When I made 130% on my investment

It might seem ironic for someone who works in the finance industry, but I love stability.

I am a planner, a process-driven person and really, kinda boring tbh. I went to the same school for my entire school life, lived in the same house in Kohi for over 30 years and if Soph changes a podcast record without at least a week's notice - woooahh!

This is why it was always a goal of mine to own my own home. I craved the stability that would come with owning my own property. I wanted to have a place I could call my own home. And if I am being honest, for me, owning my own home felt like a 'success' milestone.

 I have forever invested in stocks. I understand them, I love investing in them and I've made a lot of money throughout my career both for clients and myself by investing in stocks. I remember 27-year-old me thinking, 'surely investing in property is the same right'? I couldn't have been more wrong.

The great thing about investing stocks is; you can spread your risk by investing in lots of different companies, you can sell quickly if you need the money, and you don't need a lot of $ to get started.

Investing in property is none of the above. It's a whooooole different kettle of fish.

Theres that age-old saying 'you've got to spend money to make money'. For me, this perfectly sums up investing, and more specifically, investing in property - you have to spend money (and take risk which will most likely make you feel uncomfortable), to make money.

When I bought my house in 2016, I felt all of those things. I felt like I had bitten off more than I could chew. And it didn't help that I had people around me saying 'you're buying at the top of the market!'

However, fast forward to today, and I am SO glad I didn't listen to those people. Since 2016, I have made over 130% return on my investment in property. That's an average return of over 15% per year! And to compare that to the stock market, which has historically only done 9% per year - I can confidently say investing in my house was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

So, what did I learn from my investing in property journey?

1. There's other (and sometimes better!) ways to make money than investing in stocks

2. Property can provide great diversification (having all my investments in stocks in hindsight probably wasn't the best move)

3. You can learn a lot (and make a lot) from taking a bit of risk and venturing into the unknown

4. Being a little scared is OK. I was lucky to have people around me who could answer thousands of questions

5. Achieving your investing goals feels amazing! It makes all the dedication, hard-work and investing scaries worth it.