Hi there I am Robyn Grinter, the lovely Donna who hosts PropertyTalk.com has asked me to write an article for you on how I paved my way to financial freedom and beyond, starting with my unconscious unawareness of what I was doing to the present day.

Where my family and I live the life of our dreams, and I work when I feel like it because I am loving what I am doing and not working because I have to work. I have 180 properties under my belt and counting. I hope I can help inspire some of you to take some action in your own lives to get yourselves ahead to a place you would like to be.

The story picks up here………….

From as early as I can remember I used to day dream, infact I didn’t do very well at school because of it, I was thinking of what I would do after school or what I would like in my life. I guess I have had a pretty strong drive really as I used to get a lot of those things into my life I had dreamed about and as time went on I started to think that this might be more than coincidence that these things I used to dream about were suddenly coming into my life. so I experimented a bit and as I called it then wished for things, I now realize I was wishing in a very positive way, infact I actually believed I already had these things in my life so of course in due course I would get them.

Now to skip ahead here to 1998 we owned our home and had a successful business which we were both working full time in, we had also managed to get financing to build the building our business was in, this was financed 100% by the bank, we had purchased the section with some shares we sold, had done quite well on the share market I used to think it was luck but I realized I was developing that intuition or inner voice and I was guided by that to a large extent, I always had a feeling my passion was property, I had always been drawn to it, not in a way most women are, I don’t care what the house looks like as long as I can make some money out of it so I am not into really prettying them up, infact if they will rent as is I just leave them normally just doing what needs doing as ongoing maintenance. I also have everything managed so once I have bought the property I just pass it onto someone else to manage. They organise anything that needs doing.

In 1998 I saw this course advertised it mentioned improve your memory, loose weight without dieting, stop smoking(not that I smoked) and other things but at the time most important to me is it advertised ,non religious and not hypnotising. ( I might add there I had major hang ups about both religion and hypnotism) so I went along. The course was called alpha global, they later changed the name, it was run by an Australian he now does it as part of another seminar which involves business and investment options too, one of these years I will get to it, dates have never worked in with us and the only time they did they changed the date on us. Still I am hopeful I will get there someday. Besides my story will make an interesting talk, this was the course that turned my life around. Many people have times in their lives where their whole world changed, this was the first really big one for me. I had certainly had others I realize now because some of the negative stuff that happened as a kid helped give me the courage and determination I have now and this course helped cement it in for me. It made me realize I was bringing the good luck into my life I currently had, (yes sure I had barriers to get through like we all do but I was pretty determined nothing was going to stop me) I also realized those things I used to dream about when I was younger and older as I never stopped dreaming I had bought into my life by concentrating on. Now some of you are switching off by now I am sure but I ask you to bare with me and open your mind to what MIGHT BE for you if you dare to dream.

I used to be an angry, impatient person before I went to this course, so I also learned at it to relax and not be angry. This was HUGE for me as I really had no idea before how to do that, I was quite tense all the time (not a good feeling) It is strange really but once you really develop belief and trust in yourself things start to happen, you can just be talking about something you desire and it will happen as you speak or you will put your hand on a book and get exactly the answer you need to a question you have on your mind from it. this happens to me all the time now so I am just grateful for the experience, I thank myself all the time (now I know some of you think I’m nuts but that’s ok I can live with that, I was told at that course your mind likes to be thanked so I do it, also thank the universe or god as I know somehow I am getting other help) I think we all have to be a bit mad to get ahead in this life. there are many other books you can get and cds to help you deal with things in life and I have read a number of books now and listen to cds often in my car.

I made a number of goals at this course something I never had done before consciously. This time I wrote them down, this was new to me. One of them was 50 rentals. Another was to move house, annual family overseas holidays and there were plenty more, I also remember after it sitting with my eyes shut visualising all these things in my life and believe me at that point in my life it would have seemed fairly impossible.

6 months after this course I started reading (another thing I never used to do) read the ususal ones, think and grow rich, if you want to be rich and happy don’t go to school and of course rdpd everyone knows and his other books too. reading Roberts books made me feel fantastic, I realized I was on the right track, I just had to turn the “S” business into a “B’ business then I could go out and be an “I” . read the book “Rich dad poor dad” if you don’t know what I mean. So that’s what I did. (not immediately though) the time for me to leave work was not right instead I convinced myself I enjoyed work instead of resenting being there which made things much better. I did a few other courses over the next couple of years, a one day one of Robert Kiyosaki which he mentioned you need to be on the inside of the deals to get the great ones, didn’t understand what he ment at the time. (funny how naive some of us are) I also bought the cashflow game, learned heaps from that game alone. I went out and bought some negatively geared flats too just because I didn’t realize you could get positive cashflow, we had 2 rental houses I had bought over the years which I had paid off so were using the income from them to pay the loan,I was so proud of myself for getting them at the time, it wasn’t till later I would realize what a BAD investment they were. At the end of 99 I did a dolf deroos course a weekend one, this was really scary as it was by a long shot the most expensive one I had done, and from that I got “ you have to buy wholesale” and “the deal of the decade comes along about once a week.” I went out after that and bought 2 properties for 70% of value. Took me 3 months to find them. But I had proved it worked and I had positive cashflow, Then I STOPPED party because the bank said no more and at that time I used to listen to that.

