The sorry spectacle of specufesting kids

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Domainfax has been flogging this story to death:

Mina O’Neill, 28, and her husband Scott, 30, started buying properties in late-2010.

Now the rentvesting couple has a portfolio of 28 properties across Australia, including commercial and residential real estate.

Mina has an advertising and financial planning background, while Scott’s experience is in engineering. So when they put their minds together it was “all about the numbers” – a natural fit for them to get into investing.

After all their costs, such as council rates and maintenance fees, are considered their portfolio leaves them with an income of $300,000 a year.

They’ve put this income to good use – spending six months of 2016 overseas and they are intending to continue with this lifestyle in the future.

I coupe of bright young sparks making their way into the blank nothingness of specufesting. Doing nothing. Adding nothing. Creating nothing. Producing nothing.

A complete waste of entrepreneurial talent that feeds off the misfortune of others.

Let’s hope that they do not end up like this:

+ In 2012, at the age of 24, Matt and I were crowned Australia’s Property Investor the Year (Your Investment Property Magazine).

+ Three years later, if we were to sell our properties, we would still owe the banks about three million of dollars (not including arrears interest and selling costs). We are currently in the process of sorting out the debts. The outcome at this stage is uncertain (despite living with financial cancer, happiness is a choice we make every day)

+ Life has been tipped upside down in the last two years. Goodbye success identity, can I have a new one, please? Ideally, my real one.

+ I live in Moranbah, QLD. Have been here for six years. The towns real estate market has dropped approx 75% in the last three years. The vibe is … depressing. Right now my mission is to shine a light on it and be of service to others in similar positions.

+ I have written a book called Bright Yellow Happiness its due out in 2016. I never wanted to publish it, but it feels like the right thing to do.

+ Despite “living with financial cancer” I am happy and empowered. I believe whole heartedly in personal development and empowerment. When they are combined with your everyday life, you become powerful, even in the face of challenging adversity.

+ Who knows whats around the corner. At the moment, I am taking life day by day. My intention is to share Bright Yellow Happiness with the world in a soulful way, that’s true to me.

Houses are a consumption good not a speculative asset class.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.