Did you know that living abundantly is possible even when you have debts? Read on to find out how.
Debt can either be a zero-sum game or an infinite game.
It can be a zero-sum game if you simply focus on getting debt and paying it down just like that. In the context of buying properties, this could mean something like, “I’m going to buy one house and pay it off with one or two houses, or three houses.” That is a zero-sum game. That means you’re going to get to the x and that is it.
But at the same time, debt could also be an infinite game. Here’s an example to prove my point:
Let’s say you buy a property at $500,000 with a 10% deposit. And let’s just say it’s 20% costs all-in. Once you’ve got all the purchasing costs and all of that… you get 20% total capital into a property.
So now, let’s just say that property goes up to $600,000. If you then refinance to take out that $100,000, you’ve essentially got no money left in that deal. What that means is you still own the asset. But every single cent that that asset makes from that point onwards is an infinite return.
Why?
Because you’re making money off zero capital, zero residual capital contribution.
In other words, through debt, you can create an infinite return to maximise results.
That’s how you should treat debt if you want to be a property investor. You must think of debt as a tool that provides infinite possibilities to increase your profits.
And in this article, we’ll talk more about the right mindset property investors should adopt to live an abundant life.
The Mindset Shifts You Need to Live in Abundance:
Mindset Shift #1 – Be An Asset Millionaire
A big trap that a lot of property investors get into is they tend to be massive equity millionaires versus asset millionaires. Being an asset millionaire means being only mildly liquid while most of your money is invested in assets such as property investments.
The thing is, being an equity millionaire can only do so much. But if you get into debt and sacrifice a majority of your equity to invest in assets…
You’re going to build a bigger and more significant portfolio.
Mindset Shift #2 – Think of Banks as Strategic Partners
Another way to think about debt is it’s like being in a partnership. By being in debt, you are giving some degree of ownership of your asset to another individual, right?
You can also think of it this way. Incurring debt with banks for property investment is like getting someone to fund a business with you.
Let’s say you want to buy a $10 million block of apartments. Now, you don’t have enough cash on you to buy the entire thing. But you know you have the capacity to turn it into something bigger and better.
As a result, you look for someone who is willing to become your partner by financing the project. While you get the cash upfront to start your “business”, they get a proportionate return on their initial investment and the principal amount. That’s a fair deal, right?
In other words, you’re looking for a capital partner to help you build a portfolio that can give you wealth.
That’s how big equity firms deal with debt, too!
Even Blackstone, a huge private equity firm that owns hundreds of thousands of houses doesn’t have the money to buy all the houses in its portfolio. It does not have much cash. But the firm is able to raise funds for its projects. What the firm does is look for partners who can help it get enough capital. And among those partners are banks.
So, a better way to think about debt is to see it as a strategic partnership, rather than this kind of onerous debt conversation that has negative connotations.
Mindset Shift #3 – Understand the Risks
Let’s say you need to get open-heart surgery. But the surgeon who’ll do the surgery has never done that kind of surgery before. The risk of you dying on the operating table is pretty high versus if the surgeon is someone who has 30 years of experience, right?
So, the risk is a factor of knowledge and understanding. This means that the more that you understand a topic, the easier you can manage the risk and the lower the relative risk.
The same thing goes with debt and property, and all of that kind of stuff.
If you don’t know much about property or debt and just listen to the media, then you might be thinking: “I need to reduce all my debt because what if the housing market crashes? What if it crashes by 30 or 40%? I don’t want to go into negative equity!”
But the thing is… you need to actually look at the situation and figure out what is the actual risk to your portfolio.
See, the largest downturn we had in the property market in Australia was around 10% to 15%. It was over a period of a few years. So, when you hear all these doom and gloom reports about the housing market that’s going to crash, compare it to the lowest drop the market has ever seen.
If this kind of decline is something you can deal with… then, frankly, there isn’t really a lot to worry about, right?
But at the same time, you must also factor in the likelihood of a 10% to 15% drop actually happening.
Mindset Shift #4 – Property Should Not be a Short-Term Game
Contrary to what some investors think, property should not be a short-term game. You want to be hanging on to your properties for multiple years.
What’s more, rate rises don’t last forever. They’ve gone up before, right? They go up, and then they go down. And, typically, this happens for two years or something like that. The reality is that property market downturns happen. But then, they bounce right back up.
So as investors, what we need to do is to stay in the game.
The risk of a downturn is not a reason to think small. That is actually a reason to think bigger. Because as these things rebound, and if you can keep pushing forward while other people are contracting…
You’re going to be setting yourself up for even greater levels of success when you come through the other side.
Go Out and Live Abundantly
Let me leave you with one last piece of advice:
If you want to live abundantly, then get rid of the scarcity mindset. Stop focusing on trying to stay still, be stable, and not take on any risk to minimise losses!
Instead, think of the upside. How will you increase your income? How can you become abundant? How can you bake a bigger pie?
Why?
Because on a metaphysical level, your actions will create your reality.
And so the trick is, even when you don’t have much, go out and live as if you are abundant. If you do this and follow the four mindset shifts mentioned earlier, you will find ways to become abundant as a property investor.