On my 30th birthday my Dad and I went on a fishing trip. I got the surprise of my life when he pulled out a cheque for $20,000 cash and gave it to me. I was stoked – until he told me there were two conditions. He said I had to invest it, and I had to get professional advice on how to do it.
I went and saw Bill and I have to say I was pretty blown away by what he could do for me.
It turns out I was wasting money left right and centre. Not by spending it on having a good time but stupid things like not paying my credit card off in time to avoid interest charges, like using store finance to buy my sound system. We worked out that I could save $50 a week just by managing my cashflow better.
So I started an investment plan, and put my $20,000 into a growth fund, then took the $50 a week I’d been wasting and invested it as well.
Now I’m 35 and my investment portfolio has grown to more than double what I started with. It’s great to have some assets behind me, but the big thing for me is that it’s given me some choices I don’t think I would have had otherwise. There’s no way I would have started my own business when I was 33. It was the second best thing I ever did financially.
The best thing I ever did? Going fishing with Dad on my 30th birthday.
