3 toxic habits that sabotage your property investing

If you've been reading my blogs you've heard it before.

But the message is so important I’m going to tell you again…

Everyone has good and bad habits.

Another way to put it is we all have rich and poor habits.

In fact, I've written an international best-selling book called Rich Habits Poor Habits

It's no big secret that having more rich habits than poor ones will make you more successful.

But the problem with habits is that they're often ingrained from childhood.

We may have learned bad money management from our parents.

Perhaps we've experienced emotional upheaval in our childhood, which has stayed with us for decades and turned into an unhelpful habit.

No one is perfect but there are some toxic habits that you can quite easily jettison from your life.

And by doing so, you're likely to become a better property investor.

1. Hanging around negative people

You know those people who always see the world as glass-half-empty?

They're the naysayers who will complain about the lack of rain on a sunny day and vice versa.

While some people's emotional thermostat is just set that way, they can have a negative impact on you if yours is not.

Admit it... during your property investment journey, have you had family members or friends question whether you should be buying that next property?

I'm sure you have.

Now, unless they are property experts, their opinion is just that and it's also one that doesn't have much education behind it.

Spending too much time with negative people is unlikely to make you more successful.

In fact, the wealthiest people tend to be the most positive – and they surround themselves with like-minded souls to ensure they stay that way.

2. Comparing yourself to others

Never compare your chapter one with someone else's chapter 20 - it doesn't make sense and will only disappoint you.

Why is that?

Quite simply, your reality is your reality.

You will never be anyone else so comparing yourself to others makes little sense, does it?

Your property investment journey is exactly that – yours.

The thing is your strategy will be the one that best suits your goals as well as your investment dreams.

Of course, it will also be informed by your risk profile as well as your initial capital – and these are both 100 per cent individual.

The lesson from all of this is that comparing yourself to, let's say, Warren Buffett will just make you depressed.

The only person that truly matters, and the only thing that you can control, is you.

So concentrate on axing toxic and poor habits to become the best version of yourself.

Not a cheap imitation of someone else.

3. Half-hearted goal-setting

Some goals are better than none, right?

Far too many investors buy one or two properties without any strategy insight.

Most either stop at that point because of their lack of goals or they've hit a financial roadblock because they didn't buy investment-grade properties.

Blindly investing in property, hoping that it will just keep growing in value isn't a strategy – it's speculation.

The most successful investors develop an investment strategy that includes myriad steps over the long term.

Here's the trick: they tick off each step (or property purchase) along the journey to reach their end goal.

The secret is that they know that it will take a number of small steps as well as time and dedication to reach the end prize.

They recognise that property investment is a long-term process, not an event, and the property that they eventually purchase will be the result of many decisions they made in this journey.

The most successful investors don't give up and they always know where they are going.

What it boils down to...

No one's perfect.

We've all got habits that are probably not overly helpful to us.

The key is to remove the toxic habits that are holding us back.

And then create more good habits that will ensure we are on the path to riches, not the poor house.

About Michael Yardney Michael is the founder of Metropole Property Strategists who help their clients grow, protect and pass on their wealth through independent, unbiased property advice and advocacy. He's once again been voted Australia's leading property investment adviser and one of Australia's 50 most influential Thought Leaders. His opinions are regularly featured in the media.