Have you ever wanted to invest in property? Do you talk about saving and investing but haven’t yet had the courage to jump in? Taking risks can be scary, particularly when you are on a budget. Sometimes hearing someone else’s story makes it easier to begin your own…
My guest today, Tiffany Alexy, bought her first property at 21 (she now owns 11!), and has since started a company that helps people buy, sell and invest in property.
Listen to this episode to hear how she did it, as well as her tips and strategies for how YOU can do it too. “It’s not hard,” Tiffany says “I will say it takes a lot of hard work and dedication.”
Because only YOU can choose to invest in your future financial freedom!
Show Notes
- [01.00] At the age of 21, Tiffany Alexy started to invest in property. She explains how she did it.
- [02.14] The importance of the investments you make before the age of 30.
- [02.51] Invest in property using a strategy called House Hacking.
- [04.26] Building a property portfolio using the BRRRR method (buy-rehab-rent-refinance-repeat). And both the advantages and the disadvantages of it.
- [07.09] A note on Interest Deduction (and how the UK is phasing it out).
- [08.45] The most important thing to do when building any form of leverage portfolio.
- [09.33] Having a buffer is a great financial practice.
- [10.30] Evaluation and screening of tenants in order to protect your investment.
- [12.05] How to secure higher rental deposits and higher income from tenants.
- [13.34] Furnished or unfurnished? So does it make a difference?
- [14.21] Tiffany’s journey into her career in real estate.
- [15.38] Surviving the market ups and downs (and the importance of cash flow management!)
- [17.17] This is what is takes to get into real estate… You can do it too!
- [20.11] Diversification of your investments as you’re building your wealth.
- [23.28] Becoming financially literate, because everybody can do it!
- [25.55] A physical property vs. a property fund.
- [27.23] A word of advice before you invest in property.
Learn more about Tiffany
Connect with Tiffany on Instagram.
Related posts and episodes
- Empowerment through financial literacy with Gugu Sidaki
- The little known, easily fixable reason most people aren’t financially free
- Passive income through property with Tamar Mar
- Investing vs paying off debt
- Rewire your brain and change your limiting beliefs with Michele Molitor
Quotes from this episode
“You can start with just a little bit at a time. It definitely grows.” – Tiffany Alexy
“It’s important too to have a cash cushion available” – Tiffany Alexy
“It’s not hard. I will say it takes a lot of hard work and dedication.” – Tiffany Alexy
“It’s really those first couple of years that are make it or break it” – Tiffany Alexy
“The real challenge is that everyone thinks that it will take quicker than it actually does to make the money” – Lisa Linfield
“You have to build it everyday.” – Tiffany Alexy
“Don’t be overwhelmed with analysis paralysis” – Tiffany Alexy
Join us for the FREE 6 Day Money Sprint!
Transcript
Lisa Linfield (00:09): Hello everybody and welcome to today’s episode. We have Tiffany Alexy and she is joining us to discuss property investing. As you know, we’re in the middle of a series on money and making great use of your money, and so I asked Tiffany to join us to tell us about her journey. She started her own company and helps people to buy, sell, and invest in property. She’s only 30 years old and already owns 11 properties, which is seriously impressive. She’s going to tell us about her journey and how she did it. Welcome to our show, Tiffany.
Tiffany Alexy (00:59):
Thank you for having me.
Lisa Linfield (01:01):
How on earth did you start investing in property at the age of 21 when most of us are still at university or up to our eyeballs in student loan debt and just trying to get by?
Tiffany Alexy (01:13):
Yes. I really had an advantage growing up. My mom was a real estate agent, so I was exposed to the industry at a young age. She had set aside money for me to attend college, and I actually ended up not using the money between getting some scholarships and then working. I worked every summer and I also worked Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I would do my studies between Monday and Thursday during the week and then I would work on the weekends. It was nice because I ended up not even touching the money she’d set aside for me and instead I used that money as the down payment for my first property when I was a senior in college.
Lisa Linfield (01:53):
That’s amazing. I mean, most people would go, “Yipee, I don’t have to pay for my university and all I’m going to do is spend the money that I make on myself.”
