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Articles written by Nate.
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Not many people have a property investment strategy when they begin their real estate journey to financial freedom. As a result, many lose money, get de-focused and either quit or turn their fortunes around by getting some education. You can quickly see why it is vital to create your property investment journey, to help you
Have you ever wondered, why some people’s wealth building activities are met with success after success whereas others constantly crash and burn? The key is a solid foundation to wealth building. In this interview, Rob Aalders and Nate Chai share several tips on how to create a solid foundation to build wealth. This interview was
What do you think a best selling book can do for your business? Michael Mathews knows. In this interview, Michael shares with Ben Chai several tips on how you can create your own best selling book. Should there be a problem with playing and listening to the video, you will find a summary of Michael’s
At time of writing, for a variety of reasons, being a female entrepreneur can be more challenging due to the patriarchal society that still permeates in much of the world. What if you knew in advance what some of those challenges were and dealt with them before they caused you to self sabotage? In this
You may think that you will never suffer from a business disaster. However although business is easy, it is also tough. Tough! Tough! Tough! In previous articles, we shared the 80% business failure statistics – it is that tough. A business disaster is inevitable. What if you had some knowledge on how to survive a business
Can you imagine how to create a successful business? Many can. However the failure statistics are shocking. For example did you know that some statistics show over 80% of new businesses fail within their first five years of operation? So how can you avoid the business failure trap and create a successful business? In this
Property investment has become more competitive with new government regulations and the increase in property investors. In this interview, Pietro Savvides shares several property tips on how to be unique and go from zero to property hero. This interview was recorded at the busy JT Foxx family reunion (now Mega Success event) for wealthy entrepreneurs
Value add is a key component of our recently released book – social magnetism. A book full of insights on how you can create great connections which will ultimately enable you to be successful in any endeavour. In this discussion between entrepreneur, Rob Aalders and Nate Chai, Rob shares his secret sauce on a foundational
Risk elimination is an essential business skill especially when property investment is involved. In this interview, Eugene Gamble and Ben Chai share several tips on how to eliminate and reduce risk in property investment. This interview was taken at the JT Foxx family reunion (now Mega Success event) for wealthy entrepreneurs and business people. For
Everyone has an inner talent or even a set of inner talents. These hidden inner talents are created and matured as a result of following your passions and doing the things that you love doing. But how can you unlock those talents? How can you leverage those talents? In this video, Marja Katajitso (also Marja
Soon-to-be Business Mogul Ryan Windsor joins us once again to have a chat about business. We’ve all heard about the importance of branding and how it can help our businesses, but what is it? How does it work? How do I get one? In today’s interview, we answer all those questions and more. FF: “Build your brand”
Property powerhouse Ryan Windsor steps back into the ring for a substantial chat with Nate Chai. In the interview we discuss; what leveraging is, how you can effectively use it, and when it’s the right time to outsource. FF: Great to have you back Ryan! One of the concepts that we in the property investment
+ Nate Chai reveals the three essential pieces of knowledge about wealth gleaned for Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad After reading Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad (review here) it seems like becoming wealthy is the easiest thing in the world. The rules he gives you are fantastic and are 100 percent doable for
+ Nate Chai demonstrates the three essential mindsets that all entrepreneurs need to master in order to run a successful business After reading Micheal Gerber’s The E Myth revisited (review here) I felt invigorated with hope, and fatigue. Gerber’s book is so jam packed with information it’s tiring trying to digest it all. With that said, one the
+ Released over 15 years ago, we look at if Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad is still relevant Finally, we come to tackling one of the big boys. In personal development and wealth generating circles the two books that everyone has to read are “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill and “Rich Dad Poor
One of the well-established pillars of the success community is the obsession with goals (and not the kind you see on the pitch). We’ve written a piece on how to set, and reach your goals here, but today we’re going to look at how goals can actually make you less successful. It almost feels like
Jeff Olson’s story is pretty incredible, after feeling disappointed with his early “Beach Bum” years he became a top corporate salesman, then started his own Solar Energy company before losing it all and having to start again. Throughout his life he realised he’d learned how to make a fortune and how to lose one. So
