Ajay Ahuja Blog Post on Family

I went to my sisters to meet up with the rest of my family.

My partner Hana loves chatting to my Mum about stories about me and she happened to tell her a story about me buying these florescent fish tank lights and selling them on.

I was in my early 20s when I went to a Boot Sale and saw these florescent tube lights for sale for 5p each.  He had a box full of them and I knew these were at least £6 each in the shops.  So asked him “how much for the lot?”  he replied £1.  So I did not even haggle as there were 24 of them!

I then went to Cash Converters (a sort of secondhand exchange shop) and asked them how much would they give me.  I had built up a relationship with one of the guys there and he said £1 each!  (For those who would like to know it was that guy Danny from Natural Born Sellers which was on ITV last year).  Now that is what you call a return!

However I saw a musical keyboard I wanted for £39 and I said can we do a swap.  He agreed and I got a £39 keyboard for the grand sum of £1.

But it got me thinking.  I used to be a trader of goods:

Age 5 it was marbles

Age 7 it was Star Wars Cards

Age 9 it was LCD games

Age 12 it was Computer Console Games

Age 14 it was BMX bits

Age 18 it was motor cars

I was quite successful.  But sometimes I would buy a wrong item and it would wipe out all my profit.  I soon realised I needed a recurring type of product.  Something which eliminated the need for the search of the bargain to eventually sell.

I realised if I was going to get rich I needed to stop searching for the one off deals and then selling them on at a profit as you were only as good as your last buy.  You needed to be searching all the time.

This is what led me to property.  You could receive a regular profit every month!  No searching, no having to conduct the sale, no advertising and no haggling!  Just a nice regular payment called rent sent directly to your bank account every week or month.

So at age 24 I got my first property.  It is only when I bought did I realise the power of gearing.  i.e. borrowing.  I had bought a £50,000 asset with £500, less than the price of all those old banger cars I used to buy.

So I said GOOD BYE to motor cars (I never understood how they worked anyway!) and HELLO to property.

Nothing can beat property.  The reasons being:

  1. the profit is recurring
  2. the investment is easily geared

I sometimes forget what led me to property but my Mum’s story to Hana brought it back to me like lightening.

If you want to know more about of property read some of my advice books.