So in Dec of 2000 John Burley came to Auckland, I just had to go, at the time we had no money and my husband was really against this investing thing now, kept telling me no more. But I got there and that was the next turn in my life. I realized I could stop listening to all these people who said it cant be done and just go out and do it. I also realized how badly negatively geared these flats were by using a debt reduction plan John gave us. I didn’t have personal debt but of course I had realestate debt and the numbers on those flats sucked!!! We were also in a flat market so when I inquired about selling that wasn’t an option either. Wont go on about them they are history I eventually sold them about 2 years later at a loss but I was glad to get rid of them and I learned heaps from that.
I had come away from Automatic Wealth which was the name of the course John Burley taught with the idea I can do some of this quick cash he talked about and get there, I also realized at that course I didn’t have to keep everything I bought. Up to then I thought I did as I had the mind set they were hard to come by. I also quit work at the beginning of 2001 the time was finally right hired someone to replace me.

From John’s course here I went to his Realestate Investing bootcamp in Phoenix Arizona, again against many other peoples wishes, and made it happen really, in that first year I bought 50 houses, mostly positive cashflow, I did a few instalment sales (wraps)which John was really passionate about at the time, I didn’t feel deep down they were for me but they served a purpose at the time as I was on a mission (didn’t realize it at the time) the market was flat remember, for every house I bought at the time and I was buying mainly 20 to 30% below value I could see another 4 I couldn’t manage to take, not my lack of action it was just the banks were having a job keeping up with it, as was the accountant and lawyer still that was enough for the year, the instalment contracts helped pay the slight negativity on some of the properties I bought which I had high equity in, you see my intention was to sell some down once the market changed.

I did scare myself when I realized what I had done after those 50 and stopped buying for a few months. Still I have made up for it now.

Now I will tell you here is all you need to do is believe in yourself and you can create miracles literally and millions of dollars of profit for yourself and who ever you choose to share it with. To date at the time of writing this 22nd June 2005 I have bought close to 180 properties I have sold many for a profit, I have continued to educate myself and do a number of courses a year as one thing I have got from these great teachers is continuing education is very important. So I still do a number of courses each year and help staff some I have done.

One thing I should add here is I found the goals I had written out after the course in 1998 and when I read through them I had done EVERYTHING, I had forgotten I had written them, it was some years later I found them like about 2 years ago, I had even put we are moving house in 2003 as when I asked my mind that was the answer I got, what I didn’t know at the time it would be move to the house next door which we purchased and did a make over on our own home and doubled the size of it before moving back in2004 funny how things turn out not always what you expect, we live on 25 acres which is in the city boundary still many years away from development which is just as well don’t want to move again too soon.

I do still have a vision of a property on the coast with my own beach, I think it will be a farm which I will pay someone to run, some native bush would be nice too, not sure where it will be yet but it needs to be warm, if in NZ it will have to be up north but if I can convince the family to move maybe Cairns or Noosa would be good. Still when the time is right the right property will come. Of course it may not be in any of those places but I do trust it will come when the time is right.

I use the trading I do to pay down the loans on houses I plan to keep for the long term, I have houses all over NZ now including a couple of nice lifestyle houses we use ourselves, you can create this cool life for yourselves too if you are brave enough to face your fear and do it anyway. There are people who can help you deal with any issue you have in your life, infact that is one of my goals in the future to do some wealth coaching I call it, helping people get ahead in life and deal with their fears, I need to do more educating myself though there before I can teach it, one of the other courses I attended in 2003 gave me my life purpose and that is to help other people, that is what drives me nowadays I still plan to go on buying houses as I love doing it, I am doing a lot for others now, I offer nearly everything I purchase out to a list of investors for a finding fee if they don’t take them I just purchase them myself some I will onsell and some I put into my keeping trust. I also set up a charitable trust last year as it is a wonderful feeling to give back

We regularly have family holidays now, many overseas, we have made a lot of friends in Australia and USA because of the number of trips we do, this is a really cool life now not having to work, I basically just work when I feel like it and when you get a good number of agents on your side the deals come straight into your lap so you don’t even have to do the leg work to find them. The one I had faxed today was a classic, this was already signed by the seller so all I had to do was sign and it was a done deal, I love those ones!!! We get to go to the kids school things and school camps etc as we are not tied to jobs, my husband and I often go out for lunch or dinner. Now I am not trying to skite and I am sorry if you think this is so I just want to inspire you to make a better life for you and your family.

I have read a few posts and realize there are knockers there, I feel sorry for you people who choose to knock others who are successful, your energy would be better spent trying to get some posativity into your own lives, the statistics are alarming on people who are in jobs they don’t like, get your self out of it maybe realeaste isn’t the tool for you but I urge you to seek for it, just keep asking yourself what it is you would like to do and then just take notice of the opportunities that are put in front of you. I have been asked to write this by Donna, the wonderful lady who set his up along with her husband. I met Donna a couple of weekends ago at a financial education seminar we were both attending.

Also teach your children to think on financial education as well as what they get at school, I know some will disagree with me and I don’t say you shouldn’t do well at school infact I think people should try their hardest as you have more opportunities open to you if you get good grades, but please teach your kids to invest so they are working because it is something they love doing and not because it is something they have to do to survive. I know I have been preaching to mine for a few years now and they are certainly open to financial education and how they can make it work for them. The older one asked a couple of years ago whey they don’t teach investing in school????? Good question. I guess we need to educate the teachers first though.

All the best on your own path to wealth I wont be on the forum every day but I will try to get there every few days and answer any questions the best I can.

Robyn Grinter