I decided to semi retire about a year ago, I've stepped down from a senior corporate role to do a simple role working 3 days a week. Best decision ever!
[AMA] Semi Retired at 34, Ask Me Anything!
jaseredpanda on 28/11/2018 - 13:44
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what is your 3 day a week job?
Talent sourcer. Otherwise known as head hunter (I tap you on the shoulder and ask if you're interested in our company)
You mention that only about 1 in 100 "taps on the shoulder" progress to the offer stage, and then only 50% accept. What do you put that down to? Do you think people use it as a way to negotiate a higher salary in their current role, and don't really have a desire to move companies but go through the process to achieve that aim?
I ask because I was "tapped on the shoulder" last week, have had a couple of discussions. While the job seems very interesting, I don't really want to move, but I realise that this has given me a position of power (if I don't overplay my hand) and also made me realise that I'm currently underpaid.
So my question is, a) do you feel a lot of your referrals are just using you/your recruiters, and b) have you/your recruiters become pretty good at working out those motivations?
Well the 1 out 100 is based on this process
Every 100 people I tap on the shoulder, 50 say sure they are keen for a chat, I pass them onto the recruiter who then comes back to me and updates me if they are suitable or not based on numerous things such as skills/motivations/salary expectations. Let's say that then wittles it down to 30, they move onto a technical interview and that brings the number way down to say 5, then they meet with senior stakeholders and it's left to maybe 1 to 2 and an offer is sent. At that point that person as you mentioned may or may not even accept the role due to accepting offers elsewhere or using it as a bargaining chip at their current company.
So to answer your questions
A. Not so much from me tapping them on the shoulder as half or more were not even looking at other roles, I'm actually enticing them so they aren't interviewing around most of the time. However they do some of the time use that as a bargaining chip. But that's a smaller %, I would say 20% out of declined offers is because of that whilst 70% taking other offers and 10% miscellaneous e.g. change of heart or health issues arise.B. I still consider myself a noob, which I am only stepping into the recruitment world of a year now. But the rest of the team particularly the senior recruiters are amazing at sensing these things after speaking with candidates (especially face to face). They would come back and sit at their desks and announce… "don't have a good feeling about X, I think he'll do X" and usually they were right.
My advice to you is just to have an open conversation with your boss in your next 1 on 1 if you really do want to say. They'll appreciate your honesty. So somewhere along the lines of "I have been approached by X and offered this role with this pay, I love my current role and this company but I realised I might my salary might be under market value, (you can even do some homework on glass door). Can we bridge this gap or how can I work on bridging this gap"
I’ve read pretty much all your responses and so thankful for them. Brings such a different perspective on life and approach.
I’ve always wanted to surround myself with people like you, unfortunately majority of my friends and family are stuck in the employee mindset, and Content with just working.
Besides your friends, were there any mentors? That’s the one I’ve been trying to find.
Not mentors… my mentors were actually corporate driven so I learnt alot from them to move up in the ranks. One of the most random advice I got was to make myself look older because I kept missing out on offers from companies because other people were 5 to 10 years older than me. So I grew a beard and started wearing glasses. It worked like a charm. Perception is everything.
So funnily enough my senior leaders used to be amazed and ask me for advice on side hustle and the outside world. Even right now they ask me random questions during me 1 on 1s
Dont rely on everyone else to make changes for you.
It was hard to just think that for me.
And so I went ahead and created an online store. Not going to say what it is, I’ll prob get shredded alive haha.
But yes, been trying to just say “yes” to more things and get outside of this comfort zone.
What is the split in net worth between you and your wife?
$1.6m is it like 30% from you and 70% from her or?
Probably 90% to 10%
Lol on a 'marked to market' basis, it's closer to 50/50 (i.e. if you were to divorce her now). After kids, closer to 60/40 her way.
I'm good with that
Op, how many do you recruit per month?
Because it's a niche area it's hard to recruit. But usually 1 a month
Great AMA, plenty of detail. My question is, with your first property (fibro house) was it a compromise in terms of ideal living situation and opportunity as an investment (Not ideal location, needed a bit of work) vs. (potential to knockdown and rebuild), and how did you come to your decision that that was the right decision for you.
