Money certainly helps, but it is not everything. And while it may seem like a cheesy marketing slogan, or something a self-help guru on an infomercial would feed you, in investing, determination, smarts and a will to succeed beat money every time.
Anyone who doubts that assertion should consider Daniel Cameron’s heart-warming story in our latest issue of Your Investment Property.
Despite living on a disability pension of just $14,000 a year, he went on to build a portfolio worth a quarter of a million dollars.
While Daniel may not be rolling in money, at least not yet, his investment journey is a tale of incredible resilience and grit – and proof that you can indeed get whatever it is you want, if you want it bad enough.
The making of a legend
Just six years ago, Daniel was desperate. He was living in his van on a disability support pension of a meagre $14,000 a year, or a paltry $38 a day.
Like many Australians on welfare, he dreamed of one day getting out of the system and becoming financially independent.
So Daniel made tough decisions and took decisive action to change his fate. And he succeeded. Within three short years he managed to amass three properties worth $352,000.
“That sounds a small amount when you read about what others have built, but to me it’s a good achievement,” he says proudly.
“I started on a Disability Support Pension with no support. I had no wife or girlfriend; I was just on my own. I made huge sacrifices like living in a car for a few years to save deposit after deposit. I had no mobile phone or other gadgets – just petrol for the car and food to survive. I lived on $3.84 a day on Weetabix and cheese sandwiches most the time.”
Unfortunately, it was finding finance that stopped Daniel in his tracks. Although he had managed to save $8,000 for a deposit by 2008, lenders and agents would hear the word ‘pension’ and run like the wind, he says.
For example, he once had a $65,000 property in his sights. He had the deposit and could afford the repayments. Yet he was still unable to get the loan he needed.
Despite constant refusals and the humiliation he felt, he kept approaching mortgage brokers, lenders and agents about potential deals. That persistence eventually paid off. He managed to build up a relationship with a bank manager at NAB, and it was that manager who finally approved him for a loan. And like they say, the rest is history.
Daniel went from getting a $14,141 per annum disability pension to owning more than a quarter of a million dollars in real estate in just three years.
“They said I couldn’t do it. It was truly against all the odds. However, I found a way to save enough deposit to facilitate my first property deal.
“I want to prove that even on a pension in Australia you can buy and do well with investing in common old houses. I hated the stigma attached to being on the dole or a pension, and wanted to do whatever it took to get off it through buying real estate.”
Read Daniel’s full story in the latest issue of Your Investment Property out on sale now.
