Becoming a millionaire

Enroling in a property investment programme may save you needless anxiety when you are ready to buy property when bargains come up.

When done correctly, property investment can yield huge returns. However, in order to reap the benefits of such investments, it's important that investors first learn how to invest right before spending their hard-earned cash towards the purchase of a property.

To avoid wasting good money, a property investor needs to have an understanding of the dynamics of property investment, and one can learn through Renesial Leong.

Renesial, who has over 20 years worth of experience in property investment, has a proven track record. She is the author of one of Malaysia's first property investment guidebooks and a national best seller, ''Property Jewels''.

Her second book, ''Your Tenants, Your Jewels'' is also a must-read for every landlord. Renesial is an avid believer in sharing her experience and expertise with anyone interested in property investment.

She said, ''Looking back at those 20 solid, long years and especially recalling how lost I was when I started, I feel that there is so much I can share with people who want to venture into property investing.''

Renesial has successfully conducted various seminars on property investment locally as well as in Singapore and Hong Kong.

So don't miss her seminar titled ''The Property Mastery Programme — Road Map to Profitable Residential Property Investment'' happening on May 16 to 17 in Kuala Lumpur. The main objective of the programme is to help people understand property investment inside out, the rewards and the risks.

''I hope through the programmes, I can help shorten investors' learning curve by at least five years, while comprehensively guiding them to understand the formula for success,'' she explained.

The programme is designed to help property investor to map out a sure path to gain financial independence and ultimately achieve financial freedom.

''It is easy to get into properties but difficult and costly to get out. Wrong property investments may take years of undoing the damaged done.

''That is why this programme is designed to ensure participants get it right the first time and every time.''

Many past participants of the programme have successfully bought properties with low to zero down-payment and are now enjoying a positive cash flow every month from rental returns.

Participants of this seminar stand to gain indispensable knowledge of all aspects of property investment, including learning how to cut their mortgage repayments by half and leverage on property loans for other investments and gain valuable insight on tenant and property management.

Owning properties is an excellent long-term investment vehicle to fund your children's education and retirement needs.

In property investment, inflation works for the investor, whereas in other portfolio investments, such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds or endowment policies, inflation will erode returns.

''The Property Mastery Programme — Road Map to Profitable Residential Investment'' is organised by Real Property Mastery Sdn Bhd, a joint venture between MasteryAsia (M) Sdn Bhd and Renesial Leong to provide the best in education and mentorship programmes in the area of Property and Real Estate Investment.

The two-Day programme will be held on May 16 to 17 in KL. Seats are limited. Call Liew at 03-9059 6488, toll free line: 1800-88-1426 to register.

By The Star

Top Investment

Empowered: Recent participants of the workshop. Photo courtesy of the Entrepreneur Action group.

Over the years, real estate has proven time and again its stability, attractive returns and ability to hedge against inflation. Thus, it is not surprising that most of the rich invest substantially in properties.

It is an expert opinion that most people's Asset Allocation Model and Investment Portfolio should look something like this (give or take 5%):

Assuming you have RM100,000 set aside for investment purposes, at least RM60,000 should be invested in properties. Less than RM30,000 go directly into the stock market and the balance (less than RM5,000) into high risks, highly leveraged, volatile investments such as Options, Futures or Foreign Exchange (Forex).

Many people make the mistake of concentrating too much of their time and money into the upper levels of the pyramid, as their portfolio returns are highly volatile and unpredictable.

First, it's extremely important to build up a solid investment base using real estate before venturing into other investments to give your portfolio regular and predictable rental income and to enjoy capital appreciation.

If you have an hour per day to look after your various investments, you ought to be spending 60% of that time for properties, 30% for equities and less than 5% for high risk investments.

Some trainers mention that you only need less than 20 minutes a day.

Yes, only if you have invested at least two hours per day over the next three years mastering the subject - a hidden fact many are unaware of.

In Malaysia, two main direct investment vehicles are real estate and stocks. Properties are stable and long term in nature, whereas the stock market is volatile and short term.

Hence one needs to practice Tactical Asset Allocation between these two.

Another mistake is buying investment products giving single digit returns with high upfront charges.

You should only take the risks and invest when you see the opportunity to make more than double of what you can save with minimal risks.

For real estate, it is advisable to have a portfolio of various property types.

Whichever way the property cycle goes, you will be able to enjoy benefits either from Rentals or Appreciation.

Your foundation must be solid. For beginners, start investing for rental returns beginning with medium cost apartments.

The risks are minimal as long as your chosen location is strategic. ''Using creative financing techniques, many of our graduates have even bought properties with little or zero Down Payment and achieved a positive cash flow.

It's extremely easy to earn long term compounded returns from both Rental Yields and Capital Appreciation of 10-12% p.a.'' according to Milan Doshi, best-selling author and independent financial trainer.

Once you have built a firm base, move up and invest in landed houses for capital appreciation.

The risks here are higher as landed properties will give you negative cash flow if you put in the minimum down payment.

Your ultimate goal in property investments is to eventually move to the commercial sector once your budget grows to RM1 million.

* Milan Doshi will be conducting a three-hour Financial Workshop on ''How YOU can become a Multi-Millionaire Property and Stock Investor... with Little or No Money Down!'' on Sun, Jan 11. Call 019-2263262.

By The Star