Singing Pig

Was born in Brighton in 1966 to a engineer and a primary school teacher. The youngest of 3, I went to the local state schools and then on to do 8 O levels. Always was made to feel I was bright but could have tried harder and achieved more.

From the age of 13 spent a lot of free time writing software passionately and playing video games. After scraping 2 A Levels (too much time down the gym and in nightclubs) I went on to do Software Engineering HND and did very well.

Did a lot of part time jobs as a student including McDonalds,W H Smith, Dolcis and working in a mentally handicapped childrens home washing cars and taking some of the kids swimming.

In October 1987 I spent 3 months in a permanent job whilst setting up my own software business. I contracted glandular fever from overwork (try having a cushy student life and then being thrown in to a full time software development job, commuting for 2 hours a day and then when you get home work until the early hours of the morning). At this point I stopped both for 6 months and took up Transcendental Meditation. It helped me get over the glandular fever and in the summer of 1988, I set up my first software development company to allow me to be a software contractor.

With an overstated C.V., I blagged my way into a contract in the City with a bank.

I spent the next 20 years performing IT consultancy to various businesses throughout Europe including stints in Switzerland, Germany, France and the US. This has been mainly software development and the majority of roles have been working for banks trying to design software to monitor risk and help traders and money managers improve trading decisions. It hasn’t all been hard work though as I did manage to wangle an IT managers role for BP in Switzerland in 1992 where my office looked out onto the mountains and I could go and have a beautiful lunch in the countryside.

It gave me a good income from the off, so I decided to invest it. So I have invested in various businesses over the years including

• Classic Cars (failed). Impetuosity of youth. Bought a 1967 Mercedes 250 S but with no garage to store it in. Eventually gave it back to the guy we bought it off so he could sell it but he put it in a car showroom only to have the bailiffs take the whole stock a few weeks later. The car was never retrieved.
• Tantalite mining in East Africa (failed). Incompetence and corruption ruled the day
• Ayurvedic Clinic in Bournemouth (failed). The manager got itchy feet and sold the main asset to move into bigger leased premises and then ran out of cash
• Commercial lease checking (failed). I lost interest after not making any money after 1 year of daily cold calls
• Professional Golf Betting(failed). After an initial success I increased my staking plan only to be hit by really bad weather which most of the pot.

As well as this, I have always had an interest in derivatives so have invested in various futures and option trading schemes which I have lost money on and even once I had to resign from a contract in a bank because I refused to give up my part time futures trading. Ironically as soon as I left the bank, I lost my gains and my original sum.

Eventually I found a fund manager who seemed to do very well. I gave him my pension pot of £55k and over the years turned this into £350k. All was not well though as in 2000, the market crashed back down and I lost over £250k in 3 months.

In addition to this I had lost my contract, my mother was diagnosed with Parkinsons, I was trying to sell my house to move to france and my flat that I let out was empty (two mortgages no income and no sight of any resources).

Eventually, the house was sold, and I moved to France and discovered I had testicular cancer.

Luckily the operation was successful, but the week after I got out of hospital, I discovered back in the UK that my flat had squatters!!! I got them out eventually with the aid of the police and the neighbours.

Realising I had been lucky to survive, I decided to sponsor two children (one in the Philippines and the other in the Dominican Republic). This has been one of the best decisions of my life.

Moving to France was probably the best decision of my life. The decision to educate our children in France seemed to make sense given the seemingly random education our children would get in the UK. Not to mention the lifestyle in France!

My only decent financial decision had been to borrow against my flat (bought in 1991) to buy my house (in 1998) and thus leaving the UK I managed to move abroad with £200K of capital (which I kept in the bank)

We eventually settled in Orleans in 2002(close enough to Paris to commute and nearby to my wife’s family) and bought a new 5 bedroom house with double garage and I built my life’s dream; a fully fitted gym above the garage.

Initially I took a permanent job, but managed to get made redundant after two years for which they gave me a payoff and I got unemployment benefit for 2.5 years at 60% of my salary. At first I thought I would become a full time options trader but after losing (can you see a pattern developing?) I decided to go back to contracting.

With the funds I had made, I bought into a building plot in Bulgaria, an offplan place in Barbados and a BTL in Folkestone. Finally time to get into some property I thought. The building plot is in litigation, the Barbados plot is still undeveloped (see Harlequin!)  only the BTL is washing its face.

Whilst commuting on the train I decided to give trading one last shot and discussed various strategies with a friend who had been doing it successfully for years. I studied hard and was more careful with my decisions and in one year made about £30k.

I used these funds to pay off my mortgage in 2006 and continued on trading aiming to make £70k in 2007.  I started discussing strategies with my broker and we came up with a new plan to reduce risk and increase profitability which paid off. From June 2007 to August 2007 I made £400k.  I couldn’t believe it! I will be the first to admit that the strategy was helped by the stock market volatility but it still is hard to believe.

So in 2008, where am I? Well I managed to hold onto some of the gains and am still trading part time. I enjoy contracting in Paris (in spite of the French strikes) and have no immediate plans to give this up although I might reduce this to 4 days a week.

