I spent most of my 20s saving for a deposit for my first flat. Prices had been increasing and I thought if I don’t get a property now I might never be able to. In the summer of 2007, after eight years of saving, I finally had enough for a 10% deposit on a shared ownership flat.
Within three months of going ahead, the credit crunch hit, which turned into the Great Recession. For years I was in negative equity and because I had put everything into that flat, by age 30 my net worth was below zero.
Coming from a family where we were told hard work pays off, I was struggling to see how. But through a combination of advice from my dad, my own research and doubling down on my savings, I started to make headway again.
My approach was messy: buying stocks, chipping away at my mortgage, renting my property (and renting somewhere else to live), buying actively managed investment funds and index funds, and even trading S&P futures directly on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
I’ve tried a lot, had plenty of failures, and some wins along the way.
Now, at 45, I have gone from below zero to building an investment engine of over £1m. This now contributes a meaningful amount into my annual growth, along with savings from my employment income.
My plan is absolutely to continue growing this into the future because the bigger any investment engine becomes the more options it gives us in life.
I’m here to share the approach and the tools I have used to get to this point and help you avoid the mistakes I have made along the way.
Head over to the Financial Freedom Roadmap to see the basic structure behind my thinking and the pathway to financial freedom.
Alan