Is Your Fear of Debt Costing You Your Retirement?

Afraid of debt? You might be leaving millions on the table. In this episode, Casey Taylor (Taylored Property Wealth) and Evan Reid (Neo Finance) reveal how everyday Australians are using strategic debt and property investment to build long-term wealth — without relying on high incomes.

Through the lens of a powerful client success story, you’ll learn how one investor used both personal property purchases and self-managed super fund (SMSF) investing to acquire three properties in just 12 months.

Here’s what we cover in this game-changing conversation:

• How strategic debt can actually create stronger financial positions — even at higher levels.
• Why SMSF property investment provides separate borrowing capacity from personal finances.
• Real client example: purchased at $555,900, now valued in the high $600Ks — with further granny flat or dual-occupancy potential.
• The key difference: SMSF properties can’t be leveraged for equity like personal properties.
• Short-term sacrifice of negative gearing versus long-term wealth creation.
• Why the right professional team is critical for property investing success.
• The power of time in the market, not timing the market.

This discussion challenges the conventional fear of debt. As Casey explains: “So many people think, ‘The more debt I’m in, the worse off I am,’ but you can actually be in more debt and be in a stronger position.”

At the heart of this episode is one crucial choice: “It’s either going to cost you now or cost you in retirement.” Which will you choose?

If you’re serious about learning how to invest in property in Australia, build wealth through SMSF and personal property investment, and create financial freedom decades earlier than traditional retirement age — this episode is for you.

Chapters

• 0:00 Rethinking Debt for Wealth Building

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

So many people get caught up in. I don't want to get into debt.

Speaker 2: 0:03

The more debt.

Speaker 1: 0:04

I'm in the worse off. I am, but you can actually be in far more debt and be in a stronger financial position. Welcome back to another episode of the Tailored Property Wealth Podcast. My name is Casey Taylor, I'm the host of the podcast, and today we have Evan Reid from Neo Finance joining us for another episode Cool, so the second kind of client scenario is a client who we helped purchase a couple of properties for last year, adopting a rent vesting strategy, and there's a couple of strategic purchases here that we were able to make happen. One was another purchase in the personal name, but then there was also the self-managed super fund purchase as well yeah, it was yeah, so are you able to kind of talk me through, I guess, a little bit of the finance piece for?

Speaker 1: 0:55

yeah for that one, because we discussed this on previous episode, right? Not everyone understands that self-managed super fund space yeah, but it can be quite powerful yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:07

So this client, um, when you introduced me to him, had three investment properties in his name, um, and was looking at purchasing a property under his self-managed super fund, um, and that was what he was using to help for his retirement as well. So you found him a property and we were able to fund it.

Speaker 2: 1:29

He had a healthy balance in his super fund, so at the time he had about 180,000 sitting in there and we were able to use that as a deposit. So he could then buy one in his self-managed super fund and I guess the the benefit to doing that is, you know, they're not needing to use any of their income or any of their debts that they have in their personal name to service this loan yeah um, and vice versa.

Speaker 2: 1:53

You know, if he's buying something in his personal name, um we we get to ignore that one that is in his? Um.

Speaker 1: 2:00

Self-managed super fund too, yeah, 100 and that's just a real long-term approach. You purchase that property, you essentially you can't touch that until retirement, right until you yeah, until you're 60, unless you obviously offload it and sell it. But it's such a powerful play to be able to leverage um your debt position to get a larger asset base within your, your super yeah, and then just let that compounding effect do its thing.

Speaker 2: 2:30

And then when he saves a bit more in his self-management in his super fund as well, he's going to be able to buy the next one.

Speaker 1: 2:35

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 2:36

Yeah, so it's going to be. It's going to be beneficial to him, to, you know, build up this property in there. Yeah, so then when retirement does come, you know he's going to be setting himself up for a very comfortable retirement.

Speaker 1: 2:49

Yeah, yeah, and before I lead into kind of this point, this is not financial advice. Speak to your accountant and all the rest of it. You cannot go out and leverage equity from that property in the self-managed super fund. That's something important to remember because if people want to purchase, they might not understand that. So, like you can in your personal portfolio, you can go out and leverage equity out of that one to go again. But there are, I guess, a lot more restrictions in that self-managed super fund space. So that's where it's. It's really important to have the broker, who knows what they're talking about, has the buyer's agent knowing what is possible with that purchase as well yeah, and I think it goes back to that right team.

