Blog #1. Mindset shift from thinking about ‘me’ to ‘me and us’ – A blog on how one small chat has changed the course of my family’s future

I always believed I had my career mapped out in my chosen profession. I had worked extremely hard to gain multiple degrees and a master’s distinction. Then I had a stark realisation that my next career move was a PhD, lecturing or working back in sport. Around this time, I was speaking with my father-in-law about life and how quickly the future is upon us! We do not always have such deep conversations but for some reason this chat really struck a chord with me and opened my eyes up to my lack of future financial planning! At the time I did not have a significant pension as I was self-employed and with a young family now to support my whole mindset shifted, almost overnight, to educate myself towards a more secure financial future. Previously I only had to think of ‘me’ and with my current responsibilities my mindset shifted to ‘me and us’. Financial planning was not taught in my school (or many schools now) and money was never a big talking point in my upbringing. I had an amazing childhood; however, I retrospectively would have loved a deeper financial education from a younger age in how to prepare for the future and plan early! My father-in-law had experience in property investment, and we began talking about the benefits and challenges of this sector. Having come from an educational background, my instinct was to educate myself! Myself and my father-in-law found Fielding Financial (an award-winning property education trainer) and we have not looked back since. We have received an in-depth education on a whole host of topics to make us responsible and professional landlords.

We are now on a ‘new path’ with a clear goal to plan for our future. The challenge as we grow our business and portfolio is to balance living for today whilst planning for tomorrow. It is important to appreciate what is around us now and be present in the moment to enjoy family and friends.

Our journey has already borne fruit with one investment property in Wales (please refer to our YouTube link for more information) and we are actively looking for our next investment, as well as working with investors to join us on our journey.

I’ll leave you with this – Don’t put off today what you’ll regret tomorrow.