Tiffany Alexy (02:02):
Exactly, yeah. People ask me if I feel like I missed out on college experience and I don’t really think I did just because that one move set me up so much for what was to come in my twenties.
Lisa Linfield (02:13):
It is. I was teaching first jobbers, I guess you’d call them graduate recruits, last week and I was talking to them about the absolute importance of the investments that you make before the age of 30. My husband and I, 65% of the money that we have currently is from before the age of 30 and most people only wake up at 30 and start investing. I can imagine that it’ll give you a huge sense of peace of mind knowing that you’re so taken care of your future.
Tiffany Alexy (02:42):
Yes, absolutely. Even if it’s you can start with just a little bit at a time, it definitely grows.
Lisa Linfield (02:47):
It does.
Tiffany Alexy (02:48):
The earlier you start, the better.
Lisa Linfield (02:50):
Absolutely. You described that buying your first property as part of a strategy that you now use a lot called house hacking. What is that?
Tiffany Alexy (03:00):
Yes. In the U.S., buying a property that you will own or occupy, you can get better financing and a better rate on. Typically, for something that is owner occupied, you can put as little as three to 5% down versus 20% down if it’s an investment property, and you also will get a better interest rate. I did that on my first one. When I graduated college, I used the money for a four bedroom, four bath condo and it was only a couple of miles from North Carolina State University in Raleigh. This was back in 2011 when we were just kind of recovering from the ’08 recession. Property prices were pretty low still and this condo was listed for 112,000. I was able to negotiate them down to 101,000, so just over $100,000 for a four bedroom condo. What I did is I moved into one bedroom.
Tiffany Alexy (03:54):
I lived in one bedroom, and I rented out the other three. I was able to essentially cover my mortgage payment, my utilities, the owner’s association fee, and actually still made about a hundred or $200 every month in addition to living there for free.
Lisa Linfield (04:11):
Oh my goodness, that’s fantastic. You also were then able to keep it now as part of your property portfolio.
Tiffany Alexy (04:16):
Exactly. I lived there for a couple of years and then when I moved out of my room, I just rented that room and it turned into a complete rental property.
Lisa Linfield (04:25):
That’s fantastic. What is the strategy that you usually use around getting houses and getting them to make money for you besides house hacking?
Tiffany Alexy (04:36):
Yes. The other strategy that I use a lot is the BRRRR method, which is buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat. It’s talked a lot about on BiggerPockets and other investing sites, but essentially you buy the property, you make the renovations, you find tenants to make the payments for you essentially, and then you refinance. You pull your cash back out and you use that same pot of money and go to the next project.
Lisa Linfield (05:03):
Is that how you have done it for the rest of your property portfolio?
Tiffany Alexy (05:08):
Yes. My past few have been the BRRRR method and also with a little bit of the house hacking mixed in. Right now the office that I’m in, I did a combination. It’s not technically house hacking because it’s an office, but the same thing. I purchased it with 15% down because it’s a commercial loan. As an owner-occupant, it was 15% down and I got it for 175,000. Put about 40,000 into renovation because it needed a lot of work. There are four offices total and I use one for my business. I rent out the other office spaces to different companies, and so I’m able to cover my monthly payment. When I went to refinance, they appraised it for 250, so I was able to pull out essentially all the money that I had put into it.
Lisa Linfield (05:58):
That’s fantastic. What are the advantages of doing this BRRRR method?
Tiffany Alexy (06:04):
It really is the efficient use of capital so you’re able to kind of use the same pot of money over and over and over again. Now, there are costs, of course, to doing that because essentially you’re paying closing costs to purchase and then you pay a closing cost again to refinance. It is somewhat costly. But if you weigh in the pros and cons, typically I’ve found that it’s advantageous to do that.
Lisa Linfield (06:28):
Yeah. What are the potential hazards?
Tiffany Alexy (06:31):
A potential hazard for sure is getting over your head. If you have too many going on and you don’t build enough equity in them, then if anything happens with the market and the market turns or it slows down, you could face some challenges there not having enough equity. Essentially if the market turns, you may not be able to find renters as easily too.