Speaker 2: 3:32

Yeah, um that we can introduce them to as well. Yeah and. I think it goes back to that right team. Yeah, that we can introduce them to as well to make sure that they are set up properly yeah, hundred-percent.

Speaker 1: 3:39

And that personal purchase that we purchased for them last year I think it was July, off the top of my head it was yeah. So we purchased that for 555 900 meter squared block and that properties. It's now sitting in the high 600, so it's performed extremely strongly. And then there's a lot of opportunity to add value to that, whether granny flat or even a jewel lock. So you, you get that early capital growth, that equity, but then can come back later on and put some cash flow injections, some equity injections on it. Yeah, and it just continues to really ramp that property portfolio up.

Speaker 2: 4:21

Yeah, it does, and you know when we're looking at doing that. You know the granny fart play on there. You know we can use that rental income that they're going to be receiving and that's going to help them just grow their property portfolio.

Speaker 1: 4:34

Yeah, that's going to help them just grow their property portfolio. Yeah, and they've now gone on to, literally just recently, settled on another purchase.

Speaker 2: 4:42

So, yeah, they have, within essentially a 12-month period, they have been able to secure three more properties and continue to build their wealth yeah and that's a pretty big achievement to be able to secure three properties in a 12 month period, right like it's huge and you know, I think it comes down to you know them having that plan, yeah, and just taking that fear away, yeah, and knowing that the debt that they're getting into in their circumstances isn't a it isn't a bad thing. You know they, they're building themselves wealth and we've already seen the growth that they've had. You can't get that just by saving money in your savings account, no no, and this is so many people get caught up in.

Speaker 1: 5:27

I don't want to get into debt.

Speaker 2: 5:29

The more debt.

Speaker 1: 5:29

I'm in the worse off. I am, but you can actually be in far more debt and be in a stronger financial position with cash flow, with your net wealth base. If you just more focus on building that net wealth base and focus on that, debt just becomes a lot less scary, especially when inflation devalues debt and there's there's a lot of other things and if you're, you're purchasing in the right locations, yeah, lvr can drop even without, yeah, paying any of that debt off right it.

Speaker 2: 6:00

Yeah, that's true, and you know, you've got to want to be able, you've got to have that clear vision. Yeah, right, because this is something that isn't short term either. Yeah, you know, and in this market, where interest rates are still a little bit high, although they are coming down, yeah, um, you've got to be able to sacrifice that couple hundred a week, yeah, out of your pay to go towards it. Yeah, because it is going to be negatively geared. Likely the likelihood of it. Yeah, um, but in the long run it's not always going to be like that no, and that's that's the thing people don't understand, right?

Speaker 1: 6:31

so it's costing you now, yeah, but as we see, rental income growth as rates improve and, yes, they're going to go up and down over 10, 15, 20 years. That's just the reality of holding property.

Speaker 2: 6:42

Well, I think it's either going to cost them now or it's going to cost them their retirement, exactly.

Speaker 1: 6:47

You know it's like well, just go and work until 65 and slog it out.

Speaker 2: 6:51

Yeah, where you could have the option at 40.

Speaker 1: 6:54

Yeah, you know Exactly and so many people out there are saving really well and another client we'll talk about. They have great savings surplus each month. It's like you might be saving five grand a month and if it's going to cost you 250 a week. Instead of saving five grand, you might be saving three and a half four.

Speaker 2: 7:13

Yeah exactly.

Speaker 1: 7:14

Your cash surplus is still there, but you now got an asset out there working for you and it's essentially making money while you sleep right.

Speaker 2: 7:22

Yeah, and then they're still building up their savings, building equity, and then in no time they're going to be ready to buy that next one.

Speaker 1: 7:30

Yeah, 100%. It's time in the market. Yeah, time in the market is powerful, well cool. Thanks for jumping on to another episode and we'll see you guys on the next episode. Thank you for having me again. Bye, gotcha.