Staying on Track – The value of Continued Financial Education, Networking and Goal-setting:

You see it all around you these days; people worried about their financial future, complaining about how hard they have to work to make ends meet or why the government isn’t doing enough to help them.    We, being the owners of a large property management company have even seen a shift in the thinking of most of our real estate investor/clients who have, in recent years stopped buying more properties. They seem to have peaked even though they have not yet reached their final financial goals.  

It even happened to us.  We went like gangbusters buying up several properties in the mid 2000’s, using creative financing techniques and acquiring a fair number of properties, and then we just stopped.  We settled into our 9 – 5 jobs and started complaining about how hard we have to work to pay the monthly bills.  We were not yet living the dream of financial freedom and yet we stopped growing.  In our minds, we had all kinds of excuses as to why we should stop investing;  ‘We had enough’ (according to our critics and family members), ‘We were just being greedy’, ‘We were already working too hard and what we definitely didn’t need was more stuff to do or manage’, ‘We were too busy raising a family’ and finally, the last good excuse ‘We ran out of money!’.  All great excuses, but none-the-less EXCUSES!  The reality was that we didn’t have the momentum to keep going on our own.  We were stuck.  However, in the past 6 months, we have had a change of heart, clarified our strategy and have jumped back into the investing game wholeheartedly.  What changed for us?

The answer is we started attending educational investing seminars and networking groups with like-minded people exactly one year ago. That’s it!  That’s all we did.  Our first event was CREW’s forum in Winnipeg in November 2013.  We haven’t read any extra books or taken any courses.  We haven’t changed our team members or won the lottery or quit our jobs.  In fact, we haven’t changed our lives in any other way except that we have picked up about $3 million dollars worth of property in the past year and can attribute all of this growth none other than to a change in mindset.  It’s a fascinating and amazing concept that being around like-minded and supportive people who are more successful than yourself can make all the difference with words and ideas.

My recommendation to any investor or to any person who is in business for themselves is to stay connected with ‘the group’ if you want to keep growing and getting closer to your goals.   It may be possible to get started as an investor by reading all the right books but if you want to sustain growth, you have to get connected with people.  

So what are the benefits of being part of a group and regularly attending educational and motivational seminars or forums (like the upcoming Canadian Real Estate Wealth Forums this winter)? 

1. Financial Education:  As an example, did you know that Canadians as a whole, have over 1 trillion dollars invested in paper assets that are paying them an average return of 1 to 2% per year and costing them about 2.5% per year in management fees?  Obviously, many of them would be looking for a better solution than negative returns on their money.  And did you know that there are experts who teach courses on how to securely borrow other people’s RRSP money to buy Canadian real estate for yourself? Done correctly, this is a very viable option for credited and responsible investors to further their investment portfolio.  There is so much to learn from people who are financially more successful than yourself.

2. Personal Development and re-evaluating your goals:  Expert motivational speakers or coaches can transform your thinking into believing that you CAN and WILL become financially free. They CAN teach how to attract wealth.   A good coach will hold you accountable and keep you focused. A good speaker will get you thinking, and repeated good speakers will get you into action. 
   
3. Business skills:  This type of education can help grow your business and boost you on your way again to achieving your business goals.  You may learn how to re-brand your business, raise capital or increase your sales through better marketing and leadership skills. There may be something that has your business stuck in a rut and a new pair of eyes and ears may be able to identify the necessary positive changes, make things easier for you as the owner, and increase sales.

4. Networking.  This includes everything from joining a local real estate investing club to driving far distances to attend weekend conventions.  It is easier to be lazy, cheaper to not make the investment, and more normal to complain about one’s situation than make the effort to change it, but the money and time investment into networking with the right people is priceless.  From an island in Honduras, just last summer my husband and I purchased a boutique hotel/restaurant/dive shop because of the support of a fellow we met for the first time at the Toronto forum last March.  Now this fellow is a highly-regarded and well-known figure in the real estate investment world and it was him that we were emailing back and forth from Honduras as a second opinion and for support.  We had never ‘raised capital’ before and needed his vote of confidence and advice as to how to go about it which gave us the confidence to buy the hotel. Had we been in contact with someone who didn’t ‘get it’, we probably would not have bought this business, which would have been a shame.   Being connected with the right people keeps you invigorated and confident that you can take on new challenges.  

Your financial future has nothing to do with how good or bad the real estate market or how the stock market is performing nor has anything to do with the government or the economy.   It has everything to do with you and your mindset – so you have to plan to re-set your mind every once in a while with the right people.  For 2015, I would make it a priority to find out what’s going on in the in ‘investment scene’ and get connected with those people.  Attend forums and seminars and join real estate clubs.  They are affordable and well-worth the initial investment.

by Kathy Berner