What does wealth mean to you? A question every agent needs to ask themselves

For most of us, we were initially attracted to real estate because it’s one of the few industries where hard work is rewarded. It’s common to hear of agents making millions.

What is uncommon, however, is to hear about agents who actually have a plan for their financial and personal goals. The fact is most agents don’t have a plan. And as the saying goes, if you fail to plan, plan to fail.

On a recent podcast Dan Argent, CEO of UrbanX, shared why you must have a plan to be successful, and why it’s so important to define what your wealthy life looks like (noting wealth goes well beyond money).

Here are his key takeouts for you to consider, after you have defined what true wealth looks like for you.

If you don’t have a long-term plan, stop and create one

Your plan should be unique to you, and go beyond money. Think about your happiest self in 10 years time and write down what that looks like for you. Your plan should include:

financial goals (short, medium and long-term)
career goals (work for someone, work for yourself?)
family goals (spouse? Kids/No kids? How many?)
education goals (for yourself and your family)
lifestyle goals (ideal work/life balance, how many weeks off per year)
material goals (dream car, house or houses, any big ticket items you want to save for).

These will vary greatly depending on your stage in life, so be true to yourself – there’s no right or wrong answer. Most importantly, you need to know how to get to where you want to go.

Be disciplined with long-term investments

Many financial advisors and successful people, like Grant Cardone, stress the need to invest. To build significant wealth, you should aim to invest 40 per cent of your income regularly.

Doing so can lead to millions, and the compound interest you get will do the heavy lifting.

Below are ways, and tools, to show you how you can make your money work smarter:

Set up automated movement of your income: Splitting your income to go towards debt, investments, savings and spending money can be a great way to keep your plan on track. It will empower you to live today while building your tomorrow.
Extra mortgage payments: Every extra payment you make comes off your principal, and you can pay your mortgage off in under five years if you’re disciplined.
Early mortgage repayment calculator
Long-term investments: By regularly sending money into long-term investments your money can grow year-on-year (speak to an advisor to see which investments are best suited to your situation, goals, and risk appetite).
Compound interest calculator

_{Source: Pearler. Based on $150,000 initial capital + $1000 weekly over 10 years.}

Invest in yourself

Now is the time to build your skill set, build your name and build your marketshare. While the market slows, many agents cut back on all of these things and it opens a huge opportunity for you to progress now, and as the market moves from low to another high (which it will):

Focus your energy on what’s important. Hone in on dollar productive activity and don’t get bogged down on admin tasks and small details. Instead, use this time to read, listen to podcasts and surround yourself with people you can learn from.
Invest more in your marketing. If you were doing monthly letterbox drops, increase them to weekly. Running digital ads on-and-off based on settlement cashflow? Stop. Keep ads running consistently. The short-term cashflow pain will pay huge dividends and you will see marketshare increase.
Look after your mental and physical health. Continue to invest the time and money to decompress and take the time you need for you and your family. If you’ve put the tools in point 2 to good use, your money should be looking after itself.

Where to from here?

No matter what stage you are at in your career, if you apply the above, you can set yourself up for long-term success at work and beyond. So, start planning your future today.

If your plan includes branching out to be your own boss, you’ll find you can really take control and achieve your goals faster than you think. From the financial advantage of keeping more of what you earn, to the flexibility of working around your family and lifestyle choices, it can be extremely rewarding.

Luckily, UrbanX now offers a real alternative path to agency ownership. We can help build your own business with all the support you’d expect from a franchise, giving you the best of both worlds.

If you’d like to speak to Dan Argent about how he built his success, or you’re interested in exploring the UrbanX platfrom, please get in touch today.