1. Introduction
Hi! My name is Abi Hookway, Managing Director of Touchstone Education. Before we start, I’d just like to say thank you for downloading and reading this. Well done for taking action! By the end of this insight, you will have a much better understanding of ‘What School Didn’t Teach You’. I cover how to banish fear, mastering your mindset and how all of these combined will support getting you on the right path to property.
I am living proof that anyone can do this… they just have to be able to believe that they can!
Over the last few years, I have learned and harnessed the power of so many property strategies thanks to the guidance of Paul and Aniko Smith. Prior to working for Touchstone, I was at school, I dropped out of university and started working my way up the corporate ladder (which just wasn’t cutting it for me after a while).
Something was missing…. I always knew I had a passion for property, but I didn’t have the
understanding or education on how I could achieve my wildest dreams.
Fast forward to 2021, and I can now confidently say I own a multi-million-pound property portfolio that generates passive income for me and my family each month. As I reflected on this achievement over the last couple of months, I couldn’t help but reflect on my life also, and the challenges faced to get to where I am today.
That then got me thinking – ‘What did I actually learn in school vs what I didn’t, and why?’
2. What school didn’t teach you
So many of us wake up and wonder why some people are just wealthy and others are not. We ask why some people are destined to have the life of freedom, choice and luxury whilst others slave away chained to jobs they hate and never truly being free?
Recent research shows there are 46.8 million millionaires which are now worth a combined $158.3 trillion – or 44% of the world’s total wealth. With only 1.4% of millionaires in today’s world vs a 7.6 billion population count, what do these people know that we don’t?
If you are reading this and wondering the same then I’m here to tell you, you can have the freedom of choice and wealth that others have. The reason you don’t have it is due to the wealthy having been taught differently than the rest of us. I’m not saying that there can’t be blips and property prices might not drop for one or two years, but over decades, well-established capital appreciation is anticipated, and in addition to that, monthly revenue.
Why you may be asking, are they taught differently? What didn’t school teach me? Great question let’s start there.
3. Let’s start at the beginning
Firstly, we need to go back in time to when schools were created. The oldest in England was the Kings school in Canterbury in 597 AD, and most of these first schools created were religion-focused.
Later on, public schools were created, and the objective was to create good workers and good citizens. They weren’t created to make anyone wealthy or teach how to become wealthy.
Schools today are excellent, my children both go, and I think they teach great lessons to help my children grow and learn. The challenge is that schoolteachers are employees, they earn a salary like the rest of us, hence they don’t
understand wealth and how to make wealth.
Even when you look at universities and professors with business degrees, again, the professors are employees paid a salary and they do not know how to create wealth.
When you look at the wealthy among us, they are teaching their children the rules of wealth by harnessing the power of the digital world we now live in and educating through social platforms. The great news? You can learn them too and apply them at any point in your life.
Along my career journey, I stumbled across two multi-millionaires who over the years have taught me the rules of wealth and how to create wealth. One of the very first lessons I learned was that my network was my net worth.
I’m on my way to achieving those six-figures today with a 2-million-pound property portfolio, a trading business, a career (yes, I still work), and 2 beautiful homes for me to live in (one as my holiday home).
The best thing is? I have no financial worries and never have to save for the things I want anymore. Those family holidays, birthdays and Christmas now mean I can spend what I want, spoil my loved ones and not have to save for months on end or go into debt.
I’m also a mum of two. I have a cat, (Naughty Freddie), and am very much the definition of a ‘normal person’ – whatever that means these days, anyway.
I just learnt the rules of wealth creation and I’d love to share some of them with you on the following pages. These are all ‘What School Didn’t Teach Us’, and what I’ve learnt in my adult life… so far.
4. It’s all in the mindset
Did you know the wealthy have a different mindset to normal people and it’s not that they are super clever or intelligent, they just think differently than most of us?
If you want to become wealthy, the first thing you need to do is adopt a wealth mindset. This is sometimes called a growth mindset. You need to understand that challenges are good and be open to trying new things, learning and growing.
Most wealthy people you meet are not negative, they don’t blame anyone for anything, they love learning and read at least 1 new book a week. The biggest difference for me when I look back at my previous self is that the wealthy don’t give up and they are determined to succeed. You need to have the determination and do what it takes to get where you want to go.
It also fascinates me how the wealthy don’t let other people stop them from doing what is right for them. They don’t listen to negativity or John down the pub who’s read one half-baked news story or one uninformative article and become the expert in financials. They listen and are inspired by others who are where they want to be.
💡 This could be one of the strongest reasons why the wealthy are wealthy… they don’t let other
opinions stop them.
I found this very early on. I was listening to these multi-millionaires and going home and telling my mum and my brother the ideas. My mum and brother (as they didn’t understand and weren’t wealthy themselves), were quite negative and advised me to stop anything I was going to do and just work hard at my 9-5 job. I knew that this would not make me wealthy, and I had already been trying for 15 years!
Disclaimer: I, of course, love my family, but their opinions were the exact opposite of what I needed to succeed. I needed to trust my head, my gut and most importantly, my instinct.
Another biggest example of this is through lockdown. At the start of this, a few people around me told me to just stop… just stop buying property, stop investing and a few were worried I was going to become bankrupt.
I looked around at these multi-millionaires and realised they weren’t stopping, they were still carrying on (pandemic safe of course and adhering to the rules). So, I made a decision to carry on, and in lockdown increased my business size. I bought 7 properties and also my own holiday home.