For some background
I'm 28 and looking to buy first property
Earning slightly less than you were at 26 without much opportunity for future pay rise
Considerng side hustle but lazy and big job
Will probably need 5-10 years to build enough equity for another place.
Ideal property = 2 bd townhouse around parra (questionable growth)
Could afford house (land) around granville / bankstown but really dont want to live thereThanks
The thing is with investment you can't be emotional and look at where you want to live. So essentially I would buy a house in Tasmania if it'll make me money.
My first place I wanted it to tuck most boxes which we're close to transport, schools, quiet st so not on a main rd (mine is a cul de sac so that's like the best) and of course main criteria was land size zoning and sewer lines. Oh and close to shops. So mine ticked virtually all boxes and for a decent price. And the place had to be liveable with not too much work done otherwise it's a money pit. I just needed some patching and a coat of paint.
I'm confused why you don't want to live in Granville or bankstown when you ideally want parra. Granville is so close to parra and bankstown is a growing area. When they finish building that express train, the final stop is bankstown, watch it shoot up.
Land is always king
In hindsight now, I'd pick older house with land over newer townhouse. Bankstown house prices out of my league now - https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/population-growth-fuelle…
What do folks think of Campbelltown NSW for investment property ? It looks like houses with land can still be gotten for $500-600K mark but wonder about rental market and yields there.
But would you live in Tasmania at the same time? I guess, I have so far been trying to find a place to move out into, which did not include houses as I didn't want the maintainance of a house, and wanted walking/cycling proximity to CBD.
When you mention sewer lines, where do you find this info? I haven't considered this at all.
In terms of, why not Granville/Bankstown, I haven't really been considered houses at all, due to the reasons above and any houses that do satisfy above criteria are out of budget. Whilst I agree that Bankstown is growing and probably has good potential, I currently work there, and my role involves seeing locals (too close to home). I also have concerns about the type of neighbours I might encounter. Obviously there are bad neighbours whereever you go but I just feel like Bankstown has a particular reputation. I have considered the new metro that is being built, and there is a planned station at either Parra/Westmead with 1-2 stops to the city and links to the new airport so that was more incentive to look at Parra.
I suppose I'm going to have to do research zoning and whether a house is realistic for myself
Hope I'm not stepping on the OP's toes (great thread, btw), but I was thinking of doing and AMA in real estate investing. I currently own 10 (low value) IPs, though I'm still a fair way from being able to retire on them. If there's interest, I'm happy to start one.
Do it!!! I want to learn!!
Sharing is caring :) I'd be interested, also if others aren't that's no loss
What have you been doing in your not-working time?
Hey buddy. Answered already in the tread. I think its one of the earlier pages
I have a slightly off topic question in relation to your career in banking;
I had a mortgage with NAB, which i recently refinanced to Westpac. I used to also do all my business banking with NAB and have an ongoing business loan with NAB with 10k owing. Upon Westpac paying out the loan for refinance, NAB have refused to release the title saying they're holding it as security for the business loan, this has caused Westpac to put a caveat on the title, which doesn't bother me because i have no intention to sell in the near future, but what are my legal rights in this situation?
Just from what you mentioned, you still have owing with NAB. If I'm not mistaken, once that balance is cleared with NAB, westpac may clear the Caveat.
That debt is business related though and secured under my company, not a personal debt and the mortgage is in my personal name not the company name.
This is beyond my knowledge. Hoping others will be able to answer your question
What cars do you have?
A crappy peugeot 207, will be selling it soon! Will be checking in with my rev head friends for their opinion on a reliable car
Toyota!
corolla
Do you consider yourself smart and lucky along the way of your entire career? Do you think super average people like me could follow your path?
I don't think I'm super smart! To a degree I would say I'm a bit smart but the biggest thing I would say that differentiates how far I've come is action. I take calculated risks and I feel like more people take a shot after doing their homework and within reason of their financial situation
Absolutely love this AMA! The thought of retirement age being 65 years is really dawnting. Don’t think I could work to that age….
Also well done for taking the plunge and properly having that work life balance.
I’m really interested in being able to live comfortably and the property market is definitely a safe way, that is if you find the right investments to have a stable income.