Lisa Linfield (06:53):
Yeah, absolutely. I know for myself that I have a flat in the UK, in London, and they recently announced a three year phase-in of the removal of the ability to claim your interest as an expense. For those of you listening out here, what mostly happens, and it’s still definitely happens in South Africa, Australia and it does happen in America too, is that the interest that you pay can become a cost that can offset the revenue that you earn from all these renters and all these people. You therefore pay less tax. What happens is that, say for example, you have $1,000 in rent, but you have saved $150 in interest costs, then you add along any other costs that you may have associated with the house, and then you don’t pay that much tax on the profit.
Lisa Linfield (07:43):
It’s a fantastically efficient way in terms of over time if you have a loan that pays back the mortgage itself, the actual fundamental capital, you end up being able to truly leverage that interest deduction as a way of making a lot of money. But then the UK decided that it wanted the money and withdrew the ability to claim interest as a tax perspective. Now, in that example, you have $1,000. You can’t minus the 750, so you pay tax on the whole amount, which then caused a massive I guess structural change in the market where a lot of people had to sell a lot of their flats because they actually didn’t have the available money to pay the tax, which wasn’t an issue beforehand because they were tax neutral because of the interest.
Tiffany Alexy (08:36):
Yeah, and that’s definitely something that could come to the U.S. I’m hoping it doesn’t, but you never know.
Lisa Linfield (08:42):
Absolutely, and I think your point is hugely valid. The most important thing to do when you’re building any form of leverage portfolio, and I leverage portfolios when you’re using data to make the money that you’re making, which is the financing from the bank for the loan, whenever you’re involved in any form of leveraged investing, you need to make sure that fundamentally you are building equity, as Tiffany said, in your properties and in your investments such that you are able to then cover if things do change because they do change over time. You know?
Lisa Linfield (09:14):
Your method, your BRRRR method of buy, rehab, rent was exactly, as you mentioned, where the bank valued the renovations that you did so greatly that you had really built a large amount of equity and added value to their property. I thought that investment was a fantastic investment.
Tiffany Alexy (09:32):
Yes, absolutely. It’s important too to have a cash cushion available, so setting aside a couple hundred dollars each month just in case of anything happening. That definitely has made me feel better as well.
Lisa Linfield (09:43):
Absolutely. In the properties that I rent, I make sure that I have a minimum of three months rental for if there’s any gap in the rental income, and then I make sure that I have, as you said, a capital buffer if there’s something that either goes wrong in the property or that requires some maintenance or scheduling or just a buffer. That is great financial practice for all of us, whether it be a business or an individual or a property investor, is that you need three to six months of expenses as a buffer in case because things do happen. We had a roof leak in the large property that my flat is in and it happened to all leak inside my house and took out all my tenants. Everything happened in my little flat. These things do happen. Absolutely.
Lisa Linfield (10:30):
How does one deal with the real challenge of tenants? Tenants are wonderful, but tenants can also be a real challenge and can jeopardize your entire financial security.
Tiffany Alexy (10:42):
Yes, absolutely. The most important part to me is evaluating the tenants and screening them properly. That’s doing a background credit, eviction check, also getting pay stubs. I typically ask for the most recent two pay stubs. Sometimes if the tenant is moving to the area, they won’t have necessarily started their job yet, so I also look at if they have an offer letter from a company and also prior landlord references. You want to make sure you definitely vet the tenants correctly because they’ll lie. They’ll tell you, “Oh, I’ve never been evicted,” and then you pull up their history and they’ve been evicted twice.
Tiffany Alexy (11:19):
They will definitely lie to your face, and it’s best to just double check yourself because once they’re into your property, it’s very difficult to get them out, at least in North Carolina where I live.
Lisa Linfield (11:30):
Well, I think it’s everywhere. I’ve had some fantastic tenants in my properties, and I’ve had some really challenging ones. It’s exceptionally difficult to get rid of tenants anywhere in the world because in most places the law actually protects the tenants and not the owners.
