INTRODUCTION

We all know the biblical quote, ‘For the love of money is the root of all evil’ and the often-used adage, ‘Money can't buy you happiness'. Although these quotes state the obvious, I believe when people say money is not important to them, they are not being truthful—money might not make you happy, but it sure helps.

As this book will explain, since my teenage years I have always had money and I have always been happy. My view is I would rather be crying in a Rolls Royce than smiling in a Mini-Minor.

We all go to school to obtain an education with the aim of landing a career or building a business to make money for the food, shelter and clothing we need to survive. If all goes well, we might aspire to acquire other toys and material things that we all desire—whatever drives or satisfies our impulses or wants at a particular point in time.

Recently, my 18-year-old son commented that I never stop working or thinking about something productive. He went further to say that I always undertake some form of business with almost everyone I meet. I couldn't have put it more succinctly.

That's how I operate in everyday life. While he might have been having a dig at me for being a workaholic, I considered his statement honest and true. My response was, ‘What's wrong with that?’

We're all wired differently, but usually only family members are close enough to see your real habits.

The purpose of writing this book was based on a concept I learned many years ago that has fascinated me ever since. It's based on the notion that if I spend my money buying a product or service from someone, what can I sell back to them? This is the general form of trading and has been around since the beginning of time: animals have shared food and shelter for millions of years.

Trade and leverage

I'll admit I trade with just about everyone I come into contact with. This is generally in cash, but not limited to referrals, information, products or a service that I require.

Traditionally, people work for more than 40 years in a vocation of some sort to obtain one income stream from one employer, or run a business they own in one field based at one address. They then become dependent on that one income source and of course spend that income on an endless number of products and services.

Now imagine if the money you spent on products and services allowed you to trade with, say, 25 per cent of those services and receive some form of revenue or some alternative form of payment, ideally cash, in return. It's like the difference between owning an investment property, where you receive some income, or a passive holiday house, where you don't.

I'm always looking to receive income streams from people or service companies where I spend my money, to create a reciprocal arrangement or trade with my products and services.

This can take place in many areas:

• Property: buy, own, build, rent and sell
• Cars: own, buy and sell
• Business advice: share investment opportunities
• Accounting: obtain or give advice and referrals
• Legal services: obtain or give advice and referrals
• Networks of people: obtain or give advice and referrals
• Social media: obtain or give advertising and leads
• Media: write editorials (which are more credible than advertising) and leads for business or services
• Seminars: sell information and networking.

In this era of rising cost of living it's becoming more difficult to stretch one form of income enough to cover the cost of a mortgage, rent, food, petrol, water, power, rates, holidays, health, transport, travel, education, clothing and taxes, just to name a few of the monthly outgoings.

Think about obtaining a reciprocal form of barter such as how you use your time or capital.

For example, after a year of working 70 to 80 hours per week as a property lawyer at Lendlease in the 1990s—earning close to $300 000 per year—I discovered where the real property value was emerging at that time, and it wasn't in the capital cities.

I realised, thanks to my own due diligence, I could purchase affordable homes down the South Gippsland Highway in Victoria's east for around $80 000 to $120 000 each. This was in 1993 when the property market was becoming bullish again so I purchased some of these properties. It wasn't long before a long-term friend of mine called and asked if I would sell any of them. The offers were between 80 and 150 per cent above what I had paid 18 months prior, so I sold three of the properties. I collectively made three times the income I received from working my job at Lendlease for 3360 hours per year (that's 70 hours × 48 weeks after factoring in holiday leave). I worked out I'd spent a mere 12 or so hours of time on the management of these three properties over the same period—and received a much higher return. That was leverage at its finest.

Now, imagine you could sell a service or product in a field outside your full-time job and were paid $4000 twice a month, providing an extra $96 000 per year. Think about how much time that might take—you could probably do it on top of your normal work. Yes, it requires thought and a contact list, but imagine the return compared to your daily vocational income, less tax.

You will never get ahead working at a simple hourly rate of time for money because the deck is stacked against you once you take into account tax treatment, either as an employee or self-employed contractor, and the inability to scale the business beyond what you can achieve with 8 to 10 hours a day of personal exertion.

Bob-a-Job

At the age of 12 I was super excited to join the Boy Scouts. At first, I found it daunting being with guys twice my size, but over time they became very good friends, and I enjoyed the weekends away, building projects and tackling the commando courses. I also thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie, which was a break away from school, and Scouts offered me a balance in life. It was also the first time I began doing certain jobs for my parents. My father could see the benefits of the additional skills I was learning. I was showing more responsibility, even eventually being able to use power equipment, hydraulic tools and even large industrial jackhammers.

I knew that my desire as a teenager to buy a motorbike (which later morphed into cars), a new stereo system or even the latest in fashion clothing meant I required money. That reality came to me pretty early in life. I would set the alarm for 5.15 am for an early start and looked for ways to fill my day to earn some extra cash.

Most mornings I would head straight to the tool shed in our backyard where I would find myself slinging a paint brush. I would work at jobs such as painting mission brown facial timber beams that extended 30 to 40 feet long for a local builder. I soon added to my skills by learning how to use arc-welding machines, jackhammers and even lathe machines—something that would likely be considered too risky for a child to do these days. I never stopped. One thing I did find out at a very early age is how many jobs I could complete in a day and how much money I could make.

The urge to serve and do more than what I was paid to do is still a motto I live by today that is no doubt driven by both genetic and environmental factors.

There's a term the Scouts used called ‘Bob-a-Job’. It means you get paid for completing a job (the money is then donated to the Scouts). Now, this was an interesting time for me as it was probably the first chance I had to create some form of money-making system. My jobs were all recorded on an 8 × 5 index card. For a period of one month (Bob-a-Job month), I would write all my jobs in the columns provided and, importantly, the amount I was paid for each job.

I recall after my first month of Bob-a-Job I ended up raising $11 for the period, which was, at the time, not a record—but from what I understood it was certainly in the top 5 per cent of my group. After that month, I got to thinking, why is this only for one month? How much money would I make over a whole year? So I took the view that I would dedicate myself to the Scout movement for that month every year, but the other 11 months would be dedicated to yours truly.

I created a rudimentary spreadsheet on formatted A4 sheets with my own clientele, being family, friends and neighbours, and it wasn't long before I had getting paid for odd jobs down to a fine art—mainly washing and detailing cars, as well as lawn mowing. A light, electric lawnmower called the Flymo had just arrived on the market. It was perfect for someone still developing physically, like me.

I was also very selective wherever I could be in choosing people who had smaller-than-average lawns, but I still charged them all the same rate. Every weekend I would earn between $45 and $55, which, looking back more than 40 years, wasn't a bad income, with no real expenses. Later I realised that if I could recruit friends to help me clean more cars, purely on the back of demand, I could increase my income. This was my first taste and understanding of leverage.

Through word of mouth and reputation I became very busy and I subsequently recruited my brother and three other teenagers to assist with the increasing demand. They worked for me for...