Understand your own relationship with money
In our series asking rich Kiwis how they made their fortunes, Graeme Fowler tells how he worked 12-hour days to save the deposit on his first investment property.
Graeme Fowler made his first million dollars in 2000, when he was 36, through property investing.
‘‘More specifically, it was mostly through buying and selling properties at that time.’’
He entered the property market after reading Bob Jones’ book, Jones on Property. Fowler was working as a motor mechanic at the time.
He said he had always been very good at saving and sometimes worked 12-hour days doing overtime to save more money.
‘‘It took 18 months to save my first deposit at age 22 to 24 and I saved $25,000 starting from nothing.
‘‘The property I bought in Wellington turned out to be a terrible decision and I ended selling it seven years later for a $40,000 loss. But it was the best thing that could have happened, because I learned so much from that, so many lessons.’’
He’d earlier read books about having a positive mental attitude to allow money to come to him more easily.
Fowler said most people believed that money was ‘‘bad’’ or ‘‘evil’’ or that they were not worthy of having it.
‘‘So, even the people that end up winning money in Lotto, often they’ve lost it all again relatively quickly. Believing money is bad or having money is wrong, they need to separate themselves from it and get it away from them, otherwise they will be bad as well. That’s how the mind works. Without understanding your own relationship with money and how that affects almost everything you do financially, the chances of being rich are almost zero.’’
Fowler said that were he to start again in his early 20s, he would see if he could find someone who was successful and had been doing it for a long time to advise him.
‘‘Don’t call me, I don’t do mentoring! I did it many years ago, and also did 12 months’ free mentoring for about 60 Hawke’s Bay people in 2014 and 2015.
‘‘It was at this time, I had the idea of buying a few properties well with good yields and then refinancing them. The rent had to cover the mortgage on a 20-year principaland-income loan, the rates, insurance and property management. They were financed 100 per cent through the bank and I managed to buy 20 like that in 2014. I then wrote a book about how I went about that called 20 Rental Properties in One Year.
‘‘With the Hawke’s Bay investors that I was helping for 12 months, I started a Facebook group so we could all chat to each other on there. In 2016 after I finished the mentoring, I opened the group up to other investors throughout New Zealand and it has now grown to 25,000 people. The group is called Property Investors Chat Group NZ.
‘‘There is a wide range of not only residential and commercial property investors in the group, but also property managers, accountants, lawyers, mortgage brokers, trades-people, real estate agents etc. The knowledge of the entire group is immense, so anyone wanting to learn about property, it would be a must to join.’’
Fowler said many people he knew lost everything in the global financial crisis because their investing rules worked only if the market kept going up.
‘‘I have never been concerned ever about what the market is doing. It’s one of the most boring subjects I can think of. The reality is I just don’t care if prices go up, down or stay the same for the next 100 years. I’ve always had the thought that if the property makes sense today and you can finance it, then buy it. What prices do after that, I don’t care.’’
He said he had made a lot of mistakes over his 30-year investing life but had also learnt hundreds of lessons.
‘‘I wouldn’t say I feel rich, but I do feel comfortable and very happy. We have enough money now which is equivalent to winning one of the bigger Powerball draws in Lotto, between $15 million and $20m if we sold our 80 rental properties. Money doesn’t make you happy. Some of the poorest people in the world are the happiest.
‘‘I think what prevents happiness in a lot of people is comparing themselves to others and what other people’s lives appear to be like. This is even more prevalent now with Facebook and Instagram where you can see what others are doing every day in their lives. Rather than comparing themselves with how they were a year ago, they compare themselves with others who are often trying to look good. Then they get upset at their own life and set of circumstances.’’
‘‘I wouldn’t say I feel rich, but I do feel comfortable and very happy.’’
Graeme Fowler