Tiffany Alexy (11:47):
Yes. An eviction can be very costly, even just the cost of the legal fees, but also if they haven’t been paying rent. I know sometimes tenants will be upset if they get evicted or anything like that, so then if they destroy the property, then you have that added cost too.
Lisa Linfield (12:06):
What can one do in order to secure higher rental deposits or higher income from your tenants?
Tiffany Alexy (12:14):
Sure. One thing that I do… Well, a couple things. If a tenant has lower credit, but everything else is spotless, I will typically approve them and ask for an extra deposit. In North Carolina, you can ask for up to two months, as long as the lease is 12 months. I will usually ask for like a one and a half month or two month deposit just in case. As far as the income goes, what I actually do is I allow pets in my properties. I’m a big pet person, so it’s more of a personal decision for me, but it also opens up your tenant pool because at least half of your potential tenants will have pets of some kind. By restricting pets, you’re reducing your tenants. You may have potentially longer vacancy. Another thing that I require with pets is I require an upfront pet fee.
Tiffany Alexy (13:09):
I don’t call it a deposit because I don’t return it. It’s nonrefundable. I ask $200 for that per pet, and then I also ask for $25 a month in pet rent. I found that to be much more palatable to tenants because some places will charge like $500 upfront and this is spread out over the length of the lease. They’re not as worried about coming up with the money upfront for that.
Lisa Linfield (13:34):
Do you find that renting furnished or unfurnished has a difference in terms of how long people stay?
Tiffany Alexy (13:40):
It definitely does. Most of my rentals are unfurnished. I’ve only experienced one furnished rental near NC State, the college where our first property was at. It was very sparsely furnished because it was a student rental, so I just did a bed, a nightstand, and a little desk in each bedroom, and there were four bedrooms. It definitely juiced my returns a little bit because I was able to ask for more rent because I knew they were staying for a shorter period and I was providing that convenience of having furniture in place. But yes, the turnover is definitely higher. You definitely want to weigh those costs with your potential higher rent.
Lisa Linfield (14:20):
Absolutely. You ended up not only at a very young age getting your own portfolio of properties, but also then going full-time into real estate. Why did you do that?
Tiffany Alexy (14:33):
Yeah. Honestly, I kind of fell into it. I started my investing, I was 21 when I first bought my property in Raleigh and I had that property for a couple of years. When I was 23, I decided to get my real estate license just because I knew I wanted to keep investing and I wanted to save myself the commissions on the deals. That was primarily the main reason and I wanted to learn more about real estate. I got my license at 23 and went essentially straight into graduate school. I did an international business program for a year. In that program, I met a bunch of other grad students. When they found out that I had my license, a couple of them when we graduated, they said, “Hey, Tiffany. I want to buy a house. I know you’ve done real estate. Can you help me find a house?”
Tiffany Alexy (15:19):
At that point, I hadn’t had a job lined up, and so I said, “Sure. I’m licensed. I can help you find a house.” I ended up helping a couple of my friends by and through that process I learned that I really enjoyed helping other people buy houses too. It kind of just evolved organically from there.
Lisa Linfield (15:37):
That’s fantastic. How have you survived the market ups and downs, or have you been lucky enough not to be that tightly wound to them?
Tiffany Alexy (15:46):
Yeah. I’ve been extremely fortunate because it’s been essentially a bull market ever since I got into real estate. The market here is insanely hot. Even though we’re in the winter months right now, it’s still very, very busy. I can’t complain, but it’s definitely something that I always keep on my radar because the market could turn at any time. What I do is I keep a buffer, again, of six months of operating expenses in my business savings account. Then in my checking, I have another month or two of expenses. That’s where most of the bills come from. I know that if something happens to the market, I could survive six months with zero income and still be okay. In that process, I know I could be cutting expenses left and right. I could probably stretch that until nine or 10 months.
Lisa Linfield (16:35):
Yeah. I think that cashflow management is the most important thing for any business owner. But particularly if you’re linked to such cyclical markets such as property, it’s crucial for all of us to have those buffers because I guess it both reduces the stress and keeps us frugal to an extent.