One major hurdle in attracting loyal customers is trust. We humans are designed not to take risks; if we have to use our resources on something then we need to know that what we’re getting is a good deal. Two key components for gaining belief and trust in your products and services are; how effectively you demonstrate your knowledge and the testimonials of
Failure has, and always will be, a big part of my life. I can’t think of a time when I wasn’t always losing at a game, or unable to complete a physical exercise, or struggling with something. I used to assume that it was a negative thing, and I would get depressed and bemoan my
In last week’s article, I shared with you five truths about life that I learned from working on a building site. Well, this week, I’ve got just one incredibly powerful technique that you can start using today that will see you and your team’s productivity soar. This is a technique that I’ve most frequently used
Having to relearn how to live your life is never an easy thing to do. I just got back from an 18-month adventure that spanned the majority of South East Asia and, although it’s good to be back, transitioning back into my “regular” life has been tough. However, I love to find the silver lining
Having just returned from my travels, I felt it was time to launch into some hard work! Ben was in the middle of an extensive building project in Swansea and I thought that it would be an excellent educational experience to work and live on the building site for a couple of weeks. I love
Over this year, we will be sharing a lot about financial management, networking, and relationship capital (a fancy name for having and developing excellent social skills). Understanding these three components and how they work together is essential for raising finance in any endeavour. Last year, a good friend of mine, Frazer Grant, dragged me kicking and
Thanks for sticking with us, I missed yesterday’s article as I was travelling from Indonesia to Singapore. Something that is a huge source of anxiety for me is the approach to your social circle that success books advocate. The logic behind many of these books is the old adage “you are the average of your five
Thanks for reading despite the lack of images, I’m currently on an island in Indonesia (here) and the Internet isn’t great. If you’re going to succeed in business, then you’re going to need to further your abilities. Educating yourself is the easiest way of increasing your value to others, and increasing the amount you can
In last week’s personal development anxiety article, I briefly discussed my anxiety surrounding financial development. My biggest anxiety comes from being able to balance increasing my wealth with living a regular “normal” financial life. 99 per cent of financial development anxiety can be eradicated by creating a budget that you can actually stick to. In
Yesterday, I had a fight with my girlfriend. Nothing major, but something she said really stuck out to me, she told me “You focus so much energy on personal development and no time on liking who you are”. This level of insight is one of the many reasons we’ve stayed together this long. After thinking about
This week I’ve come to the conclusion that I can no longer dramatically lower my weekly expenditure… well, I could but that would mean sacrificing socialising, travel, and taking my girlfriend on dates. Once you’ve reached the stage of saving as much of your income as you can (I’m hovering around 60-65 per cent) and
Alright, so a few months back I wrote a piece all about the “delusions” that help us be successful. At the time, I was mega-interested in understanding how the brain works, and how through understanding more about the brain we can make better decisions. In that article I mentioned a little thing called “priming” and
One difficult realisation I had in my first year of becoming financially free was that it isn’t for everyone. Now I can feel you scoffing at the idea that someone wouldn’t want to have an insane amount of free time, or at the idea that someone wouldn’t want to have enough financial security to be able
A lot of you guys are asking about how to stay on track with your savings, and that is a fantastic topic for a post. Thanks readers! The real trick to hitting your savings goals is consistency and being realistic. You may have seen our posts with attention grabbing titles about how much you can
Hey guys, we’ve got a treat for you this week! Five years to Financial Freedom had the chance to speak with Clive Wadham-Smith, a solicitor that specialises in commercial property sales, contracts, and buying commercial properties. In this interview, Clive talks about the most common misconceptions about solicitors, how to find the right solicitor for you,
In the pursuit of riches, I decided to take on a significant amount of extra work this past holiday season. It was a great time, with people wanting to be with their families and me being able to charge a premium due to the lack of people wanting to work. I was pretty excited in
Here at Five Years to Financial Freedom, we talk a lot about saving money, how to be more frugal, and what you should be doing with the money you save. Now, that’s all well and good but I came to the realisation that knowing what’s worth spending money on is as important as knowing what
At the urging of a mentor, I signed up to watch Tai Lopez’s “Million Dollar Blueprint” talk. Over the four-hour runtime, Tai shared a compilation mixtape of his favourite pieces advice that he’d gleaned from the books he’s read. In order to save you 3 hours and 53 minutes here are all his nuggets of
It was going so well! After eight months of teaching English in Korea, I felt that I was really getting into the rhythm of life. My daily schedule had been perfected, my routines turned firmly into habits, I had tamed the choppy waters and was sailing smooth. Then the boss calls me into his office.
