Life Goals Vs Financial Goals - While Your Dreams Should Drive Your Wealth Decisions.

Anthony Perl: [: 00:00:00

Why traditional assumptions about property and lifestyle choices. Might be holding you back and how to make financial decisions that genuinely support your ideal life. I'm your co-host Anthony Pearl, and whether you're a successful business owner, executive, or family seeking to align your wealth with your values, it's time to activate your wealth.

e goals are because it it, I [: 00:01:00

To work out what they are, because it's easy to say, oh, I wanna be a multimillionaire. Do you really wanna be a multimillionaire? Do you really wanna do what's involved in that? Is that really what's important? How do you firstly ascertain life goals? Then actually make a process where you're managing towards that and keeping in check with that.

David Murdoch: That really comes back to our framework approach. So, so when we engage with people initially, we run a framework and discussion, which is usually a two step process. It's an hour and a half to two hours to start with, and then we present the results back sort of seven to 10 days later. Now, we digitally record the whole conversation because we do, we move all over the place because we have a full range of.

a real conversation starter. [: 00:02:00

And so the questions will sort of maneuver and then, and that's on an individual basis with the couple. So we want to get some clarity because. It can be at a certain age. Some people will always, you know, they, they've got a real desire to be a business owner as opposed to, I'm happy to be an employee. Do you know what I mean?

It just, sometimes that's a real preference for different people. But the second part of that is a much broader sort of question that, that we would give to people where we just we're trying to scratch the surface and delve a little bit deeper. And so some of the questions can be things like, what was money like for you growing up?

s success look like for you? [: 00:03:00

Three years to be seen as a success. It can be, you know, what are your relationships with your parents and siblings, community, church, you know, hobbies, all of these very broad sort of questions and you know, what do you like to read? Oh, I don't read much. Okay. So I'm a very visual person or, oh, I've had this hobby that I used to do a lot of, I used to be, I used to love drawing, but I just haven't had time to do that and Oh, I'd love to understand.

if they've got entities and [: 00:04:00

So through that. Then from there, that just helps us determine what we see as some of the priorities that they may have, because it will vary upon just how they respond to some of those questions, but also how their partner reacts to some of those statements, because that's also an indicator's like, wow, I didn't realize you wanted to do that.

You know, as you made the example before about, you know, I wanna start a business. Okay. Well, someone's like, oh, I didn't realize you wanted to do that. Oh, I'd love to be able to do that. Do and do you, and so part of the advice might be, do you realize and understand the steps involved in that process? No.

for it. So it's through that [: 00:05:00

We want to capture. And so we may ask a question once, but then we may ask it in a very similar way, further down the, and they go, well, you've sort of kind of asked me that question, but we won't always just say, it's a bit like I want to travel. Okay. Where? Oh, Europe. Okay. Let's be a little bit more specific.

Right. Timeframe, summer, winter. Do you want to go for a week? Do you wanna go for a month? Do you wanna go for six months? Do you wanna go for three months? Do you want to drive? Do you wanna train? Do you wanna ride a bike? Do you wanna go on a boat? Like you start to get really specific for us to ask people these types of questions and look, some of that comes out in the initial stages.

to stay in Australia. Great. [: 00:06:00

We wanna delve sometimes two and three and four levels lower to really understand what the essence of what it is that they're looking to do. And because it's been recorded, when we present back to them, we can give a direct quote. That says, you said this. Well, now that I've thought about it a bit more, that's not exactly what I meant.

Great. Please explain that a little bit further. What is it that you meant? Well, it was this and this great. Or, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I, I did say that and I absolutely want do something like that. Perfect. Like that just gives us clarity to help guide them and to remind them. This is what you said to us two years ago.

Anthony Perl: Oh, [: 00:07:00

'cause why? 'cause everyone does it. Yeah, everyone does it. You gotta travel the world. And it was interesting, I was having this discussion with someone who's older, closer to retirement recently, and he just returned from a trip and asked him how it was and he said, I'm not going again. And I said, why not?

