By Paul Huggins
There is no more important time to leverage our opportunities intelligently. It is difficult to remember a global investment climate surrounded by so much uncertainty.
I remember my first recollection that I could ‘leverage’ an opportunity to create serious wealth as a teenager.
I was about 16 and where I was growing up there were vandals using screwdrivers to take the badges off the bonnets of expensive luxury cars such as Ferraris, BMWs, Mercedes and Porsches. It was maddening for the owners because to replace the brand badges cost hundreds of dollars.
About that time, I was on a holiday in Hong Kong and I noticed a shop selling those same car badges (I assumed they were replica badges) for $7 each.
I bought some in Hong Kong and when I came back to Australia I approached a few luxury car clubs to promote the replacement badges to their members. I also did some rudimentary advertising and branding and sold them for close to $100 each.
By the time I was 19, I was earning close to $18 000 a month in this car badge trading business, while starting a law degree at university. I was even able to put a deposit down on my first home with the money I was making, although I soon moved onto other projects.
Eventually, I would also run my own property development company as part of my investment corporate structure which today globally helps manage $21 billion in funds.
Today Intelligent Leverage comes in many forms:
Financial Leverage: Using borrowed funds to invest or grow. Financial leverage also includes getting the right tax settings, looking for investment opportunities, getting out of the mindset that superannuation will always look after your retirement and getting active when it comes to setting financial goals.
Human Leverage: getting the most out of your own skillset by asking the big questions like am I focused enough? Do I know what I want? Do I get enough sleep? Getting the right advice is critical and networking is also important to great outcomes.
Physical Leverage: being match fit. We all know running a business or managing your own investments requires putting the time and effort aside for research — and that requires considerable commitment and managing your time better.
Informational Leverage: information is king and that means keeping up to date with the trends and issues that can affect your investment goals or your business. In the future, it will also inevitably mean embracing AI technology, although only use it as tool, and keep control.
Intelligent Leverage means building the right networks and ecosystem to catapult you into the next stratosphere towards financial independence.
Author Paul Huggins is a Director of Momentum Wealth Management and global investment fund Hamilton Chase. His book Intelligent Leverage will be published by John Wiley & Sons on April 8. For more information go to paulhuggins.com
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