Last week we had a chat about the myth of the “rat race”, and a lot of the feedback we got was “Great article, now what are we supposed to do with that information?!” So I wanted to take a look at precisely why we feel the way we do, and what we can do about it. The
Watch out people, I’m about to drop a truth bomb! There is no such thing as the “rat race.” Everywhere I see people reluctantly talking about “joining the rat race” or saying things like “I really need to escape the rat race.” Even at wealth development seminars, and investing workshops, a whole bunch of us
If you’ve found yourself on this website, I’m willing to bet that you are the kind of person that has a lot of great ideas… and can never find a way to actually put then into action, you’re probably suffering from success paralysis. I love talking to people about their ideas, dreams, and goals. But after they’ve
+ Nate Chai interviews Stephanie Brennan, who managed to build an AUD$ 2.3 million property portfolio in just two years After reading a news story about a 24-year-old with an AUD$2.3 million property portfolio, I knew that we absolutely had to interview her. Stephanie Brennan (pictured in the header) has managed to begin her property empire
I read Brian Tracy’s The Luck Factor when I was 12, one of his “universal laws” is the “law of attraction” which essentially states that anything you make your dominant thought will be attracted into your life. Being so young at the time I wholeheartedly accepted it into my life. Once I grew up a bit I
Often we say “there’s no room for niceness in business” but what does that even mean? Nate Chai investigates. If you guys have taken the quiz (I got “Property Professor”) then you’ve seen the lessons about niceness on the results page. I took issue with this idea of niceness as a negative trait and, though
Not content with sharing all his incredible property knowledge, Ryan Windsor sat down with us once again. This time he tells us his own incredible journey to financial freedom, from dropping out of school at 16 without a penny to his name, to owning 11 properties and having a net worth of roughly £1,500,000. In
+ Nate Chai answers the question should you read Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor? As part of this journey, I’m not limiting myself to property investment. So this week I read The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. Warren Buffett has said on numerous occasions that this is the best book on investing and whilst I’m in
Sometimes I feel the concept of positive thinker has evolved into a new definition which has a cult status and damaged many a good person. What is the damage, how does it happen, and how can you avoid the danger? My friend runs a great political blog, and one of his writers recently posted an article
Hey readers, we’ve got a real treat for you today. The founder of Windsor Enterprises, writer of the Archant group’s business advice column, and all round good guy, Ryan Windsor sat down with us and discussed his journey from high-school drop out to achieving financial freedom. His route to financial freedom was through property, and
Nate Chai reveals if you should read George Clason’s The Richest Man in Babylon. After seeing this book on a number of “top x books for wealth” lists I thought I should give George Samuel Clason’s The Richest Man in Babylon a look. Incredibly the book was written in 1926 and just goes to show
Alright, I’m done. I’m finished. I can no longer be positive about reading personal development books. They are, by and large, terrible. How many times can I put myself through reading the same pieces of information chopped up and regurgitated into endless lists, faux-ancient “laws”, and new age spirituality? “Success” books are a fantastic way
This week I’ve been on a bit of an investing binge, reading Investing for Dummies (review here), and If You Can (27 pages, insightful, and free). After reading more and more about investing, I’ve realised something… I don’t want to invest. At least, not yet. Turns out that there are a few things that you should do before you
So there’s this guy, Lord Kelvin, whose work helped define both the first and second law of thermodynamics. He was such an intellectual badass they named absolute temperatures after him (hence kelvins). He also did some incredible things for data transference, but I digress. Lord Kelvin said this amazing thing: Where does all your money
Before I begin this review, you should know that getting English books in Korea (where I live) is quite difficult. Although there is a fairly solid selection of books available, beggars can’t be choosers. So this week I read Eric Tyson’s Investing for Dummies 6th Edition. After the rough (although positive overall) ride I had with Benjamin
+ Nate Chai unveils five ways that you can use Jeff Olson’s Slight Edge principals to vastly improve your quality of life Jeff Olson’s The Slight Edge is a great book for those who are new to personal development (review here), but those who have
One of the excellent pieces of advice Darren Hardy’s The Compound Effect (review here) helped me remember is that, in most cases, you need people around you who you can help and they help you in return. We’ve been talking to you guys a lot about betrayal recently, so with this article I’m going to balance it out
+ Nate Chai reviews Micheal Gerber’s The E Myth revisited Dense. Dense is really the only way to describe Michael Gerber’s The E Myth. In 268 pages he outlines many of the traps that small business owners fall into, how to avoid them, and how to make a small business run without the owner. The
This week I’ve been reading The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy and it nicely fits into the “get rich slowly” camp of success books. From the title it’s obvious that the advice in this book is akin to that provided by Jeff Olson in The Slight Edge and by most of the success writers, but what sets
Another giant of the “success” book genre, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is one of the most influential tomes in the wealth development sphere. I vaguely remember reading it when I was much younger, but this time I read the updated 21st century addition and it makes a whale of a difference. So,
You often hear it from the now wealthy “I wish I’d started sooner”, today we’re talking to Stephanie Brennan who heeded that advice. By 23, Stephanie was already an Australian property millionaire and at just 24 she now boasts a property portfolio worth AUD$2.3 million (£1,060,000), in this in-depth interview she reveals; how she discovered her passion,
This week I’ve been reading the classic Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, I’ve yet to finish it yet, but one piece of advice Hill suggests is a little…dangerous. Whilst I’m not criticising Hill, it feels as though one of his suggestions has the potential to lead people to ruin. In Think and Grow
For most of us the stock market is seen as a way for wealthy people to gamble their wealth on businesses rather than at the black jack table. The truth is that, whilst at the casino the house always wins, you can play the stock market to generate wealth. After the (rather grueling) experience of reading