He said, I miss the grandkids too much. Perfect. And, and that was, you know, and he said, I just, you know, it's not that I can't, I can afford to go. They were away for, I dunno, it was four or six weeks and he was with a couple the other couples and he said, no, I'm not going yet. I, I don't wanna be that far away for that long from the grandkids.

I spent the whole time missing them, you know? But there's a, now's the time to be back.

t, I didn't, so now it might [: 00:08:00

And people don't always think that they go, oh, I hadn't thought about doing that. Yeah, that's probably not a bad idea. Oh, that's gonna cost me a bit, mate. Just, and again, you have these conversations, so Yeah, but you just said that the financial side of it's not an issue. You can afford to go and do this, so why would you not allocate some money to take.

I don't know, the 12 or 14 or 20 of you away somewhere. Like, it doesn't have to be overseas and everywhere. It can be just locally like, oh, okay. Oh, but the kids are at different ages. I said, yeah, but isn't that exciting? Like, you know, either a big house or try and get multiple houses, so everyone's close to it.

t might be. That's always an [: 00:09:00

And when you asked the follow up question, how was it, would you do it again? Yeah. Not really. Why? Oh, I sort of didn't like the food. Got sick of having to move in and out of a suitcase. You know what, I'm quite happy to, you know, hook up the caravan and drive around Australia for six months, or I'll go up to Queensland or I'll go to Perth or do you know what I mean?

And so it helps people just finesse and get narrower. What they wanna do. But then other people, it makes it really, why? 'cause they go, oh, I've got all these opportunities, what could I do? And that's when the questions are, say, okay, you can do whatever you want. But for us to help you transition into that and work towards that, we've gotta be a little bit more specific just to say, I want to go traveling.

e lot of stuff that we need. [: 00:10:00

They're very open in a lot of areas and we want people to articulate and also to say in front of their partner. 'cause that's when there's an element of accountability too. You promised yes to you.

Anthony Perl: And I also love it how you're influenced by those people around you. And I have an old friend and we don't see each other that often, so we're probably not, don't influence each other well enough that often.

But what was really interesting was we both bought houses at the same time outside of Sydney for different reasons. Yep. So they bought it as a holiday house. So they sort of said to me, you know, probably once every six weeks we'll go there and we'll spend a couple of days there. And that's kind of what it's for.

we come back. Right? And so, [: 00:11:00

But it's interesting how those different life, you know, we both had life goals to not live in the city. But you know, your ability to deliver on them and when, and what really matters, when it really matters can be completely

David Murdoch: different. But see, that's also another example where again, you go back, well I was influenced because that's the way things were done.

Classic. Like what you've just said. So people go, I'll buy the holiday house. Oh. 'cause I can afford to. Okay, so how often would you think you'll go there? Oh, we'll probably, you know, we'll do the month at Christmas time 'cause we like to do that. And maybe a couple of weekends over the year, you know, here and there.

bably doesn't get used a lot [: 00:12:00

Is that a good use of your capital? Yeah, but I just wanna be able to leave stuff there and use it. So again. $2 million invested in a holiday house. Okay, happy about that. Now let's look at $2 million invested in an equity portfolio that could give you the options where you could go away every second or third week into a different place in an Airbnb.

'cause the income stream that's coming out of that, and let's say it's 10%, so there's 200 grand coming out every year just to make it round numbers. That's a lot of the Airbnbs for a weekend. It can be an overseas trip. You don't have to worry about maintenance do. Do you know what I mean? And so then it becomes this challenging question to people go, oh, probably not a bad idea.

in rent for a [: 00:13:00

It's the same with people where in your situation, you've moved out of Sydney, okay? So you live in, so all of a sudden people go, oh no. So then I'll just buy another, like an apartment in Sydney so I can just stay there. When I come into Sydney, I'm like, okay, again, same argument. Why would you do that? So that's gonna cost you, and I don't know the prices in Sydney, but let's call it a, you know, a million bucks for a decent, um, apartment that you would be comfortable in that can accommodate enough [00:14:00] people.