From your experience, if you can give me any advice that would be great :)
I’ve currently got an investment property (2 bed unit) worth $420k which is positively geared and about $100k in savings.
I definitely want to build my property portfolio and not sure if I should buy another 2 units or a house and potentially build a granny flat (I can borrow another $700k and can take the equity out of my current place)
Btw I work in recruitment too but on the agency side of things. Done it for 3.5 years now, has had its ups and downs but it is good money! ;)Awesome stuff! Ooo agency, we use them too- looks like we're enemies lol
To grow your portfolio you can go down either route as long as you do your research and can afford to survive when things go bad. I would always go with land as I believe the growth is always higher if you buy smartly near schools/transport/quiet st/shops and future infrastructure. However the good thing about units is you could likely buy one and see if you're comfortable first before purchasing the 2nd. The house is likely a bigger investment first so you'll have more eggs in one basket. So answer would be to research both but I would pick house if you can afford interest rates going up (good rental density and yields help)
I don’t recruit for your industry so we are all friends here haha. It’s definitely harder with the prices today. Hoping it drops a bit more over the next few months. Can’t bare the thought of it growing any further. Might be a silly question but any tips on which websites to do research on?
The typical websites like domain and real estate. But just news that you take with a grain of salt when it comes with predicting, but anything to do with legislative changes or new infrastructure is very worth noting. Talking to people with similar interests also helps staying connected with what's out there e.g. a friend of mine told me Adelaide might be promising due to some agreement that a new submarine factory will be built, she's been scoping out the area
Congratulations on the Semi Retirement plans. Well done. Seems like you found your full time job here during AMA ;)
Jokes aside, I have been thinking of the semi retirement plan for ages now. Like you I was lucky to ride the 'Sydney boom' and buy a few props on the way. I even did a granny flat at one of those making it 'more' positive geared. The rest have almost doubled in price.
Your lifestyle also matches a lot with mine. I am not into expensive cars, gadgets, etc. I do like to travel.
The differences (and big ones) are I am 40 and have 2 kids.
The reason I bring this up is for the QUESTION on how and when did you decide this is it??
I (probably) can sell one of the properties and semi retire myself. Wife works full time, so there is a buffer if things go wrong.
But, I cannot make my mind to do it yet. Partly as I dont know how I will I fill up the free time I will have and partly due thinking a lot about kids' future.
Any nuggets you can throw my way to make my mind??Thanks buddy
I would suggest opening up an excel sheet and doing the maths with many different scenarios of interest rates and different rental yields also a range of how much your home would go for and the taxes you may or may not get hit with e.g. cgt
After that it'll paint a clear picture whether it looks feasible. Consider you have a buffer and I assume you could always just go back to work, it shouldn't be a financial issue for you.
Factors for retirement to also consider is how much do you love your job, are you stressed? Will your kids go to public schools and what financial assistance will you provide them if any.
Free time part is where you will learn about yourself. You can be a total workaholic but why not do that with something you're passionate about e.g. some charity or if you love animals the rscpa. The best thing to do whilst you're learning how to use up free time is to exercise, get yourself healthy. I'm slightly younger than you but I'm already conscious that I need to take care of myself a bit more these days.
Great AMA!
Have you thought of the impact on your investment properties/income if negative gearing is abolished?
Thankfully mine are positively geared but it would for a lot of people whom are highly leveraged which will in turn be forced to sell. Market values will go down so it would impact renters being able to enter the property market so that would and bring rental rates down too. I have a decent buffer but if Armageddon comes then i'll have to keep afloat perhaps by jumping back into a cashed up senior role again.
Having said all this I highly doubt these cashed up politicians would ever abolish negative gearing for property or shares. But you never ever know!
In a two horse race always back the horse named self interest…
Negative gearing will be grandfathered, if changes are passed. Meaning for people with existing investments, nothing will change.
Thanks for sharing so much wealth of knowledge. I got 1 question for you, what's your opinion on building a granny flat after demolishing a house garage to access the backyard as when we built the house, never thought to plan a granny flat originally, and now left with big backyard but only hurdle is to demolish; and what you think about lot of news about property market downturn? Thanks again
@moneyhungry: Update, at $644.95 after purchasing the tatslotto regular 12 game entry so both know where I stand.