Tiffany Alexy (16:57):
Yes, absolutely. It’s super important. I know there’ve been times where I don’t know if I should make a certain decision or not, or take a risk or not, and having that buffer has actually helped my business become more successful because I felt more comfortable taking risks and those have paid off in the long run.
Lisa Linfield (17:14):
Yeah, no. I mean, it’s brilliant. People who aren’t in the real estate business, they could look at it and go, “Hey, this isn’t too hard. You get a couple of people to list their house with you and then you show some people around. Then you sell it and you make an absolute fortune. Surely this isn’t a very hard business.” Has that been your experience?
Tiffany Alexy (17:35):
It’s not hard. I will say it takes a lot of hard work and dedication, but it’s not particularly complicated necessarily. The barriers to entry are pretty low. You get licensed. You don’t have to have a college degree to sell real estate. It’s definitely about networking and making connections and just having enough time in the business. Generally, the first couple of years are very, very difficult. You don’t make an income or you make a very, very little income that is eaten up by all your expenses as a new agent. You have your MLS fees. You have insurance. You have desk fees. Even if you do sell a couple of houses your first year, you don’t really profit that much. You need to have a lot of money saved up in order to start.
Tiffany Alexy (18:17):
I think a lot of people get into real estate thinking, “Oh, it’s an easy path to fortune.” It can be, but it’s not easy. If you stick it out the first couple of years, then your chances of success are much, much greater, but it’s really those first couple of years that are kind of make it or break it.
Lisa Linfield (18:32):
I think that’s the reality of everywhere. I look at all the people that I help with their businesses and the business startup community that I have, the real challenge is that everyone thinks that it will take quicker than it actually does to make the money. Not only that it takes quicker, that it’s easier than it actually is. As you say, a lot of the tasks that one does are not very complicated. The reality about it is that it’s just building your name, your reputation, becoming a go-to place. For many businesses, it’s human referral, people that recommended you to someone else, that’s what makes the difference. But that also takes time because them coming across a friend whose selling a house is not an everyday event.
Lisa Linfield (19:14):
You will get the referrals from the people. It’s just when the opportunity arises. I definitely think that your wisdom in terms of managing expectations on how quickly these things become profitable is massive because both in the houses that you own and in the business that you run, it takes a while for it actually to generate the cashflow positivity that one needs in order to keep a business going.
Tiffany Alexy (19:41):
Exactly. It’s kind of like that saying, I think it’s, “Overnight successes take 10 years.”
Lisa Linfield (19:45):
Yes.
Tiffany Alexy (19:46):
You have to build it every day. I’m still in the process of building it, but I’ve come very far from when I first started. My first year I sold two houses and that basically paid for my agency fees. I’m glad I stuck with it, of course, now looking back, but there is a lot of turnover in this industry because of that reason.
Lisa Linfield (20:10):
Yeah. Is all of your personal money in properties or do you diversify your investments?
Tiffany Alexy (20:17):
Oh, I definitely diversify. I have always read about diversification and it’s always fascinated me about how you should spread your money out in order for it to be safer. I love real estate, and so I do have money invested in real estate obviously, but it’s not my sole investment. I don’t think it should be for anybody.
Lisa Linfield (20:37):
You are wise beyond your years, Tiffany. No. I mean, truly. One of the most difficult thing, particularly for small business owners, is that they generally tend to put all of their money in the business, and they are so undiversified in one business or one investment, that the challenge comes is that when it takes a knock, it really wipes you out, as opposed to being able to sustain your business through the difficult times because it doesn’t matter in what industry you’re in. There will be difficult times. You might be in the middle of the longest bull run ever and a hot property market, but it will turn. That’s the reality of every single industry.
Lisa Linfield (21:18):
The fact that you have already diversified, even as you’re building your wealth, it’s just truly admirable because… For the listeners out there, one of the real challenges that we have is the advice on the one hand that you invest in things you know because that’ll increase your chances of success, but on the other hand that you need to diversify into other types of investments because every single market will go through a down. There you need to get the people that know about the other types of investments to invest on your behalf because obviously you can’t know about every single investment type. How did you get into doing this diversified investing?