Thus my life so far. Currently looking for my next challenge !!!

Hi. Been lurking for years but never posted before...in the mood to share now having just turned 35.

Upto 25 studied and worked with no goal and no idea. Did ok but so so so bored at work. Hated often coleauges and bosses as thought all were morons !

'Woke up' at 25 and quit job to travel a little. Had experiences and met wonderful people from all over the world.  Fell in love, rode some waves etc etc. happy days !

after a few years back in uk and bored working and back to hating all that worked with me. Luckily found through boredom some books such as Millionaire next door etc. Reading these allowed me to recognise that I wanted no more part of the rat race and wanted to build my own destiny. Realised that all that hating was not the colleagues fault but my own frustration. Phew... saved !

Since 2005 have renovated flats in london, built a business (not property) with no debts and enough cashflow to allow me to quit the j.o.b. Will continue to try and achieve more. Goals are moving away from money money money to getting more time rich, lifestyle rich and physcially fit. Hoping to get there as now live by the beach in Europe, surf most days i want, work on the business and not in the business for 2 days a week, spend time with young family and see kids growing up.

Current 'crunch' or whatever else you wanna call it, is an interesting and testing time to live in. Gets my fear going of course but personally happy its happening now, when I'm still 'wet behind the ears' in this new entrepreneur world i've become involved in. Has pulled me back to earth, stopped any arrogance and made me study hard and remember the basics...for future projects.

Good luck piggies..happy to here with you all ! My name is Ruhe and I will be a time rich millionaire aswell as a money money one ! 

Hi,

I'm Ann and I'm 49 years old.   In 1993 I set up a pet insurance company.

It was the first company to ever target the insurance for pets sector - a fully new idea in the UK which I gleaned from the US - and with a strategy of partnership with vets around the country to purposefully target our market we grew quite much more quickly that expected. Turnover rapidly increased to £28 million a year.  In 1999 we were approached out of the blue for a buyout, and in 2000 my business was bought out by Royal Sun Alliance.    

Since then I've done much travelling but have not really settled in to anything.  In 2007 my solicitors received the main final end payment from the takeover (it was in two tranches) and those funds have been now fully transferred to my control.  Sometimes money can be a stress to deal with and so I think it is a great time to get in to property, and that is what I intend to do. 

I lost confidence in the stock-market and switched in to liquid cash savings, but now have had some sleepless nights worrying about my money in the banks, so have decided that my best property class investment.

Property and land will always be worth money no matter if the banks shed their guarantees over £35K or the Government prints lots of funny money.

I've no experience with property business, apart from my own 2 homes (Prestbury and London) and my villa in Italy, but I am looking to acquire a portfolio of quality property around the UK.

However I do not want to just pay top money for everything, so am looking for bargains and value, to profit when the upswing comes back.  I've always said it is best to buy when everyone else is doom and gloom, and I've read professionals in the papers predicting prices will be 25% higher in 5 years which I can easily see happening. 

I want to be in for the long term and build a property portfolio like all the intelligent successful people here.  I want to be part of that success, gain the knowledge, and have the reassurance that a property portfolio gives, to stop my sleepless nights.

For now though I have much reading to do of all the tips in the forums and to seek out good property investments for the future.

Thanks,

Ann. x

I'm Paul, just turned 40.

A fan of the ZX Spectrum era and always wanted to have my own business. Left school with 3 average A levels, and studied Electronics (so at least it was something I would enjoy!).

Did a few years as electronics designer and started trading shares thanks to Maggie Thatcher's lot. Had a few good years trading stockmarket and thought I'd be a millionaire by 30. Not so as the tech bubble burst and my gains basically got wiped out in about 2 years.

After working for 10 years in a "job" finally had enough of working with people I didn't like (I was never cut out as a "team player") and get into the "internet". I decided I was not going to miss this one (having been too young for the initial home computing boom of the early 80's)

Started my own internet advertising directory in a sector I'd been in for the last 7 years (the "guru's" tell you to do what you know - but they were wrong!). 6 months later took a job with an internet marketing company but quit after 3 months - I was no longer employable and I HATED 9-5 nonsense.

In 2001 I went full time having found some companies with good products to sell online (still get paid today from many of those sales - residual income stops me having sleepless nights).

Feel I've learnt a lot over the last 7 years working for myself and am now committed to really putting into practice for a big push with my latest project, affiliate with Ei42 shopping which has tremendous leverage possibilities. Still have other incomes and am currently also studying FOREX trading. I've decided stockmarket trading is pretty random and whilst some people make fortunes, I'm pretty sure that's mostly just a statistical thing (i.e. luck).

Ever the optimist and really hopeful for the next couple of years (a constant theme, but one day I really will make it, Rodney!).
 

Well I guess it's time for another update to 'Phil's Adventures in Latvia'

Further to my post of 12th April 2008..........

We are almost there! 

The last step is within sight. Following the publication of the Environmental Impact Assessment (all 230 pages of it!), I fly out to Riga on 3rd September as the final Public Hearing for our project is on 4th September. The hearing is to answer any queries / concerns that local landowners may have about the environmental issues raised in the report.

