What would you do if you found yourself debt and mortgage free by your early 40’s? No more mortgage repayments. No rent. No other debts.

You’d feel rich, right?

$800 a week is $41,600 a year of household income you didn’t have before. Do you need to invest it? Well, not if you don’t want to. You’re rich after all…

But if you’ve got 20+ years of working life still ahead of you, the game doesn’t stop there.

If you did nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, and just parked that $800 a week in a savings account for 10 years, you’d land somewhere around $416,000, give or take a bit of bank interest.

Seems like a lot right? You’re in your 40’s, no more mortgage payments, and you’re feeling rich.

Now fast forward 10 years… You’re 50, and you’ve got $400k+ sitting in savings.

Do you still feel rich? Or do you sit there thinking, I should have done more?

The Space of ‘Pause’:

We are working with clients right now who are in exactly this position, and they’re unsure of their next move. We’ve been busy filling the financial knowledge gaps with their financial planner, and their buyers agent. But they’re paused, cautious about the current environment for both investments and property.

And in my opinion? Rightly so.

We’re heading into uncharted waters, and everything carries risk right now. What if the returns on your hard-earned money aren’t there in 10 years? What if you make a mistake? What if you invest in the wrong thing?

Fair questions, all worthy of deliberation. But here’s the one that matters more:

What if you leave it in the bank and do nothing at all?

Because that’s the worst option on the table. If you’ve got a high income, no mortgage, and 20+ years ahead of you, you don’t need to do everything, but you need to do something, and the longer you wait, the longer you miss out on investment growth.

If you’ve got $800 a week disposable income to work with and you still think you “can’t afford” to own an investment property, or invest in your future, you’re wrong. That’s not a numbers problem. That’s a perspective problem. So consider what that perspective is actually costing you, because every month that slips on by where you keep telling yourself you can’t afford it, is another month of growth you’ll never get back…

Get Your Advisers To Educate You On Your Options:

Speak with your financial planner. Ask them to show you, in real terms, what $800 a week looks like in “financial planning land” for whatever product, stock, or portfolio suits you best. Ask them to walk you through compounding interest. Look at the charts. Look at the forecasts. Get clear on this: if you do nothing, you’ll have $416,000 in 10 years. Ask what financial planning can actually do for you beyond that?

Get clear on what financial planning can actually do for you, not just what it sounds like it can do.

Then have the same conversation with your buyers agent. Same starting point: if you do nothing and just save, you’ll have $416,000. What can property do for you instead? What are the risks? Get them to show you a real 5 to 10 year strategy, built on real data, that speaks to growth rates, the broader property market historically, and the current market you’re buying into.

Get clear on what property can actually do for you, not just what it sounds like it can do.

And don’t stop at the strategy. Think about lending policy and loan structure too. If your broker cross-collateralises your property with the one you’re planning to sell down the track, you can find yourself stuck, unable to sell, unable to refinance, right when the market turns against you.

Getting the lending right isn’t just an exit consideration. It’s an accumulation strategy in its own right.

How you structure your loans while you’re building the portfolio is just as important as how you unwind it later. Get it wrong at the start, and you’re limiting your own borrowing capacity, your flexibility, and your options five properties down the track. There’s a sequence to build wealth, and there’s a sequence to dismantle it, and your finance coach, finance broker, your financial planner and accountant need to be working together on all ends, not just the second half, so you’re not handing half of it back in capital gains tax when it’s finally time to sell.

And through all of this, never be afraid to challenge your advisers. Ask them what they’re personally doing with their own money. Do they own the property they’re telling you to buy? Are they invested the way they’re telling you to invest? That’s how you know they’ve actually got the experience you’re paying for, not just the qualification.

And here’s the red flag to watch for: if any adviser tells you to do one thing, but does something different with their own money, that’s a concern. That’s not someone invested in your outcome. That’s someone looking for a sale, a commission, a box ticked. Get comfortable asking the question, because the right advisor won’t flinch at it. They’ll welcome it.

What Happens When You Need $40,000 Tomorrow:

Between property and investments, think about your buffer. If you’re working with us, you’ll already have one. But ask yourself the real question: if an emergency hit and you needed $40,000 fast, which is easier to access? Shares you can sell a portion of, or refinancing an investment property?

Because remember, you can’t sell a bathroom. If life throws something at you, it’s the whole house or nothing.

You could also look at precious metals, crypto, and other vehicles along the way, but you’re largely on your own for the research here. According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), no one in Australia is generally licensed to give personal financial advice specifically on physical gold, physical silver, or spot cryptocurrencies. They sit outside the regulated financial products covered by the Corporations Act, so you won’t find a licensed adviser guiding you through that decision the way they would for shares or super.

Whatever you choose, only invest in what you actually believe in. Not what’s trending. Not what your mate at the barbecue is up 40% on. Not what a headline told you was the “next big thing.” If you don’t understand it, and you don’t believe in it, you won’t hold your nerve when it dips, and you’ll make the wrong call at the worst possible time.

And that’s the thing about a decision you actually believe in: it holds up when the environment around it changes. Which it will.

The Goalposts Move Whether You Like It or Not:

Above everything else, stay conscious of this: government policy can shift the goalposts at any time, lending rules are forever changing, and tax policies also change. What works for you today might not work in five years.

Put your investor hat on. Take a hard look at your money, what today’s decisions actually mean for you, and get serious, because not deciding is still a decision. And it’s usually the one that costs you the most.

Two Steps Before Anything Else:

Step 1 – Get clear on your why. Why is investing important to you? What do you want it to achieve for you? Generational wealth? A comfortable retirement? Taking time away from work in your 50’s? What is your why?

Step 2 – Flesh out your budget and know exactly what you can afford to contribute, without sacrificing the wants and needs of your actual life. Be realistic about your spending profile here. Just because you have the money to spend doesn’t mean you should be overspending and investing at the same time. Get serious about what matters to you and your family, because in 10+ years, these conversations will be long gone.

Then get serious about the splits. Consistent savings. Consistent spending. Numbers that don’t move around depending on your mood or your month. Work within the parameters of your own budget, and stay there.

Because any deviation now, inside a 10 year window, can be a significant disadvantage to you.

That’s not a guilt trip about a pair of jeans. It’s compounding daily actions by you, working against you instead of for you. Every dollar that slips outside your plan today isn’t just a dollar, it’s a dollar that never gets the chance to grow for the next decade. So ask yourself honestly: were those new jeans worth missing out on a better retirement position?

What you’ll be left with is the result of the work you put in, or the result of doing nothing and just putting money in the bank.

It All Starts With the Right Budget Plan:

Strip away the property talk. Strip away the financial planning talk. Strip away the compounding and the splits and the discipline.

None of it works without a budget underneath it. None of it.

Your budget is what tells you the truth about what $800 a week can become. It’s what holds the line when a “quick” purchase threatens to quietly undo ten years of work. It’s the difference between talking about $416,000 and actually having it.

Get that right first. Everything else gets easier from there.

*Disclaimer: None of the above is financial advice. It’s a perspective on how to think once you’re out of the grind of paying a mortgage and bills forever, and what to consider if your mortgage gets paid off early. But please, whatever you do, don’t just do nothing. Get advice. Get clear on your goals. Get clear on your why. And make an educated decision on what the right path forward looks like for you and your family. And above all else get your budget right, because none of this happens without your budget!