An unexpected testimonial on my AMERICAN Principal residence book from Australia

nick chan <nickchan64@hotmail.com>

Jul 31, 2021, 1:28 AM

to me

Thank you John. I have many of your books. I live in Australia and went down the path of owning many rental properties due to a peculiar tax allowance called negative gearing here but the negative Cashflow nearly killed me. I should have stuck to owning one Principal property only and read about the Sydney primary school teachers who decided on a deliberate strategy of owning only one principal residence at a time aiming to end up on Sydney harbour [Premier location—my wife and I stayed there at the Royal Automobile Club of Australia which right at the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_Quay in Sydney Harbour] after 25 years. The Federal tax law was hugely beneficial to this strategy. You have come to the same conclusion after investing for 50 years and for me it has been 33 years. Now I own only a $4m property in a premium suburb (not debt free) in Melbourne and trying to pay the debt off after coming to my senses. If I only followed this strategy from the beginning I would be owning a $10 million property by now but better late than never!

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John Reed

Jul 31, 2021, 9:44 AM

May I quote this and name you? Jack John T. Reed

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nick chan <nickchan64@hotmail.com>

Jul 31, 2021, 11:09 AM

to me

John I am happy for you to quote me and name me. I was also foolish not to buy my three neighbours properties when they came up for sale and was looking for greener pastures elsewhere blindly following a negative gearing strategy. Thereby I also lost a great land assembly /plottage opportunity chasing 'Acres of Diamonds' elsewhere. The two Sydney primary school teachers refused all promotions at work and single-mindedly focussed on their real estate strategy for 25 years and when more ambitious staff at work looked down at them, smiled to themselves and thought how many primary school teachers live in a waterfront house on Sydney Harbour.

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nick chan

6:07 AM (3 hours ago)

to me

John this is a personal example of how I ignored what was right in front of me and pursued rental properties elsewhere. I had an opportunity to buy this property in 2011 for around A$2.65m but didn't appreciate the power of pursuing a principal residence only strategy. Today it's on the market for $6-6.6m and may sell for in excess of $7m. Unfortunately your book wasn't out at that time and I was pursuing negative gearing tax strategies elsewhere like an Ostrich with it's head stuck in the sand.

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I note that my book is titled An AMERICAN Principal Residence...This guy is in AUSTRALIA! I am a bit surprised that their laws are similarly pro principal residence. I believe a lot of countries have such laws like Denmark. Maybe I should have titled it A Principal Residence... and left out the American.