Rachel's Story
Rachel grew up living in a Caravan in the South East of England. Her family couldn’t afford a car and her father didn’t have a car licence anyway, so their mode of transport was initially a motorcycle.
As Rachel reflects on her childhood she remembers that the family were always short of money, despite the fact that her father always put money aside for their long term savings – which wasn’t worth much by the time it was redeemed. He was eccentric and pessimistic but well liked. Her mother, although partially disabled following an aneruism and then meningitis when Rachel was just 3 years old, had great strength of character and provided the optimistic balance to the marriage.
In a word, Rachel describes her parents and her upbringing as ‘different’ and throughout her childhood and adolescence, she yearned to achieve a level of ‘normality’.
Once upon a time, she dreamed of being ‘normal’, owning her own house, having a wonderful husband to care for her and support her, and perhaps a couple of beautiful children to top off the fairy tale.
When she was 17, Rachel was eager to leave the confines of the Caravan and move out into the big wide world – and into a real house! As part of this escape, she married quite young and although it wasn’t a good match, it was a very good learning experience, that has strengthened her character as well as her compassion for others.
Although her fantasy wasn’t quite complete, by the time she was 40, Rachel was working hard, but quite content with life. She felt ‘normal’ with a loving partner, a beautiful loving daughter, two wonderful step-kids, a great career – and a lovely 4-bedroom house (with a large mortgage!)
What more could she want? Well, as she tells the story, it wasn’t that she wanted more, but that she didn’t want less. The ‘What-If’ scenarios became scary….what if she lost her job, what if she wanted to leave her job, what if she didn’t have the money to keep the house when she retired…..?
So in the year 2000, Rachel and her partner John, decided it was time to start planning for their retirement. They confirmed that their employer contributions to Superannuation would not give them enough to live on, even if they both worked until they were 65 or even 70.
They decided to purchase an Investment Property – not surprising that Rachel would want to invest in a house after living in a Caravan of course. But the decision was not so much based on emotion, but rather on logic and a need for a secure form of investment.
Rachel and John purchased just one property in 2000 and by 2005 had managed to purchase a total of 75 properties – and they still hold 70 of them. They specialise in buying and holding positively geared properties, so that the investments pay for themselves.
Their investment strategy has allowed John to leave work in 2002, and Rachel then ‘retired’ in 2004 – twenty years earlier than she had ever dreamed!
Although ‘retired’ Rachel likes to be busy and loves to talk over coffee and lunch and work towards further goals and dreams. As part of her goals to travel more, learn more and earn more, she has some other business interests in addition to the Real Estate Investing including being a Co-Presenter and Director of 'Property Women' - a business providing Property Investing workshops for women.
Rachel says that she has achieved a lot of her goals because she was moving away from her fear of poverty. Now she is re-focussing on moving towards abundance and prosperity.
Rachel loves to inspire others to reach their potential and to avoid being one of the ‘normal’ people who will potentially retire with insufficient money to do the things they want to do. She’s enjoying the challenges and the rewards, as she moves towards her own ultimate potential…Join her Mailing List today and be inspired to achieve more in your own life too!