Tiffany Alexy (21:59):
When I was I think about when I started real estate investing, I was just absorbing as much information as I could about investing in general. I started reading this forum, it’s the Bogleheads forum. It’s all about those who follow the Vanguard philosophy of investing. That’s passive index funds, mutual funds, and essentially you buy the market and let it go. You’re not having to pick stocks or having to time the market. That’s been the easiest way for me because my expertise is in real estate. It’s not in stock-picking. I know that those are my limits, and I just dumped my money into an index fund and I let it ride.
Lisa Linfield (22:38):
That’s fantastic. I mean, that’s an absolute strategy that is great for you and has worked for you. I think so long as you’re investing every single month, then your timing doesn’t matter in the market. It’s not like, for example, buying a house where your timing really does matter in terms of when you’re buying it and how it’s relatively priced. When it comes to index investing, the ability to put a small amount in every single month for the rest of your life means that you don’t have to worry about if you’re getting it right or getting it wrong because it will go up and it will go down. But over the long run it will always go up.
Lisa Linfield (23:10):
It’s fantastic to hear that you had these three or more streams of income being the properties you’ve bought yourself and rent out and manage yourself, the business that you’re building that generates income in its own sense, and then this investment portfolio that you are building over time. One of the things that I loved about what you said is that as you started to get into this world, you read and read and read. It’s one of the most fascinating things that there was a study done by the Bureau of Labor in America on how much time people spend doing different things. The thing that they worked out is that on average, people spend an hour a month, so 12 hours in a year, on their investments and on their money.
Lisa Linfield (23:54):
But if you spend only an hour a month once every month for the gym, you’ll never be fit. If you spend an hour once a month for anything, you’d never going to reach. If you only invest one hour extra in your work, you’ll never reach the top of your game. It always amazes me that people don’t spend their time that you did to really absorb every single thing possible that you can because the information is out there. You’ve just got to find a teacher and a group of people who speak the same language you do and at the same stage and can take you forward.
Tiffany Alexy (24:28):
Exactly, yes. Having access to all that information, the internet has been amazing with that. There are so many forums, blogs, resources. There’s podcasts out there about personal finance and how to invest your money. There really is no excuse to not know it anymore. Spending an hour a month is very, very little. What I do, it might be a little bit excessive to some, but actually every morning when I have my morning coffee, I’m reading finance blogs, I’m reading different ways to enhance my portfolio, I’m reading about real estate. It’s something that I spend probably 45 minutes a day on.
Lisa Linfield (25:10):
Absolutely. I think that is reflective that at the age of 30 you’re pretty well set up. It is truly something that everybody can do. I was recently chatting to someone who was not strong on finances at all, but has listened to almost all of my podcasts and now says that she understands things that she didn’t previously ever understand. That’s the reality. Although it may seem like a foreign language when you start, you’ll learn it and that’s the same as health. If you’re wanting to get yourself healthy, you’ll find the people who you can follow and learn from. In the beginning, it might seem a bit crazy with all these medical terms and jargon, but over time it comes and it surprises you how very soon you’re speaking the language yourself.
Lisa Linfield (25:56):
Would you invest in a physical property, or would you invest in a property fund?
Tiffany Alexy (26:01):
I think it all depends on individual goals. I invest in physical property just because I know my market very well. I work in it every day. This is the industry that I’m the most exposed to my day-to-day life. For me it makes sense to invest in physical property. For others, they may not want to invest in physical property. They may want no more freedom. They may want to travel. They don’t want to be tied down to a certain property. In that case, I would be looking more towards the REIT funds, the real estate funds, even potentially syndications where if they want exposure to real estate in their portfolio, they can get it without going through the hassle and the trouble of owning actual property.
