Dear friend,
If you had to describe your life in just a few sentences… how would you start?
Gary Vaynerchuk (founder of VaynerMedia and the man behind some of General Electric, Uniliver, Johnson’s, Toyota and PepsiCo’s most successful marketing campaigns) did an interesting experiment a while back:
He spent a whole day volunteering at a senior citizen home. And as he was working, he asked the folks about their lives.
You want to know what most of them said?
It’s been almost two years since we sold all our ‘stuff’, packed up our important belongings and put into storage and left Australia with 3 suitcases.
Some people thought we were mad at the time but most were inspired and excited to see us choose a new life experience for our family.
I have to say it wasn’t without it’s challenges but the whole trip has far exceeded our expectations.
The beautiful countryside, the open hearted people, the delicious food and of course the exceptional wine… all played a huge part in us creating the experience of a lifetime.
But the journey has come to an end (for now) and we are excited to be heading home to reconnect with everyone.
Here’s a short video to keep you going until we see you next month!
Our choice to live in another country, experience a new culture and learn a new language was a massive investment in ourselves and we are forever grateful to have had this opportunity.
Thanks to everyone that sent words of encouragement and support since we’ve been away. We look forward to being a part of your lives in 2017 and beyond!
Two of my favourite French words that I’ve learned in my time here are Reposer and Réfléchir.
I’ll translate them further down this post and explain why they are important to remember this festive season….
Before you scroll down, click play to hear a short Christmas message from my wife Marisa, me, and our two beautiful kids, Elijah and Emily:
As you can see it’s a bit chilly here right now – so I’m hoping you’re enjoying some Aussie sunshine as we rug up by the fire and wait for Santa to rock up!
Before you go full steam ahead into the festive season, plant a few seeds in your mind about what you would like to achieve next year or at least what you would like to do differently. [Read more…]
Kieran Clair, editor of Australian Property Investor magazine announced in a statement this week that the national magazine was closing its doors.
On an announcement given to MediaWeek Kieran said,
After its 20 years on the magazine rack, I’m sad to say the new media environment has caught up with our wonderful publication. API magazine has closed its doors with the current issue being its last release. A decision to wind up the company was communicated to both the staff and I yesterday.”
The news comes as quite a shock to over 130,000 of the magazine’s avid readers, and even more so to our Property Resource Shop community, as Kieran Clair, Mitch Bloyce and the rest of the team at API magazine have been solid supporters of our members and property networking events for the past decade.
If there’s one constant in this world it’s change. As investors, we need to be able to adapt to the ever changing landscape that surrounds us.
That being said, being a property investor gives you some distinctive advantages that will probably last for as long as you’re in business, as well as your grandkids and their grandkids.
Bricks and mortar, compared to media, software, or tech, is a solid investment vehicle for two key reasons:
Not all industries have the luxury noted in point 2… and just this week with the liquidation of API magazine we have seen proof of that.
No doubt the changing landscape of the print and online publishing sector has meant that even the larger and more successful businesses need to adapt or die.
This provides a timely opportunity to reassess our own goals and commitments as we move towards 2017
As property investors, our focus should be to become experts at solving problems and that includes having the ability to foresee those problems and act accordingly to mitigate the risk they present.
The API team regularly published success stories detailing case studies from investors implementing active property investing strategies in the current market… some of which were from our own Property Resource Shop members.
On behalf of everyone at the Property Resource Shop, I thank Kieran and his awesome team at API magazine for the contribution they have made to our wonderful property investing community.
If you’ve enjoyed reading API magazine over the years, please leave a comment below letting Kieran and the entire API team know they’ll be missed!
I had a recurring dream as a kid… well it was more like a nightmare actually.
This massive brown bear would chase me along an abandoned, dirt track in the middle of nowhere, growling and panting as it moved ever closer.
The bear never caught me but I still have vivid memories of the fear that engulfed me as my little legs carried me as fast as they could down the lonely track, away from danger