The mindset of a property millionaire

By Sherry Koh | June 21, 2010

19 properties in Malaysia. 1 property in Singapore. Properties worth more than RM22 million. Five-figure positive cash flow. Those figures belong to Milan Doshi, a property and stock investment guru who have made his millions over a course of more than 20 years. In his recent Property Intensive workshop, Doshi posted an interesting question, “Which would you rather be? A debt-free beggar or a financially free billionaire?”

For most people, the answer would be the latter but they might be doing the opposite, which is to earn as much as possible to pay off debts. Doshi highlighted that the old school of thinking is to not borrow money or borrow as little as possible and return it soonest possible. His thinking is, “The more you borrow, the richer you get.”

He also advises investors to analyse the advisor before analysing the advice. For example, one might make the mistake of taking financial advice from people who sell investment products rather from successful investors. He also said that it is likened to getting advice from university professors who might not have personally put the theories they teach to the test in the real life situations.

He also said not to be deceived by looks as some people who are poorly dressed are rich and vice versa, which explains why Doshi was simply dressed in a t-shirt and pants.

These are some highlights from a handout that Doshi shared in his property intensive preview.

• Have a firm idea on your financial goals. Otherwise, you won’t know which direction to head to. Some examples of financial goals include knowing the number of properties to invest in, your desired passive income, investment strategies you want to apply, and so on.

• Individuals who are less than 35 years old should focus on maximising their earning potential as they are at the prime of earning age.

• Invest in low-risk commercial properties that give high returns of over 8% per annum, with low entry costs.

• For beginners, it’s advisable to start investing in apartments of condominiums as it’s easy to achieve zero or positive cash flow every month, as compared to landed house.

• When you get married, you buy a dream home right away. Instead, it makes more sense to buy an investment property and rent a home for the first 10 to 15 years of your married life.

• Instead of buying costly high-end residential properties, you could invest in commercial properties that give the best of both rental returns and capital appreciation.

• It’s always worthwhile to pay a premium and buy the best properties in great locations.

• Savvy investors creatively buy one property a rear or even one every few months with little or no-money-down.

• Most people’s financial goal is to retire debt-free at age 65. Smart investors aim to retire at age 45 or earlier, by accumulating good debts of at least RM3 million via property investments.

• You focus on hitting a certain net worth instead of generating passive income. For example, when you retire debt-free, you must have RM1.8 million in fixed deposit at 2% per annum in order to get RM3,000 per month. Instead, one might be able to get the same amount of passive income by investing RM500,000 in properties.

Upcoming property investment talk/workshop by Doshi
1. One-day Real Estate Investment Congress
Doshi will be conducting the one-day Real Estate Investment Congress on June 27, 2010 in Penang and July 4, 2010 in Kuala Lumpur. Two of Doshi’s past students – Nancy Ng and Prudence Wong – will be sharing their success stories. Both are property millionaires with more than RM10 million in loans and earning a five-figure passive income from rentals each. Participants may e-mail questions to the speakers before the event and the speakers will select the questions to be answered.

• Click here or call 019-572 8898 / 017-966 6178 to sign up for Doshi’s one-day Real Estate Investment Congress.

2. Three-day property investment programme
For the three-day property investment programme, Doshi said in a previous interview, “I actually spend one whole day on personal money management because a lot of people are managing their money wrongly. They are not going to optimise or get the best out of properties.

“The first day is on money management and the second day is on property investment. The third day is spent on property negotiation and I also talk about stock market for about two hours. For the stock market, I teach three basic "no-brainer" strategies. Because of increased volatility today, the stock market will give you, at a minimum, two to three opportunities per year, where you can make 10 to 15% in six months or less. So why not learn it? And all you need is plain common sense. We also spend the last two hours on case studies based on three volunteers from the workshop.”

• Click here or call 019-572 8898 / 017-966 6178 to sign up for Doshi’s three-hour preview, which highlights the topics that will be covered in the full three-day property investment workshop.