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Empower Wealth Blog post by Empower Wealth

How can Parents help?

I had a fabulous Christmas party with my Mum’s side of the family Christmas just gone. Three exciting things happened. Firstly – I’d pulled together a wonderful negotiation on a large floorplan 2BR apartment in St Kilda for a lovely client who was traveling in Vietnam with her friend. Her Dad had agreed to be her Power of Attorney in the event that we negotiated an ideal investment property in her absence; and that we did. Her father was trusting, hopeful, helpful and quite amused by the situation. She is a bright girl and he knew she’d decided to make a bold move to kick-start her financial future. Nice Dad? Tick. The agent had her father and I meet up in the office at 8am to sign up the offer and by 2pm that Sunday afternoon, the agent was on her way to Ivanhoe to hand-deliver me my exchanged contract at my grumpy Uncle’s BBQ.

So the next exciting thing to occur on that day was when a favourite Aunty asked me to talk sense into two of her four children. Exhibit A was a situation where her 21 year old twin son had asked her for a $1500 cash advance on a TShirt shipment for his new TShirt design business. She’d reluctantly agreed to his request and found herself with 180 printed TShirts in boxes in the garage which had arrived from China. I asked her what the issue was…. she was worried that she’d wasted her money and that Chris was going to sit on all of this stock without an idea of how to move it out of the garage. He was proudly wearing his design and it was impressive…. so much so that I ordered some. At less than $10 per unit in cost, and selling for $35 per T, I was quite proud of my baby cousin. We talked over a drink about his potential sales channels and he took notes diligently. All the while, I marvelled at his entrepreneurial spirit and willingness to take a risk. His biggest risk was being in debt to the tune of $1300 (his friends had taken up some T’s and we’d bought a handful). His potential reward though was that he’d taken a step to actively creating a financial future. I told his Mum to stop worrying about the garage space and the $1300 – and to embrace his spirit.

On that note, she mentioned that her 26 year old was interested in property investment. My interest in the TShirt mogul was surpassed quickly and I caught up with my next eldest cousin only a month ago about his property plans. The most wonderful thing was that his parents not only listened to his rationale about his desire to build a financial future, but they recognised that his approach was well thought out and pragmatic. He still lives at home and he’s now working as a graduate architect, however he’s decided to make the most of his earnings by investing. I nearly fell off my chair when my Aunty and Uncle decided to help him out with a parental guarantee on his loan – but I was immensely impressed and felt that it would be the best way I could help out my two if and when they finally decided to get into property. My cousin gets on realestate.com.au every night and is attending auctions every Saturday. But what his parents have given him is an opportunity to get into the market early – and without hefty Lenders’ Mortgage Insurance costs. We will find a great apartment in Brunswick; and he’ll enjoy the journey. What they have really given him though is hard to put a value on …. and it’s inspired me as a parent. Trust, support, a financial leg-up and endorsement of his spirit.

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