Getting the Wife "interested"?

[steevg]

Hi Guys,

I'm guessing that I won't be the first with this problem, and probably won't be the last:

Anyone had a problem trying to get the other half involved . . . . even interested . . .. in property investing?

My wife is a great organiser, and does our budgets rigorously and meticulously every month. She's a supervisor at her workplace after only 18 months, and thrives on challenges. She'd be an absolutely great member of my team . . . except that she's one of these people who believe that the only way in life is to "get great grades, get a good job, and work for someone else" all her life.

Any suggestions???

Steve

[Julian]

Ditch her and get a model more suited to your needs/wants.
Julian

[Marc]

Hello,

Ask Dean (pooomba) as he has some great wisdom related to this challenge. I think he even did a course on this...

Cheers

Marc

[essence]

Mrs Steevg

Julian!!! You can't say things like that!!!

What Steevg doesn't understand, is that he has an absolute gem just waiting to be polished.

Once his wife's interest/understanding of property investing is tweeked, she'll be a real asset to their business plan. She has the management skills already, they only need to be applied to their business of investing.

Mrs Steevg just needs to have a coffee/listen with some seasoned investors and explain how its done, what $'s can be made and a look at their present financial position and their potential financial position.

Maybe someone in the Taupo region can offer them coffee??

[JohnL]

Has she read one of the first two Robert Kiyasaki books ie Cash Flow Quadrant? This can result in a mind shift away from being a salaried worker.

John

[Marc]

Has she read one of the first two Robert Kiyasaki books ie Cash Flow Quadrant? This can result in a mind shift away from being a salaried worker.

John

Interesting... After I had finished reading "Rich Dad - Poor Dad" I could not work for another person - and in fact my last "day job" I had to leave before I got fired for not being a "team player" which to me meant follow the rules created by someone else and make them rich.

Cheers

Marc

[Carex]

You fortunate to have just the person who can help, right there in Taupo. Search for Fritz on this forum and send him a private message.

Also have a look through the blogs and newsletters (in the Investors Library) at www.massiveaction.co.nz, they are Pooomba's gems that Marc mentioned.

Then stand back and get out of your wife's way because she will be full speed ahead.

[Omad]

Ditch her and get a model more suited to your needs/wants.
Julian

Nice one Julian, this cracked me up!

[Davo36]

When I started out my wife thought it was a waste of time. She's a chartered accountant and so has always done my books. She's very careful with money.

It wasn't until a few years ago that she had to admit I had done quite well and perhaps it wasn't a total waste of time!

She totally undervalued the properties we had. She didn't want to put any of her own money into them and wouldn't agree to me borrowing against our house so now she doesn't get any back out! So now she works a bit still and I don't. She's actually happier this way though.

I remember her saying around 2003 that my commercial properties should probably show around a 15% return to sell. Talk about laugh. Accountants!

The thing is, she's still not interested. She's a definite "keep your money in the bank" kinda gal. That's cool, it's her money, she can do what she likes with it.

I don't think you can make someone interested if they're just not. They're probably just going to find a hundred reasons not to do it.

[steevg]

Flippin' heck!

What a response in a short amount of time . . . . only posted this 4 hours ago!

But it seems it's not unusual to have one partner willing to give financial freedom a shot, while the other wants to keep both feet firmly on the ground, and work for a living!

Julian - Thought about the ditching part, but she looks after me too well, couldn't find another like that too easily! Besides, she's too good at the financials, I'd have to do it all myself! At least if she's there, she'll call me an idiot and do the sums to correct my figures (crafty eh!)

Might contact Pooomba about the course . . . sounds interesting, wonder if it was "wife' specific (hmmmm!).

Essence/Carex, yup she's a real gem . . .. a diamond in the rough, but fiery and menopausal, and that's a lot of work for a quiet guy like me! I'm in contact with Fritz already, he may just be the guy to put a different light on all this for her - thanks for the suggestion.

JohnL: Bought her the Rich Woman book for her birthday, took me over a month to try to get her to read it, then 6 weeks later, I found it on the bedside cabinet, with a bookmark - 15 pages in (!????!!) ! You can take a horse to water . . . . . . . !

Davo36 (interesting alias):

The thing is, she's still not interested. She's a definite "keep your money in the bank" kinda gal. That's cool, it's her money, she can do what she likes with it.

I don't think you can make someone interested if they're just not. They're probably just going to find a hundred reasons not to do it.

Yup, my wife's the same.

Any other input to this would be greatly appreciated!

Ta!
Steve

[cube]

You may not need your partner to be actively involved in your PI activities, but you do need their support and understanding. Not least, so that when you disappear to an Open Home 5 minutes after spotting a deal on TradeMe, they know what you are up to.

The flip-side of this is, of course, that your PI activities should be balanced with supporting your partner in whatever it is that does interest them, whether its knitting, tramping or options trading - it doesn't mean that you have to participate in their activities, but you do have to understand that "Tuesday nights is Book Club night" or whatever, and work around that.

On a side note, I think that it is a bit sad that Davo36 and his wife still think in terms of 'his money' and 'her money', but that's another topic.

cube

[leapy]

I was raised in a strictly "his money/her money" household. It's just a different framework. The good thing about it is when one parent has a business that tanks - the other is capable of keeping the bills paid and the household running smoothly.

[One]

But it seems it's not unusual to have one partner willing to give financial freedom a shot ...

You might want to give loaded terminology like that a miss. She may think - quite correctly - that she's heading for long-term financial freedom too, just taking a path that she enjoys a lot more than mucking with renovations and tenants.

[Bodmin]

My experience

We started out in the PI game 5 years ago. Initially I did all the research and then presented the game plan. My wife has slowly become more involved in the business but realistically she is still a fair weather sailor not liking the hard decisions that sometimes have to be made with tenants etc..

But having seen how it has worked for us she was more enthusiastic when I wanted to set up our home business. Admittedly it is not as high value but we still have awkward customers and she supports me dealing with them!!

I also agree that differences need to be acknowledged or celebrated. I don't do embroidery but I do help with the Embroiderer's Guild accounts. Let's face it if we were all the same life would be very dull.

[Glen]

........do you have access to a dungeon, and plenty of rope?????