Investor tip: Fortune favors the brave
Go big or go home—this has been Jeremy Iannuzzelli's motto when he started investing in properties at 21. Five years later, he was able to build an impressive nine-property portfolio worth more than $2 million and he's not planning to stop anytime soon.
"I started the journey about five years ago and I really said to myself, 'You know what, I got to make a good go of it. I'm not going to take a half attempt and fail. I'd rather just go hard and really just put myself into it.' ‘Neck deep,’ as they say, and just give myself all the opportunity in the world that I can. ‘Fortune favors the brave,'" he told Smart Property Investment.
Like many property investors, he started his property investment journey with research, learning as much as he can about the business of creating wealth through property from different resource materials as well as successful investors.
His initial goal was to acquire 10 properties by the time he reached 30. Because of his perseverance and determination, the young investor is now only one property away from achieving his investment target, with as long as four years to work for it.
"I started at 21, I did all my research and I said to myself, 'By 30, I would love to achieve 10 properties.' And I thought that was a reasonable goal. I had nine years to do it," Jeremy said.
"Still aggressive, not everyone can achieve that for different circumstances, but I made that my goal and I've been working every day towards that... I'm not too far away, only one more to go, but nevertheless, I'm not rushing to it. If it happens in the next year, or it happens in the next two or three years, as long as I hit my goal of 10 by 30, I'll be very happy."
The young investor believes property investment is not a race with time or with your fellow investors. It is, instead, something to help you afford the financial freedom and stability needed to enjoy a more comfortable life.
While he admits that he started his journey because of the desire to retire young, he has grown to love investing and aims to continue pushing himself to the next level.
"It comes back down to the old rule that it's the time [spent investing] in the property. It's not something that happens overnight, [and] it's definitely not something that happens in one year or two years, it may take a little bit longer," he said.
"I started off as I wanted to retire young. I wanted to get rich and I thought that's the whole goal in life is get rich, retire young and have a ball. But I've started to realise that I love doing what I do, I love investing. I think it's fun, I love educating myself, I love talking and educating other people [about] it. Now, it's changed in the sense that I want it to compliment what I do.
"I think that I would love to replace income with property because it gives you options and having more options in life is fantastic. It allows you to explore different things. That would be a great result...It's all about testing the limits now. It's all about testing myself and how much I've got to give, and that's what I really enjoy the most."
Right now, while he continues to go down the path of success in property investment, the young investor also hopes to inspire young people through his story as an investor-accountant—someone who has had to do some sacrifice to achieve his goals with only a modest income.
"I want to use my own portfolio to assist people to create their own and I like to think that I am a positive influence in the community. I do get out there and spend a lot of time and chat with people. [I don't] necessarily get paid for that time, it's more so just because I love doing what I do... It's something that I'll probably see myself doing until the brain starts to really say ‘No more,'" Jeremy said.
"The goal now in terms of what I want to do is to continue to invest, [and] to really push myself to the next level, but it's transformed in a way that I want to encourage people to really get on board and use myself as an example and say, 'Look, I didn't necessarily have the golden spoon or the silver spoon, it was through hard work and a lot of research and you can achieve it as well,' " he concluded.
Tune in to Jeremy Iannuzzelli's episode in The Smart Property Investment Show to know more about how he built his portfolio even though he wasn’t raking in the cash, how many risks he’s willing to take, and where he hopes his portfolio ends up.