Rumble In The Concrete Jungle

Posted by Daniel Joseph

‘He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life’ – Muhammad Ali. Outside of the ring, Muhammad Ali was an activist and philosopher whose dedication to choosing the right path as opposed to that of least resistance transformed him from athlete to legend.

If you haven’t had the chance to watch our Thoughts and Inspirations episode on Muhammad Ali, do yourself a favour and take five minutes to watch it below:

If there’s one thing you take away from the story of Ali and apply in your own life, let it be having the courage to stand out from the herd, to be a leader rather than a follower, a lion rather than a sheep. Sure, that involves taking risks but history seldom remembers those that toe the line. Now, for clarity, I’m not suggesting you go out and attempt to become heavyweight boxing champion; that would invariably result in injury, if not death. Not that I want to be a roadblock to your dreams, of course.

For those who’ve followed the blog closely in 2016, you’d know that a recurring theme has been that of keeping perspective and having the courage to act in the face of all of life’s noise. Without doubt the volume of that noise has increased of late. Between the uncertainty surrounding the Federal election, the indiscriminate talk of an oversupply and the perpetual fears of the bubble that never bursts, I don’t blame you for being cautious.

What we know is that over the past three decades, property markets (particularly those of our capital cities) have outperformed the equity market over the same period. All that in the face of deafening noise that included:

The removal of negative gearing in the 1980’s
The introduction of capital gains tax in 1985, forecast at the time to decimate property markets
The introduction of the GST in July 2000 and its application on the new home market exclusively
The recession we had to have, financial meltdowns and political instability

If you had just a fraction of the courage shown by Ali in the face of the noise I indicate above, you would’ve had the opportunity to claim your stake of a property market that increased tenfold at the minimum. Next time you read a headline that insists you retreat to the safety of a bunker until the uncertainty subsides, know that procrastination doesn’t only rob you of opportunity it also costs you money.

Posted by Daniel Joseph, on 24th May 2016