Updated July 2023

Financial or investment advisers (previously called “planners) can help you with planning your financial future, managed funds, shares, indirect property investing and more. They’ll  tell you to diversify, but If you’re interested in direct property investing, you’re usually on your own working through the real estate investing maze.

In 2003 doing some investing research, I went to a seminar in Queensland. The promise was to help you decide how to diversify and whether to  invest in property, shares or both.  My husband and I had started a property and share portfolio, but wanted to be sure we were on track, with a good strategy and enough diversification.

The trouble was, the guru I was checking out turned out to be a super conman. It would be kind to call him a spruiker or his methods a scam. After the hype, happy clapping and punch the air music came the:

“you’re not living the life of your dreams, let’s get a bit of group bonding and motivation going (turn up that music!),
so all you need to do is “think and grow rich”, just see how easy it is to do (break this arrow with your bare neck),  buy our system”

… sound familiar?

Enough!
It broke my heart seeing mum and dad investors mortgaging their homes for tens of thousands of dollars worth of dodgy investment coaching.

So,  a mercy call to my brother – to the rescue and escape, a lovely drive to a gorgeous town on the coast, he was on a mission to buy a boat. A few weeks later, and after some research, we bought two investment properties in the town.

It reinforced our decision to invest in real estate, perhaps not the way planned – but at least we were well on the path. Of course the money- back guarantee was worthless – ASIC and ACCC were no help either (small price to pay – less than $100, lessons learned, and we did get to visit our Queensland family).

I’ll cover specific tips on investing plans and strategies in future posts.

Tips and Tools:

• To help you in times of change – see BiG’s Investing and Moving Cheese
• To help you set your sites clearly and deal with life not going to plan – check out Dr Darryl Cross ‘s (Clinical and Organisational Psychologist) short video Life is a Zig Zag
• Explore BiG for more ideas in the areas interesting to you, the Gurus and Guru Cops can help you avoid the dodgey ‘experts’