Well. Again, let's invest a million dollars elsewhere. 'cause you don't have all the ongoing costs and cleaning and insurance and everything else that goes with property. And I'm not saying it's not gonna go up in value. Looking at our on a pure lifestyle decision. That investment can be you. You just find a good hotel that you stay at.

Every time you come to Sydney, they get to know you, you ringer. You get prefer preferential treatment. You walk in with your overnight bag, you work your appointments around that basis. You have one, maybe two nights, and it might be every four to six weeks. You walk in, walk out. Thanks very much. Clean sheets, everything's done.

Normally you're in Sydney for various appointments or reasons to see people, so it's not like you're gonna be sitting around your apartment, you know, enjoying where it is. It's a functional requirement. I need a bed for the night. So why would you tie a million dollars of capital up that is not really working that hard for you?

this challenging in, in, in [: 00:15:00

No problem. Let's make it happen. But that's where the alternative of renting somewhere for 12 months to get a feel to. 'cause you don't always wanna have to go there, like, let's look at some alternative. So it depends on the person's personal situation too. Sometimes people are like, oh, I love to be able to go a different place all the time to explore other people.

They, they like to go back to the same place every year. They've been doing that for 30 years and they love doing that. Okay.

Anthony Perl: It's, it's interesting that you say those two things because you know, I look at it and I go exploring the new area. So we found ourselves, we, we we're building a house and when we were looking for the house, we decided on a nominal area based on time to get back to Sydney for various reasons.

And that [: 00:16:00

Why didn't we consider this? And it would've been, you know, completely different. And, and you know, you just, so you should've come to seen me

David Murdoch: earlier, Anthony.

Anthony Perl: I, I, I should have, I should have, I should have done, but it's interesting as well, and I just wanted to, to finish up as well on this kind of topic, saying that, you know, probably our generation and generations proceeding, ours have been drummed into our head that, you know, the first thing you buy is your home and that you've just gotta pay your home off.

lative, you know, relatively [: 00:17:00

Still always an automatic life goal for everybody. Does it need

David Murdoch: to be? Correct. And that's where you come back to understanding where they talk about the red vest. So rent in the area that you like to live in, but you might have exposure to direct real estate through an investment strategy, like at the younger ones.

So they're like, well, I can't afford to buy a house in the suburb I like to live in, but I can rent. But you still might have two or three pieces of real estate. So you have, you still have direct real estate exposure, but it's in a, a house or an apartment that may not accommodate you. Now again, I think that's changing in this country.

e gotta move again. Compared [: 00:18:00

But again, this is part of the dialogue in the discussions of where people's lifestyles. Moving to, and so people are evolving to this period. Where do I really wanna keep that really big house? You know, when none of my children live at home and I've got, you know, a four bedroom, five bedroom house and none of the kids live there.

Yes, a great asset, but do I want to keep moving? I don't go upstairs anymore. I don't, I get sick of doing the garden. Do you know what I mean? And so it's like, okay, well let's do some sta staged approaches. Maybe you do want to keep it there because it's a very tax effective asset, but it's not generating any income for you.

uld do. And because everyone [: 00:19:00

Like, it's so good. Everybody was here, like, you know, this is. As I said, we're all living longer like you retire at, or you might stop working in your mid sixties or early seventies. You could still live another 20 years. What are you gonna sit on the, on the, the deck all day or play golf every second? Like you, you gotta find other stuff to do.

That's how I look at keep yourself mentally stimulated, but challenge and have a bit of fun and do something a little bit different. Again, that's my view on a lot of stuff. I just think, just 'cause everyone else's stuff, it doesn't mean I have to.

Anthony Perl: Thanks for tuning in to the Activate Your Wealth Podcast for more information about how to get in contact with David Murdoch and the team at Paxton Bridge.

To learn more [: 00:20:00