Paul Glossop was raised by a single mum in Liverpool, in Sydney’s south west, Australia, a far cry from the “silver spooned fortunes” many in the city enjoy.
But today, he’s managed to quit his day job and amass a A$9 million, 17 property-strong portfolio — and he says anyone can do it.
However, the path to financial freedom wasn’t an easy one for the 36-year-old.
Mr Glossop had always been fascinated by architecture, and after school he spent two years studying at an architectural college.
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Then, one night, he and his mates decided to head to the pub for a few beers to celebrate before handing in their final assignments — a culmination of “12 months’ of hard work”.
But when he got up to leave, he realised his laptop had been swiped — and his entire project with it.
As a result, Mr Glossop decided a career in architecture “wasn’t meant to be”, and so he decided on a teaching degree.
After graduating he headed to London, where he met his future wife, Kim.
The pair eventually decided to move back to Australia and led to a random event that would shape their future.
At the airport, Mr Glossop had “literally £25 in my pocket” when staff revealed the flight was overbooked.
They offered passengers a A$1000 cheque, a night at the Hilton hotel and a business-class upgrade to a later flight to give up their seat and Mr Glossop jumped at the chance.
“It seems a little good luck can appear in the strangest ways,” he writes in his new book, A Surfer’s Guide to Property Investing.
“After arriving in Sydney I went straight to the Qantas office and cashed the cheque.
“That’s how I ended up back home with A$1040 to kickstart my future.”
Initially using that A$1000 cheque to get by, Mr Glossop ended up getting a day job with a pharmaceutical company while researching property investment in his spare time.
In 2009 in his mid-20s — just 18 months after arriving back in Australia flat broke with a HECS debt to boot — he and Kim bought their first property, a two-bedroom apartment 400m from Cronulla Beach in Sydney.
They scored it with a A$20,000 deposit they had saved by living off “two-minute noodles”, subletting with a friend to save on rent, and living as “frugally” as possible by driving an old car, swapping luxury getaways for camping holidays and hosting house parties instead of having nights on the town.
Mr Glossop said it was purchased “with the intention of renovating, extracting equity and repeating the process”.
“The intention was to funnel all our surplus cash — rather than spending it on nice-to-haves, it was about how we could create wealth,” he said.
Thanks to some “small, clever renovations” on that flat, the couple managed to extract A$50,000 in equity, and went on to buy “four or five” properties in a two-year period.
“We bought the properties for next to nothing, worked on renovating them and then held them,” he said.
Today, they have around 17 properties under their belt worth around A$9 million, ranging in price from a A$182,000 dwelling in western Sydney to a A$3 million development site.
Three years ago, at the age of just 33, Mr Glossop decided to give up his day job and “retire” to focus on property full-time and start his property investing company, Pure Property Investment.
“It got to the point where as much as my day job earnt me a good salary, I felt it was a bit of a inhibitor to be able to do what I really love doing, which was property,” he said.
But despite that impressive and valuable portfolio, the father of two said his family did not live an extravagant lifestyle, instead opting to set aside an annual A$100,000 salary for all living expenses.
“We don’t live very expensive lifestyles; we’ve got two kids and we’re very busy, and it is all we need to live — it’s enough for us, although it might not be for the next person,” he said.
- news.com.au