Do you think I am glad I trusted that instinct and carried on?
Warren Buffet, one of the most successful investors in the world (Net worth $84.6 Billion), inspires one of the most powerful quotes the world has seen:
5. Money Makes the World Go Round
The wealthy know that money actually has three uses, not just one. Most of us just know the one which is spending. I didn’t understand this for a long time, and you may think I am daft, but the more I earned, the more I spent. I never seemed to get ahead or get wealthy no matter how many pay rise or bonuses I had.
I just didn’t understand it until I understood those three uses:
1. To spend. We need to spend money as this helps the economy and money needs to flow in and out of hands.
2. To save and save monthly. The wealthy will normally save 10% each month of whatever they earn. I started to do this and although hard at first, it’s so rewarding and so lovely to see that build-up.
3. To use your money to make more money. It sounds simple but so many of us do not do it.
My first venture to do this was a property I rented from a landlord, and then rented out at a nightly rate on Booking.com (a bit like a holiday let).
I attended a course and learned about this exciting technique called ‘Serviced Accommodation’, and how you could make good money by doing it correctly. After the course, I put all my learning into action.
I sourced my first property, it cost me £239 to set-up, (which seemed so much money to me back then). The first month after paying my rent, housekeeping costs and other bills, I had made £1300 NET.
WOW! I can’t describe how that suddenly sent my brain into overdrive, I used £239 and made £1300 in 1 month.
Using your money to make more money is key to you becoming wealthy.
Most of us work and we trade our time for money, however as Warren Buffet says, ‘If you don’t learn how to make money whilst you sleep, you will work until you die’.
To become wealthy, you need to use your money to make money and have several streams of income.
6. Knowledge & education are key
I came out of school like most people, I was glad I was leaving and thought my education was done, moving on to real work and living. What I failed to acknowledge, is that you learn all of your life and the more knowledge you get and the more you learn… the more you can earn!
Like my example of the property, I rented from a landlord and rented back out on Booking.com per night had made me money. However, I couldn’t have done this without having done a course on it and learning how to do it.
If I had tried to do it without knowledge, I would have been in a spot of bother, as you need to get
permission and make sure you are compliant. I would have ended up not being successful and not having any bookings which would have resulted in losing money and failing.
Looking back over the last 3 years as I have built my wealth, it is down to the knowledge and education that has helped to create my wealth.
The wealthy are constantly learning and doing the following; reading books, listening to podcasts, taking courses, going to seminars.
I started reading educational books and actually found them so useful, I listen to them whilst driving, read before bed and try and finish one a week.
Knowledge is power and you need to be feeding your brain! Remember… the more you learn, the more you earn.
7. Your dreams are what you make them
I once read about a top athlete who would visualise himself getting over the finish line in a race, he would visualise over and over and this helped his performance as he trained his mind that he would win.
Most of us go through life without a plan, a map or a path. The only plan we all follow is the system; go to school, get a good job, buy a house and pay off the mortgage and retire on a pension.
When I think about this it really makes me wonder why so many people are happy to accept this is their life, we all have one life, one lot of time and so many of us live in it doing something we are not happy with.
What most of us have forgotten to do is – dream. Like when we were younger and wanted to be astronaut’s, or doctors, or vets.
We just go through life and don’t dream or is it the fear of being disappointed when we don’t get that dream?
You can guess what I’m going to say…
The wealthy don’t do this! They dream and they dream big! The have Goliath dreams and they have goals, and they have vision boards.
I implemented one of these and really thought about my dreams at the time that seemed big and scary to me.
I printed all of the photos of what was in my head and added them to my vision board, I looked at this each day which re-enforced what my goals were, and what I really wanted.
WOW! This all happened during a pandemic and guess what? I got nearly every one of the things on that vision board!!! Even during Lockdown, I could spoil my daughter on her birthday as money wasn’t an issue.
If you haven’t got one of these, I would suggest you should do it, have fun and dream and go live your dreams.
8. Banish Fear, Bring on Success
Fear is the biggest killer of dreams.
Read that again and stop for a second before you continue reading to think about the dreams you have had and what fears have stopped you.
Have you found that fear stops so much of what we want to do in life and most of us never defeat this?
You see it all the time with people staying in jobs they don’t like, or marriages they hate… all due to fear.
Where do we learn fear? Well, this comes with growing up and being around our parents, also in school we get taught to avoid danger and risk and again learn fear.
The wealthy don’t let fear stop them living the life they want, they somehow have got round fear, built self-confidence and this allows them to do incredible things and build enormous amounts of wealth.
My Top Tips To Beat Fear…For Good!
The few tips of how I have found a way to beat fear:
1. Acknowledge that it is fear that’s holding you back and not the other excuses you may be telling yourself.
2. Write down what’s the worst that can happen and all the things you can do to prevent this or what you would do if they did happen.
3. Be in the moment and just go ahead and do it anyway, the more you do this, the less challenging it will feel and you will be able to tackle any fear.
4. The one other thing that really helped me to stop letting fear stop me from achieving my dreams is watching other successful people around me doing what I wanted to do. This way I started property investing, which was undoubtedly the best decision I ever made.
If you enjoyed this piece and feel ready to take action and want to learn more about the many property strategies, why not consider attending our 2-day online ‘Wealth Through Property’ course?!