Lisa Linfield (26:43):
Absolutely. I mean, I personally, although from a diversification perspective I have physical rental properties, dealing with the challenges of a physical property is really not my gift and that admin frustrates me beyond all belief. I often think that I would get out of my properties when I have those emotional moments of the geezer breaking or the tenants in my case subletting it to Airbnb or all these other crazy things that happen when you own a flat. I often think to myself, why did I not just invest in a fund? I wouldn’t have to deal with any of this stuff. Tiffany, it there was one learning that you could share about investing in physical property, what would that be?
Tiffany Alexy (27:31):
I would say don’t be overwhelmed with like analysis paralysis. A lot of people that I talk to, they want to invest and they talk about investing, and they talk about investing, and they talk about investing, and they never do anything. I know taking risks is very scary, but in order to really learn about real estate, you have to jump in. It may be that your first couple deals, they’re not a home run. You may break even on them. Honestly, in my book, I see that as a win because you’re getting a lesson and you’re learning a lot more about real estate than you ever could have learned just by picking up a book. My advice would be don’t aim too high.
Tiffany Alexy (28:17):
If you’re making a slight profit on your first property, I consider it a win and it’s a learning experience. It just means you can do that much better on your second one.
Lisa Linfield (28:25):
I totally agree. I think that is great advice because I hear it in any form of investing, “I need to start saving. I need to start investing,” and then the money never goes anywhere, firstly. And then secondly, my first property that I bought was all I could afford. It was a tiny, weeny, little one bedroom flat, but I learned so much through that process that the property I’ve got now has quadrupled in value. It takes over 15 years, but it survived the 2008 crisis. It survived all these other things and still came out strong on the other side because those lessons of the first property is what truly meant that the decision I made on the second property were much wiser and less emotional. When you buy your first property, you look at it and you think, “Would I like to live there?”
Lisa Linfield (29:15):
In reality, you’re not the person who you’re buying it for. You’re buying it for the people who are going to rent. For them, would they like to live there? Well, if it’s close to transportation, if it’s off a main road, if it’s whatever those things are, you only learn that by doing it because you can read a lot. But I totally agree with you, the actual experience of learning, and if you break even, you’ve won. I think that’s a fantastic piece of advice. How could people get hold of you, read more about you, get more of your learnings in life? How would they do that?
Tiffany Alexy (29:47):
I spend probably the most time on Instagram. My Instagram handle is just Tiffany.Alexy. I would recommend that as the best way to reach me. I do have the links in my profile that’ll take you to my different sites and whatnot. Yeah, I would say Instagram is the best way.
Lisa Linfield (30:03):
That’s perfect. We’ll include a link in our show notes. Thank you so much, Tiffany, for joining us on this podcast and thank you for sharing your knowledge and your wisdom so wisely and those lessons that you’ve learned in a short period of time that I know you’re going to go from strength to strength on.
Tiffany Alexy (30:19):
Oh, thank you so much for having me. It’s been a pleasure.
Lisa Linfield (30:22):
That was Tiffany Alexy and I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to interview a young person who’s actually doing the stuff that one talks about. There are so many times I go to universities and graduates and I speak to them and I wonder if anybody ever does this stuff. To interview someone so wise and so experienced in investing and involved in it in multiple aspects, despite having got a international business degree, it’s so motivating that this stuff can be done. You have to be frugal. You have to cut your costs. But if you choose to invest in your future financial freedom rather than buying stuff like fancy cars and new iPads and things like that, you truly can set yourself up for life. Because as I mentioned, 65% of our wealth comes from before the age of 30.
Lisa Linfield (31:12):
Because the thing is that with time, it just grows and grows and grows and those values just grow over time. For those of you who are wanting to really step change your path to financial freedom, I have a free six day video course that will teach you and put you on that path. Obviously, I’m not going to solve it in six days, but I want to make it accessible. I wanted to make it a way that everybody could understand and that you could at least know what you needed to do to step on their path. Go to 6daysprint, the number six, 6daysprint.com and you can sign up and literally it’ll email you straight away the first set of videos. Every day for six days, a new video will come, which will help and build on each other to grow your financial knowledge.
Lisa Linfield (31:59):
You cannot be wealthy or financially free or independent if you are not spending the time to learn more about your money. Take care. Have a great week. I’m Lisa Linfield.