Shane Maxfield had always wanted to buy into the property market, but he didn’t know how or where to start.

He had been disheartened by Sydney property prices and was unaware there were other ways to build a portfolio.

He started following property podcasts and consuming as much on the topic as he could. While doing so, he came across b Invested and its founder Nathan Birch, who of course had an amazing success story.

Realising B.Invested were located close to where he lived, Shane reached out and soon became a client.

Fast forward less than 3 years and Shane has now amassed a portfolio of 8 properties and is on his way to retiring his parents and exiting the workforce himself to live life through property investing.

Where it began

Starting out several years ago on a single income, Shane had no expectations of where he could get to or what he could achieve through property investing. He simply wanted to be in the market.

He was watching his parents still having to work full time as they approached 60 years of age, simply to be able to afford the mortgage on their family home. Shane didn’t want that for them and he certainly didn’t want it for himself.

Initially his goal was to not have to work full time when he reached that age. But that goal soon evolved into also wanting to help his parents get out of the rat race and live comfortably in retirement.

Mindset evolution

Shane had previously taken a bit of the weight of the world on his shoulders, but throughout his investing journey, he has learned to narrow his focus to only worry about things that he can control through his own actions. A lot of things might be going on, like inflation, war, uncertainty and so on, but the most important thing for Shane was to focus on what he could do to better look after himself.

How could he get himself into a position where he could achieve his own financial freedom without having to rely on the system.

Leave emotions at the door

Shane’s number one lesson learned while investing has been not to get too emotionally involved.

When he started, he wanted a house in a good area, with guaranteed rent, guaranteed good tenants and the whole package. But he soon realised that if you want to buy in a certain area, you have to be prepared to pay the price. And you may get an ordinary tenant or endure a vacancy period. Those things are hard to control.

But if you treat investment like a business and leave emotions out of it, it’s much easier to focus on whether an investment stacks up and it’s also less stressful.

Where does it end?

While a lot of investors come up with an end goal first and then put a roadmap in place to help them arrive at that goal, Shane has gone about it a little differently. He wants to buy a property for himself and give his parents a nest egg for their retirement and plans to keep on adding to his property portfolio until he is able to do that. He’s not sure how many assets it will take to get him there and therefore has no plans to stop anytime soon.

But after getting 8 properties in less than 3 years, the possibilities for Shane are endless.