Get Invested: Will property actually buy your freedom? The missing link most investors miss

You can spend 15 years buying property, building equity, paying down debt and doing all the things that look financially responsible, yet still be no closer to buying back your time.

That’s the danger of disconnected investing.

In this solo episode of Get Invested, Bushy Martin brings together the critical pieces investors often consider separately: the life you actually want, the income that life will require, when you want the freedom to live it, what your current financial position can support, and exactly what job your next property needs to do.

Using the example of Michael and Jessica, Bushy shows how an aspirational $200,000 annual lifestyle income can translate into a $4 million future nest egg, a daunting $3.89 million future shortfall — and then, importantly, a much more practical $1.78 million Freedom Number in today’s terms.

But this isn’t about convincing you that you suddenly need to rush out and build a multimillion-dollar portfolio.

It’s about working backwards from the destination and identifying the next sensible move.

For Michael and Jessica, despite the longer-term numbers potentially pointing towards two or three properties, their current capacity suggests a working purchase ceiling of around $750,000, and one property as the next move.

And that property still needs to pass the right tests.

Because a good property can be a bad investment for you if it doesn’t match your purpose, capacity or ability to comfortably hold it.

Bushy also compares two hypothetical $750,000 investments to demonstrate just how different the holding experience can be. In the examples explored, an established property could require around $705 a week to hold, compared with approximately $217 a week for a qualifying new build — around 69% less in year one.

That doesn’t automatically make one better than the other. It means the numbers, the growth evidence and the job the property needs to perform all have to connect.

In this episode you’ll discover: