Why having a purpose is paramount as a property investor

“If we want to achieve anything important in life, it always starts with what is our ‘why’ and how strong is it? For some of us, that comes naturally, they couldn’t think of anything worse than be having to stay in the workforce until they die. Or having to exit the workforce, but not being able to afford much because the age pension and superannuation will never go very far. So, it’s really understanding what is your why,” Mr Pressley told host Phil Tarrant.

“For some people, they never think of investing, and I always question them to consider, ‘What will your life look like, do you think, if you never invested? Describe to me how your life would be when you’re aged 65 if you don’t invest’. And sometimes that’s what people need to understand their purpose.

“Once we’ve got a really clear purpose, I think we then become more naturally driven to make more responsible and more sophisticated financial decisions.”

To break down your purpose, Mr Pressley encouraged listeners to think about what stage they’re at in their life and how this matches up with their ability to rely on their investments as a sustainable financial income, whether that be right now, or in the future.

“I would encourage everyone to just think about what stage in your life do you want to have the choice. Now, for some people, they say, ‘I love what I’m doing and I can see myself doing this forever’. You might feel that way now, but you won’t necessarily always feel that way [forever].

“So, rather than retirement as in the traditional sense, grey nomads or traveling the world, or whatever, more pick a date or age when you want to have the financial choice to do whatever you want. And then think about what sort of activities will you do. And in today’s dollars, what would that cost from an annual income point of view? And from there you can work backwards to see how big an asset base you need to fund that lifestyle.”

To listen to the full episode featuring Simon Pressley, click here.