I want to thank all of you for your passionate and brutally honest emails and other communications to me…
Personal financial problems and challenges are something that almost everybody can talk about with familiarity…
That includes me, too!
Now, with all of your responses, I want to not just talk about them…
I want to do much more…
The first stage of changing your life
I want to provide some encouragement to those of you who are at the first stage of changing your lives…
As well as a possible solution or two to get you started on your way to the property ladder.
That first stage of changing your life when you’re up to your neck in too many bills and too few dollars…
Is to embrace two very important facts…
Fact number one is that you now understand your own situation in very real terms.
This means that you’re no longer just living blindly…
Day-to-day, pay cheque-to-pay cheque without thinking about life seriously…
It means that you are now very dissatisfied with where you are and how you are living…
It means that you’ve decided, within yourself, that the status quo is just not enough for you and your family.
Now, that’s a very sobering and difficult place to be, isn’t it?
I know it is…because it was for me.
But it’s also a very important step…
Because now you have anger and frustration, probably a fair bit of fear and perhaps even desperation and emotional fatigue as your constant companions…
But don’t fret about that…
It’s as it should be.
Use your emotions to move you forward
Let me say that again…
Those feelings are important to acknowledge and express outwardly to yourself and to your partner or significant other.
Because in this place of struggle and difficulty, you’re either going to give up…
Or you’re going to change.
I can feel these emotions in your emails to me…
And the second fact is that once you’ve recognized the problem…
Regardless of how many emotions you’re feeling…
There is hope.
That is…
If you’re alive…
If you don’t have a dread disease…
And have your wits about you…
There is not only hope that things will get better…
It’s a fact that they will get better…
But only if YOU change.
You own your life
Once you take this absolute fact on board…
You will begin the process of changing your life.
Think about that for a moment.
Your situation is yours.
You own it.
Your life is yours…
You own that, too.
Ownership means power, whether it’s a property…
Or something much more valuable, such as your life.
You hold the power to change your life…
And don’t believe anyone who says you don’t…
Because once you KNOW that you have the power to change your life…
It will begin to change.
Your personal power will grow
You may not see it at first…
You may not even understand how it will change…
But once you have that fact fixed in your mind…
You will begin to think differently…
Act differently…
And become a better version of you.
Will you have to sacrifice comforts?
Might you have to change where you live?
Maybe move back in with Mum and Dad or rent out a room?
Might you have to find a cheaper car to drive?
Skip the holiday for a year or two, or five?
Maybe.
But while you’re doing that, you’re also communicating with other like-minded people…
You’re making progress in learning not only what it means to live within your means…
But you’re gaining power…
Lots of personal power.
It may not feel like it at first…
And it probably won’t…
But as tough as your sacrifices might be…
As difficult it is to live with less…
You’re gaining personal strength along the way.
Every bill you pay off…
Every dollar you save in the bank…
Is a very important, personal victory.
Every day, every week and every month…
You must be sure to count your victories!
At the same time that you’re doing all of this…
You are learning what you need to know to get into a real estate deal.
You are also communicating with others in your situation…
And most importantly, those who have been in your situation and come out of it.
Opportunities will find you
This is very important because it confirms in your mind what you already know…
It’s hard proof that there is not only hope…
But a demonstration of that hope fulfilled.
Even more than that…
You will find opportunities that you could never imagine would be possible…
And sometimes, they will find you.
One such opportunity may be meeting another person or couple of people who are looking for investment partners…
You’ve spent a good amount of time putting just a bit of money away…
And so have they.
One of your landlords has offered to sell their property to one of you…
So you all agree to help with the down payment.
Or, you pool your money together to buy a cheaper property out in a cheaper area, rehab and then sell it…
And then repeat the same process.
Finally, understand that you’re not alone!
You can read that for yourself in the comments to my last eletter…
Many are in your position…
Many have worked their way out of it…
And so can you!