindset um and and even going so far as uh for women who may need to live in a particular location because of family responsibilities and this is for single and women that are in relationships because every you know each person has different risk profiles and i've certainly met many women whose husbands actually were more conservative risk wise um where they would

Starting point is 00:04:43 understand that they could understand the things that would enable them to purchase a property strategically in a particular location so that it could do more heavy lifting for them financially over the years ahead so when you know the book is called the female investor creating wealth security and freedom through property um but it touches on both of those things it's certainly for women who may want to buy an investment property or investment properties um and we believe that you know most women should be able to do that but it's also for women um who want to understand if they perhaps um have one more opportunity to buy up to purchase a home how they can select one that may grow in value the most over the years ahead yeah brilliant awesome now

Starting point is 00:05:28 as a successful property investor yourself is there anything that you would have done differently if you had your time again and then in the book we we are as warts and all we talk about the good stuff and we talk about the bad stuff i think there's actually a chapter in there called the truth about property investment and during the book we actually you know provide our own stories of when we've stuffed up you know we all we all pay learning fees right when as property investors and we're learning as we're going and and certainly myself probably the number one thing that um oh we could always say i wish i'd started earlier but uh the number one thing was i bought an off the plan unit um in south brisbane in 2012 um at the time uh it was 425 top floor i mean it's

Starting point is 00:06:14 actually a very nice building but as we all know you know horrendous oversupply happened in that location um i still have that in my portfolio only because uh it's 2022 now um it's settled in uh i think it was july 2013 from memory it's only now worth as much as i paid for it wow um so that was a huge learning fee for me to you know to have to pay um and was because at the time i knew a lot about real estate because i was working at the reoq but i didn't know a lot about investing strategies so if i had my time again if i'd spent that 425 um i could have bought quite a nice little renovator house um you know closest to brisbane or adelaide or anything like that and it probably be worth double what i paid uh so that is my number one big boo-boo uh and throughout the

Starting point is 00:07:10 as i say we all we all you know i'm sure you've got some interesting ones yourself and we've all got anchors in our portfolio um and certainly my intention is to try and jettison that one uh now that i can actually get my money back yeah brilliant well look uh it's really good that you're doing awards and all share the good bad and the ugly because that's you know we we learn more from the bad stuff than we do the good stuff generally so uh and which which means it's going to be a great read so how can women and and i'm assuming it's not while it's targeting women it's going to be just as relevant for men how can we get a copy of your book then nicola that's right i mean the information in there is not gender specific uh however the you

Starting point is 00:07:51 know it's targeted to women for all the reasons that we've outlined um that we want them to uh take control of their financial future um it comes out in bookstores on the 1st of april um it is actually available for pre-order now um the usual suspects amazon booktopia um the major book retailers are starting are stocking it online as well but physically in the bookstores um first week in april which is really exciting so um if anyone would like to we've had some really good sales coming through online as well so um things are looking good for us and and like you said i really hope um that men get behind the book as well if they wanted to support a female in their lives whether that is their their daughter their wife their mother

Starting point is 00:08:34 their auntie, their female friend, or even if they wanted to pretend, put another book on the outside and they're reading it on the inside, then that'd be good too. You might have to come up with a couple of covers, I reckon. No, I love it. That's absolutely fantastic work, Nicola, and thanks for sharing this and the opportunity that you've created for people on the show today. Thanks, Bushy. Thanks so much for having me. Thanks, Nicola. Well, there you have it. If you're a woman or you know a woman who's worried about a financial future and is looking for a simple yet powerful guide that will teach you the ins and outs of the property market and reveal how you can grow a modest sum into a small fortune that's going to help you achieve financial

Starting point is 00:09:16 independence, provide for your family, prepare for your retirement and realise your best life, make sure they grab a copy of The Female Investor.

Property Hub - Investment Insights & Inspiration - Realty Talk Vault: Female Investor Guide

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