How do you know you’ve achieved anything, if you don’t know what you want to achieve?

If an athlete set out to be a faster runner, they may improve their speed over time, but they will never reach their full potential without realising what they want. They will simply be a slightly faster runner.

If, on the other hand, their goal was to reach the Olympics in 8 years’ time, they could then go about figuring out what they needed to do and who they needed to engage with over a set period of time.

Focusing on an end goal is the key to success in any walk of life. Especially property investment.

Aussies love property and many people would like to invest to create wealth and get a piece of the great Australian dream, but how many of us can identify where we want to get to?

If, say, you began with a plan to buy 10 investment properties, use rental income to pay them off and eventually live off a passive income generated by a debt free portfolio, you would at least have a destination in mind. You could then go about creating a roadmap to get you there, step by step, month by month, year by year.

Once you have an overall goal, you should create micro-goals within that plan. For example, we are at the beginning of 2024. Where do you want to get to by the end of the year?

B.Invested’s SMART method

We follow the SMART mantra of goal creation:

S= Specific – It’s important to set a goal that is specific enough to be accomplished. A good example of this might be ‘Buy 3 properties by June this year’. A bad example would be ‘Get rich’ or something similar. Being specific with date, time and number will keep you on the ball.

M= Measurable – Here is where you establish the criteria for the goal to be achieved. Am I making progress? And if I stay on my current path, will my goal be achieved.

A= Action-oriented – You can identify specific actions that you need to take in order to reach your goal. It could be meeting with your buyer’s agent to do a planning session, or engaging with your mortgage broker to make sure your finance is where it needs to be.

R= Realistic – Set your sights on something that is attainable when you think about the resources at your disposal and your limitations. If you’re investing for the first time and on an average wage, it’s unrealistic to want to buy $5 million worth of property in the next year.

T= Timely – Without a date, your dream is just a dream. You should give yourself a reasonable amount of time to achieve a goal, but not so long that you lose focus. Three properties in a year is a pretty good pace. And if curveballs happen to slow you down, you have at least made progress.

Review regularly

New Year’s resolutions fail for a number of reasons, but one of them is that many people only pay attention to them once a year. Reviewing your goals and progress regularly is the best way to stay on track. If you have your goals in front of you on a spreadsheet weekly, or even daily, you are hyper-engaged with what you need to do.

Professional guidance

If you want success, you need the right people on your side. For property investing, this could include a buyer’s agent, mortgage broker, accountant, solicitor or conveyancer, financial adviser and even a mentor or teacher who may have had success in the field.

Even people not on your side like real estate agents selling properties, can be valuable to open communication lines with, as they may contact you with opportunities if they know what you are looking for.

A success mindset

Mindset is crucial to success. A completely different mindset from 99% of the population is what drives some of the world’s most successful people. It allowed B.Invested founder Nathan Birch to build a portfolio of more than 220 properties.

Most people aren’t successful investors, so why mimic their opinions or mentality?

Emulating the processes and attitudes of the top 1% may one day earn you a seat at their table. And in the meantime, it will put you on track to achieve success.