If anyone has any serious concerns we will have to address those, which could delay the  planning permission slightly, but the Environmental Consultancy we employed has already interviewed every landowner in the area and nothing has been raised to date.

Providing is all goes as planned we could well see that final 'rubber stamp' being applied to the project sometime in September / October of this year. So we really are within sight of the winning post! Just a few more weeks to go.

We have some obvious concerns over the Russian situation at present as our purchaser is almost certainly going to be Russian.They seem to be doing a touch of sabre rattling at the moment, but we don't see it going any further than that. Even during the Cold War, Latvia was a favourite vacation spot for wealthy Russians and the town of Jurmala, just outside Riga, is like little Moscow there are so many Russians living there.

Our next task is to raise about £200,000 so that we can put together a really strong marketing programme including a computer simulated 'fly over'of the resort as it will look when it's finished. I know I shouldn't put it here but if anyone fancies investing some of their hard earned cash we have 6 x 1% shares for sale at £40,000 each. Bearing in mind that it is entirely possible that we could have sold the project on by next Spring that's potentially a nice short term investment with a possible 250% + return on investment. It's a wonderful excuse to spend a few days in Riga!!

Why not take a look at www.timberlandhillsgolfresort.com to see what the resort consists of?

Hello everyone,

I have been posting on SP for a few months now but never really introduced myself. So I'll give it a go today on a peaceful and quiet Sunday afternoon.

I was born in the West of Germany and moved to London in 1997 after getting married to my Scottish husband. We both met on a skydiving holiday in Czech Republic the year before.

We moved to London where we both found a job. The first few months were not easy. Not only did I have to get used to living in a different country and 300 new faces in the headoffice, no, on top of that they all spoke English all day long! Oh, dear. I did my A-levels in English (I wasn't particularly good with my spelling as you may have noticed) and I had spend two years of my life working abroad (China, Korea, Italy etc.) mostly speaking English, but when I was given a comprehensive technical manual in English on my first day at work to read, that was something different! I have studied Garment Engeneering (BEng) and specialized on production. That's why I spend a lot of time abroad.

The first 3 1/2 years my husband and I spend every single day of our holidays and one income on skydiving. Our 4-way team (formation skydiving) managed to win the British Nationals in the intermediate category in 2000, which was a great achievement. I went to the AGM before and pursuaded them to change the rules to allow foreign nationals to compete. And than we had kids, gave up skydiving, I gave up my job and we moved into a small market town in the countryside. Slight change in lifestyle!!!

That's when we bought our first property (2001). Until then I had no idea that we could possibly buy a house. In Germany FTB save for at least 10 or 15 years with a building society until they would have a big enough deposit. The interest rates are getting cheaper the bigger the deposit is. If anyone buys when they are 35 years old they would be considered to be really young. Also most people rent, about 60%. All very, very different.

When I came across 125% mortgages, 0% balance transfers on creditcards....I could not believe it. In Germany the creditcard companies take the full amount by standing order every months. Loans used to be unattractive because of the interest rates and high fees. The only debts people would have would be on an agreed overdraft. They come with every current account and are limited to 3 times the net-income as a standard. The interst rates are acceptable. Even carloans are not as common as here. People seem to live much more within their means.

It took me another few years to realise that people could actually get further advances on their mortgagesin Britain. Until then I thought our neighbours all saved up to afford the new TV, car, driveway, holidays... but no, it was all on cards or mortgages. I couldn't believe it. That was a real culture shock!

After my husband went on about buying a BTL property, I started my research whenever time allowed ie. when my two kids were in nursery or bed. A year later, in 2006, we bought our first property, 5 bedroom student HMO, prime university location. We felt it was a save way to start: no voids, positive cashflow...and it worked. I then ventured into doing BTS locally (kids were at school by then) and bought a house in need of a full refurb, which took longer and was more expensive than I had planned (funny that). In the end it turned into a BTL with the market nose diving. The good news is it's cashflow positive now thanks to the BOE.

Our original plan to buy properties as a pension plan has changed during the last year and I have become a lot more ambitious. Where I tried and achieved positive cashflow before, I would now like to generate enough cashflow for my husband to work a lot less and for us to spend more time as a family.

I have recently started to attend property network meetings and enjoy meeting other investors. I also enjoy posting and reading posts on SP. It's fantastic to speak to fellow investors after doing it all on my own and discussing things 'with myself' for the last 3 years.

It's lovely to meet you all on SP. 

I would just like to add to my previous post with regards to lending and the property market in Britain.

I think it is probably one of the things I love most about Britain, the fact that "easy" borrowing can provide a wealth of opportunities. It obviously comes with the danger of irresponsible lending/borrowing. But the fact is if someone wants to make it in property investment than there is very little holding you back. I don't believe for a second it would have been half as easy for me to have a go if I would still life in Germany. I very much enjoy what I am doing and I am greatful that I have this opportunity.

I think I'll stay here until I retire in a hammock under palmtrees